Sony Pix – The brand that could have been?
When I was studying at MICA, one of the projects that came to us was on Sony Pix (or Set Pix?).
We were told that Sony Pix simply could never match an HBO because it did not have blockbuster titles. It did, however, have some award winning movies.
So they said ‘we tell stories’. ‘Wow’, I thought. That’s smart. Interesting.
We tell stories.
There was something so powerful in this line for an otherwise lackluster channel. The movies had no great stars but surely… it had some stories?
I just simply adored the idea of watching a channel that tells stories and doesn’t just show me Brad Pitt’s armpits. (this worked well for the aspirational angle too where you want intelligent and heart-felt cinema?)
The we-don’t-have-the-stars-but-we-have-what-matters approach sounded simply yum!
Missed the bus?
However I can’t help but feel that where a channel could thrive around the ‘we tell stories’ approach, it still hasn’t done enough to capitalize on it.
For example, if you told good stories but nobody had heard of their names, wouldn’t you want to catch people and engage them with previews of the stories instead of sad TV listings, where I’d rather pick an HBO’s MissionImpossible over you?
Also I can’t for the life of me understand how the tacky promos for Chicks on Flicks would gel with your stand on telling stories? How in the world would calling women ‘chicks’ and movies ‘flicks’ work for you? Are you Star Movies? Cmon, you’re more powerful than that. You tell stories, remember?
Why in your, otherwise lovely, ‘The Pix Story’ section, would you have Diamond Comics-like sketches in the corner to illustrate the point?
Bah! Nevermind. I’m just upset because I love Sony Pix and it’s becoming a brand that-could-have-been.
Thankfully during my recent visit to Crossword with Sonali and Meenal, I saw this Set Pix branding.
Now that makes sense! Cuz you tell stories. Would be nice if somehow one could know what those great stories are … could’ve added a link to your site there, but I’ll shut up 
PS: Sony Pix or Set Pix? Which is it?
February 10th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Very nice post Sonal. I like and am in total agreement.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:05 am
It is Sony Pix.
Well analysed. I agree, they missed the bus. And they perhaps needed a few newer non-star titles….many of their films have an old, tired feel. It makes the brand seem old and tired.
Cheers,
Quirky Indian
March 1st, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Nice post!!
We Tell Stories has much potential, and PIX is comingup with some blockbusters too. Seems they are in an image change process . ..
And No, Its neither, SONY PIX, nor SET PIX…..
Its just PIX.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 am
Hi Sonal, I remember the assignment. Also, even back then I’d thought the same thing…We tell stories is a damn good line but the buggers are just screwing it. Ditto for the part about ‘chicks on flicks’…it makes it banal. I loved the channel when it was launched..and even now they’ve got good movies quite often, but they just screw it up when they’ve to sell it.
Ashish
November 9th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Nice analysis. Their content strategy in terms of movies they show is still pretty rocking. They just need to change their advertising agency and perhaps have an independent programming head with more power.. currently they are too much of a smaller cousin of Sony & Sony Max !! so easily get bulldozed into sony max kind of orientation.