MUMBAI: India's national sports hockey is losing its relevance in the country in terms of viewership, ground interaction and brand endorsements despite registering strong performances in recent times. In order to rejuvenate the below par statistics, Star Sports, which will be telecasting Hockey World League matches, has launched a TVC in association with Opticus to secure emotional connect with the Indian audience.
The league will be telecast from 20 June to 5 July.
The 45-second ad opens with the Indian hockey team along with coach Paul Van Ass fielding questions at a press conference before leaving for Belgium. Highlighting the lack of interest, only a handful of journalists have turned up and most of the seats are empty. The question-answer round starts with a journalist skeptically asking what is the future of Indian hockey. Led by Captain Sardar Singh and coach Paul Van Ass, the players list out the present set of achievements by the team.
“The world knows about it but India doesn’t,” Van Ass says, referring to the lack of awareness in the country about their national team’s successes.
Another journalist asks if Pakistan will be at the semi-finals in Belgium. In response Singh reminds the assembled media that they had defeated Pakistan to win Gold at the Asian Games, pointing out that that victory made India the first team to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
“Par kya fayda (but what’s the point),” Akashdeep Singh asks before team-mate Gurbaj Singh adds, “India ke dil mein qualify nahin kar paye (we couldn’t win India’s heart).”
The film ends with Sardar Singh saying the team will now head to Belgium and play for the nation, #DeshKeLiye, as they always have.
Speaking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com the director of the TVC Sanjay Shetty says, “The brief and the list of the players was given by Star and we drew the concept on the basis of their brief. The main motto was to keep it simple and leave a mark on viewers’ mind.”
It was a single camera setup and was shot at Dhyan Chand National Stadium. “We wanted it to look like an actual press conference and covey the message that while Indian Hockey is garnering recognition globally on the basis of their performance India is oblivious about it,” he adds.
Hockey registered an abysmally low cumulative reach in 2013 with only 53 million. The figures saw some respite in 2014 as it ascended to 107 million. Now it remains to be seen if the national sport of the country manages to improve the figures and Star manages to spell success with the TVC.
Credits
Production House: Opticus Inc
Producer: Varun Shetty
Director: Sanjay Shetty
DOP: Demant Vyas
Editor: Vishal Kharat
SVP-Marketing head: Shubhranshu Singh
AVP-Marketing: Jarmanjeet Singh Randhawa
Concept and Story: Vikas dubey
AVP-On Air Promotions: Vaibhav Chib
In-house team: Prashant Pawar and Saikat Sengupta
