Category: Movies

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.

3 Amazing Marketing Ideas Used for ‘Jurassic Park’ Movie Franchise, in the celebration of its 25th year

3 Amazing Marketing Ideas Used for ‘Jurassic Park’ Movie Franchise, in the celebration of its 25th year

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Jurassic World
3 Amazing Marketing Ideas Used for ‘Jurassic Park‘ Movie Franchise, in the celebration of its 25th year

The Jurassic Park franchise has stepped into its 25th year. The way the film series grew all along like a childhood friend makes it an endearing one. In all these years, lot of aspects related to the franchise has evolved. One among them is marketing.

The next instalment of the franchise i.e. ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ will release on June 22, 2018. As a lead-up to the movie’s release and to mark Jurassic Park‘s 25th year, the makers are up with three amazing stuffs!

1. ‘Relive’ favorite memories of, and ‘Recreate’ favorite scenes, from ‘Jurassic Park’:

Jurassic Park 25th Anniversary
‘Relive’ favourite memories of, and ‘Recreate’ favourite scenes, from ‘Jurassic Park’

The makers of ‘Jurassic Park‘ seem to know well on how to engage the fans of the movie in the evolution of the franchise.

To take part in the celebration of the movie’s Silver Jubilee, the producers offered fans a couple of ways. In which, one was to share their memories of ‘Jurassic Park‘ via a video. Wherein, selected videos will feature on ‘jurassicworld.com‘ and ‘Jurassic World‘ social media. And, the other way was for them to film and share an own version of their favorite scenes from ‘Jurassic Park‘ as a video. Here, chosen videos may be crosscut with original film footage. Also, the videos will get shared across the social media channels of ‘Jurassic World‘. The producers provided the platform, ‘jurassicworld.com‘ for fans to submit their contents. Besides, in either of the contests, there seem to be prizes for the winners.

The contests were open from January 5th to 22nd of 2018.

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2. ‘Jurassic World’ camera effect on Facebook:

Blue
Pic featuring the raptor, ‘Blue‘ and Own Grady (Chris Pratt) from ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘

It seemed as if only Owen Grady (Chris Pratt in ‘Jurassic World’) dared to face the raptor, ‘Blue‘ barehanded and tame it ;-). But now, everyone, who has access to the Facebook’s mobile app, can share a screen space with a virtual raptor. All you need to do for that is to enable the ‘Jurassic World‘ effect in your Facebook camera. After enabling the effect, tap the place on your mobile’s screen where you would like to place ‘Blue‘.

The makers have used the ‘AR Studio‘ tool of the Facebook’s ‘Camera Effects Platform‘ to build the effect.

3. ‘Jeep’ commercial that kindles the nostalgia of ‘Jurassic Park’:

Wrangler
Pic featuring Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Jeff Goldblum

In the beginning, I had mentioned about the evolution of various aspects of the franchise. Among which, the Jeep Wrangler that featured in ‘Jurassic Park‘ is no exception. Now, ‘Jeep‘ has come up with a brand-new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The new model of the off-road SUV has now featured in one of the best ads released in this year’s ‘Super bowl‘. Along with the jeep, the ad features one among the favourites of Jurassic Park’s cast, Jeff Goldblum. And, we have the all-time favourite, T-Rex as well in the ad!

The ad, by kindling the nostalgia of ‘Jurassic Park‘, puts up an extensive advertising… An advertising for the Jeep’s latest model and ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom‘, alike!

Click here to watch the ad!

Conclusion:

The above mentioned strategies should be the beginning of many such sorts. Also, we will have to wait for some time to watch the winning ‘memories‘ and ‘recreation‘ videos. And, on whether the chosen ‘recreation‘ videos get cross cut in the original film footage.

What are your thoughts on these marketing tactics? Do you feel that I have missed any? Share your opinions in the comments section!

4 Experiential Marketing Tactics of popular films that you’ll want to know

4 Experiential Marketing Tactics of popular films that you’ll want to know

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Untitled collage
4 Experiential Marketing Tactics of popular films that you’ll want to know

To take a product or service to the customer, there are several types in Marketing. In which, there is one type that is gaining prominence of late. The type is none other than Experiential Marketing.

Experiential Marketing goes by this simple theory:

Find your target audience. Know what they expect from you. Create an experience around their expectation. Make them feel touched by your approach.

When you do all the above, you earn not alone customers but their loyalty too.

This has been the beauty of Experiential Marketing.

Always, you could spot interesting instances of Experiential Marketing in various industries. Film Industry is no exception. In my previous article, I shared my views on a couple of movie marketing campaigns that excited me. Today, I present another four tactics implemented for popular films by their producers.

Interactive chatbot by ‘Red Chillies Entertainment’ (RCE) for ‘Ittefaq’ and ‘Raees’:

There is one aspect that has become an integral part in the movie marketing of RCE. It is none other than its Facebook Messenger chatbot.

