As I said earlier like Hollywood, movie marketing is getting innovative day by day in Bollywood as well. We can see quite ground-breaking examples with each movie, be it Jaane Tu Jaane Na, Love Story 2050, Bachna Ae Hasseno, Rock On, Phoonk etc. Promoters are trying everything from reality shows, online promotions, interactive websites, innovative contests, promotions on social media to the good ol’ days traditional promotions like television, hoardings and print. While everybody is trying to do some or other promotions but there are some who start a trend by trying out something hat ke. Joining the bandwagon of bit hat ke promotion now is the upcoming movie Drona.
This weekend television was flooded with Abhishek Bachchan appearance in every other program, you switch any channel and you can see Junior B doing only three things – either mentioning the fact that Drona is the best movie he would have worked in or praising his dad and wifey’s acting talent or shaking his legs on Kajra Re . So, what was so Hat ke about Drona promos on television? I mean these days weekends are flooded with star appearances promoting their upcoming movie, so wasn’t Abhishek’s presence same as any other movie promo on television these days? Well, it was more or less same on other channels wherein he was judging reality shows like X, Y, Z, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, 200, 300, 400 (oh I’m actually losing count of ongoing reality shows ) but it was definitely different on NDTV and Colors. On NDTV, this time in “India Questions” series it was Jr. B who made an appearance, this program is hosted by none other than Dr. Prannoy Roy himself and I personally like to watch this program whenever I can. But naturally the audience ratio was skewed positively towards females and the way the program was conducted was interesting. Apart from promo of movie Drona in a very subtle way, Abhishek’s fans got to know lots of other interesting facts about Abhishek as well thereby definitely leaving a positive impact of the actor and his upcoming movie Drona. Next was his appearance in this very irritating program Bigg Boss…well personally I hate that program from the core of my heart but the way Jr. B was involved in that program has definitely created quite some noise…the participants not only were made to act some scenes of Drona rather Abhishek got to spend some time inside the house as a normal participant. Well, many people who are not regular viewer of that program also actually ended up watching that episode because of Jr. B’s presence inside the house.
Next very noticeable promotion strategy of this movie is the hat-ke merchandize of the movie Drona. Producers of Drona are all set to launch a comic series based on Drona, the first of which titled “The Crowning” is set to hit the shelves of book stores on 30th Sep’08. Now in Hollywood we all know the trend of movies based on comic but this trend of a comic based on movie is quite interesting I must say. Of late, producers have tried games and other interactive merchandises based on Bollywood movies but not many of them were as such a huge success but Drona being a sci-fi movie maybe the comic will click with kids and younger comic loving TG. The comic is priced at Rs. 50 and is distributed by Euro Kids. Approx 20,000 copies have been printed in first phase and will be circulated through various key channels like Shoppers’ Stop, Future Group outlets etc. Hmmm interesting merchandise option and I think comic based on Indian Super hero has some potential as well.
Drona is slated to release on 2nd Oct’08, now let’s see how the end product is and what has box office in store for this movie? At the end no promotion can help in sustaining a product if the product itself is not good
UPDATE: Thanks to Copyscape, I’ve once again found somebody copying the exact content of my blog without mentioning the source as my URL, for e.g., this post is replicated ditto here, so much so that they have used this image as well which was actually clicked from my TOI newspaper by my camera. Any idea what is this Traders Group and how can I stop them for copying without acknowledging the source? Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated. Infact these copying websites go upto the extent of changing the dates as well and post it on dates prior to the post, really sad and shameful
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While flipping through yesterday’s TOI, happened to glace through the advertisement of Indian Post Service. To be honest it was a pleasant surprise to see the two half page teasers followed by one full page advertisement of Indian Post. Not only the messaging and communication was looking fresh, rather they had changed their logo as well. The logo clearly looks like an envelope and at first quick look itself one can establish the connect between logo and nature of service. Infact I think this envelope kind of design looks bit modern and stylish as compared to their old logo. The communication ends with this interesting and self-explanatory message “DAK SEVA, JAN SEVA”. First of all it’s really good to observe this re-positioning exercise taken by Indian Post Department. I liked the communication which is very much based on emotional connect, O&M has done it once again very rightly as they have done for lots of other brands in past . Here is a peek at the new logo and the TOI creative:
Like many other Govt. organization, even Indian Post was badly in need of an image makeover. Definitely it looks like a new journey for Indian Post. But is it really a new journey? Will just a brand campaign and full page advertisements in main media lead to re-establishing the impact of Indian Post in minds of Indian Consumers? Now let me narrate two of my very recent personal experiences with Indian Post.
