Internet rejuvenating Indian Art Industry!

Yesterday while just casually browsing through ET, one piece which caught my immediate attention was how internet is changing the face of Indian Art Industry. Indian Art and Internet, oh wow what a lovely combination as both happen to be my special areas of interests – art out of passion and internet out of profession J. I immediately stopped over to read the complete story and I was quite happy to observe the shift which is happening even in Indian Art Industry because of this overall internet revolution. Not only artists are using Internet for reaching out to different markets but they are also using it for expanding their canvas of inspiration. While offline stores, galleries and exhibitions give artists a chance to promote large number of creations at one go but at the same time Internet gives them a very wide avenue for promoting their work to right kind of TG across different geographies at a very economic cost. Most importantly you get to see work of other people, you can discuss and share feedback with like minded people as well as it provides ample opportunities for an artist to study and research the subject of painting thereby expanding his / her creative horizon. While downside of it is definitely there with more chances of plagiarism and piracy but as per me the positive aspects of it outweigh the negative ones.

Indian Art industry is moving ahead quite positively and thanks to the internet exposure that prices of Indian works are growing northwards. As per an estimate by the creator of The Fine Art Fund, Phillip Hoffman, the size of the Indian market has grown from $2 million to approximately $400 million in the last seven years and to add to that as per Yamini Mehta, director of modern and contemporary Indian art at the London-based Christie’s, “Indian art is becoming a part of international consciousness, which is why we have seen a spectacular growth in this field”. More and more people outside are looking out for Indian masterpieces and famous artists are getting unimaginable prices too. Early this year M.F. Husain’s “Battle of Ganga and Jamuna” sold for $1.6 million in New York! $1.6 million…this is seriously some money man J.

As an amateur artist with a strong passion towards painting, I have always believed in the power of internet for promoting Indian Art to the right TG. Personally speaking I paint out of hobby and have never tried doing it commercially but I know of many good and senior artists who earn their living through art only and I know how difficult it is for them to meet their ends because of low potential in the local market. I know of this friend of mine who is a very good senior level artist but she was always confined to the limits of Indian Market. One fine day I helped her in building a website and we put her paintings in sites like e-bay etc. Though there was no miraculous result which happened immediately and of course she didn’t make any earnings in million dollars but results were not bad either. She started making money slowly out of online selling and atleast she gets lots of leads now through her website of people interested in learning painting from her. She has got steady income and now she keeps on telling everybody about power of internet and how it can help them in reaching out to wider sphere.

Reading that article in ET with the word “industry” suffixed everywhere after “Indian Art” instilled quite some hope within me. Wish, like many other industries internet revolutionizes Indian Art industry as well with more and more open minded artists who are willing to try out newer technologies and platforms.

Women Gamers to double by 2010

So, gone are the days when games esp. online games were monopolized by kids and men. According to a recent survey report of video game industry’s trade group, 40% of gamers in US are women. Another interesting trend is the average age of gamers which has gone upto 35 years (Source: Womengamers.com, 18^th July’08). 40% women gamers, whoa that’s an impressive figure esp. when the general perception is that women prefer television or books more for entertainment as compared to anything else.

Gaming scene even back home for women is quite positive. Many Indian gaming companies are launching games targeted esp. towards women. Infact women’s attitude towards entertainment is changing quite interestingly. Unlike earlier days, not only women are seeking entertainment avenues to beat the stress of work and home but they are also open to trying out new platforms. No more women are glued on to only television soaps or the saas bahu saga, today’s women are trying it all, right from online music to movies to games. Now online games and Indian women connection seem very intriguing esp. when till few years back most of the Indian women used to forbid their kids from playing video games considering it be absolute waste of time and distraction from studies J.

Lots of Indian companies are launching women specific games especially to woo them considering women are the most important decision makers for most of the purchase decisions in a family. Here are some of the observations to substantiate this further:

• FX Labs recently launched its game named “Agni” in which the story revolves around a mother and a child. Infact they are heavily promoting this game and Malaika Arora Khan is the brand ambassador for Agni.

• Games2win has released close to 60 games targeted at women and has spent clore to Rs 4 crore on their development.

• Onlinerealgames.com and neodelight.com have got more than 50 women centric games and more interesting is the statistics of women subscribers on onlinerealgames.com. Approx 30% if its overall subscribers are women.

• Zapak has got a special section in its site for women known as zapakgirls.com and it has got different interesting games for women of different age groups.

• Lastly and most importantly, I as a woman consumer find online gaming to be a huge stress buster and I am seriously glued on to some of the games on Zapak and Games2win J

Online gaming industry in India is growing encouragingly and is projected to touch $100 million in India by 2010, which is already a $2.25-billion market globally. Women gamers are expected to double in this segment by 2010. Double in next 2 years and that too in such a non-conventional entertainment segment, way to go women!