For example, consider that RCE has come up with content for its upcoming movie. Here, the content refers to a movie poster, teaser, trailer, video song or a promotional video. To take such content to its audience, the chatbot begins chatting with the person who has subscribed to it. The important aspect to note here is that the chat continues only when the person wishes to. If the person responds in a positive manner then the chatbot builds a lively interaction. In the course of the conversation, the bot shares the contents.

Ittefaq collage
A collage featuring Akshaye Khanna, Sonakshi Sinha and Sidharth Malhotra from ‘Ittefaq‘

For RCE‘s latest movie, ‘Ittefaq’, the chatbot started a chat by posing as ‘Inspector Dev’. ‘Inspector Dev‘ (played by Akshaye Khanna) is one among the main characters in ‘Ittefaq’. This was as in the manner in which the chatbot triggered a conversation by posing as ‘Harry’ for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’. In the course of the chat, the bot shared contents like posters, trailer and video song of the movie. Also shared in the chat was a promotional video titled, ‘An interrogation with Karan Johar‘.

Besides these contents, there were a couple of scenarios shared, for the audience to solve. At regular intervals, the chatbot presented the scenarios. Wherein, both the scenarios got based around the genre of the movie i.e. Mystery Thriller.

On the day before the movie’s release day, a short chat reminded to contain SPOILERS related to the movie. On the release day, the chatbot shared the movie’s ticket booking link.

User engagement by the chatbot doesn’t end with the above activities. It also recalls some moments from RCE‘s previous movies. And, it intertwines such moments with special days.

For last year’s Children Day, the chatbot conducted a quiz. In the quiz, few occasions from RCE’s movies accompanied the questions. GIF and JPEG images represented such occasions. Questions were on tapping the inner child that exists within every grown-up. The quiz, as a whole, appeared pleasing.

Raees
A still featuring Shah Rukh Khan from ‘Raees‘

Later, the chatbot carried out a quiz marking a year since the release of the 2017 Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Raees’. The quiz included some trivial questions about the movie. This quiz to ‘measure’ one’s RQ i.e. Raees Quotient sounded pretty unique and catchy!

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Creepy ‘Insidious‘ mazes in ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ at ‘Universal Studios Hollywood’:

Insidious maze
A still featuring Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell in the Insidious maze

The 2013 ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ featured the maze attraction, ‘Insidious: Into the Further’. The maze was based on the purgatory realm, ‘The Further’ that appears in the ‘Insidious‘ movies. Via this event, the audience got an opportunity to explore the ‘dark world’. They experienced the disquieting atmosphere that they had watched in the ‘Insidious’ movies. Few people of the event were in the guise of the frightening characters of the ‘Insidious’ movies. They scared the hell out of visitors. This made the ambience become even more eerier. This experience that was set as a lead-up to the theatrical release of ‘Insidious Chapter 2’ was a runaway hit.

The maze adventure opened again for the public in 2015 as ‘Insidious: Return to the Further’ and in 2017 as ‘Insidious: Beyond the Further‘. On both the occasions as well the mazes received a positive response from the fans of the franchise.

‘Into The Further A 4D Experience’ mobile tour for ‘Insidious Chapter 3’:

Into the Further A 4D Experience
Model house designed for the tour

Before the theatrical release of ‘Insidious Chapter 3’, its producers organized a tour. As part of the tour, they designed a model house with dark interiors. The interiors did resemble the inner part of the houses that appear in the ‘Insidious’ movies. The model house took on tour to various cities for audience visit. The cities include Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and New York. Entry into the model house was free for the audience. Audience who had visited the house felt engaged with some genuine scares. Later, using an Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset, they experienced a horror segment. The clip, utilized in the segment, featured Dr. Elise Rainier who guided the viewer into the ‘Further’.

Click here to watch the audience’s experiences!

Later, the producers released the video of ‘Into The Further A 4D Experience’ in online. Like the response to the maze attractions, audience had rendered thumbs up to this campaign as well.

‘360 degree’ videos and an interactive chatbot by ‘Sri Thenandal Films’ (TSL) for ‘Mersal’:

A still from Mersal featuring Vijay
A still featuring Vijay from ‘Mersal‘

Like RCE, TSL too had introduced interactive chatbots for their 100th production, ‘Mersal’. In one of my articles, I had briefed the creation of customized ‘Mersal‘ posters using the chatbot. Post which, TSL had extended the utility of the bot further. The chatbot had conducted a quiz titled, ‘Mersal Match Meter’. Later, it also carried out a quick chat to make people share their feedback about the movie and rate the same. Like RCE, TSL’s chatbot also shared a ticket booking link for the movie. The entire interactive chatbot episode of TSL was quite unique and engaging!

Besides launching an interactive chatbot, TSL released a couple of ‘360 degree‘ videos. TSL teamed up with ‘Karpita‘ to render and unveil the videos. One video presented the speech of the Tamil Film Star Vijay in the ‘Mersal‘ audio launch function. Whereas, the other featured the live in concert of the legendary musician A.R.Rahman in the same function.

