|
MUMBAI: A little over a year has gone by since Sony Pictures
Releasing of India set up its home video unit.
The company has put out around 200 films so far. It also
has dubbed 80 films into Hindi for VCDs (the highest amongst
any of the Hollywood players the company says) and 18 VCD
Tamil titles.
 Speaking
to indiantelevision.com on the company's plans Sony
Pictures Releasing of India Home Entertainment country head
N Muthuram says, "We are currently launching some titles
in Telugu and Bengali and exploring if there is a possibility
to expand our business in these markets. We are also looking
to release titles from the world of television.
" We are considering this option seriously. We are presently
working on the operational aspects of this and will soon have
some releases of our catalogue of TV shows. This should happen
sometime next year. Our aim was to establish our film products
first which we have been able to do."
 Muthuram
adds that each month Sony releases about 10 -12 titles and
this generally amounts to about 25 SKU's. "The major
titles coming up are Open Season for family and Kids,
Monster House, Click - Adam Sandlers most successful
film. Next year Casino Royale, Ghost Rider with
Nicholas Cage will be released. We also release titles that
go straight to video. They bypass the theatres. We have Robert
Ludlum's Hades Factor, Final Fantasy VI as well
as action titles with Steven Segal, Cuba Gooding Jr, Wisley
Snipes and Van Damme. Of course for a few premium theatrical
titles like The White Countess we only release the
DVD."
 When
asked as to whether classics also sell or if the demand is
mainly for oven fresh titles he points out that India is a
great catalogue market and classics sell well here for all
studios. "In our case Makenna's Gold, Bridge
on the River Kwai, Guns of Navarone etc do very
well and these are steady sellers. Fresh titles do contribute
to the business in a big way. But the key is to work on the
catalogue and push sales in this category."
He reiterates the point that dubbed products are an important
part of the business. Hindi is a mainstay now. "We have
actually dubbed titles in Hindi that were not done theatrically
and met with good sales. And we have also dubbed products
like Fun with Dick and Jane and released in Hindi.
"The other focus dubbed markets are Tamil and we are
working on cracking the Telugu market. More languages are
being considered and we will explore possibilities from a
business point of view. As a studio we will continue to focus
on the dubbed market and expand the business."
When asked as to whether Sony is also talking to other film
companies both from India and abroad to distribute their products
in India he says that having had a good first year there are
plans of expanding and growing the business. "We are
looking at various options to do so."
 In
terms of manufacturing the products he says that Sony has
had its manufacturing plant for a while in India. They operate
as a separate company and replicate audio CD's, VCDs and for
the last year DVD's also. This plant is in the same class
as the world wide Sony manufacturing plants.
"We are the only studio who replicate all our DVD titles
and most of the titles are locally authored. By this we customise
the product to suit our markets and a lot of our titles on
DVD have the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu dubs on the DVD (not sub
titles but language dubs)."
Distribution and marketing: Distribution of course
is the key to this business. Sony has a strategic tie up with
Sony BMG to use their supply chain infrastructure and systems.
This gives a nation wide network with warehouses across 12
locations. Muthuram says that Sony has a focussed sales team
that work out of the metros and service the regions to ensure
supply and sales from the regions. "We also do ties ups
with the likes of planet M, Crossroads. However we do not
plan to set up our own retail outlets. This is not a core
business area for us. The logistics are very different."
One area that Sony has worked hard on to push its DVDs and
VCDs has been in marketing. Sony Pictures Releasing of India
Home Entertainment marketing head Anupam Sengupta says that
the firm has aimed at setting benchmarks in marketing video
products.
" For starters we have been able to differentiate our
packaging from the competition. The colours , the genre bands
, the graphic icons all contribute to excellent visibility
at the retail level. Secondly we have been aggressive in visual
merchandising and have given it a new dimension, which our
competitors now follow.
 "
We have done inovations like the 500+ product standee at landmark
or Lama standees for The Da Vinci Code, Flex vinyls
, Translites , Sunpack mini stands, innovative counter tops
etc,. window displays at Music world Delhi , Music Land Delhi
, Landmark Bangalore and Chennai. All these are now being
copied by our competitors."
He goes on to add that Sony does not use television blindly
to push home entertainment products. Television gives great
reach but the effective reach may not be that good for home
entertainment which is more niche compared to theatrical releases.
He elaborates further saying, "Contrary to TV advertising
our focussed advertising approach has yielded better deliveries
in our media spends. Full Page Press advertising across key
publications like Mumbai Mirror, Hindustan Times,
Deccan Chronicle, Internet buys, localised radio campaigns
on stations like Power Fm, Radio One and focussed outdoor
campaigns like having a presence in multiplexes and mall branding
are new trends set by us."
He goes on to add that at a time when piracy is a serious
threat it is important to give the consumer a solid reason
to buy a product that will cost more. For instance it offered
a bonus disk with The Da vinci Code. It also
offers merchandise, price benefits on the catalogue. "This
way there is always a compelling reason to purchase a so called
'second hand product'. We had The Da Vinci code
bonus disk of never-before-seen features , Spiderman Animated
series came with the Stuart Little 3 DVD, Kate Beckinsale
Pin-Up posters came with with Underworld DVD/VCD"
he adds.
Sony also ties up with different parties to push products.
"On our local dubbed products we innovate in packaging
so as to suit local tastes and local media like Navbharat
Times, Punjab kesri, Daily thanthi etc are used to drive awareness
and media weights" says Sengupta.
Television is used is when kids/family films have to be
pushed. Ads are done on kids channels. Radio spots on the
other hand give parents a reason why the product is good for
their children. Ads are also carried in kids specific medias
like Tinkle, Champak,Chutti Vikatan along with packaging and
merchandise.
The internet is used a lot. Sony has done tie ups with MSN,
Yahoo! and Sify. For instance for The Da Vinci Code
Sony had given an exclusive bonus video feature to MSN to
use as a platform to push the home video release of the film.
With Yahoo! it did a contest for the film. Content is also
given to these sites like interviews. It also did an initiative
with Cafe Coffee Day where visitors could see posters of trhe
film. The net result is that Planet M alone has sold 2500
DVD copies of The Da Vinci Code in two weeks he says.
 It
also helps that Sony goes a step further by positioning films
differently for the home video release. For instance for The
Da Vinci Code it used ' Get inside the code' as a strategic
positioning stmt rather than unlock the code. The aim was
to get the message across that the DVD is offereing more dope
about the film. Then for the Jim Carrey comedy Fun with
Dick and Jane Sony gave it a local spin with the tagline
' Move over Bunty and Babli',
Sony also has its website which Sengupta says logs more than
5000 hits per day. "We create exciting rich media content,
sweepstakes, trivia to drive traffic and plug our url www.sonypictures.in
in all possible advertising."
Also Read
Sony
pulling all the stops for Bond film
|
