Tag: Marketing

Humans dressed as the demonic nun, 'Valak' at PVR Cinemas, Mumbai
‘The Nun 2’ Movie Promotions Prepare You To Be Terrified

‘The Nun 2’ Movie Promotions Prepare You To Be Terrified

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Movie promotions excite me, but what excites me, even more, is the brilliant incorporation of the unique aspects of movies into their respective promotional strategies rather than just deploying generic or conventional advertising. For instance, in my previous blog post on the promotion of the Tamil movie, ‘Maaveeran‘, I mentioned how the installation of a transparent banner, featuring the movie’s poster, on the facade of a cinema hall, made the people passing through the set-up recreate the iconic ‘overhead stare’ of Sivakarthikeyan in the film. Unless ‘Maaveeran‘ has a sequel/prequel/spin-off, this activation is certain to not be repeated for any other movie as it is closely associated with the film’s theme. In this regard, I recently came across some exciting stuff from the makers of the movie, ‘The Nun 2‘. I feel psyched about a couple of those strategies. So, lemme share them in this blog post!

“Creepy” nuns, all over the place:

As a part of the movie’s marketing campaign by ‘Warner Bros. Pictures‘, around twenty “creepy” nuns (humans dressed up as the evil entity, ‘Valak’ that features in the movies, ‘The Conjuring 2’, ‘The Nun’ and ‘The Nun 2’) have been set out in public to carry out a candlelight stroll.

The army of nuns flooded across some significant landmarks of different cities in the United States of America, like Brooklyn, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Atlanta and Washington, D.C, in Canada, like Montreal and Toronto, in England, like London and in India, like Mumbai.

Apart from swarming landmarks across different cities of various countries, the nuns made their appearance at the annual horror events, like ‘HorrorHound Weekend‘ and ‘Popcorn Frights‘ and at the movie’s exclusive screenings, like the annual speculative fiction fan convention, ‘Fan Expo Canada‘.

Below are the posts from the official X accounts of ‘The Nun‘ movie, ‘Warner Bros. UK‘ and ‘Warner Bros. India‘ on the stunt…

Across cities in the United States of America…

In London, England…

In Mumbai, India…

Throwback to a similar ‘”Creepy” nuns, all over the place’ stunt for ‘The Nun’:

Upon noticing these “creepy” nuns on the move, the excellent marketing campaign of the 2022 science fiction horror film, ‘M3gan‘ might occur to you, but I’d like to convey here that ‘The Nun‘ had similar promotions way back in 2018.

Here’s a look back at the movie’s campaign.

In Sydney, ‘Roadshow Films‘ and ‘OMD‘, in partnership with ‘Habitat‘, orchestrated a campaign, wherein unsuspecting morning commuters were in for a fright from a bevy of demonic nuns. Likewise, ‘Warner Bros. Canada‘ studio, in collaboration with the agency, ‘Rooftop‘, set out three teams of six nuns each to hit the streets, chanting in Latin and distributing double-sided prayer cards encouraging fans to share on social media using “I Hate #NUNDays” (NUNDay, a wordplay on Mondays). The activations in Canada were created to mark the studio’s partnership with ‘FanExpo‘, which has been considered a part of the Canadian strategy for the movie. Though these stunts appear to be relatively small-scale compared to that of ‘The Nun 2‘, they are equally creative.

Terror appears when you least expect it – A “creepy” newsstand:

Toward the end of ‘The Nun 2‘ trailer, you’d see the protagonist, ‘Sister Irene‘ gazing at a Valak-like artwork on a book at a newsstand. Upon hearing rapid footsteps, she gasps and then turns back only to see nothing. Again, as she turns slowly toward the newsstand, the Valak appears right in front of her from nowhere and has her in a chokehold.

The makers of ‘The Nun 2‘ kind of recreated the above scene.

A ‘The Nun 2‘ branded newsstand was placed in Venice Beach, California. Unsuspecting beachgoers felt shocked as a Valak popped out of the newsstand while they got closer to the prop and started having a look at the magazines. It’s just like how it makes an appearance in the scene from nowhere. As a result, it scares the shit out of them.

Below is the post from the official X account of ‘The Nun‘ movie on the stunt…

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So, how are these promotions gonna help the movie’s opening weekend prospects at the box office?

