Consider the recent Malayalam superhit L2: Empuraan. It was announced in September 2019, and the producers kept fans involved for six years with regular updates on script work and behind-the-scenes milestones. In February, the creators increased the buzz by releasing posters of two characters every day for 18 days, showing all 36 characters, and constantly posting ticket purchase information.
It paid off: a record 1.13 million tickets were pre-sold, outperforming several big-budget Hindi blockbusters in recent years. Upon release, the film went from a regional smash to a global success, earning ₹94.6 crore in India and Rs 135 crore abroad. The battleground for this painstakingly orchestrated effort was social media. “Today, every key data point related to audiences is effectively measured through social media,” said Saurabh Varma, a filmmaker, trade analyst, and film marketing expert with twenty-five years of experience. “For instance, one can easily formulate a marketing strategy for audiences in Maharashtra for a film like Chhaava in a much deeper and more concentrated manner through social media.”
Film marketers use data available on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Reddit (used more internationally) to create follow-focused marketing that targets audiences based on their geography, age, and personal preferences. In this way, they keep alive a film’s buzz among audiences before and after its release.
This has helped them slash marketing budgets.
Various estimates suggest that as more social media is used for film marketing, the average marketing cost of a midsized Hindi film has decreased to ₹1-1.5 crore from ₹5-7 crore earlier. Similarly, the average marketing cost of big-budget films has fallen to ₹7-8 crore from ₹14-15 crore. “Film marketing through social media is about engaging fans and exciting audiences who are on the fringe,” said Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and cofounder of the digital marketing agency TheSmallBigIdea. “Fans are likely to watch a film. But people on the fringe who are large in number are the target of film marketing.” Typically, a film’s marketing through social media contains four elements: launching teasers, trailers and behind the scenes (BTS) content through YouTube; capitalising on actors’ social media presence; popularising a film’s music; and lastly, engaging deeply with fringe elements such as influencers and other unforeseen developments that can benefit a film’s promotion. Generally, producers start film marketing through social media at least one year before a film’s release. Besides this, attempts are made to create viral content either through shock marketing (using provocative or controversial content in a film) or regularly putting out videos that set narratives captivating enough to pique audiences’ interest. “Today, much before a film’s release, film marketers create content with people with credible credentials. Such content excites audiences’ interest in a film,” said a head of a digital marketing agency who wished to be unnamed.
He cited historical films as an example. Film marketers create videos of history professors or such credible designated people. “These videos contain content which sets a favourable narrative around a film before its teaser is out,” he said.
