Film Marketing: The New profession on the block
By Preeti Suryawanshi
Film marketing in India
The Indian film industry is a leader in the world when it comes to number of films produced annually. It has for many years been the world’s largest film producing country, with an output in over 20 languages. India also figures at the top position for ticket sales for films. Film production in India picked up almost at the same time as other filmmaking countries around the world, beginning in 1896. Post-independence, Indian Cinema reached beyond the country to audiences in Russia, The Middle East, and Latin America. Bollywood or the Hindi cinema segment forms the largest pie of the Indian film industry followed by Tamil and Telugu cinema. Love and romance have typically been the most popular genre for Indian films set in the backdrop of social, political, religious or economic scenarios. However, the subject matter and treatment have been evolving to focus on more contemporary issues such as sports, women empowerment, weddings, ambition, justice and also biopics have been made on eminent people in the society.
The growth of Indian film industry
The film industry has shown a growth of CAGR over 10%. It currently, grosses total revenue of INR 138 billion ($2.1 billion) which is expected to reach INR 238 billion ($3.7 billion) by 2020 as the industry is expected to grow at 11.5% year-on-year basis. The main reasons for growth are increase in the number of multiplexes in smaller cities, FDI by foreign studios in domestic and regional productions, growing attractiveness of niche movies, and the emergence of digital and additional revenue streams. In terms of number of movies produced India has the biggest movie industry. Around 1,500 to 2000 films are made and released per year that is more than double the number of films released by its American counterpart, Hollywood.
Despite the large number of films, the revenue of Indian film industry remains small with respect to other global industries. In India, the film industries gross realization stands at $2.1 billion versus gross realization of $11 billion in the US and Canada which produces significantly lower number of films (approximately 700 films). This is mainly due to low attendance of moviegoers and less occupancy levels in theatre, lack of quality content, and rampant piracy. Due to low occupancy 90% released films are bombed beyond the week at the box-office. Taking into account the number of flops that Bollywood produces annually, it is mandatory to study what marketing strategies are applied to make them successful and also to understand the spending done on various tools and mediums for promotion. Alternately put, which method or media would be appropriate for that particular film. Both conventional tactics such as advertising in theatre for marketing films to the unconventional ones as twitter dare are much needed to woo the audience to purchase the movie ticket.
The need for Film Marketing
Though being at its incipient stage in India, film marketing is rapidly developing into a promising industry. Over the years we have seen that success of film does not just depend on the content or stars in the film but relies on varied integration of marketing strategies to promote the film. Today everyone in the film industry wants greater revenue than ever but it is achieved by only those who have come out with some out of box strategy for their film. Heavy publicity of film is done before their release in the market so that they have great openings but even then some films don’t do business beyond a few weeks and some are not even noticed due improper strategy. Films are now more than just entertainment, but a business. Marketing of a film always existed since the introduction of films in India but the scope and dimensions of it have completely changed due to the highly competitive movie business.
Therefore, it is important to have a framework of marketing that is integrated and to explore the new means of existing medium that could be deployed in the area of film marketing.
There are many recent changes happening in the Indian film industry which further adds to the need of developing a proper marketing plan for them. Some of the major changes are:
1) International films gaining significant share in the Indian film industry which include Hollywood films dubbed in Hindi or other languages.
2) Significant growth in the number of multiplexes driven by improved per ticket spending due to increase in disposable income.
3) Collaborations and acquisitions by international studios such as Walt Disney, Fox Studio, Dreamworks etc.
4) Rise of regional cinema especially south Indian and Marathi film industry have shown high growth over past few years.
5) Digital printing of movies has enabled wider distribution of films resulting in drastic improvement in the reach and hence the revenue of the films.
6) Alternative revenue streams such as in-film promotions, VOD, Mobile and online platform have increased the contribution to film industry realizations.
7) Growth in overseas market leading to increase in steady revenue stream.
With these changes happening in the Film industry there are multiple employment opportunities that are on the rise. Some of the interesting ones are: Production schedule manager, Film research analyst, Copy writer, Visualizers, Creative supervisors, Media planners, Client servicing, Unit publicist, Digital media executives, Illustrators, Public Relation executives, Celebrity Management, Tourist/Location coordinators, Crew managers, Marketing and Publicity manager etc.
There are also numerous challenges associated with film marketing such as understanding the ever-changing consumer behaviour, budgetary constraints, complexity of media business, media planning, film certification, competitive releases, effectiveness of creatives, brand associations, crisis management. These challenges further push the film marketer to be prepared with a robust strategy to ensure success in making their film a hit.
The subject of film marketing is rarely taught in business schools as most of them feel it does not require a separate treatment and can be handled using the knowledge of product and service marketing. But Film marketing is a special case of marketing having a very short product life cycle and intangibility attached to it therefore the risks are higher. Film marketing is all about driving the desired audience into the multiplexes. Film promotions consist of various elements such as press conferences, TV advertising, star/director interviews, media involvements and most prominently social media’s like facebook, twitter etc. Film industry has adopted Digital Marketing techniques as a part of well-structured Film Marketing Strategy. In fact, production houses are moving beyond the conventional techniques such as TV trailers, teasers ads and lot more by conducting Google hangouts with the crew, twitter posts, live streaming of music launch, games and so on. And the most interesting fact is that overall spend on Film marketing strategies has risen enormously these years. With film-advertising expenses soaring and competition for moviegoers on the rise, marketing is now top of mind in the film business. Film producers, film creative executives, and movie financiers want to understand how films will be launched and at what price. Thus a number of film marketing and film PR agencies have come into existence and some of the reputed advertising agencies have also started their film promotion offshoots. The subject of film marketing deals in greater details about the three major stages of successful film marketing strategy: introducing, interacting and involving using various techniques and media for achieving success.
About the Author:
Preeti Suryawanshi is Assistant Professor – Marketing at Apeejay School of Management, New Delhi. She has over 11 years of experience in academics. She has presented and published a few papers in national and international conferences of repute. Her areas of interest are Branding, Business Education in India, Use of Digital Marketing and Social Media in conventional and non-conventional areas. She is an electrical engineer, MBA in Marketing and has submitted her Ph.D. in the area of Business Education in India.