Marketing Ganga

Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

  • Portfolio of Movies Model for Producers to Reduce Risk — A 2 A Model

    This model of risk reduction is called Aggregator to Aggregator (A 2 A ) Model.This model is a game changer for all big production houses. Corporates now manage a portfolio of movies. There is a replacement of the economy of one movie by the economy of a portfolio of movies. There is emergence of diversified revenue streams, thus to that extent the dependence of box-office is lesser. Big corporates acquire, produce and co-produce a portfolio of movies. They feed the content to other fast growing aggregators such as C & S, music, home video and new media. They own IPRs of old movies, and market the new movies synergistically. They produce a catalogue of movies, and try to monetise them across the revenue streams. They pre-sell the licensing rights and recover 40 to 60 per cent of movie’s cost.The percentage varies from product to product. There are foreign studios who market the movies abroad, and make the revenue tail longer. A corporate makes money on a portfolio. There are decisions regarding own production, outsourcing. and co-production. There should be a proper mix of big budget, medium budget and low budget movies. The return and risk quotient for each budget category is different. Big star movies recover 70 to 80 per cent cost through licensing only. They are to that extent the safest bet. In portfolio approach, there is better cash flow management. In this business, no scripts are wrong. It is the budget that goes wrong. They do better cost management and avoid revenue leakages. Script is examined minutely, and it is audited by script doctors. Research is valued more. In spite of all this, if the portfolio makes losses, these losses can be amortised over a period of time. It makes the balance sheet look good.

  • Invoking Creativity

    Creative process is a mix of certain rules and a certain degree of non-conformism.One has to understand when to apply the rules and when to refrain from doing so.This is called rationality. In advertising, there is a wide canvas not governed by any rules. The previous precedents and case histories are a great help. And to some extent the concepts.

    We have to exploit in advertising some methodology to generate the ideas rather than solely relying upon randomness or pure chance. The aim is to ignite the creative spark by generating a large pool of ideas abandoning reasoning and judgment. It may lead to better qualitative output after filtering the ideas. The best ideas come from a large number of ideas. The maxim is to use quantity to get the quality.

    It is still open to research whether a group is better in generating ideas than an individual thinking alone. Yes one can have a nominal group. Let us not have excess or surfeit of ideas. It hampers the ideation process.Random ideas impede creativity. Research has now come to the conclusion that total freedom in idea generation is not always superior.

    Many researchers feel creativity represents iconoclastic tendencies and does not follow any rules.It transcends all rules, and operates in total freedom. Any creative idea is not bound by constraints. No constraints means easy accessibility. Creativity is non-conformism. Conformity suppresses diversity. Diversity is the forerunner of creative ideas.

    Creativity appears out of thin air, as a flash. It strikes all of a sudden. It is spontaneous. It appears when a person is thinking something else. Maybe, these ideas were stored in the mind previously. They were there and arrive so suddenly that they appear as inspiration. The flow of ideas comes forth under conducive circumstances.

    There are thinkers who suspect even a pattern in the chance element and arbitrariness. Creative people are not extra-ordinary. They are ordinary people who exercise creative processes and techniques to do a good job.

    Still the problem of understanding the creative process that generates creative output remains unsolved.Experts oscillate between rule and no-rules for the process. Creative ideas have an element of surprise and still they can be generated in the regular course. Both these elements of surprise and regularity co-exist.

    Though by its very nature creativity is unpredictable, it is still subjected to constraints which run contrary to unpredictability.Original thinking is an amalgam of fresh ideas and familiar ideas, of constraints and unpredictability.

    Creativity is considered the ultimate test of excellence.It is an elusive concept, not amenable to quantification.Many feel that to be creative means to be divinely gifted. The creative spark cannot be analysed scientifically.Though there is much research on creativity, it still retains a tinge of irrationality.They call it creative intuition.

  • Added Values for Brands Beyond Functional Values

    Brands owe much of their success to added values which go beyond functional values. Brands satisfy several social and psychological needs. Consumers are more comfortable using reputed brands. It is because of the aura that surrounds the physical product. Brand image enables the consumer to form a mental vision of what that brand stands for. Consumers try to match a brand image to their own needs, values and life style.

    Brands are ubiquitous, and we come across them at each and every step. As soon as we get up, we  use a branded tooth-paste and tooth-brush. Later we consume branded beverages — either tea or coffee and branded breakfast, say Kellog’s. During the course of the day , we come across several brands — the bikes we use, the cars we get into, the garments we wear, the perfumes and make-up we use, the pens we write with and so on. While attending office, we use formal branded suits to make a statement about our managerial position. While attending a party at night, we wear casuals such as Levi’s jeans, and party shirt. They make a different statement. Power brands project images and consumers use them to make statements.

    Brand’s can have little functional differences but we can create sustainable emotional differences. A functional advantage such as frost-free fridge can become commonplace ,but when a brand is given value such as honesty and dependability, they are likely to last longer. Consumers choose their brands depending upon whether it will say the right sort of things about them, and whether the brand reflects back the right sort of personal feeling. Raymond  makes you a complete man and reflects back a sense of exclusivity. Brands and consumers do interact with one another. They do not always buy brands to get functional utility or value for money. They have a social circle. They want to enrich their life. They, therefore, see what the brands symbolize. A brand has to fit in our life-style. It has to make a statement to express our personality. They should feel comfortable using the brand.

