Campaign: HD Inspector
Brand: Dish TV
Company: Dish TV
Agency: McCann Erickson
The Campaign
Direct-to-home (DTH) company Dish TV?s new campaign with brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan comprises three ads where Khan plays the role of a true perfectionist and takes up the mantle of a HD inspector. In each film, Khan plays the role of a demanding HD Inspector with an eye for detail, who picks out even the slightest imperfections and makes it right because ?HD mein sab dikhta hai? (You can see the minutest details on HD). In one of the films where he is seen inspecting the sets of a Bollywood number, he picks out even the slightest imperfections on a film shoot – a fake snake, misspelt tattoo, and a chipped finger nail of a female model. As he asks for these to be changed while swinging down from a shooting crane, he says, ‘HD mein sab dikhta hai’. In the second ad which depicts a wildlife documentary being shot, Khan appears again asking the crocodile?s teeth to be brushed, the leopard?s spots to be highlighted and the height of the grass to be cut by 5 mm. A third film which is yet to go on air will see him on the sets of a Hindi serial, again pointing out the imperfections. His message is that when people watch television on HD, there is no scope for committing mistakes. He signs off announcing Dish TV?s ?largest? bouquet of 25 HD channels.
Out Take
The campaign is supposed to be based on the insight that an HD customer wants crystal clear picture quality and the HD inspector, aka Shah Rukh Khan, as the guardian of picture quality ensures that Dish TV is the leader when it comes to providing the true HD experience. The target audience for the campaign is SEC A viewers who would opt for the premium service, and the campaign seeks to reinforce Dish TV?s leadership in HD. However, one wonders whether this kind of a campaign whose high point is Khan?s hamming would appeal to SEC A viewers, let alone engage them. As for the wildlife documentary shoot, if it is authentic, what could be the reason that crocodile?s and the leopard?s looks need to be spruced up? Yes, the campaign says what the brand Dish TV offers, but does it in a typical Khan way, that perhaps would only be appreciated by die-hard Khan fans. Given that rival DTH brands are also tom-tomming their HD services along with additional features, it was imperative that Dish TV did it in a way that caught and retained the attention of the viewer. But Dish TV has not managed to do that. Even the message that Dish TV leads with 25 HD channels is lost in the cacophony.