BookMyShow flaunts non-movie ticket booking offering in new spot

The platform's offerings today include formats like Cirque Du Soleil, Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., NBA India Games and U2’s finale of The Joshua Tree Tour. A market leader, BookMyShow has been losing ticketing market share to rival Paytm. The wider OOH entertainment options help BookMyShow reinforce its presence.

What does BookMyShow do other than sell movie tickets? The answer to this question lies in the platform's latest ad campaign ‘Entertainment Ki Nayi Bhasha’. The film highlights the platform's out-of-home entertainment offerings that include ticket bookings for concerts, plays and sports events. The film traces the company’s two-decade-long journey, evolving from an online ticketing platform to a full stack management platform of live entertainment experiences - including music concerts, live events, theatricals and stand-up comedy, among others. The new tagline 'It All Starts Here' is a reflection of that. The campaign has been crafted by BBH India.

The platform sells over 15 million tickets monthly, has a presence in over 650 towns and cities, and books for 6000+ screens in India. BookMyShow entered the live entertainment space in 2007. Today, over 65 per cent of platform's revenue is driven by movies, and the rest comes from live entertainment. As per the company's own claims, it held 90 per cent market share in online movie ticketing around 2010. Among its key rivals is Paytm. The digital payments platform entered the online movie ticketing space in 2016. A 2017 report by data intelligence cum management platform Kalagato suggests that BookMyShow’s market share stood at 78 per cent that year.

BookMyShow’s new campaign could be aimed at two things – one, asserting the brand's presence across domains and two, educating users about the 'other' available services.

"The strategy has been to reinforce BookMyShow as the destination for all things out-of-home, entertainment having moved beyond just ticketing to the wholesome execution and experience of the event," says Marzdi Kalianiwala, head - marketing and business intelligence, BookMyShow.

"The offerings not only include international events but also local, regional live experiences. With newer formats like Cirque Du Soleil, Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N., NBA India Games 2019 and U2’s finale of The Joshua Tree Tour, it is important to show consumers what they can expect from these experiences. Our brand campaign is an extension of our journey from purely just transactional to a complete discovery and fulfillment engine," Kalianiwala adds.

Apart from offering ticketing services to its partners, BookMyShow also provides allied services like management, promoting content, marketing and on-ground execution support, among others.

"All this gave us a fair and in-depth understanding of not just audiences and their pain points, but also a good perspective of the live entertainment industry. As we look to build the supply of such experiences, we felt the need to take a more active role in this space by promoting and producing live experiences with a longer-term view in mind. The aim is to deliver experiences to the consumer not just online but on ground as well," he mentions.

Kalianiwala says that the live entertainment segment has witnessed phenomenal growth over the last few years. He reveals that BookMyShow sold just 61 tickets (live entertainment) in an entire year when it first entered the space 12 years ago (in 2007). By 2012, the platform was selling millions and the number continues to increase.

"Until a few years ago, most live entertainment experiences including musicals, theatre and sports typically saw audiences aged 35 and above. In the last couple of years however, we have seen this category widening to form a strong connection with younger audiences as well. We have a stated ambition of delivering a significant share of our revenues from our live entertainment business over the next few years. So, we are building this as a strong complementary pillar to our already established movies business that delivers not just strong value to the company's top line but also adds a significant community of users who have now come into this space and are transitioning to customers of great live experiences that we bring to them as well," he signs off.

Campaign Credits:

Agency: BBH India

Chief Creative Officer & Managing Partner – Russell Barrett

CEO & Managing Partner – Subhash Kamath

Managing Director – Arvind Krishnan

Head of Planning - Sanjay Sharma

Copy – Yohan Daver, Nivedita Agashe, Rohan Mathew, Jugal Joseph

Art – Sapna Ahluwalia, Akshay Keluskar, Ale Khan

Head of Production - Rahul Kulkarni

Executive Producer –Reema AsraniBusiness Director – Chetan Mane

Sr. Business Partner - Akshhaya Ganngan

Business Partner – Rachit Koradia

Strategy Director – Yudhishthir Agrawal

Strategy Partner – Pranoy Kanojia

Production House – Loudmouth Films

Director – Aakash BhatiaProducer – Priyanka Bangia

DOP – Yash Khanna