The efforts of TSL had appealed well to the die-hard fans of both the Tamil cinema stars.

Conclusion:

Above examples are among the finest of Experiential Marketing campaigns in Film Industry. Because, the movies not only grabbed audience’s attention but also obtained their loyalty.

Application of the theory mentioned in this article seems evident in the tactics.

So, here I end my article. Hope you find the scenarios jotted down in this article to be informative. Please let me know your opinion about the write-up in the comments section!

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’

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Untitled collage
Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’

It’s been a while since I had written my last post in this blog. In fact, for a period of time, I wasn’t in touch with the changes that have been happening in the marketing sphere. A few days ago, when I had plunged again into one of my favorite parallel world (i.e. Marketing) to know the latest updates, I felt excited on knowing about a couple of movie marketing campaigns. One campaign being the ‘Neibolt House’ visit for public in Los Angeles, for the 2017 American supernatural horror flick, ‘IT’. Another being, the ‘Cooliekkara kuppam’ set visit for public in Chennai, for the 2017 Tamil social thriller movie, ‘Velaikkaran’. However, both the strategies could well be tagged to one topic i.e. Experiential Marketing.

Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘Neibolt House’ visit for ‘IT’:

‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ in association with the out-of-home agency, ‘Grandesign’ created the ‘Neibolt House’ (inspired by a haunted house that appears in the movie, ‘IT’) in the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Vine St. in Los Angeles. The house was opened for public daily, from August 14th, 2017 – September 10th, 2017 from 11am – 11pm. The public visit was scheduled well ahead of the movie’s theatrical release as the film premiered on September 5th, 2017. The haunted house visit seemed thoroughly immersive.

Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘Neibolt House’ visit for ‘IT’
‘Neibolt House’ located in the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Vine St. in Los Angeles

‘Slum Set’ visit for ‘Velaikkaran’:

Following their captivating Content Marketing campaign for ‘Remo’, ‘24AM STUDIOS’ have come up with the appealing ‘Cooliekkara kuppam’ set for ‘Velaikkaran’. The set was designed and erected by the movie’s art director T Muthuraj and team for the film. The set, located inside Prasad Labs at Vadapalani in Chennai, has been opened for public from December 30th, 2017 to January 20th, 2018 from 9am – 5pm. The public visit was scheduled after the theatrical release of ‘Velaikkaran’ as the movie released on December 22nd, 2017.

Slum Set’ visit for ‘Velaikkaran’
‘Cooliekkara kuppam’ set located inside Prasad Labs at Vadapalani in Chennai

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Campaigns offering opportunities for their target audience to experience their respective brands:

In both the campaigns, audiences were offered with opportunities to physically experience the demonstrations that were put up by the brands.

Branded hashtags, such as ‘#ThatsWhereITLives’ for ‘IT’ and ‘#VelaikkaranSetVisit’ for ‘Velaikkaran’, were created by the organizers and marketed in their respective social media posts prior to the visits and also were advertised in the sets.

Hashtag in tweet - IT Movie
‘#ThatsWhereITLives’ hashtag in the tweet from the official Twitter page of ‘IT Movie‘
Velaikkaran Set Visit hashtag
‘#VelaikkaranSetVisit’ hashtag incorporated to the image, posted in social media by ‘24AM STUDIOS’

Reminding attendees of the hashtag at the event had made it easier for them to share their experiences on social media.

Picture1
Reminding visitors of the hashtag, ‘#ThatsWhereITLives‘ at ‘Neibolt House‘ in Los Angeles
Velaikkaran Set Visit hashtag 2
Reminding attendees of the hashtag, ‘#VelaikkaranSetVisit‘ in the ‘VELAIKKARAN – SIGNATURE WALL‘ at ‘Cooliekkara Kuppam‘ set in Chennai

Via these hashtags, the organizers have engaged (such as Retweets and Likes in ‘Twitter’ and Shares in ‘Facebook’) well with their audience.

The slum set visit was made live in Facebook and Twitter in order to engage the people who couldn’t attend. As a follow-up to the ‘live’ activities, few of the attendees were allowed to talk about the sets. These were captured as videos and were shared in social media. As the brands connected well with the audience, prior to the set visit, in social media, there were deeper engagements at the event.

Click the link to know on what the audience has got to say about their ‘Neibolt House‘ set visit!

Even few from among the cast and crew of both the movies paid a visit to the respective sets. Photos and videos of the same were shared in social media.

Cast and crew visit - 'IT'
‘IT‘ Director Andrés Muschietti with the cast at ‘Neibolt House‘ in Los Angeles
Cast and crew visit - 'Velaikkaran'
‘Velaikkaran‘ star Sivakarthikeyan with a fan at ‘Cooliekkara Kuppam‘ set in Chennai

Click the link to view the visit of few from among the cast and crew of ‘Velaikkaran‘ to the set!

