The campaign aims to make people aware of Hotstar’s free offerings, nudging those who come to the platform for cricket to stay put.
After much market research and deliberation, Hotstar found that 80% of its viewership is dominated by millennials across UP, MP and Maharashtra. The new Hotstar ka vaada, free entertainment sabse zyada campaign aims to target these regions with wall paintings, branded canter vans, television, print, billboards as well as on-ground activations and nukad nataks. The efforts will be used to target over 80 small cities and towns in this market.
This is an important campaign for Hotstar given how one of their USP in the Indian market is that of being a mobile distribution channel for cricket. Thus, the campaign targetting Tier II and Tier III cities has been timed with the cricket season this summer. After years of leveraging cricket as a key offering, now they will be using it to expand the list of key offerings.
“This campaign, along with targeted promotions around several shows and movies will be leveraged to drive people who come in for cricket, to stay & experience the entertainment genre,” says Sidharth Shakdher, EVP & Business Head, Hotstar. We aim to take digital video consumption to new frontiers with this campaign, he adds.
The campaign does not include subscription offers. Rather, the aim is to create awareness about the content available on the platform. Hotstar has spotted a huge opportunity in building awareness and encouraging trials across Tier II and Tier III cities, something they are going to start leveraging to the hilt in their brand communication this summer.
Giving a glimpse into the audience being targetted, he says, “Drama viewership in UP and MP is higher compared to Maharashtra and women in MP binge more online than in UP or Maharashtra. Men in Maharashtra have a high affinity towards drama than mythology and romance genres.” The idea is to give them more to watch than reruns of outdated content.
“The next wave of OTT platforms will come from smaller cities as adoption picks up. Through this campaign, we endeavour to further engage with audiences in the Hindi-speaking markets,” says Varun Narang, Chief Product Officer, Hotstar.
