|
For quite sometime, outdoor
advertising has led the
promotional bandwagon of Hindi cinema. Prior to
the electronic revolution, filmmakers relied heavily on film posters
on hoardings and walls to prolong a films' life cycle. Gradually,
publicity and intermittent attempts at public relations also made their
presence felt at defining moments like the Mahurat (the official start to the film flagged off by the producer in
a ceremonial celebration complete with all rituals and traditions)
and the Premier (the day before the final release of the film). It was
largely push marketing at work. The film was pushed to the audience en
masse through various links in the production chain. From
the producers to the distributors and then to the final audience, the
film followed a path sequentially interlinked and
traveled. Promotion—the fourth P of the marketing mix was always
significant to a film but the other elements of the marketing communication
mix were stale, unimaginative and far too repetitive to allow
exclusive perceptual space in the minds of the moviegoers. However, all
this changed with the technological revolution of the
1990s.
Emergence of varied communi-cation conduits and faster modes
of information dissemination has opened new paradigms
of promotion to lend support to films—the most
celebrated `product' of Indian trade and commerce. Today, promotion of
a film has assumed top priority and has become the controlling
variable of success. The film industry has organized itself in relation to
the production process and hierarchal levels making the task of
promotion, an inclusive, albeit a challenging, task. Promotional budget's are
no more a mere 10% of the total outlay, opening up new motley
of opportunities for positioning a film. The new era has ushered in
a systemic flow of creative thoughts and actions in
communication planning, integration, innovation and effectiveness. Film
marketing (many would vehemently stress arguing to the cumulative use of
all 5Ps) has donned six hats: conventional advertising,
public relations and publicity, direct marketing, personal selling,
events and sales promotions. Mix them all together and you get a
holistic communication campaign with preset goals and results. As
the spotlight remains focused, it becomes imperative to find out
the factors that led to reinvention of promotional communication in
our Hindi films. |
