MUMBAI: Did you get a reminder call from Shah Rukh Khan to watch Chennai Express on &pictures? Following the success on Zee TV which garnered 19,541 TVTs, Shah Rukh Khan and Rohit Shetty’s gigantic blockbuster, Chennai Express will now halt on &pictures on 23 November at 8:00 pm.

The new Hindi movie channel is pulling all stops to make this premiere an even a bigger success than Zee TV. The channel has devised an interesting digital mechanism to promote the premiere of this blockbuster film.

“It is the first of its kind initiative on Hindi movie genre space,” asserts Zeel marketing head (national channels) Akash Chawla. “It is a challenge now for &pictures. When there is a platform as big as Zee TV and when there is a movie as big as Chennai Express and the ratings are as big as what they had come when it was last aired, it makes it that very important for the newly launched &pictures. The challenge for us it to come up with a strategy that is new and different from what was used the last time it was telecast on Zee TV.”

“But in terms of the way in which we are building Chennai Express on the channel is aggressive and different. While we are very aggressive on the traditional medium, a lot of hoardings are up in Bombay and for print we are digging deep into the markets also. The brand &pictures is very different as compared to Zee TV so the tonality of the promotion is extremely different as compared to what you saw on Zee. A complete blend of mass media and digital in a big way.”

The brand &pictures is very different as compared to Zee TV, says Akash Chawla

So what are the innovations? Breaking new ground, a unique IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) model has been created. Through this, viewers can just give a missed call on this toll free number 18001035515 and get a reminder about the movie on their phones in Shah Rukh Khan’s own voice. It works like an alarm clock wherein one can set a reminder about the telecast of the movie and receive a call on the D-Day. The channel is promoting this number on-air as well as on social media.

Interestingly, Brandlogist, a digital creative agency based in Delhi has been roped in for these innovations.

There’s more good news for all movie bloggers and travel freaks! Tapping again into the digital media, the channel is sending four lucky bloggers on the actual Chennai Express train. The group of bloggers will take the train from Mumbai and will go to Chennai and while they travel, they will tweet and write on various forums with regards to their actual travel experience happening on the Chennai Express with the &pictures hashtag. This is another novel way that the movie is going to be promoted via blogging community. Actual experiences and pictures will also be uploaded real-time.

With the help of the blogging community associated with Indi Bloggers, these bloggers from Mumbai and Delhi will get to win this experience on the Chennai Express train.  A page on Indi Blogger will track the entire journey from start to finish in real time. There will also be a live feed of their tweets, blogs and pictures on social media.

Over and above the digital initiatives, an aggressive marketing strategy has been initiated on other mediums including TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, OOH and Cable.

At present, the new channel has its official Twitter page with twitter handle @AndPicturesIN and boasts of more than 4,300 followers. The page is buzzing with tweets and re-tweets related to Chennai Express with hashtags #chennaiexpressandyou. It has also launched its official Facebook page which has more than 57,000 likes.