Last month I had received a letter from Indian Post mentioning a speed post had come for me, it was some bank letter and it’s lying at their office. And I can come and collect that letter from their office between 10 am to 5 pm within 3 days. If I’m not wrong I got this message on Monday evening. No further details and no phone numbers left on that slip. Now in today’s professional lifestyle, how is it possible for us to collect the parcel between 10 to 5 on a normal weekday? We tried to think of some other possible alternatives, but well its Govt organization so we had to succumb to their rigid rules and regulations and resultantly my husband decided to go to office late next day and collected the post from the address mentioned in the slip.
Two weeks back, we again received a slip mentioning some speed post is waiting in their office and we need to collect the same. My first reaction – Oh god, not again! No normal Indian Consumer uses the speed post from Indian Post Dept anymore, why can’t these banks also stop using it and shift to some private courier service??? Husband was not in town, so I decided to pick it up, and hence next day decided to go to office late. I reached post office at sharp 10:00 am, waited patiently for the post office to open and lo’ nobody turned up on time. To add to that the place was really very shabby with dogs roaming around, it was so difficult to stand over there and wait for it to open. Finally one gentleman turned up and on asking he replied without even looking at my face, “madam this is not my department, wait for XYZ to some and he will give you the same”! Waited patiently for 45 mins but then when Mr. XYZ didn’t turn up till 10:45, I decided to give up on the same as 12 o’clock I was having some meeting at office. And sadly my office is quite far from my residence and it takes me good one and half hour to reach my office on any normal day. Neither I was able to collect the letter nor I managed to reach on time . Its more than two weeks now and we have not managed to collect the letter till now, I’m sure it would have returned back to its place of origin by now.
While image makeover and re-positioning exercise in terms of communication and advertising is all very good but first thing which departments like Indian Posts should do is overhaul their overall delivery and customer service system to suit the need and pace of today’s Indian consumer. Gone are the days when consumers were dependent on Govt. organizations, today consumers have enough alternatives available to fulfill their needs. So, if Indian Post Department really wants to go for image makeover, they should first of all invest in good technology, customer care department, infrastructure and delivery options. Then only they will be able to compete with private players and hopefully win back their old customers. We had seen some of the very famous Govt organizations like BSNL, SBI, LIC etc going in for image makeover and spending huge money on brand campaigns, some of it yielded good results and some not. Just advertising and promises through communication doesn’t make any sense if the organization is not having the backend to deliver the promise to the customer. Let’s see what’s in store for Indian Post Department ahead. Hopefully they are trying to buck up their overall system as well along with this interesting brand campaign.
