When Tata Sky attempted a 'musical online activation'...

The idea was to promote Tata Sky Music+, a music video destination on TV, launched in partnership with Hungama. A look at the brand's recent digital-led effort titled #MyKindOfMusic.

Tata Sky a DTH (Direct to Home) brand, recently launched the service with four music genres on a pay TV platform, named Music+ in partnership with digital entertainment company Hungama. Segregated into four segments - Mehfil, Indie Rootz, Jazz and more and International, the service will be co-curated by the legendary singer, songwriter and composer trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

To promote the new product features, Tata Sky has come up with a digital campaign #MyKindOfMusic featuring Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The ad has been conceptualised and produced by Prime Focus Technologies.

The brand has also promoted the #MyKindOfMusic campaign through Twitter and Facebook which was carried out by Chimp&z Inc, a digital agency. Tata Sky hosted a Twitter contest where users had to answer some simple questions using #MyKindOfMusic and that in turn was transformed into songs by four bands; The Yellow Diary band, Kanchan Daniel, Hriday Gattani to Sharma and The Besharams.

Based on responses, the selected bands and artists created 10 songs from scratch in real time along with videos and uploaded online within eight to nine hours. Only the best responses were selected for the tailor-made songs. These videos were made available on Tata Sky's Twitter handle, YouTube channel, Facebook page, Hungama's website and on the recently launched Music+ service on Tata Sky.

Pallavi Puri, chief commercial officer, Tata Sky, says in a press release, "While there are a lot of popular music channels on television today, we felt there is a need for a destination that showcases unique genres like Sufi, Qawwali, Folk, Jazz, Country and more." With the launch of Music+, Tata Sky intends to gives subscribers access to the best of these genres, on their TV screens, any time of the day. "And with content specially curated by the musical legends Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, the offering on Music+ is guaranteed to be qualitatively superior," says Puri.

Commenting on Hungama's association with Tata Sky, Siddhartha Roy, chief executive officer, Hungama.com, says in a press release, "We are delighted to partner with Tata Sky for Music+ and offer curated music content for the discerning audience who have an evolved taste in genres like Ghazal, Sufi, Jaaz & Blues, International, Indies etc." The Music+ experience promises to be unique with a variety of content and a line-up of great artists like Pankaj Udhas, Jagjit Singh, Elvis, Abba, Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, Salim-Suleiman, Armaan Malik and many more.

We asked our digital expert if times have changed when one wasn't able to discern whether an ad film was 'made for digital only' just by watching it and if this is one of those ads and is it a good thing that films are now transparently 'digital looking'?

Navin Kansal, national creative director, Indigo Consulting, a digital agency that belongs to Leo Burnett, says, I don't think there has been any conscious attempt to make this film 'digital looking' insofar as production values are concerned. It seems pretty much par for the course if it were to stack up against a conventional TVC. Even in terms of narrative, it's definitely not content that has been created on-the-fly either. The narrative hinges on a willing suspension of disbelief from the audience wherein the girl with an eclectic taste in music will only nod her assent once she gets her way. So it's more a function of content and not necessarily the way a digital film should or would supposedly 'look'."

We asked Kansal about brands leveraging music in a big way today and is there a merit in assuming this trend has a lot to do with the fact that music and 'shareability' are closely tied?

He says, "The music that affects audiences physiologically, cognitively and creates emotionally authentic experiences is the kind that gets shared. It definitely adds to the brand equity but is never an easy ask."