Jhingalala’s counter strategy

So, this is the counter strategy of Jhingalala brand – TATA Sky. Well, media is splashed all across these days with “Wish Karo Dish Karo” statement of SRK – TV, Press, Online, Outdoor almost everywhere you go, you can see an ad of DishTV these days! Even the price has been reduced drastically now and Set Top Box offered is completely free. I was wondering where has Tata Sky gone suddenly? They had started with a big bang with Hrithik Roshan, Kirron Kher, Paresh Rawal etc etc appearing in their ads but then there was sort of silence from their side for quite some now. Well looks like the silence is over. Aamir Khan has been signed as the new brand ambassador for Tata Sky! Bingoooo…Aamir to counter Shahrukh! Well, good one. Anyways there is enough noise about Aamir – SRK hot chemistry in media these days be it films or the endorsements or the blog . Remember the buzz about Aamir’s blog with Shahrukh or tiff-taff between these two endorsers indirectly through their brands like Samsung (read Aamir) vs. Nokia (Shahrukh). So, looks like now it’s again gonna be Aamir Vs. Shahrukh through DishTV vs. Tata Sky.

With Indian consumer spending more and more on entertainment these days, DTH market is growing quite positively esp. after the recent price war between different players. Infact like most of the consumer electronics & entertainment items, prices have gone down drastically for DTH too in India. DishTV had recently launched its very attractive pricing based campaign where set box was offered completely free! As per the media coverages, DishTV subscription has gone up by 60% after the launch of this campaign. With 57% market share of overall DTH market, DishTV has currently approx 3.5 million subscriber base whereas Tata Sky has just 2.2 million (source: televisionpoint.com, date: 10^th July’08). Hmmm time for Tata Sky to pull up its sleeves now. Let’s see what’s in store for consumers from Tata Sky now, with Aamir as the new endorser and campaigns round the corner, hope Jhingalala comes up with something better this time as against Wish karo Dish karo!

Bollywood promotions – other interesting examples

I had written post about bollywood marketing earlier as well, I must say things are getting innovative day by day. The most talked about two recent releases are “Love Story 2050” & “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na”. Both are releasing on 4^th July’08 and both these films are marketing their stuff quite aggressively. Though both are quite hyped up movies but guess Jaane Tu…has managed to grab more pre-release attention because of its super aggressive PR plans and 360 degree marketing approach. After observing different promotional strategies of these two movies, I think the two key catchy promotional strategies which I noticed are:

• Marketing Tie-ups: Both these movies have managed to get big brands roped in for their movies. “Love Story 2050” has got Lux, Xbox 360, Tata Indicom and Sun Microsystems interested for branding and marketing tie-ups whereas “Jaane Tu…” has secured marketing alliances with Zee and Sony, and is expected to sign Coke and Toyota, brands endorsed by Aamir Khan. Not that tie-ups like these are something new but the fact that now-a-days such tie-ups are covering the overall production cost of even huge budgeted films like “Love Story 2050” is something really fascinating. “We have covered 20% of our production costs through brand and marketing tie-ups. But if we combine the money that we have earned through merchandising and distribution deals, it would cover 100% of the costs. Anything that we will earn from now on would be profits for us,” says Rowena Baweja of Harry Baweja Productions. Love Story 2050′s production cost is an estimated Rs 50 crore (Source: ET online, dated 23^rd June’08). 50 crores getting covered through tie-ups and merchandising, wow, really interesting!

• Increasing online promotions: Next important thing which caught my immediate attention today was promotion of these films in online world…most of the popular sites are splashed with “Jaane Tu…” promo today, not sure if they had started their online promo earlier but it struck to my eyes today only and more so because of this very catchy ad on msn India homepage today.

(Brief description for the benefit of those who have missed out this ad: As soon as you go to msn India home page, suddenly you see Imran Khan walking all over the screen very coolly and then he suddenly knocks the screen and goes back to that Jane Tu Box). I have seen some other ads earlier as well like this but somehow the presentation and background score of this ad was too good! Apart from this they have other interesting banners on facebook, AOL bollywood etc and a very trendy website as well. It’s cool, vibrant and think can establish a good connect with their youth TG. Hmmm, movies are seriously investing in websites these days!

Well, the fate of these movies as well as the return on investment will be decided tomorrow but one thing is sure – movie marketing is definitely becoming an interesting field in itself.

Aside: I watched Jaane Tu last weekend…loved it. Same old story, same old climax, same end but still it was so fresh! I would recommend it to everybody who just want to go for some light and fun flick. And take my words, it will surely remind of your good old student life days and suddenly after coming out you will feel like either talking to your friends or talking about your friends