Month: December 2015

Digital Marketing of Movies

Shabbir Chunawalla

In supplementation of the traditional movie marketing, we resort to digital marketing of movies. In some instances, the online presence of the movie is registered a couple of years earlier than its release date, e.g. Bahubali registered its online presence in 2013. There could be a variety of strategies the production house can employ while promoting a movie digitally. To promote Drishyam, Ajay and Tabu created news reports highlighting two different sides of the story. This was integrated to offline TV screens placed across the theatres. The consumers were asked to vote online for who they thought were innocent.

So far films are promoted through YouTube and Facebook. This has expanded no to Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and Viber. YouTube and OTT platforms such as Hotstar are important for movies, and exclusive content is fed here to promote maximum viewing. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the three primary platforms that Disney uses for engagement.

Actors themselves are active on social media, and this is helpful in movie marketing.

There is a growing trend to use videos across the digital platforms. Consumers prefer content to consume, rather than pure advertising communication.

Digital should not make you oblivious to the importance of the traditional media for promotion. TV is still a family medium. Movies are a social outing. Newspapers still command good circulation. All mediums have certain strengths which must be understood before shifting to another medium. A TV commercial can encourage viewer to see a digital campaign. Communication media must be integrated.

A film’s before release marketing starts three to six months in advance. Digital marketing budget is 10-15 per cent of the total marketing budget.

It is almost double this year ( 2015 ) than what it was last year. In some international markets, both the TV ad budget and digital ad budget for Hindi movies is the same. In years to come, the digital marketing budget could go as high as 40 per cent of the total marketing budget.

The tag line of ‘ lights, camera, action ‘ has changed to ‘light, camera, hashtag.’

 

Digital Ads and X-buttons

Shabbir Chunawalla

In its early days, online advertising was just restricted to flashing banner ads and static pop-up windows. These days, the ads have become more creative and interactive. They pop-up and play automatically — as if viewers are challenged to shut down. They command the screen, either contracting or expanding. They move and dance across the screens. Ads are more pervasive and not easy to get past. The X- button is so tiny, and clicking it is a matter of luck. Sometimes, on purpose, X buttons are placed in the top left instead of the usual top right. Pop up ads were invented by Ethan Zuckerman  in the 1990s. These were intended to give advertisers a way to separate their message from the web page. Later, advertisers started tracking web users and served them targeted ads. Rocket Fuel and Rubicon project, autommated this process. This brought down the price of online ads. As the prices went down, the publishers squeezed more ad formats on their sites to maintain sufficient revenues to keep alive.

On desktop computers, the web pages have turned into a maze The problem is more acute on tablets and smart phones. Many publishers have shifted to HTMLS which  helps them create new ad formats.

New Disruptions

Shabbir Chunawalla

Clay Christensen is considered among the world’s most influential management gurus, on account of his article some two decades back ( 1995 ) in HBR in which he talked about a grave danger to established companies from disruptions. Since then disruptive innovation and disruptive technology have become very commonly used terms. His new HBR article tries to define a genuinely disruptive technology, which does not qualify Uber as a disrupter. Even then Uber does pose a threat to existing taxi business which has many inefficiencies. According to Chirstensen, a disrupter enters from the low end of the market. However, Apple’s innovations are all upper end. Netflix has disrupted Blockbuster. It took advantage of the pain point of the core customers. There are two types of disrruptive innovations other than what Christensen champions — insurgents who revolutionise old industries by using new technologies, and existing companies using their superior war chests and management skills to invade adjascent industries.

Iterating Grace

Shabbir Chunawalla

Intresting Grace  is a satire of a programmer, Koons Crooks, from Silicon Valley who attains enlightenment.  That leads him to on a spiritual quest. He reaches  a volcano in Bolivia. He contemplates on the tweets of the transcendtal wisdom from venture capitalists. He was seemingly being trampled to death by vicunas. He leaves behind scattered writing. All tweets have been reproduced.

The packages of this book were received by people working in the technology industry, and venture capitalists and journalists.

Is it an effort of viral marketing ? Is it for product promotion ? Or is it a literary work ? It is  a mystery that remains unsolved.

F arrar, Straus & Giroux is publishing a small paperback editron of Iterating Grace. Its authorship is suspect, and is attributed speculatively to novelists Dave Eggers and Joshua Cohen.

The tale is just 18 pages long,. It is tragi–comic. It c costs $8 as paperback, an and $ 5 as e- book. Authors agreed to have their work published on the condition that their identities will not be revealed.

The Tweet messages included in the book have been incorporated with the permission.

Digital Promotion

Shabbir Chunawalla

Salman Khan’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo was promoted by adopting the digital first strategy. Actually they wantd to addresses the young audience. All creative were launched on the web first, and later on TV. They used social media extensively to communicate with the audience about the film. All this was facilitated by the popularity of Salman which cuts across all age groups and social strata. People associated with the film  —  Salman, Sonam and Sooraj Barjatya spoke extensively to the digital media. The lead pair is active on the social media. They shared the content of the film.

Audience gives the feedback on the social media. It is possible to course correct on digital based on that audience is telling you.

Rajashri works with YouTube, and close to 100 digital video platforms. They have close to 20,000 hours of content in their digital library.

India is a mobile first market. The youth is a digital first audience. They are in talk with a number of brands who ant to sponsor their digital content. Of course, they can integrate their products and brands to the content. Brands warm up to digital very fast. This is just a beginning.

Advertising is a major source of revenue for the digital media. Paid subscriptions will evolve very soon as payment gateways and cellular infrastructure evolve too.