Upon encountering unusual sights of nuns in public, passersby would be nudged to stop by. Capture photographs of, or probably take selfies with the nuns. In the ‘The Nun 2‘ trailer, you’ll notice the girl named ‘Sophie‘ say ‘I saw a nun‘. If you notice the copies in almost all the X posts above, you’ll see the hashtag, ‘#ISawANun‘. So, any passersby noticing the nuns could later excitedly say, “I saw a nun” to their families and friends. Also, if they share their clicks, with nuns, on social media, they could probably include the hashtag, ‘#ISawANun‘. Thereby, the film’s producers make the audience recreate a moment of the movie. This would pave the way for user-generated content, helping organically to get the word out about the movie. And thereby, evoking interest in the film.

With respect to promoting movies in the annual horror events aforesaid, there’s a key takeaway point. FIND WHO & WHERE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MOVIE IS AND THEN INVENTIVELY PROMOTE IT THERE.

So, in the aforementioned way, the promotions might help the movie’s opening weekend prospects at the box office.

Hope you liked the promotions for the movie, ‘The Nun 2‘ and my take on the same. Lemme know your feedback on this blog post’s comments section.

Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros. India

P.S. ‘The Nun 2‘, which is a sequel to ‘The Nun‘ (2018) and the ninth instalment in ‘The Conjuring Universe‘ franchise, is scheduled for a theatrical release on September 7, 2023. Do watch in Cinemas!

A still, featuring Sivakarthikeyan, from 'Maaveeran'
Look Back: A “Natural” Billboard to Promote ‘Maaveeran’

Look Back: A “Natural” Billboard to Promote ‘Maaveeran’

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After a brief hiatus from blogging, I’m here again!

This time, I’ve come up with my second article in the ‘Look Back‘ series, wherein I share interesting aspects I gather on the marketing of the movie or web series, which I watched on an over-the-top (OTT) platform and felt satisfied.

Recently, I watched the Sivakarthikeyan-starring ‘Maaveeran‘ on prime video. I loved the movie a lot. It’s a very interesting film that brilliantly blends a fantasy aspect into a sensible narration. Having been so satisfied with the movie, I’ll share information about an activation that Maaveeran‘s producer, ‘Shanthi Talkies‘ had executed to promote the movie’s theatrical release.

About the movie, ‘Maaveeran’…

The movie is about how a cowardly character named Sathya (played by Sivakarthikeyan) transforms into a brave personage and takes on a corrupt politician. In the movie, following an accident, Sathya starts hearing a voice, which foretells the problem that lies ahead for him. Whenever he hears it, he gives an overhead stare in anxiety as to where the voice comes from. And that ‘overhead stare’ has been leveraged by the film’s producer to conceive a brilliant marketing idea.

About the marketing idea…

On 13th July, a day prior to Maaveeran‘s theatrical release, ‘Shanthi Talkies‘ posted a video on its official X account on the installation of a transparent banner, featuring the movie’s poster, on the facade of PVR Sathyam Cinemas at Royapettah, Chennai. The video shows the poster being hand-drawn using black paint. The banner is then mounted overhead using four poles. So, when the light, especially the sunlight around noon, is blocked by the black paint in the banner, the poster’s shadow appears on the floor beneath the set-up. The shadow nudged anyone who passed through the installation to look at the overhead artwork. In the process, the person recreated the iconic ‘overhead stare’ of Siva Karthikeyan in ‘Maaveeran‘.

Below is the post from ‘Shanthi Talkies‘ on its official X account…

VJ Abhishek ideated this innovative concept.

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Recognition…

Karthik Gowda, Executive Producer of ‘Hombale Films‘ (The production house behind the movies, ‘K. G. F: Chapter 1’, ‘K. G. F: Chapter 2’ and ‘Kantara’ which became pan-Indian sensations) has appreciated the marketing idea via his official X account.

Below is the post from Karthik Gowda on his official X account…

Sivakarthikeyan has a history of some unique, interesting and brilliantly executed marketing ideas for his movies like ‘Remo‘, ‘Velaikkaran‘ and ‘Seema Raja‘. Now, with the aforementioned marketing idea, Maaveeran has joined the admirable list!

Photo Courtesy: Shanthi Talkies

Photo from 'Ouija: Origin of Evil'
Look Back: A “Spooky” Twitter Bot to Promote ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’

Look Back: A “Spooky” Twitter Bot to Promote ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’

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When I feel satisfied completing a movie or web series on OTT, I google to know its critical reception, box-office performance, and the whereabouts of its actors. Above all, I spend relatively more time looking up the marketing endeavor put behind the movie. A lot of those marketing strategies would be as interesting as the associated movie or web series. For quite some time, I’ve been wishing to blog about such initiatives in an organized manner (although I’ve blogged considerably and randomly on movie marketing). It is not just that I love to put them down, but also because they deserve to be raved about for the creativity invested to conceive, design, and execute them. So, here I am to fulfill my wish with the ‘Look Back’ series, wherein I’ll retell the interesting aspects I gather on the marketing of the movie or web series I watch.

