Tag: Marketing

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!

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!

5 Marketing Lessons from Sarahah

5 Marketing Lessons from Sarahah

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Sarahah
5 Marketing Lessons from Sarahah

With ‘Sarahah’ – a self-development tool that allows people to receive constructive feedback – being in news for various reasons, I decided to write this article to jot down my learning, pertaining to Marketing, from the journey of Sarahah. Let us have a look at my learning (which I claim as ‘Marketing Lessons’):

5. Manage the controversies around the product:

Despite Zainab letting people know the actual intentions behind the ‘Sarahah’ app, as far as my knowledge is concerned, the constructive utilization of the app has been very minimal. With respect to the same argument, the app has been in news for wrong reasons such as cyber bullying for quite some time. Also, rumours were rife that the makers of Sarahah were planning to expose the identities of the senders on August 1, 2017. But, the people behind Sarahah were prepared to manage the controversies circling the app.

In order to thwart cyber bullying, facility to block senders has been incorporated to the app. From Sarahah’s official Twitter account, it was clarified that the rumours regarding the plan to expose the senders’ identities are fake.

4. Leverage influencers:

In the fall of 2016, Zainab Alabdin Tawfiq had launched the website, Sarahah and shared it within his group of friends, expecting 1000 messages to be shared in the site. But, by the end of 2016, only a couple of hundred messages were shared. So, Zainab decided to share the application with his friend whom he considered to be a major influencer. After sharing Sarahah with his influencer friend, the reach of the website became manifold. Post the sharing, the application spread across other Arabian countries too.

Hence, it was the utilization of an influencer by Zainab that brought in a sea change in the Sarahah’s outreach.

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3. Optimize the product for mobile platforms:

Following Sarahah’s outreach in Arab countries, Zainab had decided to create a mobile app for Sarahah. By hiring a third-party company, Zainab had created the mobile app and launched the same in the App Store on June 13, 2017. For the first time, Sarahah was available in English when it went live in the App Store. With its availability in the App Store in English, Sarahah went on to garner the people’s attention from Western Countries as well. The app has been made available for download from Google’s Play Store as well.

Zainab’s efforts to optimize his product for mobile platforms, such as to create an app version of Sarahah; cater the app to the universal audience by making it available in English; choosing the channel, App Store to distribute the app, have paid dividends to him.

2. Make a ‘Simple to use’ product:

As far as the ‘Sarahah’ application is concerned, you get to see minimal features in it and the navigation within the app tends to be uncomplicated. In order to use an application of this sort, one doesn’t necessarily be a tech-savvy. Also, for a person to send a message to a Sarahah user, it is not necessary for the sender to get the app installed.

All the above mentioned factors pertaining to the ‘Sarahah’ application have made it to be a ‘Simple to use’ product.

1. Incorporate a feature to your product that resonates with its target audience:

Be it in the workplace or family or friends, there have always been barriers (due to various factors) that have been preventing people from speaking openly. Under such prevailing circumstances, think of people getting a platform to share their opinion to the person they wish to and yet not reveal their identity. Wouldn’t such people feel excited or relieved with an opportunity of this kind? This is the point where Sarahah has been striking a chord with the people. It is the app’s ‘anonymous messaging’ feature that has been resonating well with its target audience.

What are your Marketing Lessons from Sarahah? Let me know in the comments below!

Life Lessons from Gregor Johann Mendel, the ‘Father of Modern Genetics’

Life Lessons from Gregor Johann Mendel, the ‘Father of Modern Genetics’

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Life Lessons from Gregor Johann Mendel the Father of Modern Genetics - Design 2
Life Lessons from Gregor Johann Mendel, the ‘Father of Modern Genetics’

This post originally appeared on the blog, SOCIETAL INSIGHT.

Whenever people, on an extensive scale, discuss deeply or even initiate and engage in propaganda to promote the contributions or ideals of certain personalities in some sort of public platforms, I automatically get these thoughts: Why, all of a sudden, are most people talking about a personality who long back had passed away? Why weren’t the contributions or ideals celebrated as they are being now than when the respective individuals were alive? What kinds of circumstances are making most people hand-pick such persons, regard them in high esteem, debate their works and eventually term them to be momentous?

