A group of convicts in jail conspire to escape when they realise a cricket match is being played between India and Pakistan on a particular day, assuming that the match would keep the policemen and jailers occupied. But when the jail warden and his men intercept their escape, the convicts are flummoxed — what kind of Indian doesn’t watch such an epic match?

That’s when the clincher kicks in — ‘a hard working Indian’ who, with Tata Sky+ HD, can record the match and watch it on his own time.

This fast-paced film, Prison Break, is the longest ever TV commercial to be beamed in the history of Indian advertising. Created by Tata Sky’s advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, along with ad film-maker Vivek Kakkad, the ad will run for three-and-a-half minutes.

At a time when marketers are cutting down their ad spend by constantly cutting the duration of their TV commercials, Tata Sky is set to telecast this commercial from Friday (April 26) across all major channels. Tata Sky has spent quite a bit on creating this TVC. Vikram Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer, says it was shot with an international cast and crew in an actual prison in Hungary. The campaign idea was based on the insight that these days, people, be they shopkeepers or software engineers, do not find time to watch television.

Tata Sky+ HD, with its recording feature, allows such busy people to record their favourite programmes and watch them at leisure. In other words, it’s ‘For those who don’t have time to watch TV’.

The idea of the campaign is to cash in on the digitisation rush. Tata Sky, the market leader in that segment, hopes to garner a major share of the new ‘analogue-to-digital’ converts. “Besides, this is the right time as lots of cricketing is happening,” said Mehra.

ravikumar.r@thehindu.co.in

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