Mktg - Tata Sky introduces geography specific advertising

Sumantha Rathore

Tata Sky, which is a JV between TATA Group and STAR, has introduced a unique, geography specific advertising platform. The company adds another stream of revenue to its kitty with the launch of this advertising initiative.

Through this initiative, Tata Sky is working on enhancing interactive advertising. Under the service, Tata Sky users will be sent alerts (mailers), which will be flashed on their TV screens. The message will direct the customers where to go in order to view the promotion. Interested customers will then have the option of watching the brand promotion, which could be in the form of stills, videos or games, by clicking a button on their Tata Sky remote.


To ensure that consumers are not bombarded with regular mailers, the company will send the alerts only once or twice a month, but will promote the product aggressively through other options like its default channel, where the product will be promoted every time the user switches on the television set.

Another innovation here is that the niche advertising service will focus on specific audiences, based on the pin codes of their areas. Advertisers can target subscribers specific to a region, state or city anywhere in India, thus optimising the value of their budgets.

Talking to afaqs!, Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer, Tata Sky says, “During the time when every company is slicing their budgets, our highly localised advertising service will help them yield better results, as compared to other conventional advertising options. It will bring the power of direct marketing to television sets.”

The DTH service provider has already got several advertisers on board, including Samsung, Whirlpool and Tata Indicom.

“We are providing a clutter-free atmosphere to the advertisers – unlike television channels – where they can target specific audiences of their interest,” says Mehra. In order to make it more effective, the company has decided to showcase only one or two products every month. Apart from this, Tata Sky users will get exclusive offers from the advertisers.

According to the company, Tata Sky’s subscribers spend an average of 34 minutes per day on its Active services. Using this service, brands will now be able to connect to a specific audience without any spill over. Moreover, advertisers will have the option of creating offers based on regional sales trends and data.

“This form of advertising is a boon for companies in all sectors, be it the retail chains or the FMCG players, where localised schemes play a crucial role during various seasons,” adds Mehra. He believes that this service will be high on both cost efficiency and ad conversions.