Sony Pix all set to redefine the English Movie Genre !

Sony Pix that redefined its positioning as ‘Stay Amazed’ is all geared up to ‘amaze’ the viewers once again. This time the channel will be celebrating the ‘Bond Festival’ in an innovative and unique way with ‘PIX School of BONDing’ which is a first of its kind initiative in the English Movie category. The initiative aims to make the Bond Festival much more fun, groundbreaking and engaging for their viewers. The channel that repositioned itself a while back, with an aim to break the clutter and stand tall among its competition, has come a long way fighting all odds with innovative properties like Pixathon, Notty Pixy, Pix Premiere Nights, Bond Festival etc. 

Under its new initiative, PIX School of BONDing, along with Sania Mirza, the channel will be allowing the viewers to learn the BONDitude, a cult that everybody dies for. Bond has surely inspired many generations and is an iconic character. His movies have earlier been associated with various English movie channels but this will be for the first time that the Bond franchise with all the 23 Bond movie titles have been packaged and positioned very uniquely for Sony Pix.

The Youth icon and ace tennis champ, Sania Mirza will be seen on ‘The PIX School of BONDing’ giving lessons on ‘The Bondway to a woman’s heart’. Out of the three TVCs one TVC has already gone live and one will be immediately going live and the third one wherein Sania will be seen in the ‘Pilot uniform’ will be going on air very soon.

The channel has already managed to get Micromax as Presenting Sponsor, Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 as Powered By Sponsor and Quikr, Titan Skinn, 99acres.com, Nutrilite by Amway and Crizal by Essilor as Associate Sponsors on board. This entire campaign is in collaboration with Leo Burnett which is the on-board agency of the channel, and Sony Pix. The TVCs that were shot in Filmistan Studios were designed and produced by Sony Pix’s in-house team lead by Malay Gupta, Head-On Air Promotions, AXN and Pix.

Speaking about the on-air activities, Neville Bastawalla, vice-president, marketing, Sony Pix said, “The 360 degree campaign is set to create buzz on all possible mediums from Television to Print to Digital. While the TVCs will be seen on all MSM (Multi-Screen Media) channels and other channels too, the leading newspapers across the markets will witness heavy push. Apart from traditional media, digital and social media will also get to experience a high impact plan and buzzing campaign across all platforms ranging from You-Tube, Twitter, Whats app etc with a live chat with Sania Mirza. Also Rediff.com will have a contest running on their home page and we are in talks with a lot more companies and brands to create something which unique and innovative.”

Also interestingly, the channel stands tall with 12% market share in social media viz-a-viz its competition, which clearly marks Pix's dominance and acceptance in the market. 4.1 Billion Dollar movie has been one of the longest running franchise on Sony Pix. Speaking about the rationale behind taking this step, Saurabh Yagnik, EVP & Business Head, Sony Pix, said, “The objective was to create a differentiated and disruptive proposition. From here germinated the thought of portraying BOND’s attitude and desirability through the eyes of a woman.”

When asked how did the idea came up, Yagnik said, “The character of Bond spans over 50 years and has been mostly associated with the best of gadgets, guns, cars and women. A deeper probe led to a brilliant insight. Girls, Gadgets, Guns & cars keep changing over time, but what keeps BOND ticking is his evergreen attitude. Through this campaign we have sought to amplify his style, charisma and most importantly the evergreen attitude which makes him the Ultimate Man”.

22nd Nov onwards viewers will get to live the exciting and daring life with Bond 007 and Sania Mirza at the ‘PIX School of BONDing’ for next 12 weeks. Interestingly, Sania will be giving lessons in between the movie that will aired every Saturday at 7 pm and 9 pm on Sony Pix. Again for the first time in the entire English Movie genre, Sony Pix has made its viewers experience differentiated BOND series.

On asking why Sania, he said, “We wanted the face of the campaign to be a popular youth icon and that too in a never seen before avatar. With this brief, having Sania on board not only met our criteria fully but also blended with the Sony Pix philosophy of wow, cool and with a twist. The iconic Sania Mirza articulates this and how he woos his way to a woman’s heart.”

Since English Movie Genre is quite dominant by male audiences this step by Sony Pix could break the notion and attract a lot more women eyeballs. Elaborating further, Yagnik added, “As Bond is one character that is idolised by both men and women and beyond age and time. Men want to be like him and women would kill for a man like him.”

The Bond Mania starting with Sean Connery with Dr. No (1962) to Daniel Craig in Skyfall (2012) will take viewers from exotic locations to action packed, high on gadget escapades. Experience this with Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only, who is on a hunt for a sunken ship which controls ballistic missile attacks; before the enemies could lay eyes on it.  In Licence to Kill lookout for the charismatic Timothy Dalton raid a drug cartel in Miami and avenging the death of a woman who was raped and killed.

Dressed to kill, Pierce Brosnan will enchant you in Tomorrow Never Dies. Gutsy Daniel Craig must win a high stakes poker game against terrorist financier in Casino Royale and prove his loyalty to M and destroy her blast from the past in the amazing Skyfall. Stay tuned and Stay Amazed for Saturday evenings will never be so full of amazement and style. "It's not how you start, but how you finish that matters.”

The Industry has its own opinion about this step. Anita Nayyar, Havas Media believes that it is a great initiative. Though she was unable to comment on whether it will help Sony Pix make money but she said, "It is an innovative step towards enhancing your reach and creating deeper engagement of your channel with the viewers. And if marketed well this step would take the channel really close to its viewer." 

Bastawalla also shared that “The campaign took almost 3 months to execute. 'PIX school of BONDing' is set to change the trends in the English movie genre and with such unique thoughts and clutter breaking steps the channel too is surely expected to touch newer heights.”

It’s a very smart and bold approach from Sony Pix. Bond films have been loved and admired by everyone since quite a long time and targets the youth majorly and have a class about them altogether, so it will be a different experiment to see how well do they upkeep Sony Pix to woo their target audience. By: Aanchal Kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli