India’s largest pay-TV DTH platform Tata Sky has unveiled a new name and brand identity, Tata Play, as its business interests grow beyond Direct To Home services. Tata Sons and The Walt Disney Company remain the owners of Tata Play. Tata and Tata Play are trademarks of Tata Sons Private Limited.
Tata Sky leveraged its market leadership in its core business to create an ecosystem of content delivery by foraying into OTT and Broadband. We believe it is time for a brand identity that resonates beyond our DTH business,” explained Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO, Tata Play Ltd. Elaborating further he said, “I thank Tata Sons and The Walt Disney Company for backing this business, which over the years has expanded to 23 million households and made our content distribution platform a formidable player in the market.”
Over the last few years, Tata Sky has cemented its commanding position in the DTH sector. At the core of this rebranding is a change of the company name to Tata Play – an inclusive and scalable identity that will accelerate the forward momentum of the company and aid further diversification into allied businesses, the company said in a press statement.
Inaugurating the new brand identity, Nagpal said, “I firmly believe that it’s one thing to own content, quite another to make it accessible. Distribution is what makes content easily discoverable for the masses, consumed, and talked about. Our DTH business has a sizeable market share and we’ll continue our endeavour to expand the TV viewing universe. Our Broadband business with 100% fiber network provides impressive speeds, and that’s why we renamed it to Tata Play Fiber. In the last few years OTT has become mainstream which led us to create an aggregator app called Tata Play Binge – which today hosts content from 13 leading OTT apps through a single User Interface while offering the flexibility of single subscription and payment. We recently announced the Tata Play Binge Combo Packs – an inventive bundled offering that, for the first time, is providing the best of broadcast channels and OTT apps in one integrated pack, making entertainment consumption further consumer friendly. Today, we also welcome Netflix to our family. Plus, we are making service visits free for all customers starting today, and our de-active DTH customers can continue to recharge and get restarted on the platform with No reconnection charges. The name Tata Play thus signifies our expanded range of product and services. The new identity is an outcome of our desire to be future-ready while making tomorrow better than today for homes and families.”
Explaining the ethos of the new brand identity, Anurag Kumar, Chief Communications Officer, Tata Play Ltd., said, “The Tata Play brand mark and play mark takes inspiration from the “Tata” mark - borrowing and reinforcing the trust, quality and recognition of India’s most valuable brand. The word “Play” adds youthfulness, ease & simplicity to an already trusted brand. The brand colours pink and purple along with dark blue and white are vibrant, youthful and add distinctiveness to the overall identity. With Tata Play, we promise you Fun, Personalisation, Flexibility, Freedom, Quality, Innovation and Connection. With Tata Play, you Play Better. And entertainment becomes aur bhi Jingalala.”
The new identity has been created by venturethree, London and the campaign has been designed by Ogilvy India. The new brand identity will be promoted heavily across all touchpoints starting today and through the coming months. Nation’s heart-throbs Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan have been engaged to promote Tata Play in National markets and megastars R Madhavan and Priyamani will be the face of the campaign for the South markets.
The new name builds on the legacy of Tata Sky and yet offers immense potential for growth. Play injects youthfulness, fun and ease and simplicity to the massive trust and quality credentials of the Tata brand, which by itself is the most valuable brand in India.
Elaborating the creative process, Anurag Kumar, Chief Communications Officer of Tata Play Ltd., said, “To work on something like this is a marketer’s dream while also being a tremendous challenge to live up to. We wanted to shape an identity that speaks to people, is instantly relatable and can grow and mould with the rapidly changing ecosystem. We wanted to retain our core values but ensure that our new identity would be future proof. We are glad that we have been able to create something we are truly proud about. I would like to thank our various creative partners, especially venturethree and Ogilvy for bringing the Tata Play idea to market.”
Regine Stefan-Aboud, Creative Director & Partner at venturethree, added, “It’s been an honour to work with such a well-respected and much-loved Indian brand. We had the exciting opportunity to reimagine the brand like you’ve never seen it before – young, vibrant and dynamic. Taking inspiration from the Tata masterbrand, we created a new brand icon for Tata Play that represents both ‘play’ and the notion of progress and betterment. Our goal was to create a brand with a fresh and bold attitude – that’s ready to make life at home better through digital innovations – whilst retaining all the warmth and quality you’d expect from a Tata brand.”
Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India, said, “Tata Sky is a much-loved brand that has brought so much fun to millions of people across India. So, when the time came to carry on the fun and add to the excitement under our new name - Tata Play, we chose to narrate the story of the same with an idea that is also full of fun. Partnering with Kareena and Saif for National market and Priyamani and Madhvan for South Market, we created not one but multiple roles, roles in which they we will entertain our audiences in the time ahead.”