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New PR strategies for film promotion
By Editor on Jul 6, 2006 in filmPR, mediarelations
Today’s HT City, lifestyle supplement of mainline daily, Hindustan Times in Delhi talks about how filmmakers are adopting new ways to get more interactivity with the masses to promote films, in addition to the usual media publicity activities that usually surround a film release.
It says soon after Vishal Bharadwajs hunt of the title Omkara for his cinematic version of Shakespeares Othello, Vidhu Vinod Chopra has named the sequel of Munnabhai MBBS as Lage Raho Munnabhai on the basis of a public opinion survey. Khans too catching up Even two of the Khans trio Aamir and Shah Rukh are keen to interact with the viewers right away. Aamir Khan has put up posters in Mumbai that states Wanted Actor! A very naughty boy! The notice also mentions that if the boy is a bundle of mischief, he should drop his photos at Khans office. On the other hand Shah Rukh Khan will coach a team of girls for Yash Raj Films Chak De.
Whats more, during the publicity rounds for Rang De Basanti, the entire crew, including Aamir, conducted a 35-minute long Q&A session with the audiences at two different PVRs in Delhi. Getting close to viewers How does it affect the film? Says the producer of Omkara, Kumar Mangat, Anything that establishes the connection between the film and public helps the film always. The title hunt contest registered the film in the minds of 25 lakh viewers who voted within a span of six days. Talking about Rang De Basantis Q&A act, Ashish Saxena of PVR says, Direct interaction with the public is much better than going over-board with the print or media publicity. Perhaps, Aamir Khan understood this and thats the reason why sidestepped the media and went straight to the public to promote the film. In return, public is emulating his RDB feat.
So I wonder are these the new PR ways for films? Although I have never been lucky enough to do film PR in my short PR career till now, I have heard a lot of stories on how it is done. And these new methods sound really cool. Just a crazy idea I wanted to add. How about bouncing off a story idea to the masses and let it develop with ideas from everyone dictating how the story will flow? Or we can tell the masses a story halfway and let people write in their ideas about it should flow and finish. What story line the film ultimately takes could be the suspense.
Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, India, India Public Relations, India PR,Marketing, film PR, Open Source PR,
On Jul 6, 2006, sanjay jha said:
hi,i agree with your idea about the power of p.r in the film industry,i am a film maker and i think my films are perfect examples of poor p.r and its impact.after making two main stream cinma in bollywood,i am still looking for an identity,my both films are strong with its content,infact my second film is yet to release next week.
On Jul 6, 2006, sanjay jha said:
let me know if you have some idea to improve my situation,i need help and i am being very honest,your blog seems to be helpful,and it will be an perfect example as an case study,thaks.also if you can link my blog to your blog,it will be just fab,jhaji.
On Jul 7, 2006, pov said:
Customization is surely the key to drive any kind of business. Suggest we should encourage customer interaction/feedback in any organisation, and in all departments across all levels, wherever possible.It will only result in better service to the customers
On Jul 8, 2006, hobbit said:
hi Sanjay
Nice of you to drop in. Feels good to hear people are realising how effective PR can boost achieving marketing obejectives.
I agree with pov that we need to analyse and make good use of customer feedback. After all, we are making films for the viewers, unless one wants make a movie to satisfy his artistic urges alone.
It would be difficult for me or for any PR pro to just flash out random ideas on film promotion. Not that we can’t, but that way we would be going all over without getting any effective idea. Terrible loss of time and effort. Whenever we make any plan for our clients, the first thing we do is try understand his business and his industry to the core. Only then we could get to see where his real problem is. Only after all these, we get down to brainstorming on what possibly could be done.
What I wanted to say is we need to understand in detail a film, the storyline, target,positioning, etc. well in order to create a suitable PR plan. Maybe if you could write in more details, everybody could pitch in for ideas. This blog has been founded on the principle of open source philosophy- there’s no pitch going on :-)All the best for your new movie!
On Nov 18, 2006, Vasan said:
I am working for a film maker. Can anyone suggest a good PR person for films.
Vasan
vasantalkies@gmail.com