Kicking off the series…

Recently, I watched the 2016 American supernatural horror film, ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil‘ on Netflix. I loved the movie. So, I dug up to know its marketing initiatives. As a result, I got to know a handful of promotional events done for the movie, but the one that interested me the most is the campaign titled, ‘Ouija Knows All Twitter Bot‘. Therefore, I begin the series with this article on the initiative.

About the movie, ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil‘…

A widow (Elizabeth Reaser as Alice Zander), with her daughters, carry out a phony séance business at her home. Upon bringing the Ouija board to the business, they make contact with an evil spirit existing there. Consequently, the entity possesses Alice’s 9-year-old daughter (Lulu Wilson as Doris Zander). The movie then focuses on the event’s after-effects.

About the campaign, ‘Ouija Knows All Twitter Bot‘…

The movie’s distributor, ‘Universal Pictures’ and the Digital Marketing agency, ‘Addison Interactive’ collaborated on the campaign, which invited fans to tweet random questions to the Twitter handle, ‘@OuijaKnowsAll’. The questions posted were like, “What is my name?” and “are ghosts real?“. The agency-curated customized bot facilitated the Twitter handle to reply with a GIF image, which showed a planchette sequentially moving over the letters on the Ouija board per their order in the answers. The alphabet under focus on each movement of the planchette displayed beneath the board. Within the confines of the GIF image, the alphabet got added in an incremental manner post each movement and ended with accurate answers to the questions.

Reply to a few other questions had Doris Zander replacing the Ouija board and planchette in the GIF. For instance, a question like “Will Rihanna win a Grammy for her 8th album ANTI?” had the image say “OF COURSE“.

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About the offline promotions…

Real-world giant projections, installed at the annual Halloween events, ‘Haunted Hayride’ and ‘Halloween Horror Nights’, entertained people waiting in the queue. In conclusion, the ultimate goal was to get everyone buzzing around the movie.

Outcome…

Influencers and celebrities jumped on the bandwagon of posting questions, resulting in the campaign’s reach getting amplified. As a result, the initiative garnered 355,000+ questions and 23,000,000 impressions on Twitter by then.

Per Deadline, the movie debuted at 3,167 theaters with cumulative gross earnings of $14M in its Week 1.

Recognition…

As an entrant to the Clio Awards program, the agency submitted the below video and photo to the medium, ‘Theatrical: Social Media’ within the entry type, ‘Theatrical’, and the category, ‘Single Platform Campaign’. Eventually, the campaign won Clio Gold.

Source: Clios

Actor Suriya in 'Soorarai Pottru'
4 Marketing Lessons, Businesses Can Learn From ‘Soorarai Pottru’!

4 Marketing Lessons, Businesses Can Learn From ‘Soorarai Pottru’!

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A couple of days back, I watched the Amazon Original, ‘Soorarai Pottru’ on the OTT platform. The Sudha Kongara’s sixth directorial venture is not only moving but also is studded with a number of lessons for businesses to take away. In this article, I list them. But, before listing, I shall boil down the movie, which is loosely based on the life of G. R. Gopinath, founder of ‘Simplifly Deccan’ – India’s first low-cost carrier.

A brief on the movie…

‘Soorarai Pottru’ chronicles the inspirational journey of Nedumaaran (Suriya), an ex-Air Force officer, who is launching a low-cost airline in an attempt to afford flight travel to the less privileged. In the process of realizing his dream, Nedumaaran is hampered at regular intervals by Paresh Goswami (Paresh Rawal), a leader in the aviation industry and the one whom the former considers a role model. Amidst such tricky circumstances, Nedumaaran makes his dream come true. Alongside him is Sundari (Aparna), his better half, who apart from successfully running a bakery, stays with him through thick and thin in breathing new life into his dream.

Now, let me list the lessons I observed.

1. Empathize with the pain points of your customers:

While serving in the Indian Air Force, knowing his father dying, Nedumaaran rushes to the airport. When trying to purchase a flight ticket, he gets to know that the economy class tickets are fully booked, and he is short of the fare of a business class ticket. As he desperately wants to travel to his native, he even goes on to plead with his fellow passengers for the balance money. Also, he promises that he would return it to them but it goes in vain. So, he resorts to alternate modes of transportation. And by the time, he reaches his native, his father has already died.