Providing online platforms and encouraging the audiences to go through an immersive experience:

In addition to offering an opportunity to experience the sets in a tangible, offline way, ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ have also provided online platforms to the audience to go through an immersive experience of their products via the marketing tools, VR (Virtual Reality) and 360° videos respectively. ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ has released a video titled, ‘IT: FLOAT – A Cinematic VR Experience’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ has released a video titled, ‘Velaikkaran Set Making 360° Video’ in their respective official YouTube channels. In the former video, one gets to experience the world of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Whereas, in the latter, the viewer can avail the opportunity to visit the ‘Cooliekkara Kuppam’ set virtually and at the same time, listen to art director T Muthuraj sharing his moments that had transpired during the time of set’s design and construction.

Click here to watch the video, ‘IT: FLOAT – A Cinematic VR Experience’ and here to watch the ‘Velaikkaran Set Making 360° Video’!

A cursory view at the experiential tactics of both the organizers exhibits the manner in which they have effectively leveraged both the online and offline spaces for the purpose of marketing. Apart from people obtaining awareness about the uniqueness of these brands and the box office prospects of the movies getting boosted, these campaigns have rendered memorable moments for the audience to cherish.

So, that’s it with my blog post about the Experiential Marketing Campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for ‘IT’ and ‘Velaikkaran’ respectively. Now, let me know your viewpoints about my article in the comments section!

Utilization of Cutting Edge Technologies for Marketing in Indian Film Industry

Utilization of Cutting Edge Technologies for Marketing in Indian Film Industry

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Mersal Vijay
Utilization of Cutting Edge Technologies for Marketing in Indian Film Industry

Of late, I have observed several instances where the Indian Film Producers have showcased their immense interests in optimizing cutting edge technologies to promote their movies. There are few notable ones from among such instances. To start with, let me brief about the utilizations of cutting edge technologies for the marketing of movies such as ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, ‘2.0’, ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ (aka JHMS) and ‘Mersal’.

b2-4
Still featuring Prabhas from ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion‘

In the case of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, the film’s maker, ‘Arka Media Works’ had utilized the Facebook Messenger Chatbot service to conduct an interactive quiz and share information on subscription to it; released a VR (Virtual Reality) video that guided the viewers through a virtual tour on the sets of Baahubali; live streamed the Baahubali pre-release event in 360° on the movie’s official YouTube channel; released a teaser of the 10-min VR film, ‘The Sword Of Destiny’ that is based on the characters from Baahubali.

To know more on the Digital Marketing strategies of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ by ‘Arka Media Works’, click here!

To make the first look launch of ‘2.0’ (Sequel to the 2010 movie, ‘Endhiran’) unique and special, the film’s producer, ‘Lyca Productions’ had leveraged AR (Augmented Reality) by setting up a virtual conversation between the image of Chitti (character played by Rajinikanth in ‘Endhiran’) – that was incorporated to the screen that was placed over the stage – and the film maker, Karan Johar (host of the first look launch event).

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An infographic on the Promotional Strategies of ‘2.0′:

Promotional Strategies for ‘2.0’ seem to serve as perfect preludes to the movie!

To know more about the promotional strategies for ‘2.0’, click here!

JHMS promotional event
Shah Rukh Khan and Anushkha Sharma from a promotional event for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal‘

To promote the Shah Rukh Khan-Anushkha Sharma starrer ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, the movie’s producer, ‘Red Chillies Entertainment’ had launched an interactive Chatbot service in Facebook Messenger, which offered a lot more immersive experience than that of the one that was utilized for ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’. The Chatbot was designed in such a way that the people can get to interact with the character, ‘Harry’ played by Shah Rukh Khan in the movie. In the chat, the characters of the movie were introduced, an overview about the relationship between them was let known, the crux of the film was highlighted and the options to access Mini Trails (series of promo clips of the movie) and video songs were made available. Also using the Chatbot, people were able to create customized Jab Harry Met Sejal posters and access web ticket booking and film review links.

To know more about the Digital Marketing efforts of ‘Red Chillies Entertainment’ for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, click here!

Mersal
Still featuring Vijay from ‘Mersal‘

Along the lines of the efforts of ‘Arka Media Works’ for ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, ‘Lyca Productions’ for ‘2.0’ and ‘Red Chillies Entertainment’ for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, ‘Sri Thenandal Films’ aka ‘TSL’ have been pushing the envelope with Digital Marketing for their 100th venture, ‘Mersal’. The movie also marks the 25th year, for the Oscar Winning Music Composer, A.R.Rahman and the South Indian Star, Vijay, in the Indian Film Industry. The marketing for ‘Mersal’, which is gearing up for a release on October 18th 2017, has been proceeding in full swing. Similar to ‘Baahubali 2’ and ‘JHMS’, for ‘Mersal’ as well, ‘TSL’ has launched an interactive Chatbot in Facebook Messenger to create customized ‘Mersal’ posters.

