“The story and cast of JTHJ lends itself to the Ultrabook theme”: Sandeep Aurora, Intel

The new Shahrukh Khan-starrer Jab Tak Hai Jaan features a first-timer: the Intel-inspired Ultrabook and Ultrabook Convertible. While Katrina Kaif, who plays an entrepreneur and businesswoman, uses the Ultrabook, Anushka Sharma, a documentary filmmaker, carries with her the Ultrabook Convertible.

We asked Sandeep Aurora, director marketing, Intel South Asia, about the tie-up, and the new Ultrabook Convertible that’s seeing a fair share of TV promotion.

CI: Tell us about the association with Jab Tak Hai Jaan - which other Hindi movies has Intel associated with? How was the brand integration in the film developed?

Sandeep Aurora: I don’t think we’ve done a Hindi movie association earlier, this would be the first one. The reason we went with Jab Tak Hai Jaan is because the story, approach and cast lends itself to the Ultrabook theme – that it is the device of choice for professionals.

OMD handles our media buying and helped in stitching this association together.

CI: Further to the Ultrabook and Ultrabook Convertible being featured in the film, and the promo, how else is the association being promoted?

Sandeep Aurora: Besides the vignette and the Ultrabooks being featured in the movie, we’re doing on-ground activations. One is the 7-second Guitar Star contest, which is being held in malls and retail stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata. Based on the feature that the Ultrabook takes seven seconds to boot, the contest is about people having seven seconds to sing a song to woo the actors of the movie. One winner will get a Gibson guitar. Besides this, we’re also likely to auction the guitar featured in the movie and the proceeds will go to an NGO that works for digital literacy (a couple of weeks ago, the Government unveiled a policy by which there would be one digitally literate person in each family by 2020, and this mission is supported by the industry, and Intel being a part of it).

CI: It’s early days for the movie, but would you call the tie-up a success?

Sandeep Aurora: The movie has a good starcast and story and lends itself to the association. With in-brand placement, the integration has to be seamless, and in this case, it is. In that respect, it is a success.

How a movie fares, no one knows. As marketers, we get to do many things and associating with a movie is one of them. Just like with a TV programme, where there is no guarantee of TRPs when it comes to sponsorship, there is always some uncertainty. That’s what makes it interesting – we can take risks, some work and some don’t.

We will be selective when it comes to another film association, and if we get another opportunity, we will associate with it if we see that it does justice to our message. We may do one or two or none next year.

CI: Coming to the Ultrabook international campaign, could you explain the media burst that the campaign is seeing in India, for the different models?

Sandeep Aurora: The earlier campaigns were about the Ultrabooks, and telling the audience about them. The current campaign is about the Ultrabook Convertible (created by Venables Bell & Partners).  It’s a new product that’s aspirational in nature. There are various SKUs and prices start at Rs 70,000. Our marketing strategy targets SEC A in Tier 1 and 2 cities, and the commercial has been released in English and Hindi. The campaign will be on till December, after which we may come up with new products and new campaigns.

CI: Is the Jab Tak Hai Jaan association the localised version of this campaign? Will there be more local initiatives that we will see over here?

Sandeep Aurora: While the movie association is one localisation of the campaign, we aren’t hung up on local campaigns. It depends on the product and the target audience. The Ultrabook Convertible concept works internationally, since it’s targeted at a SEC A audience that is international in its approach. We have the ‘Go do something wonderful’ campaign, which is very local and India-centric.