The Hindu Business Line : Marketing movie brands

We've barely gotten over the marketing barrage of Krrish. Our very own desi superman was positioned as all things to all people. Singapore Tourism Board even advertised a special tour that offered not just breakfast with orangutans and dinner at a night safari park but the promise to show star-struck tourists where all the action scenes of Krrish had been filmed in Singapore. Bollywood is the current favourite of city fathers from Switzerland and Malaysia to Singapore and New York.

New York city should be considering a special honour to young Karan Johar. With Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, marketing and publicising movies has entered an all-new phase. And I rate Karan Johar as the new Bollywood brand.

Firstly, one has to hand it to the young movie moghul. He boldly goes about calling his movie KANK. The sheer morbid curiosity an acronym like that could generate is the starting point of what one must rate as one of the most high-powered marketing and communications blitzes the Indian moviegoer has been subjected to.

Stepping back a bit, one must realise that Bollywood produces about a thousand films a year, is ranked as the second largest movie industry in the world and forms a very major part of the Indian film industry that FICCI projects as a Rs 10,000-crore industry in a few years time.

So why is there no real formal marketing done in this industry? Why don't Dharma films or Yash Raj Films or R.K. Films recruit B-school marketing graduates?

I personally believe it is just a matter of time before this happens. The scale and the complexities are increasing at a rate where specialised marketing skills will be a real necessity.

Hollywood has already gone far in a variety of marketing initiatives. The producers of The Da Vinci Code tied up with Google and worked at what could be called "curiosity marketing." One must admit it was a great way to involve people who were tech-savvy, and interested in anything intriguing to combine their interest with that of the movie. It also deflected the religious slant away from the movie. The producers also invited eminent authors to debate the merits of the film and the book, which in turn set off a rash of blogs that kept interest in the film alive for a considerable period in time.

Some studios are providing mash-ups (mixed versions of music from the movie using material available on the films' official Web site). These mash-ups can be viewed on a host of portals including Google video and their success can be gauged from the fact that very often disc jockeys use this material at popular discos.

The movie Snakes on a Plane uses a viral marketing technique where users log in and can then send a personalised viral message to someone, spoken by the star of the movie, Samuel Jackson. Imagine getting a call from Shah Rukh Khan wishing you a Happy Birthday, on behalf of a friend! I only received a taped version of a call from Atal Behari Vajpayee asking me to vote for the BJP.

All this community-building can work in a country that enjoys significant Internet penetration. India may have to wait a bit before this really proves to be a big part of the marketing mix.

Yet, Bollywood has come a long way. One is beginning to see movie merchandise become common, and Bollywood stars converted into dolls are flying off store shelves in the UK.

Karan Johar, of course, has really turned up the decibel level in tom-tomming his KANK. It must help that he is himself a young, articulate TV show anchor. It also helps that he has planned out the "making of KANK" with interviews with his stars which make for great feed. It further makes life easy that he has a battalion of mega stars who form the cast of KANK.

One must also keep in mind the fact that cinema is a product as well as a medium. It is a great medium of entertainment. Therefore, cinema the product becomes relatively easier to promote. Every TV channel in the news and entertainment genre is perfectly happy to get generous bits of the movie or the equally entertaining clips of the "making of the movie" and use it as content on their channels. In this way, the "advertising" of the film does not end up as an intrusion or an interruptive device like conventional advertising does. Here, the viewer is happy to see the content, even if it is a commercial message.

KANK had a tie-up with Hewlett Packard which ran a promotion that offered buyers of Compaq Presario laptops a chance to win a range of KANK merchandise and SRK posters. A leading wireless solutions provider offered exclusive content of Karan's film on mobile phones. A leading newspaper offered an exclusive show for its readers. The range of marketing and publicity measures used is impressive. And then, KANK and Karan were all over the TV channels and newspapers. The media was indulging in a feeding frenzy that gleefully reported such delicious titbits that Karan required sleeping pills to turn off his overworked mind and grab a few hours of sleep.

The audience will decide the fate and fortunes of Karan and his KANK. Yet, one has no doubt seen the beginning of a phase where marketing movies will take on new meaning.

(Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant.)

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