In the case of ‘JHMS’, we had a look at how an interactive Facebook Messenger Chatbot could be utilized to access contents, that are relevant to the movie, from one place. But, there is a visual discovery app of the London based firm ‘blippAR’, which I came across recently, that could also be utilized to access the contents of the movie from one place in an even more interesting manner. The ‘blippAR’ app operates using Augmented Reality, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to bring the physical world to life through smartphones and wearables. As far as the Indian Film industry is concerned, ‘blippAR’ has already created a blipp for the Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Bhoothnath Returns’. Using the ‘Bhoothnath Returns’ blipp, one could access the movie’s video songs, making videos, Juke Box, web ticket booking links and an option to click photos using camera effects that have been customized for the movie.

Now in 2017, as mentioned earlier, Indian Film Producers are leveraging the digital channels in a much more effective manner, than they were in the days of ‘Bhoothnath Returns’, to promote their movies. In the matter of ‘Mersal’, as of now, contents such as HD stills, lyric videos of songs, exclusive interview of the film’s producer, audio launch videos and audio CDs have been officially released. In the forthcoming days, teasers, trailers, song promo videos and full song HD videos will also be released and once when advanced ticket booking for ‘Mersal’ commences, web ticket booking links will also be available. Isn’t it a cool approach to have the contents pertaining to ‘Mersal’ as mentioned above to be packed into a blipp of the ‘blippAR’ app! Similar to the ‘Photo’ feature in the blipp of ‘Bhoothnath Returns’, a customized camera effect, featuring Vijay of ‘Mersal’, has the potential to go down with the fans of the star. Suppose if ‘TSL’ is in a plan to launch a ‘Mersal’ themed mobile video game then that as well could be incorporated to the blipp.

Prior to the theatrical release of the 2013 Tamil rom-com, ‘Raja Rani’ the movie’s primary characters were introduced one-by-one in a cine supplement of a daily newspaper. In 2017, prior to the release of the Tamil action thriller, ‘Vikram Vedha’, the introduction scenes of Vedha (played by Actor Vijay Sethupathy) and Vikram (played by Actor Madhavan) were released in the official YouTube channel of the film’s producer. Imagine the promotional tactics as said above in the case of ‘Raja Rani’ and ‘Vikram Vedha’ being incorporated to an Augmented Reality app such as ‘blippAR’! Isn’t the idea sounding effective, with respect to marketing, to the film producers and adding value to the film audience!

With all being said and done with respect to the utilization of cutting edge technologies for marketing in Indian Film Industry, all what a marketing cum movie buff like me has to do is to wait and watch for the Indian movie martech to evolve!

3 ways to effectively promote Movies with AR

3 ways to effectively promote Movies with AR

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3 ways to effectively promote Movies with AR
3 ways to effectively promote Movies with AR

In addition to their efforts in moviemaking, the film production houses have also been putting in ample efforts to make their movies reach their target audience. With technology growing day by day, there seem to be plentiful options available for the production houses to promote their movies. Augmented reality has been one among those technologies. Here are 3 ways in which the movies could be effectively promoted with augmented reality, by the film production houses…

1. Interactive film posters:

Disney in association with blippAR had come up with a blipp for the 2014 summer blockbuster, ‘Guardians of the Galazy’. When the ‘blippAR’ app is opened and blipped at the film’s interactive poster, the following contents get unlocked

Options to…

  • get to know the individual characters from the movie and their backstories
  • watch the behind-the-scenes footages
  • enjoy the movie trailer
  • buy the DVD or Blu-ray of the movie from e-Commerce sites when they are released

The interactive posters could be officially shared in social media and also be placed in cine halls, multiplexes and in places where the public might engage with the posters.

Scan the first picture that is available in the below web link using the ‘blippAR’ app to unlock exclusive contents pertaining to the movie, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘!

https://blippar.com/en/resources/blog/2014/07/09/meet-the-guardians-of-the-galaxy-they-re-hiding-in-this-movie-poster

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2. Themed mobile games:

By partnering with blippAR, General Mills had launched a Spider-Man game to promote the release of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’. By blipping the ‘blippAR’ app over the covers or posters of various products of General Mills such as Chex Mix and Fruit Snacks, people were able to access the game.

Along the lines of the above mentioned strategy of General Mills, Campbell’s Soup too had come up a Spider-Man themed mobile game by partnering with blippAR.

Scan the first picture that is available in the below web link using the ‘blippAR’ app to play the Spider-Man themed mobile game!

https://blippar.com/en/showroom/project/campbells-soup

3. Interactive murals:

To promote Legion (an American cable television series produced by FX productions in association with Marvel Television), 5 augmented reality murals were placed in 5 locations such as Brooklyn, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. By blipping the ‘blippAR’ app over the murals, the following contents get unlocked

Options to…

  • watch the trailer
  • access gifs, videos and pictures
  • participate in an interactive quiz
  • click photos with a customized camera effect

The above contents could as well be accessed by blipping the ‘blippAR’ app over the limited edition augmented reality posters available in few select local comic book stores.

