“OnePlus entered the smart TV segment in 2019 and saw 20% QoQ growth in Q2 2021”

OnePlus is a leading brand in the smart TV category. Their smart TVs offer an intelligent TV experience to their audience with industry-leading picture and sound quality, stunning exterior design and a curated streaming experience. The latest product in the TV line-up is the OnePlus TV U1S. To promote the brand, OnePlus recently joined hands with Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput Kapoor as brand ambassadors for the OnePlus TV category. By roping in the husband-and-wife duo for this campaign, the brand wanted to give a fresh creative perspective and a new dimension to the campaign as every brand in this category are trying to differentiate during this festive season in a highly competitive smart TV market.

In conversation with Adgully, Ishita Grover, Head of Marketing Communication and Government Relations, OnePlus India, and Saurabh Kapoor, Head of Brand and Category Marketing, OnePlus India, speak at length about OnePlus’ marketing strategy in India, new campaign with Shahid and Mira, festive season plans, as well as how the company intends to further strengthen its position in the country and more.

Smart TV and connected TV is the new way of entertainment. OnePlus is more known as a mobile brand. What prompted you to enter this category and what kind of differentiation are you providing in your product to woo customers?

Ishita Grover: At OnePlus, our aim is to build a premium, accessible and connected ecosystem experience across price points. Our products are distinguished by their cutting-edge technology, premium quality and signature fast and smooth experience. We entered the smart TV segment in 2019 and have witnessed a 20% QoQ growth in Q2 2021, according to Counterpoint Research’s TV Tracker Service. With our smart TVs, we bring a burdenless experience that intelligently integrates users’ home networks for a seamless, unparalleled connected ecosystem. Our smart TVs offer an intelligent TV experience to our community with industry-leading picture and sound quality, stunning exterior design and a curated streaming experience. The latest product in the TV line-up, the OnePlus TV U1S, offers a best-in-class 4K cinematic display and immersive audio with a rich library of curated content for consumers.

How have you positioned your product to stand out in a highly cluttered and competitive market, where price also plays an important role? Any rub off you are getting from your mobile business?

Saurabh Kapoor: At OnePlus, our product strategy and development are driven based on the needs of our users. OnePlus TVs are carefully crafted to deliver a smarter, more intuitive and seamless experience to our users. Shortly after the launch of the OnePlus TV Q1 series in 2019, we expanded our smart TV range with the OnePlus TV U Series and Y Series in 2020. With these smart TV series, our aim was to bring premium technology to more homes in India by making high quality products more accessible across new price segments. In May 2021, we launched a new, affordable 40-inch variant of the OnePlus TV Y series to bring the burdenless OnePlus experience to yet another screen size and price segment, making it even more accessible to millions of customers across the country. Early this year, we launched the OnePlus TV U1S that comes at a truly attractive price while offering a best-in-class 4K cinematic display, seamless IoT connectivity with OnePlus Connect 2.0 and is co-tuned with Dynaudio, the premium Danish loudspeaker maker, for an unparalleled cinematic experience.

Our products are differentiated by their cutting-edge technology, best-in-class features and seamless ecosystem connectivity and they are available across various price points that suit every consumer’s needs.

Your new campaign has roped in Shahid Kapoor and his wife Mira Rajput Kapur. What’s the thought in bringing the family to endorse the brand and how is it providing the brand connect for OnePlus?

Ishita Grover: When the OnePlus TV U Series was introduced in 2020, it was extremely well-received by the user community and helped strengthen our position in the India Smart TV market. OnePlus TV U1S, therefore, is another offering that aims to provide users with a premium experience at an affordable price.

Shahid and Mira are both passionate enthusiasts of technology and innovation. Being widely known for their zeal for life, we were convinced this collaboration reiterates the brand’s philosophy of ‘Never Settle’, while highlighting our vision for building a seamless connected experience.

Through the ad film we have aimed to bring to life the ease and seamless functioning of the smart TV serving as the hub of one’s smart home. We especially wanted to highlight the innovative hands-free voice control feature of the OnePlus TV U1S with Speak Now on the smart TV. In the ad film, we see Shahid go on a dream-like journey, where he imagines a life in which he can control everything with his voice, while Mira humorously gives him a reality check. Capturing the quirky vibe of the popular couple, we believe that our community and India audience will enjoy the ad film along with gaining positive product insights.

How do you plan to leverage the festive season, where consumer durables attract good demand? Any festive related campaign planned with fabulous discounts?

Ishita Grover: The festive period has always been important to Indian shoppers, and has become even more so in the post-pandemic world that has left consumers more thoughtful, and less indulgent in encouraging newer habits of conscious spending.

For a memorable festive shopping experience, we have curated wide-ranging offers on the entire OnePlus ecosystem of products across online and offline channels. Be it via the OnePlus Experience Store, Partner Stores, OnePlus.in or even e-commerce partners such as Amazon and Flipkart, users can avail no-cost EMIs, instant bank discounts and more to upgrade their devices or add to their growing IoT portfolio with offers that can be availed until November 5, 2021.

This year, our approach to the festive season is through #SimplyDiwali, where we want to celebrate the festive season in the most simple way – by providing our community with the best offers. In line with this, we recently announced an exciting range of offers to welcome the festive season. We are continuing to cater to our ever-growing community of users by sharing the festive spirit of joy and happiness across multiple channels such as OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store App, OnePlus Experience Centers, Amazon.in, Flipkart.com as well as several partner stores. This sale extravaganza includes great ongoing offers on the entire OnePlus ecosystem of products and can be availed until November 5, 2021.

These days a lot of shopping happens online, even in the case of consumer durables. How have you beefed up your operations here and is there a large customer base who shop online for consumer durables?

Saurabh Kapoor: The pandemic has led to dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour, due to which many brands have adopted a digital-first or omnichannel approach to remain relevant to customers and have re-evaluated their product strategies. In a bid to make OnePlus devices more accessible to users across the country, over the years, we have leveraged partnerships with e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and retail partners such as Reliance Digital, Croma, Vijay Sales, Poorvika Mobiles, Sangeetha Mobiles, Bajaj Electronics, among other partner stores.

The OnePlus Experience Stores are also a critical part of the brand’s ongoing endeavour to enhance its offline presence and create additional retail touchpoints for users to physically engage with the brand on a more intimate level. By expanding its premium retail presence beyond metro cities, OnePlus seeks to bring its global premium brand experience to offline-based consumers across the country.

Your brand OnePlus needs to be top of mind to stay engaged with your audience. What’s the engagement strategy that you have planned to give good visibility for the brand?

Ishita Grover: India is a key market for OnePlus, and we are consistently working towards strengthening our presence in this region and creating products that cater to the needs of our Indian consumers. With a more comprehensive product range, and more localised products, we are now better able to meet the specific needs of our users.

While we do have a robust online presence and actively engage with our community via our community forums and social media platforms, we have also endeavored to create additional retail touchpoints for users to physically engage with the brand. We have consistently been expanding our offline footprint with presence across 10,000+ offline stores in the country, including OnePlus Experience Stores, and partnered stores. The OnePlus experience store has morphed not just into a community hub, but also a strong network where customers can share their positive experiences to assist prospective buyers.

We believe in actively communicating with our users via physical as well as digital channels and allow them to enjoy a more personalised experience of their liking. As a brand, OnePlus strives to create a world-class user experience, be it in the online retail space or through offline store presence, and internalise user feedback to constantly deliver the best products to the community.