If you watched the world television premieres of the movies Desi Boyz or Players aired recently on Hindi movie channel Zee Cinema, chances are you were privy to a media innovation dubbed by the channel as ‘play and pause’.
This was first used during the airing of Peepli Live by the channel last year in conjunction with insurance company Apollo Munich and their ‘pause’ campaign, the one that asked you to stop and think if you had insurance. The channel tied up again with the insurer for a similar activity during the premiere of Desi Boyz last month. The scene where Akshay Kumar passes his exam in the film is momentarily paused. It drove home a clever message: It is an unbelievable moment for his character, much like the insurance company’s latest offering, the ‘unbelievable’ health insurance product, Optima Restore. With the movie paused in the backdrop, you hear about the product for a few seconds and then the movie continues.
A similar ploy was used for the film Players. In the movie’s climax action sequence, the film is paused and one can hear ‘kya main yeh kar sakta hoon’ and then the Mountain Dew tagline, ‘Dar ke aage jeet hain’. And viola, as soon as the movie resumes, the daredevilry of the hero bears fruit.
Industry observers say this is an extension of brand integration, or more precisely, contextual advertising. Meaning, here one finds a sync between the brand’s proposition and the content. “Contextual advertising like this may score over regular ad spots as a subliminal impression is cast on the minds of the viewers, without actually being in your face,” says the head of another channel, who did not wish to be named. He feels it can also work better than regular brand integration due to the ‘pause’ feature.
Sample this. During the last season of Kaun Banega Crorepati, whenever Amitabh Bachchan said ‘Ab show ka karenge shubh aarambh’, a strip appeared at the bottom of the television screen, a visual of Cadbury’s ‘Shubh Aarambh’ ad campaign. Or Hindustan Unilever’s integration for its Dove Hair Fall Therapy shampoo last year, a Dove dangler, resembling a calendar showing the number of days taken for hair fall to come down, which was seen during the evening shows on Zee Cafe, an English entertainment channel.
Most integrations operate on similar lines. As the content is aired simultaneously, sometimes the audience fails to even register it. The pause feature comes in handy because of this.Not everyone agrees. Samir Khanna, head, DDB Mudra Max Media (west), who was associated with Apollo’s Peepli Live activity, considers this more an interruption. “Innovations cannot happen in just five-seven seconds. It is too short a time to communicate a brand theme or make a lasting impact,” he says. The viewers, too, may not take kindly to too many of these interruptions, restricting the usage.
Again as with all things business, pricing may dictate the usage of this option. Khanna feels that such integrations are typically given away as add-ons based on the regular ad spends. More often than not, it is a complementary offer by channels to help advertisers improve recall for their brands. However, with ‘play and pause’, the ‘pause’ factor may call for a premium.
