Tag: Shah Rukh Khan

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

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!

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!

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!

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’

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!