Following these series of unpleasant experiences, he doesn’t stop with just painfully running into them but goes on to empathize. He empathizes from the shoes of all those who consider the prevailing pricing of airline tickets unaffordable. That very thought urges him to make the common man fly. And the result is… a low-cost airline.

2. Take into account the value-conscious aspect of the target market:

As a follow-up to empathizing with customers’ pain points, he formulates a business model that enables passengers to buy plane tickets, like they purchase soaps. With India being a value-conscious market, Nedumaaran decides to charge 1000 rupees per ticket as opposed to the market rate of 10,000. Simultaneously, he negates various value-adds. He doesn’t provide newspapers. No extra food or staff. And to top it all, he decides to operate his flights for six trips a day as against the 2 trips by existing players. Eventually, he drops costs but at the same time ensures in delivering a quality service.

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3. Team up with another business to do fusion marketing:

In a chapter of the late American Business Writer Jay Conrad Levinson’s book*, the author has listed twenty ways in which guerrilla marketing differs from the old-fashioned brand of marketing. In one of the ways, the writer defines traditional marketing as an approach, which suggests a brand to observe its industrial market completely to decide which of its competitors are to be utterly defeated by it.

Conversely, he proclaims guerilla marketing as an outlook, which advocates a brand to discover businesses that possess the same kind of potential customers/clients and standards as it does, so that the brand can collaborate with the selected businesses in their marketing endeavors.

By opting for the latter, the author asserts that a brand is expanding its marketing reach, but reducing its marketing cost as it is sharing the expenses with the fellow business. And, he puts forth the term Fusion Marketing, which guerrillas use for this viewpoint.

Now, coming back to the movie. As Nedumaaran partners with his wife Sundari to sell food to his passengers, he provides hospitality to them and at the same time, earns extra money for his family (A collaboration with another catering service would have dented his profit margin).

Towards the climax, a couple of young men, who just completed a trip in Nedumaaran‘s flight, render a casual positive remark over the food. This implies that Sundari‘s expansion of her products beyond her bakery has become fruitful and it’s a win-win situation for the entrepreneurs.

Also Read:

4 Examples of Captivating Fusion Marketing Campaigns (And Why They’re So Great)

These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018

4. Identify your competitor(s) (If necessary, cut across industries):

Way back in 2019, in a letter to its shareholders, Netflix wrote, “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO.” This was owing to Netflix considering the online game, ‘Fortnite’ as its competitor in entertaining its customers, and eating up their free time in the process.

Likewise, Nedumaaran doesn’t view another airline that offers flight tickets at relatively affordable prices as his competitor. Instead, with 1,000 rupee tickets – way below market rates – he wants to meet the Indian Railways head-on.

So, for a business, it is essential to identify its competitor(s). If necessary, it has to do so by cutting across industries because sometimes your competitors may end up in another industry, as in the case of Netflix.

That’s it with my observations and interpretations pertaining to the lessons, which businesses can take away from ‘Soorarai Pottru’. Hope you liked reading the write-up. Let me know your opinion(s) in the ‘Comment’ section.

* Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for making big profits from your small business

Featured image courtesy:

2D Entertainment and Sikhya Entertainment

Hark back to the Interesting Promotions for ‘Cinthol’ and 1967 Tamil Film ‘Adhey Kangal’

Hark back to the Interesting Promotions for ‘Cinthol’ and 1967 Tamil Film ‘Adhey Kangal’

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Being movie enthusiasts, my father and I use to deliberate about them now and then. Recently, my father re-watched the 1967 Tamil mystery thriller, ‘Adhey Kangal’, produced by AVM Productions, on Amazon Prime Video. After watching the flick, he mentioned recollecting a then print marketing strategy for ‘Cinthol’ and A. C. Tirulokachandar’s directorial effort.

He said the production house or the Godrej Consumer Products Company Ltd (GCPL) owned brand had then strategized newspaper advertisements quizzing readers the number of instances on the brand name ‘Cinthol’ featuring in the movie. And, they were asked to mail their answers to the address specified in the advert. Likewise, there was a contest where consumers were encouraged to dispatch ‘Cinthol’ soap’s wrappers by post. Also, the advertisements carried an announcement on considerable rewards for winners of the contests. Thereby, prodding the readers to watch the movie as well as to purchase ‘Cinthol‘ soaps.

