Exclusive | Strategy is to work on content, perception and innovation: Pix's Yagnik

The constantly cluttering English movie genre in India has made it mandatory for every player to put their best foot forward in the heat of the competition. Right from updating their movie libraries and innovating presentation techniques to integrating activities to enhance audience engagement, English movie channel custodians are taking every step calculatedly as leading the game is not an easy task.

Sony PIX began the year 2014 with a bang, acquired the No. 1 position. The real task began after that to sustain the gained position. However, it sustained that position for 6 weeks out of 13 weeks. The first quarter closed at a very close No. 2 position in the category with the market share of 19.3%. Sony PIX has achieved a breakthrough and is an undisputed leader in prime time with a share of 23.6%. 

The channel is touted as the home to some of the biggest blockbuster premieres like Men in Black 3, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hobbit, Skyfall etc. MIB3 and The Amazing Spider-Man were the top rated premieres in the genre, in the year 2013. First time ever, in the category, there was a day marked with 4 premieres back-to-back called Premiere PIXathon.

The year 2014 looks promising too with an amazing content line-up. The movies in the pipeline include Captain Phillips, The Hobbit: Desolation of the Smaug, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Hercules etc. Innovative programming slots like HandPIX, PIX doubles, PIXathon helped the channel to get the surge in ratings as well as the differentiation in the category.

Adgully caught up with Saurabh Yagnik, EVP and Business Head, Sony PIX & AXN to more about this. 

While 2013 had been a great year for the channel as a consistent No. 2 in the category. Commenting on the success, Yagnik said, “Well, the success rate has been phenomenal. When we started Sony Pix we had a three-pronged strategy that was to invest heavily in content, build perception and innovate to break clutter. And these three strategies have played a vital role in Pix’s success story.”

As Yagnik strongly stressed upon the three key focus areas, the channel has been working really hard to make its presence felt on the social media platforms as well. According to the statistics by the broadcaster, the Facebook page of Sony PIX has crossed the mark of 2 million fans. The channel follows the principle of keeping the viewer at the core and accordingly evolves strategies through insights into their behaviour and continues to delight them.

He said, “With an idea of building perception we wanted to reach to our viewers in all the possible ways and our efforts in that direction resulted in building our market share which is anywhere between 11%-13% engagement. The content strategy is based on innovation and differentiation with each day being dedicated to something that the TG likes. One of our popular properties, Notty Pixy on Facebook that gives away breaking news from Hollywood has been growing in numbers and reach too day by day. Not only that, there is an offering of Notty Pixy First Day First Show which gives the fans an opportunity on Facebook to get the first day first show of the latest Hollywood theatrical. The first movie to begin with is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which releases on 11th July 2014 in India. The contest for this is already begun on Facebook.”

This year with Captain Philips that will be premiering on the channel this month, PIX is running a contest and will be giving away the T-shirt worn by Tom Hanks in the movie to the winners. This comes with the certificate of authenticity. This is a premium which ‘money can’t buy’. Yagnik added, “We always wanted to cover the entire eco-system hence we have left no stone unturned in terms of reaching out to our audiences whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other platform. We have a properties on social media like PIX Premiere Nights to give the viewers a 360 degree opportunity to catch up with the channel.”

Alongside this, PIX Premiere Nights gives an opportunity to actually watch a big movie one day before it is actually released or a day before the rest of India does. Elaborating further, he said, “We promote the contest by questions asked on television during the movie and on social media and the viewer is expected to reply. So once we get the responses then we select the winners. So we actually select about 2,200 contest winners give them couple passes across 10 cities and have an exclusive screening of movies in those 10 cities at exclusive screens which we promote through a contest. We have done three of them so far, Robocop, Spiderman 2 and The Hobbit and now we are going to do for Expendables 3.”

Keeping its promise of continuously enhancing viewing experience, Sony PIX is now available in High - Definition. SONY PIX HD will further enrich the experience of the viewers. The channel is available on platforms such as Dish TV, Hathway, Fastway and In Cable. Elaborating on the same, Yagnik said, “With the core thought, ‘HD gets an elevation, Amazement in High Definition’ - Sony PIX looks forward to offer an array of exciting Hollywood blockbusters in High - Definition for its viewers. Heavily promoted in the Sony’s bouquet of channel, Sony Pix is creating a strong buzz. We have a bag of 25 odd new movies this year including Captain Phillips, The Hobbit 2, Robocop and Spiderman 2.” With lesser ads on HD, the channel is still working on the ad-break and ad-revenue part.

Some micro properties on Sony Pix are:-
•             Legendary Monday - Inspiring stories from the world of celebrities
•             Thoughtful Tuesday - Quotes by Celebrities
•             Pixonomic Wednesday - Interesting facts about Box office collection
•             PIX Desi Thursday - Clash of the world between Bollywood and Hollywood
•             Superhero PIX Friday - All about Superhero/Action heroes
•             Saturday Talks - Famous movie dialogues
•             Gizmo Sunday - All about gadgets [By: Aanchal Kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli]