Tata Sky Actve Services: Ferns N Petals ties up with Tata Sky DTH

In one of my previous post a couple of weeks back, I had written about the fact that Tata Sky is planning to improve its value added services over the summer. This post is an elaboration of a part of that. As you can see, Tata Sky is now aggressively promoting its Actve Mall service, first with the Fly to Dubai offer mentioned above and now the tie-up with Ferns N Petals.

Tata Sky is now offering all its subscribers the opportunity to order fresh cut flowers, chocolates etc on Actve Mall. In an interview to Indiaretailing.com, Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer of Tata Sky said and I quote ““Product excellence and innovation have always been the hallmark of Tata Sky. Our collaboration with Ferns N Petals is yet another first offered by Tata Sky on its platform. Using the new feature on Actve Mall, Tata Sky subscribers can now celebrate their special occasions by ordering flowers and gifts while watching the best of TV entertainment from the comfort of their homes, which would be delivered to the doorsteps of their loved ones to anywhere in India.”

Speaking on the their association with Tata Sky, Pawan Gadia, vice president, Ferns N Petals said and I quote, “With today’s busy lifestyles where time is always a rare commodity, a customer can now place an order for beautiful flowers or cakes or branded gifts while watching entertainment channels on Tata Sky which would be delivered by Ferns-N-Petals at your doorstep anywhere in India. This collaboration would make shopping easier for Tata Sky customers.”

The way I see it, it is a part of an effort of Tata Sky of not being “just a DTH”. It’s a place where you learn (Actve Learning), play games (Actve Games), learn cooking (Actve Cooking) and now even shop (Actve Mall). As these get evolved, this will be the USP of Tata Sky giving it the competitive edge over its customers.

To read the complete article check out the following link:

http://www.indiaretailing.com/news.aspx?topic=1&Id=3779

Tata Sky Actve Services: Actve Mall - Download ringtones/wallpapers and Go to Dubai!

Tata Sky has this fantastic service called Actve Mall (see my previous posts on it). Through Actve Mall you could download some really interesting wall papers and ringtones for your cell phones. There is enough variety to help you find the one of your choice! Now there’s an even stronger reason for you to download them...You download ringtones/wallpapers/applications from Actve Mall before 31^st May 09 and you could stand to win a trip to Dubai!

Wow, isn’t this an exciting enough reason to download these fun things from Actve Mall, I would have anyway downloaded it, but with this exciting opportunity I would do it even more!

Follow this link for more details on the offer

http://www.tatasky.com/offers-fly-to-dubai.html

I am looking forward to the IPL finals – Thanks to Tata Sky!

I just can’t get cricket out of me these days. That’s the reason for these back to back posts on cricket!

This time there’s a different perspective though. Here I would like to elaborate on a classic case of change in consumer behaviour, fuelled by Tata Sky!

I used to be an ardent Mumbai Indians (MI) fan, used to watch only those IPL matches which MI played until last year. This year, with Tata Sky Plus around, I ended up seeing almost all the matches that I realistically could. And I am not talking about the “record feature” here. I mean the record feature is ofcourse very powerful. But I am talking about here an even fundamental proposition of Tata Sky, and that’s their DVD quality picture and sound. I mean it just grows on you and you really feel yourself just enjoying almost anything you watch on TV. Cricket with all its charm of-course augurs that much better with it. What this has led to is a phenomenal change in my Cricket consumption behaviour. IPL, when MI doesn’t play used to be as good as any other content option on TV to me. I mean it wouldn’t make me plan my day around it. I’ll watch it if there’s isn’t anything great to do.

But with Tata Sky, I have observed a dramatic shift in my cricket consumption. Every T20 match seems as appealing to me as an MI match. I mean the “Cricket experience” on TS is just so powerful that you actually become neutral to who’s playing and who’s winning. You just tend to appreciate the game and more precisely the experience on Tata Sky. I mean with MI out of this years IPL, I still find myself gravitating towards t20 on Tata sky and am super anxious about the final, independent of whoever makes it to it, and whoever wins it!

I am sure there would be many more beings with Tata Sky like me whose TV behaviour would have changed and they would be getting more out of their TV than what they earlier could.
The proof of the pudding is in eating it, try experiencing cricket on TS and you’ll resonate with what I am saying here.

Go for it, get a TS connection now and you can still catch up with the IPL T20 Finals on the 24th!

Cricket on Tata Sky!!!

Most of you must have seen Tata Sky’s advertising campaign where it is aggressively positioning itself as THE brand to watch cricket on. What they stress on is Tata Sky’s picture quality and sound which brings the stadium like ambience right into your home. Anyone who has been to a cricket match in a large stadium can vouch for the fact as to how mesmerizing it is. The sound of drums, people shouting, the waves, the excitement! It is all about the “experience” than the actual match. I think Tata sky provides an experience that is as close a TV can get to a real life stadium experience. In fact I would go to the extent of saying that if you’re a real cricket aficionado, watching it on TS is better than stuffing yourself in the stadium stands to watch the game!

Let me analyse it objectively here, if you compare it with what you see on your cable connections, it’s actually a no brainer, on cable with the monotonous sound with hazy picture, you would rather hear the cricket commentary on a transistor and imagine the rest! However, I must point out that all DTH have a few seconds time lag as compared to cable. This is because of the fact that cable uses single encryption-decryption but DTH use dual encryption-decryption, i.e. once at the beaming station and once at the STB at home. This applies to all DTH including Big TV, Dish TV, ADTV as well as Tata Sky. However, I realized that Tata Sky has the least time lag which is around half a second. This is one big point in its favour! So you see TS is more live!

The picture and sound quality too is absolutely great. As far as the picture is concerned, I would say “can’t be better”. You can see every last detail that you can possibly see, including the cheese in the sandwiches eaten by people in the audience. On the sound, I would say I haven’t heard a crisper rattle of the stumps and the deeper bass octave (thump) of wood hitting leather (bat hitting the ball, for the uninitiated) on television than on TS!

Believe me it’s been absolute fun watching IPL this year on my Tata Sky! I am sure all you Tata Skyers would agree!

Tata Sky Ads: Tata Sky DTH - New Ads for South India!

There are these three interesting ads that TS has released in South India. All centering around the “Tata Sky makes Cricket Jingalala” proposition.

All these ads have another common element, the TS south brand ambassador, the erstwhile likable-girl-next-door – now a-superstar-in-the-making, yes you’ve guessed it right, Asin.

The ads are shot with three different contexts, “Iron”, “Doorbell” and “Telephone”. These contexts basically work on impressing upon the audience the fact that watching cricket on Tata Sky is such a magnetic experience (because of TS’s life like picture quality), that when we’re at it, some of the other general stimuli of day to day life fail to elicit response from us. For e.g. As highlighted in these ads, a contemporary south Indian couple (played by Asin & her costar), who is glued to cricket on their Tata Sky so much that a “burning Iron” or a “continuous door bell” and “a constantly ringing telephone” fail to get their response!

The strength of the attachment to Cricket on Tatasky is beautifully reflected through the “conscious negligence” of day to day events which generally get attended to rather quickly (you pick up the phone when it rings, you jump out to look at the “Iron” when you smell it burning or you are fairly prompt in opening the door when the bell rings), But the magnetism of cricket on TS is so strong, the life like picture clarity engrosses the viewers so much, that they quite surprisingly become immune to other day to day, significant stimuli around them.

These ads are short, effective and spot on with the messaging (that cricket is best watched only on Tata Sky's because of its life like picture clarity). Quite nicely filmed too. Asin as usual is very real life in her portrayal of the character and overall ads deliver the message quite effectively.

Take a look at the "Iron" ad below.



