Exclusive | Every film calls for distinct marketing approach: VMP's Datta

As an avid cine lover, I always thought of content and entertainment as the key factors that would drive me to the movie theatre and watch a film. One usually did not consider an activation or campaign tactic to trigger the desire to watch a film. But with the passage of time, not only has cinema as art changed but also as a business changed. With the studio culture now heating up the business, films are not restricted to an art of story-telling but evolved to a business of communicating films. In a market like India, films are lifelines numerous individuals and this constantly growing film marketing market has pushed all to play the best games, every film, every time! Films are now about communicating the message, engaging through various platforms and building interactivity with audiences.

Adgully caught up the Rudrarup Datta, VP-Marketing, Viacom18 Motion Picture to talk about the recent success at the box office – ‘Manjunath’, insights on the film marketing business and more.  

The latest biopic coming from the VMP stable – Manjunath has got the cash registers ringing in for the studio. Though just as collaboration, the film with a strong message has been talked about by one all. VPM went all out to spread the awareness of Manjunath and the message he had set out to give. Give uniquie marketing tactics rolled out for the film, Manjunath has managed to be the talking point for areas beyond the film itself. Datta states that Manjunath cannot be treated as a traditional ‘film’ or in the same lines of being called as a piece of Bollywood and thus it was not marketed that way.  “The reason why Viacom18 Motion Pictures was on board is the sheer inspiration that we got from the story itself. It is a story that needs to be told and hopefully inspire more people to stand up and make a difference. For us it is a non-profit venture so we were not treating it like a commercial film where we usually we have got to make an ‘x’ amount of money, instead it is about making the film reach across a large number of people and if it succeeds in this, the profits will be rooted back to the foundation and Manjunath’s parents. Hence the campaign needed to be very intrusive and put across these very same questions to people. So it couldn’t be a pure play push marketing or media bombardment marketing strategy”, he said.

The film was marketed thought ‘The Whistle Blower’ campaign which was one the moves to get in participation from our audiences. “With Parikrama on board, which is another interesting take to the project as it’s the band’s first ‘film’ assignment, the message of the film is conveyed via an aspect that was very close to Manjunath himself – music. So the campaign was basically aimed at giving people a platform to at least bring to notice any malpractices they see in the society, instead of having mere water-station conversations and that we would hopefully be able to play the catalyst that would amplify it and get some action in return from it”.

According to Datta, other interesting things that they did around this film were that when the film released they were giving away Manjunath badges that signified the viewer’s participation in spreading the message of the film. Along we that, they also had certain corporate brands on board who’s support was in the form of commitment that their employees watched the film and the most important aspect of the campaign was that getting an IIM network on board who have supported the cause and spread it across their networks.

Understandably, promoting and marketing a highly concept driven films like Madras Cafe, Bhag Milkha Bhag and Queen as opposed to out-and-out Bollywood films like Chashme Baddor or Boss are two different things. Sharing his thoughts on the same, he said, “Ultimately every film is a commercial venture, where we are there to tell a story and make money to run the business. Every film has its own unique approach and there is no formula that can be fit in; and we thrive exactly on that principle. And that is also the reason why we chose to do films that are away from the beaten path. The main for us remain to identify what is the core concept of the film and what is the audience we are trying to reach to. Every film is not meant for everyone; the generalised approach has now been written off. In today’s day and age merely mass marketing a film does not work, we have to follow a very structured approach therefore. For example for Madras Cafe, we knew we were targeting that audience who is politically aware, interested in new age cinema and open to watch Hindi cinema go onto the next level. So the audience profiled was a metro, multiplex audience and thus our entire communication was targeted with that perspective in mind. So right from the creative designs to the first trailer, to the mediums we chose to advertise, the kind of activities we did around the film were all meant at that audience. BMB was a wide-reaching which we believed has the potential to inspire a generation and hence it was marketed in that way. In the case of BMB, the marketing process began nine months in advance; where the first attempt was the build awareness about the star of the film – Milkha Singh and then build the film around that so that it could build interest so that people could watch the film to get entertainment value and get inspired by it rather than pitch it as a pure play inspirational film. In case of Queen, it was a very under-the-skin approach where we kept it low intentionally, because that was Rani’s character who was the girl next door. So it was not overhyped campaign, but it was the one that was left to simmer and then went on to escalate. Once the film released and people realised Rani’s character and that is when we scaled up the campaign to lead it onto to give it further legs on bring in more people to come and watch the film”.

