1920 Evil returns – Bollywood and Social Media Marketing

Problem statement:

Should Ami shah modify the marketing mix for online channels for the next movie

release in 2014 or should the same effective strategy as before be used for the online

marketing.

Description:

ASA productions is an entertainment company owned by Vikram Bhatt. In 2008 they

produced a horror movie and subsequently a sequel in 2012. This is the first time digital and

social media was used for promotion of a movie. The presence was built on Facebook, You-

tube, twitter etc and a wide fan following was established.

The reason behind this was the fact that fans of horror movies always liked to talk

about the movies they watched. Ami shah was part of intelliassist, a media company, which

was tasked with running the promotion for the same.

Main objectives:

1. Create maximum reach online and views for the uploaded videos

2. Generate interest in the movie and extra fan following.

3. Engage with the audience so that any future releases from the production house will

be well received.

Methodology:

The entire campaign started with a facebook page. 1 for the movie and, 1 for the

production house and 1 for the producer. There content was regularly uploaded that would

draw attention of the active social users. Once this was achieved the users were redirected to

other social sites such as twitter and youtube where they could engage even more. This chain

was planned so that users would get hooked onto the movie and thus generate additional

ticket sales in media savvy locations.

Google adwords was also used to generate ads that could be directed towards the target

populations. Fan poster competitions were also used to enhance engagement.

User Analysis (online users):

Majority of active internet users used social networking mediums. An estimated 97%

of all active users were on Facebook also. Similar was the activity levels on youtube and

twitter. Even though at the stage of release of the last movie, the number of social media

options were limited, with further players such as Instagram, snapchat etc coming into the

picture the marketing mix would require a revamp so that more user base and engagement

options can be targeted.

A major chunk of the active users were male and many of them where within the 15-

45 age group. Many of these users also lived in urban towns especially the metros.

Even though a majority of the users on social media spent their time chatting and emailing

this trend was changing towards usage of apps, accessing groups, watching videos and

search. Youtube was also gaining in popularity with the reach of better internet connectivity.

Tracking metrics:

The measurement of ROI on budget spent was turning to be tricky for Ami. In the

campaign that ended online following could not be compared easily against increase in ticket

sales even though absolute engagement numbers were encouraging.

The following were the metrics observed:

(a) Links – 17000 reach, engagement of only 550

(b) Photos – 25000 reach, engagement of only 3100

(c) Questions – 16000 reach, 910 engagement

(d) Status updates – 25000 reach, engagement 1250

(e) Videos – 27500 reach, 2400 engagement

Thus it can be seen that the content is travelling to a wider audience but the engagement is

minimal as a ratio.

On you-tube almost 1.2 million views were received but many were after the campaign

period. Thus Ami was concerned that the mediums were not effectively reaching the audience

during the campaign. They also followed up with page links on prominent websites such as

Times of India etc. here also the ads were viewed close to 1.4 Million times but the clicks

received were only 12900. This means the conversion factor was to be improved.

Regions covered:

The regional reach of the campaign was impressive. It covered all major cities from the south

to the north and also including Sri-Lanka. This meant as social media becomes more

pervasive the campaign effectiveness in terms of reach will also improve.

The immediate challenge remained calculating the ROI on the campaign. For this the

average revenue in ticket sales in a region should be compared with the social engagement

metrics as mentioned above to find a correlation. If there exists a correlation then it becomes

easy to predict the increase in sales corresponding to user engagement and the approximate

age group that the user belongs to.

Google, facebook, youtube all provide their own metrics to measure all these.

Newer Mediums:

As mentioned above more social media sites are starting every year. This means the

entire marketing effort should be channelized onto the most popular trending sites. In this

regard Facebook and you-tube still remain the favourite choice. This medium should be used

in the next promotional campaign also. The improvements required will be more time for the

promotions to gain traction before the actual release of the movie and better

interconnectedness and cohesion of the campaign between the platforms.

If a particular message (for example a photo is posted), then that photo must be put in

all other mediums including twitter, Instagram and even blogs to access the most number of

people simultaneously. An understanding of the usage pattern of various age group provided

by analytics agencies will also improve the effectiveness of the campaign. Usage trends tend

to vary according to time.

Recommendations:

The reach of social media to promote movies has been effectively proven in this case.

Based on the tracking and usage information provided we can see that even though reach is

obtained, the conversion is not very good. This can be improved by timing the promotional

campaign to start earlier than done in this case. The marketing mix is strong with minimal

change required as of the trends in 2014, but newer platforms such as Instagram and snapchat

should not be ignored if usage is significant on such platforms. Mobile penetration is growing

by 18% YOY. This means that more youth as well as adults are adding to the online

community every year. This combined with the regional coverage achieved at such minimal

cost permits the extensive use of social media in the current scenario. The marketing mix

should not be varied much but should include newer mediums is the conclusion that we arrive

upon.