Tag: Baahubali 2: The Conclusion

Utilization of Cutting Edge Technologies for Marketing in Indian Film Industry

Utilization of Cutting Edge Technologies for Marketing in Indian Film Industry

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’.

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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!

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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!

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

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

'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!

 

5 striking Digital Marketing strategies implemented by the makers of Baahubali 2

5 striking Digital Marketing strategies implemented by the makers of Baahubali 2

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5 Striking Digital Marketing strategies implemented by the makers of Baahubali 2

Similar to the amount of effort that has been put into the making of the two technically rich movies in the Baahubali franchise (Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion), an equal amount of effort has been invested from the marketing arena as well to take the movies closer to the audience and sustain the ‘Baahubali’ sensation among them for all these years. In this digital era, when it comes to marketing, Digital Marketing becomes imperative and essential. So, here I have come up with 5 striking Digital Marketing strategies deployed by the makers of the Baahubali franchise, ‘Arka Media Works’ around the theatrical release of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’.

1. Launch of #ChatQuizChallenge on Facebook:

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Launch of #ChatQuizChallenge on Facebook

After the release of the trailer of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, the producer of the film launched on Facebook, an interactive quiz named ‘#ChatQuizChallenge’ driven by a Chatbot, that was accessible by messaging in the movie’s official Facebook page, Baahubali, or on messenger. The interactive quiz created by the Social and Digital Agency, ‘KRDS India’ had 5 trivial questions that were based on the trailer of Baahubali 2. People were provided with an option to take the quiz on the language of their preference with available languages being Tamil, English, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. As part of this strategy, people were also offered with an option, by the Chatbot, to subscribe to it to get to know the latest news or updates, pertaining to the movie, from the production crew.

2. Release of the Graphic novel, ‘Baahubali – The Battle of the Bold’ on Google Play Store:

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Release of the Graphic novel, ‘Baahubali – The Battle of the Bold’ on Google Play Store

Targetting the fans of Baahubali and comic book lovers, two months ahead of the theatrical release of ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, Arka Media Works had launched the Graphic novel, ‘Baahubali – The Battle of the Bold’ on ‘Graphic POP Asia’ app, which is available in Google Play Store. Post the installation of the app, the graphic novel can be downloaded from it. According to the novel’s author, ‘Graphic India’, ‘Baahubali – The Battle of the Bold’ depicts some untold events that had laid around the participation of Baahubali and Bhallaladeva in a tournament, which had happened well before the happenings that have been showcased in the film. Paperback version of the novel is also available for purchase in amazon.


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3. Launch of the animation series, ‘Baahubali: The Lost Legends’ on Amazon Prime Video India:

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Launch of the animation series, ‘Baahubali: The Lost Legends’ on Amazon Prime Video India

Around mid-April, inspired by the Baahubali film franchise, Arka Media Works and the director of the Baahubali film series, S.S.Rajamouli in collaboration with Graphic India and Amazon had launched the first episode of the animation series, ‘Baahubali: The Lost Legends’ in Amazon Prime Video’s India service. The second episode of the animated series was released on 19th May 2017, with the other episodes to be made live in the upcoming weeks. ‘Baahubali: The Lost Legends’ seems to exhibit some fresh stories about the characters, which have already become popular among the audience, such as Baahubali, Bhallaladeva, Kattappa and Sivagami and portray few more new characters and their respective stories.

4. Optimization of the hashtag, #WKKB in social media posts and on film posters:

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Optimization of the hashtag, #WKKB in social media posts and on film posters

In India, when Twitter first brought in the plan of creating hashtags in regional languages, Rajamouli launched the first Telugu Hashtag, #బాహుబలివస్తున్నాడు (Baahubali Vasthunnadu’ meaning ‘Baahubali coming soon’) from his twitter handle for the promotion of ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’. Likewise, for ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ too, the hashtag, #WKKB (WKKB is the abbreviation of ‘Why Kattappa Killed Baahubali’) was creating quite a revolution in the social media space. It was utilized in film posters too.

5. Leveraging Virtual Reality and 360 degree videos:

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Leveraging Virtual Reality and 360 degree videos

In October 2016, ‘Radeon Technologies Group’, a part of US-based chip maker AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.) released the Virtual Reality (VR) video titled, ‘On The Sets of Baahubali’. It guided the viewers through a virtual tour on the sets of Baahubali.  As a follow-up to this activity of leveraging the technological advancements, for marketing purposes, Arka Media Works by teaming with Radeon live streamed in 360° the Baahubali Pre-Release Event (which was held on March 26th 2017 in Hyderabad) on the movie’s official YouTube channel. VR boxes were suggested to viewers to have a Virtual Reality experience of the event.

To top it all, the collaboration of Arka Media Works, Rajamouli and AMD Radeon Technologies Group came up with the teaser of the 10-min VR film, ‘The Sword Of Baahubali’, that is based on the characters from Baahubali. The teaser was shown to people in various malls, theatres and multiplexes across the states of Andhra and Telangana.

So, here ends my documentation on the 5 striking Digital Marketing strategies implemented by Arka Media Works for the Baahubali franchise but not the only strategies that have been implemented. There may be even more striking ones.

Feel free to let me know your comments on the article!