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It was a scene from the movie that enabled my father hark back to the strategy.

The narration of the scene sets off with the heroine and her friends shown indulging actively in social work. One among them bathes a couple of kids of the locality. A little one who awaits in queue for his turn carries Cinthol Body Talcum Powder (Probably!) and soap apiece, with the sides of both products carrying the brand name facing the camera. The lady who helps in bathing gets the soap from the kid. And then comes a close-up where the woman shows the brand name more prominently and then unwraps the soap’s cover.

In this day and age when product placement or embedded marketing has become more apparent even in TV News Channels – brand names affixed to laptop’s top cover – it is interesting to know of an instance in yesteryear and the print marketing strategy coupled with it.

Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2’ get massive pre-release buzz

Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2’ get massive pre-release buzz

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Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2‘ get massive pre-release buzz

“Coming up with the right titles and honing the creative”

This was Fox Home Entertainment’s game plan to pull off its amazing Blu-ray stunt at Walmart for Deadpool 2.

Likewise, to promote Tamizh Padam 2 (a sequel to the 2010 Tamil Parody film, Thamizh Padam), the below note appears to be the game plan of its makers.

“Picking up movies (or) news that made headlines and honing the creative”

To turn the film, Thamizh Padam into a franchise, Y Not Studios and Director C. S. Amudhan (Director of Thamizh Padam and Tamizh Padam 2) have pulled out all the stops.

The sequel’s large-scale promotion commenced with a bold and a wacky poster. Since then, each step in the movie’s marketing drive has been simple yet effective. At the same time, all seem to appear cost-effective (or at least so, when compared to the prevailing regional movie promotions).

Here’s a rundown of the amusing ads, which Y Not Studios rolled out in the lead-up to the release of Tamizh Padam 2.

First, here’s one of the early poster, advertising the initial release date of Tamizh Padam 2, in theaters… and Tamil Rockers. Wherein, Tamil Rockers was mentioned as the movie’s ‘Official Piracy Partner’. Actor Siddharth tweeted out the poster first from his Twitter handle.

https://twitter.com/Actor_Siddharth/status/939337383643791360

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On the eve of Women’s Day (2018), Actor Madhavan shared a ‘soup song’ for women (part of the film) in Twitter.

Then, in May, Director Venkat Prabhu shared the ‘official first look’ of the film’s press release. The note briefed the ‘reasons’ behind the delay in the release of the movie.

On May 31st, Tamizh Padam 2 teaser dropped. All along, every single announcement above the movie triggered a significant online conversation. To top it all, the teaser kicked up the already prevailing excitement.

Following the viral photo showing a group of leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and American President Trump, C. S. Amudhan tweeted a still featuring actors Shiva, Iswarya Menon and few others on June 12th.

Soon after the release of Tik Tik Tik (advertised as India’s first space adventure), a poster – featuring actors Shiva, Iswarya Menon and Sathish – was released on June 24th. All three in casuals, wearing space helmets and playing cards in space (Supposedly!). The poster carried an announcement about the release of a full video song on June 26th.

As a follow-up to the announcement, on June 26th, the video song titled, Naan Yaarum Illa got released. The song was sensational and raised further expectations over the movie.

To announce the ‘U’ rating, obtained by Tamizh Padam 2 from censor board, the makers shared the following ad

And finally, as a countdown to the movie’s release, a series of posters popped up in the social media of Y Not Studios.

https://twitter.com/StudiosYNot/status/1016132449586171905

‘Timely ones’ like…

‘Even more timely ones’ (within a matter of hours) like…

The social media presence of Tamizh Padam 2‘s cast and crew (especially the ones of director, producer and production house) has been crucial… crucial in pumping up the excitement towards the movie. The weird tone of the movie did translate well in their social media. But, in taking the franchise forward, it is ideal to complement it with an exclusive social media account. Such an account for the franchise can come in handy in mobilizing the fans in an even better way.

(Photo Courtesy: Y Not Studios)

3 Key Marketing Takeaways from Mr.Chandramouli’s Audio Launch and its preludes

3 Key Marketing Takeaways from Mr.Chandramouli’s Audio Launch and its preludes

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mr-chandramouli-0a
Mr.Chandramouli movie poster (Image Source: BOFTA Media Works India Pvt Ltd and Creative Entertainers Production)

On 25th April 2018, I attended the audio launch of the movie, Mr.Chandramouli at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai. It was my first visit to an event of this kind. The producers of the movie, Mr. Dhananjayan G, Mr. S. Vikram Kumar and Mrs. Lalitha Dhananjayan had rendered a grand and a colorful event. As a marketing enthusiast, I found a lot of takeaways from the event and its preludes. In this article, I share my observations.