Well, this news in ET yesterday caught my immediate attention which reads something like this – “Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a Web guru. Bill Tancer, a self-described “data geek”, has analysed information for over 10 million Web users to conclude that we are, in fact, what we click, with Internet searches giving an up-to-date view of how society and people are changing. Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, an Internet tracking company, said one of the major shifts in Internet use in the past decade had been the fall off in interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites. He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 per cent of searches from 20 per cent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.” (Source: Economic Times dated 22nd Sep’08)
Prima facie it looks like a good news, isn’t it? Atleast parents of growing kids and admin guys in corporates can heave a sigh of relief to read this, they need not worry about monitoring their kids and employees respectively and brooding over their wasting time on internet by searching and surfing adult contents. As per Tancer’s assumption, young people aged between 18-24 are spending more and more time on social networks and hence they are not left with much time to spend on porn sites… Hmmm interesting observation but is it the reality??? Don’t you think this is a very theoretical assumption? Well, we all know that almost all social networking sites are full of porn and adult content, infact I think its all the more easier to access such content through these social networking sites. I know of parents who have put filter for certain URLs in their home computers but of course have allowed sites like Orkut and facebook as that’s where their kids prefer to spend most of their times, now isn’t it true that most of the teenagers these days can access any kind of porn content on social networking sites like orkut or video sites like youtube? Infact finding girls / boys, contacting them, sex-chatting, dating etc have become so easy these days through these sites and almost all possible information are available at one place only. Now why will the searching of porn content not go down when everything is so easily accessible now? Social networking sites are definitely getting more and more popular day by day and yes youngsters are spending more time on such sites than specific porn sites these days but isn’t it because of apart from other X reasons like bonding with friends, finding old friends etc, youngsters are surfing lots of porn content on these sites itself? Well, atleast I strongly think so and feel porn is another spicy hook for social networking sites being so sticky apart from other reasons like friends, hobbies, games, applications, networking etc etc etc.
One of my friends forwarded me the link http://helpbihar.in which is a campaign for helping Bihar Flood Victims. Its an initiative started by www.planindia.org and the conceptualization and design is done by Quasar – an interactive online agency. This site asks you to fill answer for some simple questions and for each correct answer sponsors would donate Torches, Candles, Milk powder, Match Boxes, Chlorine Tablets, Nylon Ropes, Tarpaulin Sheets and Biscuits to Bihar Flood Victims. Sponsors name and logo is mentioned in the right hand side of each question and some of the sponsors observed by me were Godrej, Chevrolet and Cadence. For each correct answer you get to know what you have donated to help the Bihar Flood Victims. The more people answer the questions, the more donations go to flood victims.
Initially I had some doubt on the authenticity of this campaign and hence I directly asked it from one of my business associates who works for Quasar and he confirmed that this is very much a real campaign and the donations are being given by the sponsors to Bihar Flood Victims. The site has this message displayed on top – “The more people play this game, the more help goes to flood victims. Soclick here to invite your friends. My first reaction as a user after submitting the answers was to send this to all my friends and acquaintances. Me and many of my friends have donated money and clothes to victims as per our means and resources but when I sent this link to them not only did they answer the questions themselves but most of them have forwarded this link to all in their contact list. When I put this link in my status message in all chat engines, almost 50% of my contacts in my list pinged me and asked, “what is this link all about”. A very very effective viral marketing example I must say! This definitely has the power to encourage individuals to pass on this message to others and hence has the potential for exponential growth and influence. And the best part is that it immediately connects to you and sending it to others is very spontaneous and intuitive. I liked this concept a lot and I think Quasar has done a wonderful job as far as conceptualization is concerned. Its really good to see such innovative viral campaigns not only for product promotions but for serious social causes like helping flood victims etc.
