How Tata Play pulled off a coup on Disney Star network

As its commercial interests expand beyond Direct To Home offerings, Tata Sky has rebranded itself as Tata Play, creating a seamless and connected world of entertainment. Last week, Tata Play unveiled its new brand and identity, designed by London-based venturethree.

Tata Play also rolled out an ad blitz to promote its new identity. The campaign has been created by Ogilvy India and features Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan for the Hindi TVCs, while R Madhavan and Priyamani feature in the TVCs targetted at the South markets. The film stars play relatable, slice of life characters to bring out the essence of the brand to the larger audiences. The Hindi TVCs have been directed by director Shoojit Sircar.

The campaign, which broke on January 27, 2022, will run for the next few months and the new brand identity will be heavily promoted across all touchpoints.

As part of the extensive, Tata Play partnered with Disney Star to create a 24-hour network advertising blockade across all entertainment channels. The Disney Star 24-hour Network Roadblock began at 18:00 pm on January 27 and continued till 18:00 pm on January 28.

Tata Play employed the marketing roadblocks strategy to remove rivals from the game by establishing a barrier in front of them for 24 hours. The ad block is usually in the shape of massive ad buys that leave the competition with no choice but to try to stay up. Previously, Wagh Bakri had run a four-minute film during commercial breaks between 10 am and 11 pm on 15 channels on Republic Day in 2015.

Channel genres include Entertainment (Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, English); Movies (Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, English); Music (Hindi, Telugu, Tamil); Kids; Infotainment & Lifestyle. All Free Commercial Time (FCT) in this period was only of Tata Play (except ISL slot of Asianet Plus and an AFP on Star Utsav). Exclusive FCT to Tata Play on 54 channels in 8 languages was given in this 24-hour period.

The network also executed 1,800+ Aston bands across 54 channels in these 24 hours, 1,450+ bugs were strategically placed on content across 44 channels, 30+ creatives in 8 languages with the network’s Top Talent/ Characters to amplify the campaign and played out alongside Tata Play’s creatives to further scale up the roadblock. In addition, Tata Play also placed in-show integrations in top programmes across seven languages, as well as show talent social media amplification.

“Disney Star is thrilled to associate with Tata Sky at a critical juncture in their 18-year journey, as they rebrand themselves as Tata Play. This 24-hour network roadblock across all the entertainment channels of Disney Star demonstrates the strength of our network and the pivotal role it can play to support brands in their business transformation efforts. Our entertainment network’s rich experience and unparalleled reach of 700 million monthly unique viewers makes us the platform of choice for advertisers to derive the maximum investment value,” said Kevin Vaz, Head - Network Entertainment Channels, Disney Star.

“The 24- hour roadblock on the Disney Star network has helped create massive awareness across India, of Tata Play and its offerings right on Day 1 of the launch. Disney Star teams across various channels worked closely with the Tata Play team and amplified the message through their well-known characters, and created many other value-adds which added further ammunition to the execution,” said Harit Nagpal, MD & CEO, Tata Play. “It was an absolute delight to work with Disney Star network who brought all their resources together to provide a seamless execution for this brand transformation campaign,” he added.

Tata Play has also enabled its users to watch their favourite films and shows on Netflix, further cementing its position as India’s one-stop entertainment destination. Netflix will be available to Tata Play DTH users through the Tata Play Netflix Combo bundles. All Tata Play Netflix combo pack subscribers will be able to access Netflix on any device of their preference, including Smart TVs, streaming devices, smartphones, and PCs, in addition to watching it on their TV using the Tata Play Binge+ Smart set top box. Tata Play Netflix Combo packs have been carefully designed to integrate the finest of streaming as well as national and regional linear TV channels.