Sony Pix: Bond with neon

A new animated character called Notty Pixy will bring in Hollywood gossip to the Indian screens and the social media platform of the channel.

Sony Pix, the English movie channel from Multi Screen Media, will be adorned in neon green and blue from October 27. The channel will reveal the new look and packaging with the premier of Skyfall, the latest in the James Bond movie series. The channel has also repositioned itself as a youthful channel with a new tagline, 'Stay Amazed.'

Skyfall will be followed by a few latest movie premieres that includes Smurfs2, DJango, White House Down, After Earth and Grown Ups 2, amongst others. Skyfall, that made close to Rs 68 crore at the box office in India, will be telecast on October 27 at 1 pm and 9 pm. Interestingly, in the promos for the premiere telecast of the movie, the logo of the channel changes at the end of each of the three promos.

The network recently revamped the packaging of both of its Hindi general entertainment channels, SAB and Sony. Are the other channels too undergoing the same planning?

Saurabh Yagnik, EVP and business head, Sony Pix says that despite having 10 players, the top four channels make for 70 per cent of the total market share. He suggests that the genre lacks differentiation since the positioning is very similar and even the movie licensing shuffles almost every year. "Nonetheless, there is a lot of hope as well as the genre has seen maximum growth post digitisation," he adds.

"Stay Amazed is a brand promise by Sony Pix, which will ensure that whether television, social media or on-ground, the viewer will never have a dull and boring moment," the channel states.

Along with the new look, the channel will introduce a new animated character called Notty Pixy, who will bring in Hollywood gossip to the Indian screens and the social media platform of the channel. As an extension to this, in November, the channel will launch a special movie slot on Friday (7 pm), titled Notty Pixy's choice of movies. This slot will be extensively integrated with social media.

The change comes on the back of an analysis of the channel's viewer profile that depicts that 70 per cent of the channel's viewership comes from the 16-29 year old males.

Amogh Dusad, head, programming, Pix mentions that digitisation has helped the channel grow in many ways, including improved availability and the electronic programme guide (EPG) that brings the complete genre at one place.

The new logo has been designed by Medialuna (MDL), Argentina which has worked very closely with Sony Pix. Along with this, Hrithik Roshan has associated for an integrated campaign with Krissh 3 and the channel brand campaign, Sony Pix Stay Amazed.

The channel has an interesting property called Pixathon which brings in back-to-back movies from the same franchise. The channel owns some popular franchises like Spiderman Franchise, Shrek franchise, Rocky franchise and Bond franchise, along with The Hobbit, Iron Man 1 and 2, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Mission Impossible, After Earth, Elysium and Django Unchained.

Currently, the channel's active movie library comprises about 250-300 movies. Yagnik explains that there are about 140 English movies premiered every year, of which hardly 10-12 are blockbusters. Sony Pix premieres close to 40 movies a year.

Yagnik adds, "The channel is on a strong growth path and is consistently operating in the top two bracket of the category. In our new avatar too, we promise to continue to give the audience a richer viewing experience through engaging content and campaigns. The revamped look propagates the brand philosophy of being fresh, innovative and progressive. Our content and branding will establish Sony Pix as the most exciting, fun and entertaining English movie channel."

The channel has a strong marketing campaign lined up for Skyfall, which includes a contest called 'Biggest secret mission ever' on Facebook, which will offer viewers a chance to win a trip to 'Bond in Motion' exhibition in London. Bond in Motion is the largest official collection of original James Bond vehicles collected over 50 years.

The presenting sponsor for the Skyfall campaign is Snapdeal.com and the powered by sponsor is Dell and Engage deos. Other sponsors include Toyota, Lombard suiting, Whirlpool and We Chat.