Marketing of movies and effectiveness of Social Media

Abstract

A positively intriguing advertisement might catch the eye of a prospective customer but exposure steals the limelight when it comes to the actual consumption of the product, which is why the slogan “Right Marketing is indeed the key to Selling” always floats high. And in this tech savvy environment we find ourselves in, what better way to make a strong marketing plan than to have a stellar internet presence. All said, in the celluloid industry, the timing of publicity efforts goes a long way in settling on the fate of a movie at the box office. It contrives on the principle of “keep whetting the appetite” of your audience, so their curiosity level is at its peak when the film releases. Nonetheless, we find the moviemakers in India, to be subdued in this and restrict publicity to a mere few weeks before release. Initial part of study focuses on development of conceptual model for marketing of movies based on different models defined in literature, like Regression-based models, Behavioral based model, Models that jointly consider demand and supply, and Pre-test market approaches. The model proposed is based on three types of variables viz. production, distribution and psychological. Production variables include budget, screenplay and personnel whereas distribution variables include season of release of movie, number of screens, major distributors, marketing expenditure and market competition. There are certain psychological aspects which influence the success of movie, which include social influence, group problem solving, creative talent and cinematic aesthetics. The approach followed for this model is one of the scientific approach, but we believe that different models are needed to capture the ‘‘passive’’ movie watchers’ and the ‘‘active’’ entertainment consumers’ behavior. Such models are likely to help in identifying fundamental differences that will have significant implications on both the appropriate content provision as well as on the marketing strategy. The latter part of the study uses consumer survey to understand the effectiveness of various social media promotional techniques in influencing the audience mindset i.e. to establish relation between social media promotion and success of Bollywood movies in India. Nevertheless, a little late though, but never too late, the influence of internet presence and digital marketing on Indian Cinema is ever demanding and changing the very facet of the industry. The penetration of social media among the target market segment is phenomenal. Social media channels implement the viral marketing strategy of creating a buzz among the social groups by leveraging on the influence of friends on creating a profound network effect. Also, the “crowd-sourcing channels” seem to have a larger radius over the “internal-sourcing channels”, which makes social networking sites more effective marketing channels than blogs and other internet channels, which is even the trend in favoritism of online social media channels in surveyed audience. One more notable observation being the movie-watching decision is driven more by “Favorite star cast and director” than “recommendations from friends/relatives”, which should be utilized while launching social media campaigns. Hence, social media channels like YouTube, Face Book/Orkut etc. can be seen to be on the priority list of movie marketers; nonetheless being comparatively cheaper and more effective marketing strategy makes it even more desirable. Given the relevance of social media to the target customer segment, it is essential that the significant resources be utilized in social media marketing initiatives as well in addition to traditional media initiatives, by movie makers. At last, the social media marketing model has been proposed based on insights from survey analysis. It highlights four ways of social media communication viz. inform, interact, engage and transact, which can be used in two staged approach (Planning and Execution).