Social Media Campaign Review: Youngistaan's Impressive Social Mobile App Fails to Take Off

Love it or hate it no producer can ignore the importance of digital media in the marketing mix for a movie. Every movie release in the recent times is backed up by social media campaigns which include teasers, sneak peaks, live chat, behind the scene videos some of them launch high definition games (For example – Chennai Express, Krissh, RaOne) then there is a variety of contests to entice the online communities which not only engages the audience but builds up a strong connect which might assist in the final conversion.

In a first of its kind initiative a mobile app has been launched to promote the Bollywood film Youngistaan starring Jackky Bhagnani, Neha Sharma, Late Farooq Sheikh and Kayoze Irani in lead roles. A joint venture between MSM Motion Pictures and Vashu Bhagnani’s Pooja Films & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the film directed by Syed Ahmad Afzal is slated to release on 28 March 2014.

Yo Youngistaan is the latest addition to the basket of digital marketing tactics employed by marketers in the film industry positioned as the World’s first mobile movie app, the app serves as a platform for movie fans to interact with each other. Besides social networking the app is a one stop shop for vital information about the movie, cast, trailers, news. The app is available for download on android play store, apple iTunes and Windows Mobile as well.

Objectives

The Objectives of developing the mobile app Yo Youngistaan are focused upon breaking through the clutter of messaging which occurs across the major social media platforms i.e facebook and twitter. The core idea is to nurture a community of movie lovers, connect with them at multiple junctures and promote the movie directly to them on their mobile phones surpassing the additional costs incurred in digital advertising. With this novel initiative of interacting directly with movie fans and followers across the country the movie brand intends to:

• Connect organically and perpetually with the potential target audience and develop a direct marketing platform which can be utilized at different stages to promote the movie.
• Build a community of movie lovers, fans and followers of the actors in the movie by enticing them with the opportunity of interacting live with their favourite stars & their followers, exclusive access to trailers/ teasers/ sneak peaks.
• Leverage the staggering increase in internet consumption on mobile phones. Empirical data of the engaged users shows that the App has higher engagement and reach as compared to facebook and twitter The focus is to zero in on 185 million internet user base on smart phones, persuade them to step out and watch the movie.
• Provide a seamless experience to the users and serve as a second screen platform. Social integration feature ensures that information is disseminated across platforms to avoid missing out on target groups which have not subscribed to the app.Yo Youngistaan mobile app was officially launched on 29th the following posts on facebook and twitter respectively.

Official Youngistaan App is out! Now access all the masti on your mobile phones. Android users download the app here: http://t.co/GB9mR79eqv

— YoYoungistaan (@YoYoungistaan) January 29, 2014

Execution

The app is easily accessible and has a very basic interface. On opening the app for the first time the user is prompted to enter mobile no. and email address following the click of Get In button. Post registration the app’s home screen shows the follow button along with buttons which provide general information in three tabs: About, Cast and Important Dates.

 Follow button leads to the all inclusive app content which is segregated into three tabs: Feeds, Chat , Polls

 Feeds is further divided into promos, gallery, gossip, pic of the week.

 Chat Button gives the user two options that is to join the group chat with everyone or to connect with existing friends

Polls section seeks answers to questions regarding the movie, the cast at times users opinion over issues.

The app interface also has a buddies button where in you can add the followers of the app as buddies and interact with them.

The app has hosted two live chats as of now one with Jackky Bhagnani and the other with the female lead Neha Sharma.

Speaking about surprises. We have another surprise lined up tomorrow: pic.twitter.com/p6ASpx0Rii

— YoYoungistaan (@YoYoungistaan) February 27, 2014

Live chat with me on the officialyoungistaan app, TODAY at 11AM. To download the app go visit @YoYoungistaan. Cya there! ;)

— JackkyBhagnani (@jackkybhagnani) February 28, 2014

Outcome

As of now the app is picking up in the android market and has registered close to 500 downloads. The app has a user rating of 4.5/5 which is great. The total number of users on the app which includes users from android, iOS and Windows is 615. The highest number of likes for a promo trailer post is 47, that of a gallery picture post is 28 , the articles in the gossip section have garnered maximum of 8 likes, the polls section has received highest 137 number of

Positives

The Yo Youngistaan app for the movie Youngistaan is an exceptionally excellent concept in itself, one step ahead of the trends in Indian film industry. The concept of having a microsite for any movie in India is still seeping through, the initiative to launch an app for the movie is far more innovative and effective owing to the increasing number of internet users on smart phones in India.

The App has a core functionality which is exclusive first hand access to all the information about the movie, to keep the subscribers glued to app screen the features of live chat with stars , social networking , polls/contests have been appropriately planned. The idea of developing a direct marketing platform which serves the purpose of fulfilling the movie brand’s objective is brilliant and cost effective as it surpasses the costs incurred on digital advertising and at the same time leads to focused attention from the users.

Since the mobile app platform has a higher engagement and reach it might prove to be a WIN-WIN situation for the The platform will definitely prove handy if it registers a larger user base as the app notification facility can be used to remind and reinforce the users about the release and give the users a Top of the mind recall while thinking about watching a movie during that time frame.

Scope for Improvement

The timing for the launch of Yo Youngistaan app has affected the potential prospects of the concept since the app was launched in the last week of January the time frame required for the app to pick up and register a good number of subscriber base prior to the movie release was too less. The app has registered 600 odd downloads which is a very small figure.

Since the aim is to reach out to the target audience in a platform owned by the movie brand efforts should have been made to increase the user base for the app to broaden the spectrum of reach. Although the core of the app believes in surpassing existing social networks and connecting with the movie lovers community directly.

The Brand forgot a very fundamental postulate in online marketing that is seamless integration and cross platform marketing. The route to getting subscribers on the app goes through these existing social media networks i.e Facebook and Twitter cause that is where the potential users spend most of their time.

Social Sharing buttons should be placed on the app the users should be enticed by offering incentives on sharing the app this would increase the visibility of the app on social media and fuel more downloads. Considerable amount of time and money should have been spent of marketing the app on these networks.

The campaign initially should have focused entirely on increasing the user base for the app even now the messaging on facebook and twitter has slight mentions of the app if the ultimate aim is to build a mobile movie lovers community why not connect anything and everything with mobile. For Ex: To participate in the contest to WIN Google Nexus 5 hosted on twitter you need to verify your identity on the Yo Youngistaan mobile app and for that the user has to download the app that’s a simple connecting link it could be more persuasive, gimmicky or innovative.

The movie has an official facebook page and twitter handle where in daily engagement activities and contests are run. In all the images shared on facebook and twitter a QR Code could have been placed which is directed to the link for downloading the app. The app should have been launched with a concrete digital marketing plan in place with a BIG Idea followed up by CPI based ads (for a limited time frame for a self sustaining push), mobile app blogger outreach program, influencers outreach and so on.

While there are users who use internet on mobile, prefer apps over internet browsers the need of the hour is to have a plan to make them go through the awareness, interest, desire and action cycle. Yo

Conclusion

Youngistaan Mobile App platform for promoting the Bollywood movie Youngistaan is a very unique, unconventional and fresh approach to movie marketing. The app has been designed keeping in view the needs and wants of potential users. The idea & concept behind the app is visionary and has immense potential if marketed properly.

Overall planning and execution of the app was near perfect barring the flaws of time trail and social media marketing. Kudos to the marketing team for coming up with the World’s First Socially Mobile Movie App hope to see sparkling numbers for the movie and the app in the coming times.