Sony Pix, the Hollywood movie category television channel, is lining up big plans for IPL IV in 2011, Himmat Butalia, assistant vice-president and head marketing of Sony Entertainment Network told FE.
Sony Pix made substantial gains in terms of viewership and advertisement revenues in the Rs 800 crore business of its parent Sony group in IPL III, he said. ?In the IPL III, the viewership jumped 15% in the late night slot due to launch schemes like ?watch a movie to win a ticket? . We have not shaped up a media plan for the IPL IV. Advertisers look for innovation while participating in IPL-based properties. We are planning to bring more excitement other than dishing out tickets to winners of contests among our channel watchers. It could range from prized collectibles like players autographed bats, bands, gloves, pads, caps., etc to woo the cricket crazy audience tuning in to our channel,? he said.
The channel is tapping the combined promotion platform of out of home (OOH ) advertising like digital screens in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore during IPL. ?We set apart 10% of our total budget spend for OOH.? Regarding mobile and internet, Butalia said the Indian market is yet to ripe for movies on mobile as even high-end phone users have not picked up the habit of watching movies on their phones.
?However, our presence on BlackBerry is well rewarding. The BlackBerry Messenger application, a kind of chat engine, enabling text chat among Closed Users Group is creating a buzz about pix Hollywood movies among college students in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai. On the internet, Sony Pix?s forthcoming trailers could be viewed on Youtube, and Indian market is not big or ready for ;pay and view? option to watch the movies on the Net,? he said.
The channel is also betting big on social networking site Facebook that has witnessed a massive growth of 24,000 fans on the network microblogging space.
He said feedback on social networking is a kind of barometer in movie acquisition and movie broadcast. ?Being an only India-based Hollywood movie channel, these are potent numbers for marketing the brand and increasing the viewership,? he added.