I had written earlier about BigB blogging on www.bigadda.com and initially I had read some of his posts as well but then in due course of time I stopped visiting his blog. But today I dropped into his blog again mainly because of some noise in media about his recent posts and oh the look and feel has changed completely from what it used to be during its initial days but nevertheless this new look is quite impressive! And the first quote by Harivansh Rai Bachchan is as always soooo good! But what caught my attention was the fact the current post is of day 151 and almost everyday there is atleast one post posted on that blog. Wow, this is really regular and good! As I said in my earlier post if it is BigB genuinely writing these posts then it is praiseworthy. Even if he is narrating and some content writer from BigAdda is writing it on his behalf then too I think its commendable, though because of so much of personal touch I am forced to think that its BigB who is writing all these posts. What caught my next attention was the post of day 140 which mentions the traffic of his blog since April’08, here is a snapshot of some of the important figures available on his blog:
Unique visitors since April08 – 1,05,0,520
Unique visitor for Sept 08 – 37,509
Average number of visits per day – 16,000 +
Total number of visits since April08 – 2,37,0,000
Total page views since April – 1,14,00,000
Average page views per day – 100,000
For once I think Bigadda has not hyped up this figure much. Considering the number of comments which any post is receiving on this blog (on an average each post receives somewhere between 700-1000 comments), I am sure 16000+ daily visitors is sort of a real figure. And 11.4 million pageviews is a very striking figure considering its hardly a six month old blog. Not many websites also achieve this kind of figures in such a short span. Good for Bigadda, atleast they have one differentiator now which can bring more traffic to their website. Otherwise there was hardly anything on their website (apart from those “lets catch up” ads on which they wasted few crores to get some one time visitors, LOL ) which can make anyone visit their site again. With a 16,000+ daily visitor count, I am sure BigB’s blog is contributing to a major % of their daily traffic. Infact recently bigadda has changed their UI, considering the % contribution and the fact that this is Bigadda’s only strong point, I am wondering if apart from UI, Bigadda should have gone for a re-branding exercise as well and change it to BigBadda
Overall very remarkable statistics considering its just a blog, but afterall its BigB’s blog!
I had written earlier in July about Jhingala’s counter strategy and now that Aamir’s ad is out, I have a mixed reaction. Not that I didn’t like the same but at the same time it’s not something which made me say wow! The ad as we have seen features Aamir Khan in a half man half woman (ardhnarishwar) role. Here is a short description of the ad & the video from youtube:
Aamir plays the role of a Punjabi bride AND groom who are fighting over which satellite connection to have? Bride says if he will not get the SKY connection for her, she will go back to her house in London. They fight over TATA or SKY and then dramatically groom says, its India where Tata and Sky are already married to each other and hence by having TATA SKY the consumer not only gets the world class technology from SKY but also reliability and best service from TATA.
Well, as a consumer I think it has definitely caught my attention but I think it has its plus and minuses.
Message: I think the message is clear and emphasizes the strength of brand very clearly. I’m sure not many people were aware that TATA SKY is a 80:20 joint venture between Tata Sons and BSkyB, a Rupert Murdoch company and this ad very subtly conveys this message thereby accentuating the tech supremacy of the product.
Creative Idea: Hmmm, for this I do have a mixed reaction…Am wondering if there could have been any better creative idea for this campaign. Well, starting was sort of ok but I didn’t like the cheesy bollywoodish style ending of the same and the ending line which sounded something like “jo family dekhe Tata Sky saath who rahe hamesha saath saath”! Ummm knowing the excellent creative ideas which Rediffusion DY&R comes up with, I think it could have been bettered up.
Execution elements: I think this was brilliant! Whatever the creative idea was Aamir has lived upto it beautifully. Once again you can’t resist from praising Aamir’s acting and performance in this half man half woman role. BTW I think he is looking quite cute as Punjabi bride, LOL . The ad definitely has got a recall value because of its execution and presentation style.
The ad is making noise all across, now its time to wait and watch if this brand campaign boosts up the figures of Tata Sky as against DishTV whose last campaign (SRK announcing Set Top Box Free!) was pure n pure sales promo campaign.
Just came back from an official trip to Mumbai last week and what a nostalgia it was to be in Mumbai after all these years during Ganpati Festival. Mumbai was full of music, dance, colors, vibrancy and fun! I anyways love festivals and ganpati festival of Mumbai, oh wow!!! The merriment and feelings are just unexplainable in words. After work, every day I went for Ganpati puja at night to the nearby pandals. While the divinity remains the same but like many other things, even Ganapti Festival has undergone sea change in all these years. Well, every festival is getting commercialized but Ganpati is not only commercialized in Mumbai rather has gone completely high-tech too . Marketing and tech suaveness of these events just left me amazed. Here are some of the interesting incidences which I observed in Mumbai:
No more those yellow or pink pamphlets with black ink which were printed for puja and arti schedule. The residents of the colony where I was staying have received interesting html mailer invites with schedules and details. Not only that, even reminder emails are being sent for the key events.