1. Leveraging technology to boost attendance to the event:

I found an invite from the website, Behindwoods, which it had posted in its social media. Invite was for the audio launch of the movie, Mr.Chandramouli. The invite encouraged people to send their name to the Whatsapp mobile number present in it. After sending the message, the sender received a message with two entry passes to the event.

I find this approach to be an effective one in reaching out to the potential attendees of an event. Also, it appeared to be less invasive. Yet another point to note here is that the invite isn’t limited to certain audience as it is shared in social media.

2. Choosing contents appropriate to the event:

In an event, it is important to choose contents that aligns with your target audience. The producers of Mr.Chandramouli had chosen contents for the event by keeping in mind its target audience.

Attendees of the event got a chance to take a look at the trailer of the movie. A couple of video songs from Mr.Chandramouli were also showcased. And, the makers had got speakers for the event… speakers who are well known in the industry and who have experiences to share to the audience.

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3. Engaging audience who have missed the event:

Makers of the movie, ensured that people who couldn’t attend the event also felt engaged. So, certain sessions of the event were live streamed in social media. Also, the trailer was shared in social media later in the evening.

Conclusion:

The above mentioned approaches seem to be in practice for a while. Since, this is my first visit to an event of this scale, I have documented my observations. And, as a fan of movie marketing, I look forward to more of innovative ideas enhancing the regional movie audio launch events.

Now, let me know your perceptions about the event in the comments!

What YouTube Marketing Lessons can one learn from ‘DC’ and ‘Marvel’

What YouTube Marketing Lessons can one learn from ‘DC’ and ‘Marvel’

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Untitled collage
A collage featuring photos from ‘Justice League’ (Above) and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (Below) (Image Source: DC Entertainment and Marvel Studios)

Of late, in 2018, I could see a considerable number of deliberations going around in online, in favor of video when it comes to online contents. YouTube seems to be the go-to video platform for certain brands especially in cases where the brands target a younger audience. Also, YouTube seems to have a leg up on other video-viewing platforms as it has a more established ad monetization system.

So, when I was casually going through some write-ups in the online space concerning YouTube Marketing and assimilating ideas as mentioned above, a thought just did spark my mind. The thought is on the similarities that exist between the working of ‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ in rendering superhero movies and the usage of YouTube as a marketing platform by brands. You will get to know more about my underlying thoughts as we deep dive further into the article. Now, let us start taking a look at my thoughts one-by-one.

Focus on creating video series to cultivate viewership:

‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ have been producing series of super hero films based on characters that appear in their respective publications. The efforts of these two production companies are keeping their audiences engaged over a period of time.

Likewise, brands like ‘Refinery29’ (An American digital media and entertainment company focusing on young women) are creating a series of videos, relevant to their business, in their YouTube channels. In the second half of 2017, ‘Refinery29’ created a series of videos with the goal of cultivating a regular viewership.

Explain dense topics in serialized videos:

‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ unite their respective superheroes and render ‘Justice League’ movie and ‘Avengers’ movie series respectively. At the same time, they are also making movies that are exclusively centered on a particular superhero character. In such movies, they depict the backstory of the superhero. Thereby, they lay a firm foundation around a character among the audience. While watching ‘Justice League’ movie and ‘Avengers’ movie series, this approach helps the audience… helps in understanding on ‘why’ and ‘how’ the superheroes gathered together and what makes them special as an individual.

In the similar way, when a brand has got to explain dense topics to its audience, it can explain them in serialized videos. ‘Financial Times’ has created a series of videos to explain dense topics like blockchain or Cryptocurrencies. As per the report of Digiday, it seems like the videos explaining dense topics are driving a high click-through rate.

Also, serialized videos ensure that your audience comes in contact with your brand on various occasions. This is what ‘Financial Times’ estimates, which is, its readers come in contact with the brand between six and eight times before subscribing to it.

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Split up video contents into verticals to target more specific audience:

There are some movies of DC and Marvel that had or seem to be having sequels. In this case, the fans of such movies will feel excited when announcements on those movies pop up in media. They get driven in a state of ecstasy to catch with those movies soon after their theatrical release. Here, one could see the audience getting consolidated under the umbrella of a particular superhero character.