Following suit the above ways, the below mentioned options could as well be incorporated as the contents that could be unlocked in an augmented reality app

Options to…

  1. access exclusive interviews of the movie’s cast and crew
  2. get to know the cinema timetables
  3. get access to cinema ticket booking web-links

Scan the first picture that is available in the below web link using the ‘blippAR’ app to unlock exclusive contents pertaining to the television series, ‘Legion‘!

https://blippar.com/en/showroom/project/legion

Hope you liked reading the article! Now, let me know your opinions on the article, and on how the augmented reality technology could be leveraged by the film production houses for promoting their movies, in the comments!

 

‘Sri Thenandal Films’ pushes the envelope with Digital Marketing for ‘Mersal’

‘Sri Thenandal Films’ pushes the envelope with Digital Marketing for ‘Mersal’

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'Mersal' Vijay
‘Sri Thenandal Films’ pushes the envelope with Digital Marketing for ‘Mersal’

It’s always been interesting to watch film production houses leveraging the digital space to offer a personalized experience to their target audience. With their 100th movie ‘Mersal’, in pipeline for a grand audio launch on 20th of August, Sri Thenandal Films aka TSL (makers of ‘Mersal’) have come up with a unique and interesting promotional strategy for the movie.

A chatbot to create personalized movie posters:

Along the lines of utilization of interactive chatbots for movies such as ‘Kaabil’, ‘M.S.Dhoni’, ‘Jolly LLB 2’, ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya’, ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ and ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, TSL has introduced a chatbot for ‘Mersal’ using which their audience could create personalized Mersal posters. Sri Thenandal Films, in association with ICONICbot (a tech start-up cofounded by the Indian film actress cum producer, Vishaka Singh and ex-IBMer, Sandesh B Suvarna), has launched the chatbot that could be accessed by messaging in the official Facebook page of Sri Thenandal Films or on its messenger.

Target audience rejoicing the outcome of the strategy:

With Vijay – an iconic Indian actor who enjoys a huge fan base – on board for ‘Mersal’ and the movie being TSL’s 100th movie, what better circumstance than this could get TSL to implement the AI technology! As expected, the fans seem to love the outcome of this strategy a lot. In the social media accounts of TSL, the information regarding the chatbot was shared with the hashtag, ‘#MyMersalPoster’. Following suit, the fans have been sharing their customized Mersal posters under the same hashtag.

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Complementary factors of the strategy:

The chatbot’s launch date i.e. 15th of August sounds ideal as the corresponding day is a pan-India holiday. Also, the regional movie influencers have propagated the news, about the chatbot launch, to their respective followers.

Chatbots of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ and ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ VS Chatbot of ‘Mersal’:

Unlike the predominant feature of the chatbot of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ that offered the people an opportunity to take part in an interactive quiz and that of the one for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ that offered the audience to indulge in an immersive chat experience, the chatbot of ‘Mersal’ has been restricted with the creation of Mersal posters as of now. We have to wait to know from the makers regarding the inclusion of new features to the ‘Mersal’ chatbot.

So, that’s it with the write-up on the Digital Marketing Strategy of Sri Thenandal Films for ‘Mersal’. Hope you liked reading the article! Let me know your opinion in the comments section!

 

Red Chillies Entertainment’s notable Digital Marketing efforts for Shah Rukh Khan-Anushkha Sharma’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’

Red Chillies Entertainment’s notable Digital Marketing efforts for Shah Rukh Khan-Anushkha Sharma’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’

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Jab Harry Met Sejal - Shah Rukh Khan and Anushkha Sharma
Red Chillies Entertainment’s notable Digital Marketing efforts for Shah Rukh Khan-Anushkha Sharma’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’

As far as my knowledge goes, right after ‘Ra.One’, it has been the case with most movies of Shah Rukh Khan-Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, where their marketing efforts have been as notable as the themes of the movies. With Red Chillies Entertainment’s next, ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ being scheduled for a release on 4th August, 2017, I tried gathering information regarding the marketing strategies deployed for the movie. As a result, I have come up with this article that briefs about a couple of Digital Marketing strategies applied for the movie.

1. An interactive chatbot rendering an immersive experience:

Along the lines of utilizations of chatbots for movies such as ‘Kaabil’, ‘M.S.Dhoni’, ‘Jolly LLB 2’, ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya’ and ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion‘, Red Chillies Entertainment have come up with an interactive chatbot to offer an immersive experience to their audience.

The chatbot has been designed in such a way that the people can get to interact with the character, Harry played by Shah Rukh Khan in the movie.

The features that this chatbot offers are more than just generic conversations. In its likeable interaction, the chatbot provides an intro about the characters, Harry and Sejal (Anushkha Sharma) from the movie and then offers us three engaging 37-second clips – which the makers call as ‘mini trails’ – from the film.

Also, using the chatbot, people can create customised posters, participate in a travel based personality quiz, watch songs from the movie and win exclusive merchandise.

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2. Very own Facebook camera effect for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’:

‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ is one among the few films in Bollywood, to have their very own Facebook camera effect.

