Movie promotions in 1990’s were limited to TV promo, very few newspaper ads and posters outside the movie halls. Gone are those days and then came promotions of songs on Radio, associating with various chat shows, TV shows, pre-launch PR, post launch PR and associating with brands which endorses the movie during the TVC.

Since two years even these strategies have seen a shift with a high percentage of marketing budgets being accommodated with Social Media. It all started with a Wiki page followed by Facebook page, YouTube brand channels, Twitter handles and even hash-tag promotions. Apps (Applications) are built considering the possible engagements with the consumer.

Let us take a look at the Social Media Strategies that are used for Movie Promotions:

Since the whole concept of Marketing is evolving and thus is Social Media, there are many innovations possible in making a brand out of anything. However, these activities are restricted to create hype before the launch and do not ensure good reviews of the movie.

Have you noticed many changes in the hash-tags off lately on Twitter? Over the time these hash-tags by the brands are misused for promotions or contests. As far as I can connect, they are used so that people or target audience can be associated with particular topic of discussion.

Brands started promoting the tweets with relevant hash tags which were mainly keywords with which people with common interest as that of that company can be identified. But yesterday I came across a weird trending hash-tag on twitter which was as long as a tweet. And this one is not the only one, brands are allowing the agencies or the in-house Social Media resource to play with the image by coming up with funny & irritating hash-tags.

It is extremely difficult to understand that renowned brands which have strict discipline on their offline communication can be so casual on their online part. Or is it that they feel that online audience is non-serious audience and they can be flexible in their approach?

Let us understand 5 Hash-tag etiquette from Marketing point of view:

  

Many of us watch MasterChef and for various reasons we love the show. Perhaps this is one such series that even the vegetarians across India watch. Ever wondered why? It is because more than the recipe, the contestants share the innovations possible, the new ingredients, the excitement of the time and many Management lessons.

No, we do not watch it for learning Management. Of course not, but the show comes with handful of them (in the order of how the show runs)-

There are many other small day to day incidences which life teaches us from these shows such as budgeting, timing, prioritizing, presentation, servicing the end consumer and customer satisfaction. It depends on us how we tune ourselves after watching them.

Summary from the above Management Lessons in a Quote - ‘Life does throw lemon on all of us; we have to be opportunistic to ask for tequila and salt!’

The common man is getting grilled. Sandwiched between the two political parties, one dived deep into corruption and irresponsibility towards the citizen while the other is drawing attention towards one religion, not being secular and showing dreamy development claims. 

And then we have one economist proudly coming on TV saying ‘I don’t want Narendra Modi as PM of India’. Is this not just a statement? Has he given any kind of solution to this issue? When asked that does he favour UPA, he said my statement does not mean endorsing UPA.

Hearing him yesterday on NDTV (clipping here) was actually funny. All of us are aware of problems but what is the solution. Why is media over hyping the Rahul-Modi issue?

Being an Economist of India, he is not expected to just become the limelight with one statement. If he has been a learned entity in the past, he must either come up with an answer to the problem that what should citizens of India do or should keep himself restricted from the media.

He should have researched well before to speak that Rahul Gandhi can be alternate PM, I mean as an Indian citizen we just do not want him to lead the country for we do not feel he is responsible for such a big task. In his speech he says - “He might be an excellent alternative, but I haven't decided yet." "Do I like Rahul Gandhi? Yes...He is from my college. When I talk to him, I enjoy it.” Though he also mentioned that this is not how the people of India should vote.

Can he be targeted as pro-UPA? Or anti BJP? I being a simple Indian national would just ask one simple question ‘how does that matter whether he is favoring UPA or anti BJP. He is just one common man who is trying to influence the countrymen. That’s it!’

The summary of this blog is as diluted as his statement and higher possibility is that maximum of us would not vote this year. All of us who feel that nation is deprived of a candidate that these goon filled parties are offering would not vote. All those who are hypnotized by the work of congress would vote on their behalf. Many who believe that Modi would be able to make a good PM considering various developments and his understanding despite his wrongly targeting a particular community would go on his behalf.  And as I wrote in my first line majority would as usual be ‘sandwiched and grilled’.

And the last line of this article from Business Standard is aptly written, people are getting submerged by the headlines given by the media rather than reading details about the facts.

While it has been long that I last wrote my blog and I was waiting for real incident on the web to actually write something meaningful. There were many topics but one which affected me is actually problematic for the booming digital industry.

Ok, let me start with a question: 

What would you do if you see this tweet on a Friday when a new Bollywood move (in this case D-Day) is released? Obviously your plan would be to read the tweet reviews, go on to other sites and then plan to watch it if they are good. Right?

