HBO lines up Bond festival, launches biggest marketing campaign

HBO lines up Bond festival, launches biggest marketing campaign

HBO

MUMBAI: HBO, which has lost market share in the English movie channel space, has packed 21 Bond films and has kicked off its biggest marketing campaign for the festive season.

The movies, dubbed under the "HBOO7" initiative, will air Monday-Friday ‘after the 9 pm movie‘ slot.

As Star Movies had shown the Bond festival earlier in the year, HBO is trying to connect the property to the viewers‘ through a differentiated promotional strategy. The channel‘s identity has been fused to the property.

Said HBO South Asia country manager Shruti Bajpai, "This is the biggest marketing campaign in the channel‘s history. The levels of innovation are higher compared to our previous campaigns. We are using our own Bond women for the campaign that covers on-air, OOH, digital, print etc. We have created a site HBOO7.com that offers fans everything they want to know about Bond. There is also a desktop widget that fans can download. We are offering games where, among other things, people can dress up Bond women."

A contest is being run on-air where fans can win Omega watches, ipads etc. The ads have been created using three themes - Bond and women, Bond and gadgets and Bond and villains. "This creates more focus and is different from just airing TVCs," Bajpai said.

On the OOH front, the channel has taken billboards. In some of them, the cutout of a Bond woman is used to give a 3D impression.

Apart from the Bond festival the channel is also doing a ‘Diwali Platinum‘ initiative at 9 pm where blockbusters are shown. The ‘Diwali Gold‘ initiative at noon offers fun and family-oriented films.

On Sundays, there is a "Heroes versus Villains" initiative where films are shown back to back at 9 pm and 11 pm. The theme is that of good triumphing over evil.

On the ad front, Bajpai said that in keeping with the Bond festival poker sets have been sent to agencies.

Tata Manza and Sony Bravia are the main sponsors for the HBOO7 initiative. Other sponsors include Phillips and Micromax.