By accessing camera effects by swiping left on their Facebook profile, people could make use of the JHMS (Jab Harry Met Sejal) effect. Using this provision, people could click a picture or shoot a video and share the same in their story or Facebook profile in ‘Harry & Sejal’ style.

Those are the two Digital Marketing strategies that Red Chillies Entertainment has deployed for ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’. Wish the marketing efforts of the Khan couple, to establish a ‘connect’ between their film and the digital audience, pays dividends with their movie’s result at box-office!

Promotional strategies for ‘2.0’ seem to serve as perfect preludes to the movie!

Promotional strategies for ‘2.0’ seem to serve as perfect preludes to the movie!

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2.0 still
Promotional strategies for ‘2.0’ seem to serve as perfect preludes to the movie!

A film like ‘2.0’ (A sequel to the 2010 movie, ‘Endhiran’) that features stars like Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar is automatically bound to garner the attention of movie-going people. But, Lyca Productions – the makers of ‘2.0’ – are pushing the envelope, in terms of promotional strategies, to widen the movie’s reach. Here are two such promotional strategies that have been implemented so far by the makers:

1. Utilization of Augmented Reality in the first look poster launch of ‘2.0’:

The first look poster launch of ‘2.0’ took place in Mumbai where the first looks of Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar from ‘2.0’ were launched in 3D. Huge LCD screens were placed in the arena to set the tone for the mega audio launch. The event was hosted by the Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar. Salman Khan had also made his presence at this event.

The best among the innovative ideas that were implemented in this event was the utilization of Augmented Reality. Using the technology, the image of Chitti (the character played by Rajinikanth in ‘Endhiran’) – answering Karan Johar’s questions – was incorporated into the screen that was placed over the stage.

Click here to enjoy watching the lively conversation between Chitti (Of course, a virtual image!) and Karan Johar. (Courtesy: Movie Talkies)

2.0 First Look Launch
Making of Augmented Reality – 2.0 First Look Launch

A video titled, ‘Making of Augmented Reality – 2.0 First Look Launch | Lyca Productions’ was released on the official YouTube channel of ‘Lyca Productions’ on November 26, 2016, which shows a glimpse of how the ‘Augmented Reality’ sequence of the first look event was shot.

Click here to take a look at the making video. (Courtesy: Lyca Productions)

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2. Flew a hot air balloon over the Hollywood Signage in Los Angeles:

Hot air balloons for '2.0'
Hot air balloon flying over the Hollywood Signage in Los Angeles

To grab the eyeballs of people from outside India, Lyca Productions flew a 100-foot tall hot air balloon over the iconic Hollywood signage in Los Angeles. From Los Angeles, the balloon will be traveling to QuickChek Festival (28th -30th July) in New Jersey, USA. From New Jersey, the balloon will proceed to San Francisco, London, Dubai, Europe, South East Asian Countries, Australia, and finally to India. In India, the balloon is set to travel to various cities. Also, Lyca Productions is planning to involve well-known film stars from India, to take a ride in the balloon.

Click here to have a look at the video of hot air balloons flying. (Courtesy: YOYO TV Channel)

These are the 2 interesting promotional strategies from Lyca Productions for ‘2.0’. Hope you liked reading my write-up. Keep following Marketing Journo to get to know the interesting promotional strategies that get applied for ‘2.0’ by Lyca Productions in the upcoming days.

4 captivating Content Marketing innovations applied for some fascinating movies of Hollywood

4 captivating Content Marketing innovations applied for some fascinating movies of Hollywood

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4 Captivating Content Marketing Innovations applied for some Fascinating Movies of Hollywood
4 captivating Content Marketing innovations applied for some fascinating movies of Hollywood

After posting my previous write-up titled, ‘4 INNOVATIVE AND INTERESTING CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED BY HORROR MOVIES IN HOLLYWOOD’, I came to know about 4 more Content Marketing strategies/campaigns – which I felt to be innovative and interesting – that have been implemented to promote 4 different movies belonging to 4 different genres (One movie belonging to the Horror Genre). So, I have come up with this post to brief about those 3 strategies. Below are the briefs on those campaigns, which had served as perfect preludes to the theatrical or the DVD releases of their respective movies.

1. ‘Flying People in New York City’ for ‘Chronicle’:

Chronicle (2012)
Chronicle (2012)

Few days prior to the release of the 20th Century Fox’s found footage film, ‘Chronicle’, a video titled ‘Flying People in New York City’ made by ThinkModo (a marketing agency), was uploaded to the YouTube channel, ‘ChronicleNYC’ on January 30, 2012. In this video, 3 6-foot tall human-shaped Radio Controlled planes (RC planes) could be seen flying above the Manhattan skyline with the passers-by over the streets feeling clueless on seeing the planes and some even capturing them on their phones.