The other 2 ads could be seen on the links below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ-KWlTweg8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDJC57y57Ks

Tata Sky’s New Planned Value Added Services!

I came across this interesting article in The Financial Express about Tata Sky’s plans for its value added services. Speaking to The Financial Express, Vikram Mehra, the Chief Marketing Officer of Tata Sky revealed that they have partnered with renowned chef Sanjeev Kapoor and florist chain Ferns 'N' Petals to increase their value added services portfolio. While Sanjeev Kapoor's recipes would be a part of Tata Sky's Active Cooking service, Ferns 'N' Petals would offer flower delivery service across the country.

In the interview, Vikram Mehra said and I quote "We have tied up with Sanjeev Kapoor to showcase his recipes on our Active Cooking channel. Also, we have partnered with Ferns 'N' Petals, who would deliver the flowers and cakes across the country,"

Apparently, the user needs to choose flowers or cakes which have product codes and SMS the code to the company and a representative would call back to take the delivery details.

I believe a lot of consumer insight and research must have gone into this. While Tata Sky is a DTH company, it has been consistently improving its value added services. It does appear to be a well thought through strategy. As the competition between various DTH operators increases, there will be very little differentiation in terms of content. Then, it is value added services like these which will distinguish one operator from the other. Tata Sky is preparing for such a scenario to maintain its position as a market leader.

I can’t but help think that most guys would love the idea that they can send flowers and cakes to their wives or girlfriends without having move out from their comfort zones. They woudnt have to bother going out in the hot sun for flowers and cakes! I must say Tata Sky grip on consumer insight is getting stronger by the day!

Check out the following link for the details of the interview

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/tata-sky-enhances-vas-offers-flower-delivery/450768/

The Sports Ad from Tata Sky Plus!

“Sports are too much with us. Late and soon, sitting and watching - mostly watching on television - we lay waste our powers of identification and enthusiasm and, in time, attention as more and more closing rallies and crucial putts and late field goals and final playoffs and sudden deaths and world records and world championships unreel themselves ceaselessly before our half-lidded eyes.”

-Roger Angell. (A columnist of The New Yorker and one of the greatest baseball writers of our time)

I couldn’t but help quote this statement as I completely agree with Roger Angell. As a noted baseball writer, he was in the best position to reflect on the strange relationship between men, sports and television. I think they do make a pretty strong combination. I have spent late night plunked in front of my TV catching up with Test matches, Premiership League soccer matches or anyone of those adrenaline thumping F1 Races. Late at nights, after all that excitement, you go to sleep dreary eyed. And the next morning is another story….. The alarm rings, you realize that you have woken up late, you rush through the shower and breakfast and scamper to work only to see your boss giving you that look, with his eyes sternly saying “You are late”. You feel guilty and embarrassed and make a false excuse. Then, soon, a new match, late nights, waking up late and the whole drama unfolds again….

I have been through this several times and am sure as have many of you. Haven’t you wondered many times that wish we could do something to break this vicious circle? Well, the new Tata Sky+ Aamir Khan ad gives you that answer. In this ad, Aamir Khan appears sitting late night watching a match. Then, he remarks that he is sleepy and his match will be recorded on TS+. After that, in a sarcastic time, he exhorts viewers to keep watching the matches late into the night irrespective of the fact that they may be late to work the next day. The ad ends with a message that you can record all the live matches with TS+ and view them later. You can view this new ad over here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsY9aEHC40g

I liked this ad for several reasons. The most important one is that its coming from a powerful consumer insight and hence almost instantaneously establishes a connection with the target audience. Second, the ad isn’t really preachy and patronizing like many ads on television and third, the use of sarcasm has been very subtle and kind of empathetic, which is a very interesting way of bring out humor in the context. It’s a short ad, but very effective!

With the impending and the ever exciting English Premier League around you, I hope you are really looking forward to recording your matches or are you are you still choosing to go late to work?

Guys there couldn’t have been a better time to own a TS+ than Now!