In the same way, you could split up your video contents into verticals in your YouTube channel. Thereby, you could hope to target a specific audience more. ‘Financial Times’ has its video contents split into various verticals such as ‘FT Life’ and ‘FT Transact’, in its official YouTube channel. The videos in ‘FT Life’ provide coverage on arts, style, travel and food and drink .Whereas, the videos in ‘FT Transact’ focuses on the future of finance.

Deliver a subject in multiple formats:

In spite of producing live-action films, DC and Marvel produce animated films too. Wherein, most of them are released direct-to-video. The companies sense an opportunity in showcasing their contents in multiple formats and they deliver the same.

In a like manner, a subject could be delivered in a range of videos like short explainer videos, news-related quick videos and longer mini-documentaries. Going by the ‘Digiday’ article, ‘The Financial Times is splitting up videos into verticals’, I affirm that ‘Financial Times’ had leveraged these video formats in an effective manner in covering the 2017 French and U.K. Elections.

Leverage YouTube End screens to cross promote your contents:

Recently, when I went to watch ‘Black Panther’ in theatre, trailers of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ were screened. This practice of promoting the upcoming Marvel movies by showcasing their trailers to the audience who have come to the theatre to watch ‘Black Panther’ is what I term a simple illustration of the marketing technique, ‘Cross Promotion’.

Similarly, you could leverage options like YouTube End screens to cross promote your website to your YouTube audience. Thereby, you enable a gateway for your YouTube audience to help you grow your referral traffic to your site via the video-viewing platform. Also, you could point your viewers to other videos, playlists or channels on YouTube and introduce call for subscriptions to your YouTube channel.

To promote their superheroes, ‘DC Entertainment’ and ‘Marvel Studios’ seem to be spending a lot of time, money and effort. Likewise, to reach one’s business goal, one has to invest a considerable amount of time, money and effort based on the scale of the business.

I hope you found the ideas, which have been mentioned above, to be useful. Let me know your thoughts on my opinions!

What Black Panther teaches about ‘Grassroots Marketing on Social Media’

What Black Panther teaches about ‘Grassroots Marketing on Social Media’

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Black Panther Portrait
Image Source: Marvel Studios

Recently, I happened to read the article, ‘Grassroots Marketing in the Age of Social Media’. I could relate many aspects in it with Marvel Studios’ marketing efforts for ‘Black Panther’. So, I have come up with this article by jotting down my observations. Now, let us take a look at the efforts and the corresponding takeaways:

1. Understand your audience:

In Grassroots Marketing, it is of primary importance to understand your audience.

On the day of Black Panther‘s release, ‘Captain Marvel‘ star Brie Larson tweeted as below

This tweet based on the theme, ‘Pay it forward‘ did sound striking. Thereby, it generated a considerable number of comments, retweets and likes.

To come up with a campaign and result as mentioned above, you have to understand your audience.

Takeaways:

To understand your audience,

i) Know whether your audiences are available in social media

ii) In case, if they are, know which platforms (g.: Facebook, Twitter etc.,) they are using and are active on

iii) Know the person who can spur a grassroots marketing campaign for your product or service

(Here, the person could be a celebrity or an influencer)

iv) Engage your audience, using the person, in a way that relates to your product or service

2. Mobilize your audience:

When you have a considerable audience, you need to engage them via various activities. In other words, you need to mobilize your audience. Marvel Studios knows this.

Before the release of ‘Black Panther’, Twitter and Marvel hosted a live-stream Q&A with the cast and crew of the movie. To make fans join the conversation, Twitter provided the hashtag, ‘#BlackPantherLive’.

And, Tumblr conducted its first-ever video ‘AnswerTime’ with the cast of ‘Black Panther’.

Besides, Marvel is encouraging fans to submit their Black Panther arts to it in social media. It is offering them the hashtag, ‘#BlackPantherFanArt’ to share their artworks. This campaign of Marvel has been receiving a lot of submissions. The arts are being shared in the official social media pages of ‘Black Panther’ by crediting the fans.

Also, Marvel is making fans to share the photos of them dressed up in Wakanda-esque costumes. For this campaign, it provides them the hashtag, ‘#WakandaStyle’. Marvel posted few of such photos in the social media channels of ‘Black Panther’.

Takeaways:

To mobilize the considerable number of audience that you have,

i) Conduct light-hearted events related to your business in popular social networks (g. Facebook, Twitter)

ii) Encourage them to involve in the events by providing customized hashtags

iii) Leverage video features of popular social media to showcase events like Q&A sessions… sessions about your product or service

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3. Encourage your audience to speak out about your product or service:

Another important Grassroots Marketing approach is to encourage your audience to speak out… speak out about your product or service.

