One of our favourite projects doesn’t exist anymore and that’s not a bad thing.
It happens sometimes when someone asks you about a project you’ve worked on and they want to see it in the market and you have to tell them - well, that company doesn’t exist anymore and to some extent I used to feel quite sad.
Over time this outlook has changed.
Companies and services evolve with time - they respond to various disruptors around them. These disruptors could be socio-political, technology driven or could even be a global viral outbreak.
Our project in question was created before the OTT boom - so this has more to do with technology.
CinePlay was a dream project for me, personally. It was everything I loved - film, theatre and design. Any person could now watch Indian theatre classics, archived with their original cast, in their homes. Carved out as ‘a new genre of entertainment’ - CinePlay’s challenge was in marketing this concept to an audience that was already niche and divided. Film buffs weren’t interested and theatre goers were purists - to add, nobody understood what it was…. Is it a film?? Is it a play??
The brand’s purpose was something we defined with a simple insight. Less focus on the product’s format or coolness of idea and more on the intent of the company which was to archive theatre for posterity.
The line, Cineplay - Stories from the Stage or CinePlay - Stage to Screen made the thought and intention more relatable to everyone.
A reminder, this was a time before OTT platforms became a thing. Marketing this product was hard - at first the company tried to drive subscriptions on its website which we designed to view the films. The focus then shifted to on-ground screenings and events to introduce the people to the brand. As a niche product, CinePlays became available for in-flight and in-room entertainment - the marketing needed to be aggressive.
As creative agencies our jobs are to build and shape brands and their communication. At G.A.S, we work very closely with a brand’s marketing team to help them accomplish their goals. CinePlay for us was a learning curve when it came to watching a product you’ve built find its foot hold.
We worked with and on CinePlay for over 2 years in the span of which a lot changed in the entertainment landscape. Before we knew it, Netflix and Amazon were all platforms we subscribed to and one day, a company called Hotstar, bought CinePlay.
This was good news - the ‘stories from the stage’ were now finally on everyone’s screens. Goal accomplished! - but the company that we as an agency had created over 3 years didn’t exist any more, the brand belonged to someone else, the visual systems weren’t required any more, the website gone.
It does exist with us though, laid out the way we had envisioned it. It works as a great case study on our website for people wanting to know what we do and how we think. It gave us the experience to work with the entertainment industry and and when we talk about CinePlay to people - we tell them it exists in its own way today, a natural progression the brand was meant to take.
9 years later, you can now watch some of these films on Zee Theatre - We recommend “Adhe Adhure” “Dance Like a Man” and “Sometimes”.