And what if you click on the link to understand that there is NO review.  The link content is:

Is this not cheating for personal benefit? Let me explain – the site sensationalized the headlines and prompted the user to click the link thus making sure to take the page views number high. These page view numbers are then taken to various brands and asking them to advertise on their portal.

What the brand was trying to do is ‘crowd-sourcing the tweets’ which is innovative but was it actually a review as mentioned in the tweet?

A very big question which arises here is – Should social media be regulated or regular media be checked?

Sad & bitter truth – The goal of the brand is not the quality of content but the views on the content. It is how the success metrics are defined in the campaign.

Writing very specifically of the above case, there are ‘n’ numbers of news channels with ‘n’ number of movie reviewers. The brand would want many views and interactions and Social Media agency is under tremendous pressure to bring an idea which is a Kolavari Di or viral (this is another problem). This propels the social media handlers to sometimes go overboard to spread the brand name.

Coming on to a conclusion for this problem is difficult because wrong practices are leading to success for the brands. The content if ethically monitored may undergo changes and in-turn would not ensure the so-called clicks and then result in the failure of the campaign.

But the bottom line is ‘creating thin content is bad SEO’ and it would not be able to take you too far. For individuals, it is a matter of personal freedom to write and express their feelings whether right or wrong. They may write it for themselves, for a company, incident, or even on any individual which makes a separate issue to regulate the personal space but for brands it is very important to realize the long term goals rather than bring the success in short term goals without planning & strategy. Making  a viral is in the hand of customer and not in the brains of agency but creating unique, innovative and authentic content is definitely their responsibility which should be regulated as a practice. 

We watch - we criticize; we enjoy – we thrash… We continue to talk about the matches, the players, the team owners, the opening & closing ceremony every year and that is nothing but IPL fever. It is the dough mix of glamour & sports, style & spirit and money & unity.

IPL from season 1 to season 6 has enthralled the masses not only in India but also abroad. From corruption to cheerleaders, from teams to brawls, from ads to after parties almost everything is in the Newspapers, TV news and not to forget Social Networking.

Ever wondered how much does the production of a TV ad costs? And once it is created, how much does it cost to promote it? No idea, well one can make an ad anywhere from few lakhs to crores (depends on creative & technology required) and promotions on TV can be unlimited. It actually depends on brand’s spending capacity. However minimum requirement for a brand to spread its message amongst masses is in between Rs. 5cr to Rs. 10cr.

*And how much are these advertisers spending to be a part of this IPL season? It is between Rs. 4.5 lakh to Rs. 5.5 lakh for ten seconds slot. And in-case the brand is one of the main sponsors (Like Pepsi & Vodafone) then the brand is shelling out nothing less than Rs. 60cr on ads. For other sponsors like Micromax, Godrej Eon, Usha, Parle, Samsung the cost is between Rs 25cr to Rs. 30cr.

An interesting data comes from CRIC study for developing strategies for advertising during IPL:

Basis the above points, let us analyse:

To build a complete case study, let us first find out the brands advertising in IPL6 – Total of 25 Brands (what I can recall and are prominent)– Pepsi, Samsung, Vodafone, Coke, Voltas, Panasonic, Rasna, Parle, Bisleri, Micromax, Godrej, Airtel, Videocon, Limca, Hero, Sony, Cleartrip, Hitachi, Usha, Cadbury, Docomo, Karbonn, Arise, Havells and Berger Paints - Now that seems BIG show & whooping money.

For a minute, can you visualize the ad for each brand? If yes, then that brand is successful in creating a space for itself in the consumer’s mind. If no, then despite spending so much money it is not helping the brand.

Now let us connect the pieces by taking individual brands with scores of GOOD, BAD & OK:

The GOODs

The OKs

The BADs

Many other brands (Asian Paints, V Guard, Sprite, Kent, Quicker etc.) are taking a step in the end to advertise so that they do not miss the bus and also that the last few days have higher visibility as per the data by TAM (TV Audience Measurement)

Summarizing the above with a very strong view point and facts – If only 7 out of 25 i.e. close to 30% of the brands are GOOD such that they have grown in the consumer minds, interacted not only through TV ads but also taken it online, mall activations and outdoor then why are the other brands splurging their monies. 

Close to 30% of the brands are OK advertisers, then they need some improvement be it the creative or be it a push on media or taking the message beyond TV and for rest 40% BAD advertisers, it is time that you as a marketer sit with creative and digital agency and co-create a content which is worth the consumers.

*Source MSM (Multi Screen Media (MSM), the official broadcaster of the IPL). The image is used from CRIC study by Domor Communication Consulting and Vivaki Exchange on Marketing by brands participating in IPL.