Movie Marketing: Creation of a Peripheral content ecosystem

Movies create moments that are picked up by users, creators, and brands alike resulting in content, ranging from illustrations to branded memes.

When it comes to social media, a moment is anything that is widely picked up by users, creators and brands - a trending meme if you may. Remember seeing memes on Padmavat or brands bombarding your feed with #EndGame creatives? Some movies (or even events sometimes) are able to cast such a spell that the buzz they leave in their wake stays for long, often in the form of content and associations.

Though it would be unrealistic for a movie's moment to stay on for years, the couple weeks till the release is definitely possible. Especially when songs, teasers and trailers are released every few days to fuel the buzz regularly. Movie marketing is a phase that lends opportunities to content creators like video creators, dancers or illustrators to garner visibility for their talent and efforts.

This is the time when the topic is relevant and has a sizeable audience interested in consuming peripheral content around it. It can be anything that isn't directly a part of the movie, but is related to it - for instance a famous dancer choreograping the steps to the song of an upcoming film or an TikTok influencer recreating the dialogues from the trailer on the platform.

A mix of big-league actors and digital stars, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan proved to be a perfect window for content creation possibilities.

Here we discuss the content that is put up by content creators, artists, and brands as they leverage a larger trend. This content works as a gentle nudge to moviegoers while giving the creators the much needed visibility. Moviemakers and those involved in the promotions too leverage peripheral content by re-sharing or collaborations, creating a content ecosystem that works on various levels.

Brand Community

When a moment comes into being online, brands often jump the bandwagon to create unique narratives, making it trend. From condom brands to FMCG, movies seem to be a good fit in narratives across the spectrum. Same was true for Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan too.

In a brand creative shared on Instagram, Faasos took a double-meaning dialogue from the movie to express a consumer's feeling about their wraps. The choice of innuendo here worked well as food is often described in similar ways as a sensual experience.

Illustrators Community

Instagram has become a hub for illustrators, comic artists and those who love to sketch out their thoughts. Given the evolving user dynamics on Instagram, it is an excellent space for them to showcase their products in a manner that would eventually result in commercial conversions. Thus, reach is an important metric for them.

Leveraging a moment created by a movie helps. As seen in a few instances, illustrators often create illustrations of characters and actors of upcoming films. In many cases these illustrations are re-shared on the movie's official page or by the starcast themselves - giving the illustrators reach and the movie makers content.

Performers' Community

Topicality is central to social media content. This often leads to a pressure on content creators to stay in sync with the trends - remember Lily Singh taking a break? Upcoming movies give influencers or performers a clear cut content hook that they know will be engaging. Be it dance steps to a new song or movie dialogue challenge.

Such content can potentially target the fanbase of a particular actor like Ayushmann Khurrana in the case of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. It helps create anticipation for the movie, reeling in smaller groups of audiences together to build a community/fandom.

Also Read: Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan Movie Marketing: a ‘Zyada’ message to remember?

Meme Community

It can hardly be a trend that makes noise if memes aren't being made around it. The ones that don't cross the line to inch towards trolling are always good news for they add new, funky, humorous dimensions to the promotions. Given the topicality, they help meme pages get traction too.

Curators Community

Fanclubs are integral to the world of movies as they help build an actor's value. By sharing relevant content editorially, they are able to become influencers in their own right.

Their audiences are niche. Creating peripheral content in connection to a movie helps these pages get content that reels in more people to discover their page as well as spread the word about the movie which might result in commercial deals later.

For instance, for Coca Cola's Diwali campaign launch feature Ranbir Kapoor, the actor's fan pages on Instagram were looped in to share the campaign on the launch day.

Movie oriented content is helping facilitate an emerging content ecosystem involving movie marketers, actors, fan clubs, content creators and brands. With an increase in the reach of those creating such content, commercial possibilities are bound to follow. Such collaborations are happening at the moment as well, something that may happen more often in the future.

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