Challenge
DIRECTV launched WorldDirect in the South Asian community in late 2004 with the biggest channel of India, Star Plus, along with Star One, Star News, Aastha, ETV Telugu, ETV Bangla, ETV Gujarati, MTV Desi, NDTV and Cricket Ticket.
DIRECTV competed with DISH Network, which had a seven year monopoly in South Asian international programming.
Strategy
Elephant developed an aggressive, high-impact advertising and grass roots campaign dubbed “DIRECTV Everywhere”.
The idea was to blitz the DIRECTV message, and create opportunities for sign-ups at events across the country. In addition to advertising across mediums, Elephant implemented out-of-the-box strategies, which have never been done by any brand marketing to the South Asian community.
In-Entertainment
Challenge: Reaching Indians through television medium. Since all the other TV channels from India in the US were on DISH Network, we had a big limitation of not being able to advertise on any national South Asian television channel.
Solution: An exclusive tie up with Eros Entertainment, the largest distributor of Bollywood films in the world.
Every EROS DVD contained advertising and a “channel sampler” of DIRECTV. This exclusive advertising vehicle delivers direct reach to consumers of Indian family entertainment, coupled with in-theater and in-video shop display of commercials and collateral.
Media Innovation:
Challenge: DIRECTV was a major advertiser on the Saturday and Sunday morning free to air shows across the country. The agency felt that we were not reaching consumers in a way that was impactful. Saturday and Sunday shows are filled with advertising, and not enough distinct content. You often don’t know where the commercial for a movie stops and the music video of a movie begins.
Solution: Launch of Koffee with Karan
We decided to make our own 30 minute advertiser funded “infomercial” type direct-response TV show, by packaging India’s hottest entertainment talk show “Koffee with Karan” and airing it on free to air stations across the country.
These shows have 7 minutes of DIRECTV advertising in the ad-breaks. This effort has been reinforced by a large scale DM campaign, eblasts, and street team promotions, along with “Tune-in” spots on the Indian weekend shows that precede the KWK show.
Grass Roots Innovation: Public Places
Challenge: There was a need to let people sample the programming available on DIRECTV. Once they saw the quality of programming from India’s # 1 channels, they would be excited to make a switch.
Solution: Public Places
The Agency recommended to DIRECTV to create a Public Places program, whereby DIRECTV branded Plasma Screens would be installed in high-footfall grocery stores, restaurants, banks, and community centers in a major markets. These locations would show DirecTV's Indian programming line up, and serve as Consumer Contact venues for events, promotions, and display/distribution of collateral.
Outdoor
Extensive Outdoor and Transit – never been done by any brand targeting South Asians.
Elephant took dominant positioning at stations like Metro Park and Edison, NJ and Hicksville, Long Island, as well as bulletins on the NJ Turnpike, and Devon Avenue in Chicago.
The visibility and Word of Mouth created by advertising that shows India’s biggest stars promoted by a big brand such as DIRECTV generated sales and increased subscriber index in every center.
Events
Coordinates and conducts event activities across the country to build community presence for dealers through sponsorships and booths at community events, as well as promotional activities with street teams at Little India centers in major markets. A cache of collateral, POP, and unique premiums has been developed by the agency for on-ground exposure. Since 2005, Elephant has conducted over 400 events.
Created unique event executions such as the “Click a picture with Amitabh Bachchan” promotion, “Cheerleaders at India Day Parade”, “Vijay the VJ from MTV Desi”, “DIRECTV Don” and “Survey”.
Comments