Dish TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) company has unveiled its new brand positioning ?Dish Sawaar Hai? to strengthen bonding and affinity with customers. The essence behind this new brand positioning came from a strong consumer insight that people who are really passionate about entertainment do not let anything come in the way of their entertainment and hence never compromise when it comes to their TV experience. The campaign starts with a series of situations which captures Dish TV across various segments of viewers and their passion for entertainment. In this campaign, Dish TV targets people who are fond of entertainment and consume the category more.
Through this new positioning, Dish TV moves from an emotional territory of ?Ghar aayi zindagi? (its earlier tagline) to the passionate territory of ?Dish sawaar hai.? ?Ghar aayi zindagi? campaign had the message that Dish TV is a force that unites families together, a catalyst that brings happiness into homes. It was targeted at a wider base.
Speaking on the idea behind the campaign, Salil Kapoor, COO, Dish TV India says, ?The brand has to progress, move out and look for better things. In a brand?s life cycle, functionality is the first phase followed by emotional connect and the third phase is to target customers, who are passionate about consuming the brand. We thought of bringing more excitement and life to address the core audience and moving to the third phase of appealing to the thought leaders in tv entertainment consumption, the immersed passionate viewer.? Pricing is the least sustainable differentiation for Dish TV, what is sustainable is the emotional connect with customers, he added.
Dish TV enjoys over 30% market share in the DTH industry and added 740,000 new subscribers in the quarter ended December 31, 2011 achieving
a total of 12.5 million gross and 9.5
million net subscribers at the end
of the period. Subscription revenues for the quarter stood at R425.4 crore, recording a growth of 37.6% as
compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.
In the first phase, the campaign has allocated a marketing budget of R25 crore, which includes various
activities and television commercials. The brand campaign has a 360-degree media approach covering television, outdoor, print and digital medium. It has also launched a new website, dishsawaarhai.com, where it has introduced many activities and games like the ?Dish sawaar hai’ game. Flash mobs were also used in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to promote the campaign.
Conceptualised by McCann Erickson, the television commercial features people who are crazy for entertainment with the brand ambassador, Shahrukh Khan singing the song, ?Dish sawaar hai?. Ashish Chakravarty, creative chief, McCann Erickson Delhi says, ?This campaign is about the immersed passionate viewers of entertainment. We wanted to show real people who are madly in love with entertainment, hence Shahrukh Khan is not shown as a star but an ordinary drama artist who explains the idea and sings us through the concept.?
In the subsequent films, Shahrukh Khan will be seen explaining the brand message as an ordinary character and not necessarily a protagonist, he added.
The campaign also has an anthem that not only works as a background score for the commercial but will also act as a signature tune for the brand. The anthem has been written by Prasoon Joshi and composed by Amit Trivedi (of Dev D fame). Commenting on the track, Chakravarty says, “The song is young, groovy and friendly and it is catching attention.?
However, Anindya Banerjee, executive creative director, Scarecrow Communications, says,” This is another feel-good commercial from Dish TV. While the execution is entertaining, I was disappointed with the basic idea. Sure, the message has been driven home by the jingle and the execution, but is the message interesting enough? Maybe not. There has to be something more interesting than just saying ‘being obsessed with Dish TV.’ Shahrukh Khan makes it worse by interrupting some perfectly good sequences just when they get interesting.”
?The idea is to use Shahrukh Khan in a way that is clutter-breaking but the benefits should accrue to the brand and not Shahrukh getting the attention. As a pure piece of creative, this is at best its average. Apart from the presence of Shahrukh, there is not much charm in the ad,? says Ajay Gahlaut, executive creative director, Ogilvy
and Mather.