Even a localized pandal like that of the colony was quite jazzy and full of sponsorship banners. Ah quite interesting banners and standees having interesting ganpati messages followed by promotional offers and almost all of them starting with “this ganpati bring home XYZ…”. Noticeable one was the ending messages after the arti songs in the CD which was also in the tone of arti song only (in hindi), “for success and prosperity, start your day with ganpati aradhana and mantras, buy now and avail N% discounts. Offer valid till ABC sept’08”
Move out in the city and there is not even a single brand who is not giving you Ganpati wishes including my company . Every other hoarding, bus shelter, bus back and posters are full of Ganapti messages followed by promotional messages establishing the connect between the festival and the need to buy that ABC product. Looks like today’s consumer needs to buy everything on this earth to have an auspicious and prosperous ganapti.
But the best was the “bhagwaan aye bluteooth se” promotion of Cycle Brand Agarbatti. They have converted six bus shelters and a hoarding in Mumbai into mini-pandals, decorated with cut-outs of the Ganpati idol and audio tracks of aartis being played twice a day. The brand’s incense sticks are also being burnt from 8 am to 9 pm. Not only that, they have made the bus shelters Bluetooth enabled wherein user can download ganpati related wallpapers, ringtones, videos, audio tracks etc. Very innovative and creative OOH promo strategy from Mudra I must say. Have a look on this interesting pic
Like every year even this year the talk of the town was “Lalbaug Cha Raja” who is one of the most popular Ganesh idols of Mumbai. But unlike earlier years, this year Raja was discussed for very different reasons. Lalbaugh Cha Raja turned 75 year this year and for the first time in its 75-year history, Raja’s massive marquee have been insured for a whopping Rs.26.5 million (nearly $600,000). According to Sunil Joshi, president of the Lalbaugcha Raja organisers, the insurance cover has been taken in view of security considerations for the devotees – comprising people from all over the state, foreign tourists, VVIPs, top industrialists and Bollywood personalities. The Ganesh pandal – as the marquees are known, its decorations and lighting have been erected over the past two months at a cost of nearly Rs.26.5 million. In case of any mishap, this will be fully covered by the insurance company as per its usual terms and condition. Rs. 26.5 million for a Pandal, quite an insurance amount by any parameter :O! (Source of this figure: DNA dated 3rd Sept08)
Bhagwaan coming through bluetooth and emails and getting the pandal insured for the safety of his bhaktas! Isn’t that interesting ?
. So, what was so Hat ke about Drona promos on television? I mean these days weekends are flooded with star appearances promoting their upcoming movie, so wasn’t Abhishek’s presence same as any other movie promo on television these days? Well, it was more or less same on other channels wherein he was judging reality shows like X, Y, Z, A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, 200, 300, 400 (oh I’m actually losing count of ongoing reality shows 
) but it was definitely different on NDTV and Colors. On NDTV, this time in “India Questions” series it was Jr. B who made an appearance, this program is hosted by none other than Dr. Prannoy Roy himself and I personally like to watch this program whenever I can. But naturally the audience ratio was skewed positively towards females and the way the program was conducted was interesting. Apart from promo of movie Drona in a very subtle way, Abhishek’s fans got to know lots of other interesting facts about Abhishek as well thereby definitely leaving a positive impact of the actor and his upcoming movie Drona. Next was his appearance in this very irritating program Bigg Boss…well personally I hate that program from the core of my heart but the way Jr. B was involved in that program has definitely created quite some noise…the participants not only were made to act some scenes of Drona rather Abhishek got to spend some time inside the house as a normal participant. Well, many people who are not regular viewer of that program also actually ended up watching that episode because of Jr. B’s presence inside the house.
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