Indians are cinema lovers and movies can be looked up on as specialty goods.

Both these facts make the life of a movie marketer easy; he has to sell a sought after product in a mass market! However a few smaller films that are content driven, executed on a smaller budget and lacks star power fall in to the category of unsought goods. Out here the marketer can not simply rely on a mass marketing approach; he has to be focused on segmenting the market, targeting his audience and positioning the film in a strategic manner. His focus should move from buzz creation to initiating conversations. In the recent times, I came across one such finely produced film that focused on buzz creation but fell short on conversation creation.

Filmistaan: Movie Marketing in Review

I watched Filmistaan a few months before its theatrical release. At the first sight, it was hard to fall in love with Sunny aka Sharib Hashmi; the marketer in me was concerned over the commercial success of this non star power film. The film progressed and after a few minutes I started finding the short and stout guy adorable. A small voice within me said that a smart looking Ranbir Kapoor or a cool looking new entrant would have been a misfit out here. Filmistaan was a content driven film and the script demanded a deglam face to play the central character. Now it was time for the marketing team to create the right positioning for this content-rich, meaningful cinema and take it to its audience.

After the screening was over, I watched the theatrical trailer. The film was ruling all my senses, yet the trailer disappointed me! It failed to deliver the essence of the film – ‘A beautiful Indo-Pak relationship hinged on their shared love for Bollywood’. To me the trailer seemed to be begging for attention by making use of various cuts that portrayed lighter moments. As a matter of fact, in isolation from the film positioning, these cuts actually demanded a handsome guy; Sharib Hashmi seemed a misfit. I was wondering why an audacious filmmaker who broke all norms of casting and script writing would adopt the standard vanilla approach to film promotion. And going forward, I could increasingly see….

Focus on marketing innovation and not film promotion!

The production house developed a website for promoting the film. Really? Would you need one? Especially when it’s neither a franchise nor has any prominent stars? It was running a contest and granting Filmistaan visa to Bollywoood Buffs so that they could enjoy the film much before everyone else does! BIG idea, but does it work? Yes, it does… provided your film is casting one of the three Khans!

What’s more? Miss Malini was the official online partner for the film. Again, I rubbed my eyes; although Miss Malini disseminates Bollywood content, its audience base is fashion sensitive that cares for upmarket lifestyle brands. Are you reaching out to an audience base that really appreciates meaningful cinema? Well not directly, but thankfully Google search and other social sharing platforms come as saviours and help the content find its audience!

Building key social platforms – YouTube, Facebook & Twitter

Surprisingly there was no dedicated movie page on Facebook and Twitter; the film was solely promoted on UTV Motion Pictures’ existing platforms. The rational behind the decision was these platforms already have a huge fan base that could be leveraged! However this meant divided attention; UTV Motion Pictures would want to balance posts of all films they were promoting at that time and maintain an optimum count so they do not end up spamming their audience!

In my opinion,  it’s okay to go on a common platform for bigger films with A-listers as audience is already informed and is hungry for content. However for smaller films, a marketer has to start by creating awareness and developing interest so that he can convert the interest in to desire which ultimately converts in to action (AIDA principle in marketing management).

On UTV Motion Pictures’ Facebook page, posts on Filmistaan seemed random and recorded very low engagement in midst of posts on Heropanti, Kick and Pizza 3D. An exclusive film page would have served as a central repository providing all information on the film and this would have helped in Internet searches too. The marketer would have more flexibility and would be able to better create awareness and engage its target audience though various stages of film promotion.

Let’s take a look at YouTube marketing. The theatrical trailer had a little over 300,000 views in the pre-release week; thankfully, closer to the release, it gained momentum due to positive reviews by critics and audience.

In the third week of movie release, the count is a little over 800,000 (less than 1 million in its lifetime). With the film bagging several awards and critical acclaim, the theatrical trailer certainly had the potential to reach out to a larger audience! By the time it started reaching out to its audience the film was out of most theatres and audience is left with no choice but download a pirated copy or wait till it airs on the satellite!

Why piggy ride when you have great content?

The production house created a few promotional videos that failed to manage mass attention; on the contrary they invited negative comments. Aarti on a few Bollywood Superstars were created and their fan base was invited to check them out.

Once again why beg for attention? As a marketer, I would rather focus on positioning my film and my central character. I would talk about the demand of the plot; requirement of a talented actor who did not have conventional good looks! Highlight the awards bagged and attention received at various festivals.

Also, money spent on website creation and promotion and promotional video creation and promotion could have been directed to key social platforms where your theatrical trailer and key messages get more visibility.

Was a controversial poster required?

The production house slammed another film (Holiday: A soldier is never off duty) that was releasing on the same day, along with Filmistaan. They ran a poster campaign that carried one liners such as ‘Don’t waste your time on Holiday; watch Filmistaan’ and ‘A good film is never off duty; watch Filmistaan. Are such tactics appreciated by audience?

 

 

Screenings and positive word of mouth

One of the good promotion strategies deployed was celebrity screening and endorsements. Positive review by superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra fueled online conversations and generated interest in the film.

Finally….

 

 

It was purely for its content, Filmistaan managed a decent Box Office collection, however the film had much more potential!