THE CONSUMER ON THE INTERNET
India is emerging as a strong economy and has become a prominent player in the domain of business, entertainment, social groups, etc. The rise of the Internet usage has helped India explore new frontiers to support the growth in various sectors. The number of the unique individuals in India who have used the Internet at any point in the past has crossed the landmark 100 million mark in September (I-cube 2011 Report). Out of the 112 million users, the urban population dominates the usage at 88 million, whereas the 24 million users constitute the rural population. Another notable fact has been that 90 million users are active Internet users, which means that they have used the Internet at least once every month over the previous year. The youth have dominated the scene in terms of the Internet usage pattern with about 75% of the Internet population majorly driven by school children (21%), college students (27%) and young men (27%). The increasing usage of this segment has been propelled by the advancement of e-learning services, social networking sites and other online educational examinations. India has shown tremendous growth rate over the years due to the arrival of networking sites, emails, ecommerce etc. According to a report by the International and The Internet and Mobile Association of India, an average Indian Internet user spends about 3.5 hours a week. Also, the activity on social networking sites increases gradually through the week and reaches the peak on Fridays. Bank websites usage follows the exact opposite trend, i.e. they are accessed more during the weekdays and lesser during the weekends. The time distribution of youth in various the Internet applications are as follows – 89% of the youth use the Internet to access emails, 71 % for social networking, 55% use it for chatting, 45% for music/video, 30% for online gaming and 33% for online jobsites.
THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM
An entire ecosystem has evolved around digital media in the countries that have adopted the Internet and mobile faster than India. However the same day is not very far off even in our country. Already specialised sites in niche networks, events, conversations, micromedia are coming up which will further the re-definition of ways in which consumers think about and interact with brands. As the Internet penetration grows and technology advances to include an even larger number of people, the trend will only grow.
DIGITAL MARKETING FOR MOVIES Marketing budget for a typical Hollywood movie is estimated to comprise 25-30% of the movie’s budget. This means that Marketing has become as important as making the movie. The Avengers has a reported $100 million marketing budget beyond the movie’s estimated $220 million production budget.
Some Examples of movies employing digital marketing
The Blair Witch project was the first movie to use digital marketing successfully. It is consistently ranked among the top viral marketing campaigns of all time. This unassuming movie used a dirt-cheap campaign that told the story of some vanished Maryland teens and their “recovered” footage of supernatural events. The story spread like wildfire on the developing Internet of the time, filtering its way into the mainstream in the subtlest way possible. With its original budget in thousands of dollars and the marketing campaign that cost virtually nothing, The Blair Witch ended up as one of the most profitable movies of all time. It sparked the digital age of the movie. Today you can hardly find a Hollywood movie that comes without a website, a Facebook page and a Twitter handle. Movies are known as much for their marketing as for their content, and the scope of digital marketing cannot be understated.
Examples from Indian films:
• Kambakht Ishq, with a budget of Rs.70 crore, spent Rs.7 crore on digital marketing. They started a mobile racing game and mobile voice service where users could hear stunt and beauty tips from Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, to engage the audience.
•
Love Aaj Kal invested nearly Rs. 3 crore in online promotion. An extensive online campaign was started to promote the movie on sites like Facebook, Orkut and Bollywood Hungama, through fan pages, groups and digital games.
•
Ghajini, 2008’s biggest blockbuster, had an interactive marketing campaign that involved the launch of the official website – rememberghajini and two engaging viral applications – findghajini and wall of suspects to create a sense of rush among his fans to watch the movie.
INDIAN SHORT FILMS Till recent times, making short films in India has either been a second vocation, or a means to get noticed and established in the industry as a serious filmmaker. These films appealed to a highly niched audience. Most of the few short-films that were able to cater to a mainstream audience came on the television as hour-long weekly episodes, in programs such as Star Bestsellers (Star TV), Rishtey (Zee TV), Gubbare (Zee TV) and Kagaar (Sahara TV). These mostly featured films of about the same duration (viz. about 45 minutes), and were theme-based – while Bestsellers and Kagaar were suspense-thrillers, Rishtey was an emotional drama, and Gubbare featured comic stories. The timing and advertising on these shows, as well as the channels that they appeared on, complemented the content of the film, and hence, was aimed at the same TG. Hence, segmentation was of critical to the commercial success of the show.
The above vignettes give us a glimpse of digital marketing in movie promotions and its potential impact on the consumers present in the digital media space. However, even as big-budget full-length feature films exploit this space, makers of Indian short movies have not been able to tap into the digital media space and launch successful media campaigns.
Your assignment is to identify and establish a viable online channel for the promotion and distribution of short films for an independent movie maker not backed by a production house. While you are free to choose Youtube, Vimeo or any other domain of your own choice, give clear reasons justifying your choice and chart out the roadmap and the costs incurred in the entire marketing plan.
Submit a PowerPoint presentation of not more than 5 slides, and attach a single page executive summary (Cambria font size 12), describing a marketing plan for promotion of short films through an online channel.
It should give clear justifications for the choice, clearly identify the intended TG, and not focus on a single campaign but an overall digital marketing plan. Lastly broadly outline costs and list out key success factors of reaching out to the TG, keeping in mind that innovative ideas will be rewarded.