Of late, by chance, I revisited the news of exposition of Gregor Johann Mendel’s paper on genetics, ‘Experiments on plant hybridization’, which many of us would still be remembering of having a brief outlook, on this greatest path-breaking experiment, in our school studies. For me, by then in my schooldays, the chapters comprising Mendel’s works in my Botany book were a piece of information meant for knowledge acquisition and of course, to effectively reproduce my comprehensions in the examinations. But now with my view, which I have garnered reading the societies’ behavior in recognizing the contributions or discoveries of individuals, it appears apparently to me that rather than primarily focusing on one’s deeds with an intention of receiving instant recognition, one’s active and an honest participation in one’s own passion is what that counts a lot.

If not Mendel’s passionate pull towards his experimentation, amidst his pastoral duties in church, related to plant hybridization then there wouldn’t have been presentations about his findings as a paper, ‘Experiments on plant hybridization’ at two meetings of the Natural History Society of Brno in Moravia in 1865. As an immediate follow-up to the presentation, despite the recognition being minimal, reports in local newspapers showcased his discovery. Thereby, in 1990, independent rediscoveries of Mendel’s works on genetics by Erich Von Tschermak, Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns and William Jasper Spillman conceded Mendel’s priority. At a later time, the scientific fraternity went on to claim Mendel as the ‘Father of Modern Genetics’. These historical events clearly suggest that Gregor Johann Mendel was indeed phenomenal in ensuring a breakthrough in his topmost priority i.e. his work related to genetics, and keeping secondary the process of promoting his research, which was not noticed significantly then. Likewise, one’s passion should be fed by providing well defined results driven by an uncompromising effort by the corresponding person. If not an instant recognition, there are high chances for the outcome to gain prominence when a need arises for the value of the content at some point of time, in future.

‘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!

 

4 Ways to Market Yourself in Workplace

4 Ways to Market Yourself in Workplace

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Personal Branding Article - 4 Ways to Market Yourself in Workplace
4 Ways to Market Yourself in Workplace

Do you feel that you don’t get enough recognition in your workplace in spite of doing your tasks? You need not feel dejected anymore. I have jotted down 4 ways that could help you to earn the recognition in your workplace that you have been craving for. Let us have a look at them.

1) Project yourself to your superior:

Firstly, in your workplace, you must try to effectively accomplish the tasks that have been assigned to you. Then, at the right time, proactively let your superior know that you have successfully completed the tasks. Also, when you face any obstacles – which you feel are beyond your control -, that hinder you to complete your work successfully, convey your superior about the same in advance. This will help the superior to come up with solutions that could address your concerns.

Takeaways:

By projecting yourself to your superior, you make him/her feel that entrusting you with a work ensures a positive result. Also, you make an impression that you express yourself well in adverse circumstances.

2) Grab the opportunities:

You should always be aware of the happenings in your workplace. While being so, when you feel that a scenario requires a handsome contribution from an individual and that individual could be you, without a second thought, try to work out on a plan that could guide you to contribute to the scenario. In this process, ensure that your actual tasks don’t get affected. Most importantly, have a word with your superior regarding your plan.

Takeaways: 

You implicitly convey to your superior that you are interested in taking additional responsibilities. This attitude of yours counts a lot when you move up in your career ladder.

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3) Create opportunities:

It is not always you get scenarios where you could contribute your efforts. Sometimes you have to create opportunities that could set the platform for you to showcase your abilities. When you are successfully done with your actual tasks, think of the areas related to your work where you could add values by means of the skills that you are naturally inclined to. For example, if you are interested in public speaking then arrange for a session whose main theme could be fun, motivation, education etc.,

Takeaways:

As a result of creating opportunities and executing them, you will earn a good impression from your superior and the people above your superior. Your skills will also get projected to various people across your workplace.

4) Ease off the workload of your superior:

It is not always your superior will explicitly ask for your help in easing off his/her work pressure. When you have accomplished your tasks and you feel that your superior needs a help in executing his tasks then let him your help. For you to think this way, you need to have a bigger picture of the processes that are happening in your workplace.

Takeaways:

By easing off the workload of your superior, you sort of create a personal bond with him/her. As far as the workplace activities are concerned, the personal bond enhances the mutual understanding between you and your superior.

Hope my 4 ways and their takeaways gave you the much needed heads up for your concern. Now, try applying these 4 ways in your workplace and enjoy the benefits that they offer.