Digitisation leads to a peppier PIX

Multi Screen Media is reworking the branding of its English movie channel

On October 27th, as the TV audience sits down for the satellite premier of Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie, it will also get to see a new avatar of the channel airing it. Sony PIX (Multi Screen Media's English movie channel) is timing its new look and positioning with the thrills from the latest in the Bond franchise.

The overhaul comes in the wake of the English movie channel genre gaining from the digitisation drive. The genre grew by  49 per cent in the post-DAS (digital addressable system) phase. The phase has also seen Sony PIX grow its reach by 35 per cent and the time spent by each viewer by 36 per cent, making it the biggest gainer in the genre. The channel is currently number two not only in the English movie channel genre, but in the English channel cluster as well.

The channel which has been underlining its Hollywood connect in its campaigns so far, decided to go into overdrive to seal the gains and differentiate more than ever.

Saurabh Yagnik, business head, says, "There are two factors at play here. One is that all the channels in the category have till now had one proposition - Hollywood. We want to break away from that. Our efforts are driven by the response we expect from our viewers which is 'Wow, cool and entertainment with a twist.' Second is that we want to be relevant to our audience and for this, we have decided to look 'cooler' and be more interactive, which is manifested not only in our marketing and digital initiatives, but will also reflect in our programming from November."

A consumer survey conducted recently told the channel what the average English movie channel viewer wants. It discovered that while males constitute 51 per cent of the total television viewing universe, they constitute 75 per cent of the English movie channel viewership and the age group of 16 to 29 years contributes to 56 per cent of the total viewership for the genre. Based on this insight, the channel rethought its branding and packaging and came up with a peppier look.

A new logo, of course, was in order. The blue was done away with and replaced with a spunkier neon green. The logo has been designed by Medialuna, Argentina. The Indian superhero, Krissh aka Hrithik Roshan has associated for an integrated campaign on Krissh 3 and the channel brand campaign, Sony PIX Stay Amazed.

Yagnik explains the shift from the erstwhile 'Hollywood is here' to 'Stay Amazed', "Our research showed that the audience likes Hollywood for its fast-paced content and 'never a dull moment' quality. There is no need to say we are a Hollywood channel. It is a very well-known fact and thus, amounts to stating the obvious. We do know that our viewers want edge-of-the-seat content and thus, we decided to tell them we are here to amaze them."

The campaign will marry the premier of Skyfall with the tagline: Pix is ready for Bond, Bond is ready for Pix. The channel's logo changes from the old to the new as Bond walks across it in the ad on air currently.

Taking a page out of youth music channels, Sony PIX will also be reworking the way it shares trivia on the movies being played by bringing in an animated character called Notty Pixy, a young, ambitious, hard-working girl, with a keen ear for behind-the-scene gossip and interest in Hollywood movies. Notty already has a Twitter handle and is present on Facebook. Every Thursday, the channel also runs a contest on the NottyPixy hashtag. Come November, she will also be on TV every Friday.

"We have devised a special slot for Notty Pixy. Every Friday at 7 pm, we will air movies that are 'chosen' by Notty and will have her giving trivia and information about the movie. She will also call for feedback via social media, thus making the channel more interactive. The slot will have an eclectic mix of movies so that it is not exclusive, but inclusive programming," says Amogh Dusad, vice president and head - programming.

Notty Pixy will complement the channel's presence on digital platforms. The channel runs contests on its Twitter handle and Facebook page that get the audience to interact, such as the Premier Nights that award winners free passes to watch big-ticket Hollywood theatre premiers.

The channel currently has a tie up with Hollywood studios like Metro Goldwyn Meyer, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Universal. It runs a property called Pixathon that involves the broadcast of all the installments of movie franchises like Rocky, Shrek, Spiderman and Madagascar among others.

The channel has recently acquired rights to new movies such as The Grown Ups 2, After Earth, Elysium, Django Unc-hained and The Hobbit 2 (The Desolation of Smaug).The premier of Skyfall will be followed by the airing of the complete Bond franchise which Sony Pix holds exclusive rights to.