Film Promotions-Are they really necessary?
Well the answer to this question is yes,at least for grabbing initial eyeballs and getting the movie a good opening which has become of paramount importance these days.Agreed that promotions cannot sell a bad movie but it can definitely get more out of a bad product.
There have been movies which are exceptionally good but have suffered due to lack of promotions.No wonder movies like Gangs of Wasseypur with a modest budget of under 20 crores are also keeping aside some budget for promotions.No doubt if the product is good it may pick by word of mouth and subsequently earn money from DVD or home video but even smaller films are also now realizing the importance of promotions and film promotions have come a long way from posters and trailers to being promoted everywhere from serials to malls to events these days
Firstly we need to undersand why film promotions have become so big now a days.The reason is today the audiences have a wide variety of choices for entertainment-there are malls,lounges,clubs and swanky restaurants.In early days films probably used to be the only source of entertainment for people but post 2000 and particularly in last few years avenues for entertainment has increased manifold and you need to do something extra to lure audiences to the theatre otherwise they can opt for other sources for entertainment
But its a win win situation for both audiences and stars.Audiences because they get to see their stars more often and interact with them live and for stars too get to interact with their fans more often and one to one basis and promote their movies
But there is a flip side too, that a good promotional campaign for a movie can increase the expectations and if the movie is not upto the mark the audience feels cheated and makes them think that the stars were simply fooling them and some times the stars can also suffer from over-exposure but then balance is necessary everywhere
Also they need to understand the difference between PR and Marketing.A star going everywhere and talking about their movies is more of a PR thing and they can suffer from over exposure too.Markeitng is where they may not be present but their movie is being promoted.A good example here can be of that of Ghajini's promotions where people were going for the Ghajini sort of haircut even when Aamir Khan was not present there
Also if the concept of a movie is different or substantial enough they should also try marketing the concept rather than stars being present everywhere.For ex-a Bol Bacchan cannot be promoted based on its concept but a film like Joker can be promoted by talking about aliens(they did so but not sure if they did so only because Akshay Kumar refused to promote the movie:p).Similarly Kya Super Cool Hain Hum cannot be promoted based on its concept but a movie like Raaz 3 can be promoted by talking about spirits and paranomal things of black magic
Of course there have been some weird promotional strategies too but there have been some very good campaigns too which can put good marketers to shame.Today there are some specialized agencies handling the film promotions but I am sure that in future the mainstream advertising agencies will also start selling films the same way as they sell other products
There have been movies which are exceptionally good but have suffered due to lack of promotions.No wonder movies like Gangs of Wasseypur with a modest budget of under 20 crores are also keeping aside some budget for promotions.No doubt if the product is good it may pick by word of mouth and subsequently earn money from DVD or home video but even smaller films are also now realizing the importance of promotions and film promotions have come a long way from posters and trailers to being promoted everywhere from serials to malls to events these days
Firstly we need to undersand why film promotions have become so big now a days.The reason is today the audiences have a wide variety of choices for entertainment-there are malls,lounges,clubs and swanky restaurants.In early days films probably used to be the only source of entertainment for people but post 2000 and particularly in last few years avenues for entertainment has increased manifold and you need to do something extra to lure audiences to the theatre otherwise they can opt for other sources for entertainment
But its a win win situation for both audiences and stars.Audiences because they get to see their stars more often and interact with them live and for stars too get to interact with their fans more often and one to one basis and promote their movies
But there is a flip side too, that a good promotional campaign for a movie can increase the expectations and if the movie is not upto the mark the audience feels cheated and makes them think that the stars were simply fooling them and some times the stars can also suffer from over-exposure but then balance is necessary everywhere
Also they need to understand the difference between PR and Marketing.A star going everywhere and talking about their movies is more of a PR thing and they can suffer from over exposure too.Markeitng is where they may not be present but their movie is being promoted.A good example here can be of that of Ghajini's promotions where people were going for the Ghajini sort of haircut even when Aamir Khan was not present there
Also if the concept of a movie is different or substantial enough they should also try marketing the concept rather than stars being present everywhere.For ex-a Bol Bacchan cannot be promoted based on its concept but a film like Joker can be promoted by talking about aliens(they did so but not sure if they did so only because Akshay Kumar refused to promote the movie:p).Similarly Kya Super Cool Hain Hum cannot be promoted based on its concept but a movie like Raaz 3 can be promoted by talking about spirits and paranomal things of black magic
Of course there have been some weird promotional strategies too but there have been some very good campaigns too which can put good marketers to shame.Today there are some specialized agencies handling the film promotions but I am sure that in future the mainstream advertising agencies will also start selling films the same way as they sell other products
Nice to read you blog on Film Promotions-Are they really necessary?. This is good and comprehensive and i thoroughly enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you would like to include History also here e.g How was the promotion done at early stage and what point( Promotion in 70-90,90- 2000, first major film which was turnaround in way promotion was done.)
Also you can add global perspective to it.How Promotion of a movie can help earning from overseas(big market i guess).
Once again Good Job ..Bravo.