&pictures' 'filmy' push

The channel is being heavily promoted on the outdoor medium with hoardings across key target cities.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises has been going all out to promote and grab eyeballs for its recently launched interactive Hindi movie channel, '&pictures'.

In order to generate buzz and curiosity, the channel had first sent out gifts like Chinese cookies, chocolates and wine to journalists across media. This was followed by hoardings across key markets with the logo of '&'pictures' and its tagline, 'Sapnon Ki Udaan' on a white background. The ampersand sign was used in a manner such that the audiences could warm up to the symbol '&'.

According to the channel, the pre-campaign research suggested that the consumer is a self-assured Indian who dreams of making it big while staying rooted to his/her values. Bearing the same in mind, the tagline 'Hum Indians jo aasman mein ude, zameen se jude reh kar' was coined which adorned the hoardings in Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, Pune, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Baroda, Indore, Bhopal and Delhi. The communication was etched out keeping in mind the broader brand promise of the channel, 'Sapnon ki Udaan'.

Akash Chawla, marketing head, national channels, ZEEL, says, "The challenge was not just to create another movie channel, but to create a brand. The thought process started with coming up with a brand philosophy and not bank on celeb influence."

While the earlier phases of the campaign established what '&pictures' is all about, the third phase of the campaign that has just kicked-off will give the brand a broader playing ground. The creatives of the third phase feature the movies that will be aired on the channel, with an interesting copy.

For instance, the billboard for Chennai Express has the copy that says 'Goa jaate hain & Rameshwaram bhi', while the one for Tanu Weds Manu says, 'London mein dil ke doctor & Kanpur mein dil ke mareez'. Similarly, for Kai Po Che, the copy says, 'Profits share karte hain & dard bhi'. The hoardings aim to attract maximum eyeballs.

When the channel was launched on August 18, it had done an innovation with the daily newspaper DNA on the front jacket. The live edit option of the newspaper was explored wherein the word 'and' was replaced with the single unit '&' logo wherever possible. Also, the masthead was changed from 'dna' to 'and' ('DNA' reads 'AND' in reverse).

Additionally, the channel had got on board graphic designers to create interesting visual graphics which were then used across media like coasters, social media gags and T-shirts. An open pitch was given to the designers and the best designs were selected.

For the record, ZEEL also runs Hindi movie channels like Zee Cinema, Zee Cinema HD, Zee Premiere, Zee Classic and Zee Action. The movies telecast on &pictures will be exclusive to the channel and the rest will be picked from the common ZEEL library. The "interactive" movie channel has already acquired satellite rights for movies such as Chennai Express, Besharam, Ghanchakkar and Zanjeer.