    Brands are a part of the culture of society. As there is a cultural change, the brands have to adapt to the changing cultural patterns.

  • Five Ways to Nurture Creativity

    Andrew Pek and Jeannine McGlade has written Stimulated ! and has spelled out five innovative approaches to keep the creative thought process going. Scouting is the backbone.It identifies and uses the stimulus so as to initiate the creative cycle. Cultivating develops the creative sparks in conductive environment. Playing is the experimental stage that fiddles with stimulus and maintains curiosity. Venturing is a leap into the unknown territory.Harvesting converts the sparks and ideas into real and value-added things.

    Every individual can cultivate and demonstrate these habits to unleash his creative genius. It is to be activated to produce creative expressions ( style ) and impressions ( impact ). A mucician performs using tempo, tone, melody, style and selection. It is his expression. The music he produces — the feelings and emotions — is his impression. In creativity, there is a choice of different creative expressions, and as a result we make many different impressions.

  • TV Channel Licensing/ Regulation in India

    Satellite channel guidelines have been revised by the I&B ministry in October, 2011.

    • the net worth criteria has been revised. For the news channels, it will be Rs 20 crore (up from Rs 3 crore earlier). For the non-news channel, the net worth criteria will be Rs 5 crore (up from Rs 1.5 crore earlier).
    • the operationalisation of the TV channel should be within a year from the date of permission.
    • non-news channels will have to sign a Performance-Bank-Guarantee (PBG) of Rs 1 crore, whereas N&CA channels will have to give a PBG of Rs 2 crore.
    • if the channel is not operationalised within a year, the PBG will be forfeited and permission cancelled.
    • one of the persons occupying the top management position in the applicant company should have a minimum three years prior experience in a media company.
    • renewal of permissions will be considered for a period of 10 years at a time.
    • the channel should not have been guilty of violating the conditions of permission, including violations of the Programme and Advertising Code on five occasions or more.
    • any proposal of merger, demerger and amalgamation will be allowed under the provisions of the Companies Act, but only after obtaining permission from I&B ministry.

  • Visual Effects — VFX

    The scenes difficult to picturise technically, logically and realistically are subjected to the visual effects.These are extensively used in the Hindi film industry. A storyboard is prepared to see the look of the movie. The director, cinematographer and visual effects supervisor then discuss the scenes that require visual effects. When these scenes are shot, the visual effect supervisor remains present, and gets them shot the way he wants. After the whole movie is complete, the visual effects work begins in the studio. It may take 6-7 months. The visual effects (VFX) improve the effectiveness by 70-80 per cent. There is a site that records VFX — international movie database. Prasad Sutar is a VFX supervisor for many Hindi movies, and leads a team of 200 technicians.

  • Gana Pattu — Poetry of the Streets

    Gana pattu is the folk song of urban dweller in Tamil Nadu — irreverent and lower class. Kolaveri di is an example of Gana pattu becoming mainstream, though in the process diluting its spirit to fit the mainstream. It is a subaltern genre that thrives in mid-1900s in harbour and its surroundings of central Chennai. It is without any inhibitions –from floating faeces to pretty woman. It is a gestalt of sweat and struggle, grass and booze, shit on the sheet and the posterier of the neighbour’s wife. It is the poetry of the streets. It could be compared to hip-hop — the songs of African-Americans. These conveyed their anger against injustice, and later became mainstream.

  • Foley Artists

    Foley Artists recreate the sounds of everyday life in the moves. They listen to the original sounds captured on location and apply their own observations to make even the most mundane tasks impactful, e.g. clinking of tea cups. They use diverse things to make sounds e.g. metal scrap, leather belts, knives, land lines and such other props. American artist Jack Foley devoted his life to to creating such sounds and hence the name. Foley artists see a film once and make a list of props they will need. There is no formal training available. They must have a keen ear and a lot of passion. Currently, there are 10-12 artists in Mumbai. These days there are digital libraries with an array of standard sounds. They are paid Rs. 2 lac for the whole film, whereas the foriegn artists charge the same amount for a day.

  • Mario Miranda’s Use of Black and White

    According to Ajit Ninan, every newspaper cartoonist has to fight for space and the reader’s attention where editorial matter competes with a cartoon. In the black-and-white era, the cartoonists fell into two schools —

    • those who arrest the attention by the use of white in contrast to the grey textual matter and
    • those who establish the contrast through the use of black.

    Abu, for example, used minimal lines to accentuate the white. American cartoonists tend to favour the heavy use of black. Mario could use both black and white in roughly equal proportions in an illustration to create harmony of clutter. In a party scene, he could accommodate a hundred people without it looking overcrowded. He may put a white-suited man in front of a black-gowned woman, who stands against a white door. Each person and element thus stand out in sharp contrast.

  • HR in Advertising

    It is necessary to give importance to the Human Resource Management function in the advertising industry. Many talented people leave reputed agencies for the other professions as they are not satisfied. According to Anuja Chauhan, former Creative Director, JWT and now an author, advertising does not give importance to people anymore. Anuja is responsible for some creatives such as There is nothing official about it (1993), Yeh dil maange more (1999), Mera number kab ayega (2001) all for Pepsi.