Flying People in New York City’ for ‘Chronicle’
‘Flying People in New York City’ for ‘Chronicle’

This was a strategy that was ideated and executed by ThinkModo, in association with 20thCentury Fox, to promote the movie by creating an illusion of people flying. ThinkModo, by taking cues from the movie’s poster, had then hired model airplane builders to device 5 human-shaped RC planes and make 3 of them fly (2 RC planes were backups). This event took place in New York on January 27, 2012.

The video had then garnered more than 5 million hits before the movie’s release date i.e., February 3, 2012 and the movie opened at number one in box office. Till date, the video has clocked more than 9 million views.

Click here to watch the video.

P.S. In January 2017, ThinkModo, in association with Paramount Pictures, came up with the video titled, ‘Rings (2017) – TV Store Prank’ to create a buzz for the movie, ‘Rings’. To know more about the video and its backdrop, click here.

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2. ‘Unlock The 007 In You. You have 70 seconds’ for ‘Skyfall’:

Skyfall (2012)
Skyfall (2012)

As part of Coke Zero’s marketing campaign, ‘Unlock The 007 In You’, Coca Cola’s North West Europe and Nordics business unit, in association with the makers of ‘Skyfall’, released the video titled, ‘Unlock The 007 In You. You have 70 seconds’. The sequence of events shown in this video has been shot in the Central Station of Antwerp, Belgium.

Unlock The 007 In You. You have 70 seconds’ for ‘Skyfall’
‘Unlock The 007 In You. You have 70 seconds’ for ‘Skyfall’

In this video, we see that when an individual approaches the Coke Zero vending machine that has been placed in the station, they are let known that they are offered with a chance to win exclusive tickets to ‘Skyfall’. In order to participate in the event of winning tickets, they are asked to provide their names in the machine. On entering their name, they are asked to go to platform 6 in next 70 seconds. On their way to platform 6, they face few funny obstacles. Upon reaching platform 6, they are asked to sing the bond tune to win tickets. After doing so, they get their tickets.

This video, which was released on October 2012, went viral garnering over 3 million views in a week.

Click here to have a look at the video.

3. ‘Scariest Two-way Mirror Prank’ for ‘Conjuring 2’:

The Conjuring 2
The Conjuring 2 (2016)

To promote the DVD release of ‘Conjuring 2’, a video was released in the YouTube channel, ‘Roadshow Entertainment’ on September 19, 2016. The video showcases the happenings that had happened after the screening of ‘Conjuring 2’ in a warehouse in Sydney. In the video, soon after the completion of the warehouse screening, we get to see the audience being asked to wait alone in a room for an interview to share their experience about the movie.

In the video, six hours before the event, we are shown technicians setting up a false wall, mounting a two-way mirror on it, placing bulbs around the mirror and illuminating them to make the setup look like a make-up room. Behind the mirror, a lady in the makeover of the frightening nun, ‘Valak’ that appeared in ‘Conjuring 2’, is made to stand. Another lady in the similar makeover is made to stand hiding in the room. Audience waiting out there in the room are unaware of the room’s setup.

When the people approached the mirror, they are being scared by the lady who is standing behind the mirror followed by the nun who stands hiding in the room.

Scariest Two-way Mirror Prank’ for ‘Conjuring 2’
‘Scariest Two-way Mirror Prank’ for ‘Conjuring 2’

The video also has the clip of ‘Conjuring 2’ from which the idea for this video was brought out.  Hidden cameras placed inside the room captured the reactions of the people. The video, ‘THE CONJURING 2 – SCARIEST TWO-WAY MIRROR PRANK EVER’ was made out of the footage that has been obtained from such hidden cameras. Till now, the video has got more than 2 million views and is still counting.

Click here to take a look at the video.

4. ‘Spider-Man Grabs Coffee’ for ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’:

Spider-Man Homecoming
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

‘Spider-Man Grabs Coffee’, the promotional video content – shot in a Starbucks of New York City – for the 2017 American superhero film, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ has been released by Sony Pictures Entertainment in their official YouTube channel on June 27, 2017. The strategy is the brain child of ThinkModo – the agency behind the ideations and executions of ‘Flying People in New York City’ for ‘Chronicle 2’ and ‘Rings (2017) – TV Store Prank’ for ‘Rings’.

Spider-Man Grabs Coffee’ for ‘Spider-Man Homecoming’
‘Spider-Man Grabs Coffee’ for ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’

In the video, we get to see the Starbucks customers, waiting to get their orders, getting surprised and some even scared, when the Spider-Man-suited stuntman Chris Silcox drops from the ceiling – just like how the Spider-Man appears upside down in movies – to get hold of his brew. After realising that the happening is just a prank, few get to click selfies with the Spider-Man. Stan Lee, the Marvel’s originator also makes an appearance in the video.

This promotional video has till now clocked more than 3 lakh views and is still counting.

Click here to watch the video.

So, here I end my post that provides an overview about the 4 captivating Content Marketing innovations that have been applied for 4 fascinating movies of Hollywood. If you enjoyed reading this post, I would be very thankful if you could share the same on Twitter or Facebook, or even email your friend. Thank you!