As Datta rightly mentioned, every film is a standalone project that calls for different treatment and approach. But there has to be at least one common DNA that runs through all the strategies devised for all the films coming from the VMP stable; what would that be? “Clearly it is about identifying the consumer, understanding what excites him / her; so it is connecting the concept of the film to that particular consumer. So while films that are termed as ‘content rich’ like Madras Cafe or Manjunath have a specific communication pattern, similarly, ‘har ek friend kamina hota hai’ from Chasme Baddor was coined for the tier II and III youth who is irreverent and cool in his own way. So it was a very ‘desi cool’ formula which was in absolute sync with the characters of the film and the audience that we are trying to reach to. So in a nutshell, the one word that comes across as a common thread amongst all our films is honesty; we never bluff about how our films are or try and mislead our audiences because we believe that we take the core concept of the film to it direct audiences”, Datta stated.

The studio has had a good reach in the Hindi market has is gradually gaining strong footholds in the regional markets as well. While there is a Telegu and Tamil remake of Kahani underway, the studio has also tasted success in Marathi films with Zapatlela 2 and Bengali films with The Royal Bengal Tiger. With markets being different, the marketing plans also need to be altered. Shedding some light on that Datta said, “Regional markets are far more nuanced than Hindi, since the latter has far more wider reach than other languages for obvious reasons. For regional markets, it is very important to understand what is the sensibilities of that market, how do they react to various concepts and hence devise the marketing plans around it. So Tamil and Telegu are two separate mindsets that you have to reach to, so you cannot adapt a same campaign in both the markets and expect it to run. Similar is the case with Marathi cinema as well, where the same person may be watching a Hindi film, but his expectations from a Marathi film change gears instantly. Hence it is important to understand the nuances of the market and then adapt it to the campaign with our films in that space as well’.

From regional to international movie marketing, every market bring along its routine practices and aspects that we can learn from them. Datta believes that for the global businesses, the biggest advantage is the sheer scale at which films and its marketing is done. “Be it using of media vehicles, to basic quality of creatives and also the amount of time they invest in marketing a film. Campaigns there start way early, sometimes almost a year in advance, than they do back home where for us it is a typical six – seven weeks window to market and promote the film. For international films, the market they cater to is huge and so the communication the adapt to each market is very interesting and crucial thus helping them make global franchises of their films. That is something which we need to pick up from them along with the fact that the franchise model is the one that we have just attempted a few times, but not mastered it. In Hollywood, each franchise is made in such a way that every film builds in more revenue than the previous one”, he observed.

With the world going digital, the usage of various mediums and the media mixes have changed from the time gone and from film-to-film. Also, with mobile gaining high focus, how does a business like this utilise these platforms what needs to optimize or scale up the use of these mediums, since we haven’t mastered them as yet? Speaking on this, Datta said, “What is to be done is pretty much clear, and that is to understand the platforms very well. Because often it is seen that there is excitement with numbers such as ‘x’ number of ‘Likes’ on Facebook or ‘y’ number of fans on YouTube, where usually does not reflect the actual traction the film manages to bring in and thus the conversation on box office. There is a marked difference between ‘bought views’ and organic growth and the way how one actually engages the viewers to stimulate organic growth. I think our understanding is where we lack; these tools especially digital medium scale over any other medium is because of the engagement factor it provides. It is usually a two-way kind of communication which enables one to take an action following a communication. Whereas with traditional mediums like television and print mere passive communication consumption happens and if it does manage to strike a chord, it will trigger an action after a while, unlike on digital where immediate action and interactivity comes into play. We need to emphasise that factor rather than try and replicate it to television to again be a passive medium of communication”.

Sharing his take on competition Datta opined that competition, as clichéd it may sound, is always welcome! ‘If we are saying that the game is getting more competitive than that is great because that means that there are other also who are realising to potential of doing good cinema beyond just big cinema, which means that there is better content that is going to come in the coming years across geographies and films. I think all studios are realising that at this stage and overall we are seeing a big change in the kind of content that is being brought on the table and we are glad to be a part of it’, he added.

Concluding the conversation Datta mentioned that the studio is looking at an interesting run-up for the year 2014. “We have Mary Kom which is another biopic but with a difference. This genre we believe is a difficult zone to venture into as far as typical Bollywood films are concerned and therefore we take it up to us to make sure it’s not so! We are very excited about the film because we believe that she is genuinely a true blue hero of modern India, an inspiration for young India. With team comprising of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Priyanka Chopra the excitement only pumps up even more. Next we have Gabbar which is again a pure-play commercial piece of work with Akshay Kumar in a completely new avatar in the true sense. We are also looking are creating a sequel for Pyaar Ka Panchanama  which was again a game changer when it was released and we are now looking to up the scale with the sequel. There are a few more projects that we are looking are but it is still quite early to talk about that. But one thing that shall continue to remain the same like our previous projects is that they will be very high on concepts, are great scripts to work on, hold huge marketing potential and evolves Indian cinema into the next level”, he said.

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