Tata sky Active English - quite active !!!

DTH brands haven’t featured much here- for two reasons- one) they are relatively new and two) I don’t understand most of them in the sense- most are the same- the unchanged features and benefits and adding more to the same clutter.. no great differentiation and frankly I don’t find the need gap (I am happy with the good old citi cable network connection that I have)…… and since they are new, they still are in a demand creation and category development mode, and since there is tough fight among the players ( Reliance Big TV, Airtel TV,Sun direct, Tata Sky, Dish TV and God knows who all) the share of voice and noise is yet to be decided… just today news papers say how the ASCI has upheld Tata sky petition questioning the ‘Dil Titli’ television campaign featuring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor which claimed that the campaign “misleading” for suggesting that the picture quality of Airtel Digital TV was superior as it used the MPEG4 and DVB-S2 technology.. Airtel will soon have to withdraw….a lot of dust and din for simple minds, for sure…

The new Tata Sky active English ad, but even in the din, pleased me a lot… no great reason should be explained I know, as to why it is discussed here because as an ad it serves its purpose- Have it made the feel in you? And then does it prompt you to do the action part…..



I am not in the TG ( as I speak ok English) but I know many who will like to speak, particularly house wives who have a regular timing and schedule that this guys seems to have wonderfully understood and made a product accordingly… (Tata Sky has tied up with British Council in devising the programme ,keeping in mind the busy schedule of an average housewife, Monday to Friday, keeping the content new and the whole week's content being reviewed on the weekends… and the training remaining on air 24 hours and people allowed to access it according to their convenience. Active English would also teach people the correct pronunciations of words apart from training for normal daily situations and plus no grammar and hence no complication… and that too free for a year and then I am told Rs 30 per month… )

As any other Marketing guy would put it, great products combined with great marketing sell for itself… Advertising is not just about being able to write catchy lines and tit for tat’s.. Its not about drawing great pictures either.. It is about being able to reach to the TG in their language and fashion, when they want and when they are free…It’s not about being able to rope in a Khan or the other just to add to the fuddle…

I guess this ad where the protagonist woman speaks and speaks about how she heard of Tata Sky active English and how she used it to make over herself, demonstrating the transformation in her speech which moves from Hindi to English and then to a clear , blemish less and active English…I loved the way the protagonist talk about pronunciation ..it is simple, subtle and straight …. And this fact that it is not boring or looking made up as the normal testimonial ads ( with or without celebrities most of them are boring, especially the doctors types that Dettol, Lizol, and the others use so very sterile a fashion) is a feather in their gorgeous cap…After Aamir khan, Aamir Khan/Gul panag ads, it could have been really arduous for the marketer to come up with something better.. This guys but seems to have done a cake walk… it proves again, if your box is working well, you will get some real out of the box stuff!!!

See this ad and read this review along with the fact that DTH is a service which is not so easy to convince people to buy… it requires some money and some serious process, that the buyer has to invest to get a connection( all the buyer behaviour process steps that one learned from a Kotler) … To feel gratified about the decision that he has taken after he has taken it, he needs to get better pictures, better sound etc ( as promised in the ads) , more channels for less (as promised in the ads) value added services ( as promised in the ads) and quite more..

The fact (however) is that many DTH subscribers after the purchase lands up in huge dissonance stage and just wanted to rip off their connection just to return to their good old cable network with no hidden charges, and no long list of channels that are “scrambled” and/or you have to pay separately to see it and still get to see the ads shouting Jinga la la ,pooh poohing their decision….

As of now ,three cheers to Tata Sky Active English and its active advertising…

Footnote:- “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits”.