Marvel created customized Twitter Emojis for certain ‘Black Panther‘ characters… for characters like ‘Black Panther‘, ‘Nakia‘, ‘Kill Monger‘, ‘Shuri‘, and ‘Okoye‘. And, it encouraged the fans of ‘Black Panther’ to tweet the name of their favorite character from the movie… name preceded by a hashtag.

Also, the fans were asked to share their favourite track on Black Panther album.

And, Marvel prompted the fans to take part in a sweepstakes contest. It encouraged them to share their favourite Black Panther memory or their personal photo using the hashtag, ‘#Marvel10YearSweepstakes’. Here, Marvel advertised that the fans might get a chance to win a trip to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ premiere.

Takeaways:

To encourage your audience to speak out about your product or service,

i) Conduct contests with announcements about a chance to win prizes

ii) Make them speak out about product or service as part of the contests

iii) Start simple conversations as Marvel did of fans’ favorite character and track

With these grassroots efforts on social media, Marvel has generated a buzz for its movie. In turn, this has helped in upping the Black Panther‘s prospects at box-office in a notable manner.

So, tailor the campaigns of Marvel for ‘Black Panther‘ to suit your product or service needs. And, enhance your business prospects.

5 Best Ways of Universities in using Facebook Pages

5 Best Ways of Universities in using Facebook Pages

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5 Best Ways of Universities in using Facebook Pages
5 Best Ways of Universities in using Facebook Pages

Many universities and colleges are coming up with interesting contents and impressive initiatives. They use Facebook pages as one of their media to let people know about such works. But, only the ones who do that in an effective manner seem to stand out.

I went through the Facebook pages of few varsities to look for such effective approaches. Thereby, I have come up with this write-up jotting down the approaches that I have observed. Check out the following 5 examples that you could make use of for your very own page.

1. Harvard University:

Harvard University

Most colleges and universities publish websites, blogs, newsletters or newspapers. But, not all leverage the options that are available in Facebook pages to promote the content. Very few have been using the options to promote their content in an effective way. Harvard University is one among them.

The ‘Harvard Gazette‘ is the official news website for Harvard University. To promote the website’s contents, the varsity has a tab, ‘Harvard Gazette‘ in its Facebook page. One can sign up by providing one’s name and email ID in this tab, to receive daily updates on the site’s contents.

The Harvard Gazette Sign up

This is an ideal way to gather the email addresses of the

a) University’s students,

b) Prospective students and their parents

c) College counsellors and

d) Outsiders

2. Marquette University:

Marquette University

For its undergraduate admissions, Marquette University offers an organized daily visit for students. There are provisions, in the university’s website, to book an appointment for the visit. Details about these provisions are available in the ‘Visit Marquette‘ page of the site. A ‘Book Now‘ call-to-action (CTA) in the university’s Facebook page links to this page.

Visit Marquette

So, this is a good example of how to use the Facebook page’s CTA feature to promote a varsity’s primary initiative.

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3. Stanford University:

Stanford University

Some universities render videos with a professional touch on a consistent basis. To maintain such videos, they have an official YouTube channel too. Stanford University does these activities down pat.

To promote the videos to its Facebook circle, the varsity has incorporated a tab for YouTube in its page. When you click the tab, you get to view the preview of their YouTube channel with few videos displayed.

Stanford University - YouTube Tab

You can add the YouTube tab to your Facebook page using Woobox application.

4. University of Oxford:

University of Oxford

University of Oxford also produces videos with professional touch on a consistent basis. And, it also uploads its videos to its official YouTube channel. But, unlike Stanford, Oxford has opted for the ‘Watch Video‘ CTA, on its Facebook page, to promote its videos.

When you click the ‘Watch Video‘ CTA, you get redirected to a video of the university in YouTube.

University of Oxford teaser video

5. Texas A&M University:

Texas A&M University

Besides an official Facebook page for Texas A&M, there is a dedicated page for its alumni association (‘The Association of Former Students’ is the official alumni association of Texas A&M).

The Association of Former Students

People, running the page, share information about the association in an active manner. They also use the page to promote the content from the association’s web site. The site contains alumni’s stories and info on varsity’s traditions, events and services.

In some stories, I loved the way of narration of the relationship between the alumni and the varsity. Check out one such story here!

Which University’s Facebook page you like the most? Share with me in the comments section!