Marketing is an essential role for any product and brand. Same is for the movies. Right from ancient times marketing has been a critical function to enable sales. Initially when TV was not as yet a common household property the posters used to be put on a Bullock Cart and taken around. Marketing takes place in all walks of life. Movie marketing has become very innovative in recent times.
Initially we used to see the print advertisements of the movies along with hoardings. At that time the hoardings were few and sparse. Subsequently trailers got released and we saw them in movie halls. Much later the trend was to release the audio and songs of the movie as an extremely special occasion. If the background soundtrack is an attention grabber then this too gets released in the audio tape. This release would be an important event. In recent times the music records do get released however it is the events that are taking the main-stage.
Ghajini did a very innovative marketing. Aamir Khan did short posts on his website. Telling people of every single development of the film. The digital medium was taken a little further. Journalists were requested to upload their photos. This would help Aamir to recollect the details of the reporter. Aamir would load the images with notes on his last memory of / with / about the reporter. This was bringing the Ghajini truly alive and interacting.
Ra-One on the other hand made the mobile and video game as its forefront. Small insights were given out each time with various game levels and so on. The other exciting feature was the merchandise. There was the Ra-One action figure, exclusively signed by Shah Rukh Khan.
The digital comics have come into play as well. The recent Tiger has the character of Salman Khan enacting the entire movie in the comic strip.
The most recent marketing platform is Social Media. Here you have an active captive audience. They would have joined your space on the Social Media platform out of their own will. Hence you will not be intruding on their privacy. Add to this they get the straight feeling that they are interacting with Film Team on a one to one basis. This feeling of being privileged and belonging is extremely critical in our recent times. Today although there would be family gathering or friends meeting you will notice that people are very individualistic – they are at the same time connecting with other friends and relatives. So in-spite of being in a gathering and with a group they wish to know what is taking place elsewhere and have the need to be connected.
Social Media benefits are plenty. This we will cover in later articles. One of the amazing effects is that fund raising is done like in the case of Chauranga. Chauranga commenced it first poster exposure via Facebook. Subsequently a crowd sourcing effort was done whereby fund was raised for the movie.
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