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.’