Does Saaho Movie Marketing resonate with the audience?

While the fans watch their ‘darling’ star come alive with #Saaho, movie marketers get on the bandwagon of the tidal wave of social media and trends. Does it hit a winning sixer via its movie marketing strategy on the medium?

“Gully ke cricket mein toh sab Tendulkar hai, asli Talent wo hota hai jo bhare maidaan ke bahar sixer maar sakey”. (All are champions like Sachin Tendulkar in the ‘Gully-Cricket’ but the real player can smash a sixer in an open field). Saaho shoots such striking dialogues with ‘Bahubali’ star Prabhas making a debut in Hindi, as the movie released worldwide on 30th August'19.

From #ShadesOfSaaho going viral to Saaho emojis to Saaho, the Game, #TeamSaaho seemed to be going the herculean way for promotions of the mega-budgeted film. With Prabhas, leading the pack and Shraddha Kapoor playing a pertinent role in the film full of twists and nerve-wracking turns, the action-thriller seems to be on the road to emblazon the silver- screen.

Also read: Does Mission Mangal achieve the ‘extraordinary’ with its movie marketing tactics?

The secret mantra to reaching the audience for the brands and movie stars, alike, is to strike the right chord with the audience. The movie marketers for this stellar venture left no stones unturned for the project’s promotions, albeit, in a slow but a steady, step-by-step manner.

Saaho, the Bahubali of
social media?

Touted to be the year’s largest action-thriller, Saaho, set the social media world on fire especially when it garnered a record of more than 5 million tweets prior to even the theatrical release of the film. This included some prominent hashtags such as #Saaho, #WorldSaahoDay, #SaahoInCinemas, to name a few.

Shattering records through 'The Shades of Saaho'!

The directorial venture
of Sujeeth, Saaho movie marketing started with the first episode of the series
on the birthday of the #Darling Prabhas on social media platforms. The #ShadesOfSaaho
captured the behind-the-screen snackable footage of the making of the mega
cinema.

Chapter 1 from #ShadesOfSaaho, introduced the dashing Prabhas in a magnanimous manner at Abu Dhabi. This digital film crossed 10 million+ views in just the 24 hours of its release!

Shades of Saaho 2, took this activity a step further with more mind-boggling scenes from the movie with the introduction of the bold and beautiful, Shraddha Kapoor, with a twist.

Teasing the Trailer

The movie marketing team for Saaho strategically launched the teaser trailer post the built-up for the film through the hit series #ShadesOfSaaho on 13^th June’19.

#SaahoTeaser received a whopping response of 25 million+  digital views within the 6 hours of the release.

The final trailer was finally unveiled on 10^th of August by the makers with fans pouring all the love with over 70 million + views across all platforms.

Can you Guess the First Song?

The Marketers for Saaho fired the glaciers of creativity with a simple yet interactive contest for the launch of the first song of Saaho. The Fans were asked to participate in guessing the first song of the movie and establish that they are the biggest fans for Saaho

Swooning the audience with the character-posters

The makers of Saaho shared the first glimpse of the characters from the film with immaculate posters and intriguing one-liners on social media.

Exclusive Saaho Stickers on Hike, #SaahuEmoji on Twitter, Social Media GIFs and what not...

Fans went crazy with the update of Saaho emoji on Twitter. Many even posted on social media in tandem to the view of the movie brand, it is apparently the first Telugu movie to get a superstar movie emoji on its platter. Much to the excitement of the users, with each post on the platform with hashtag #Saaho, brought out a Saahu Emoji on the twitter post.

Hike celebrated the movie with exclusive #Saaho stickers as a special gift to the #TeamSaaho.

Even the social media channels climbed the bandwagon with a plethora of Gifs to add to the invigorating conversations of the audience.

Transform yourself into the #SaahoAvatar!

To take interaction and engagement a notch higher, ‘Saaho AR Filter’ was launched with #SaahoAvatar on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. It enabled the users to relate and turn themselves into the elements of their favorite star, instilling the feeling of ownership and personalization to the brand Saaho.

The viewers responded in an overwhelming manner to the fun-filled AR Filter with the Avatar stroke.

Enter the world of Saaho with #SaahotheGame

The movie-makers attempted
to get the fans closer to the life-like experiences of  #Saaho with #SaahoTheGame. Claiming to enhance
the adrenaline rush, the trailer for the action-packed game was released prior to
Independence Day. It grabbed eyeballs of the audience with positive reactions.,
in collaboration with Pixalot Labs.

The Game was eventually released on 15^th August’19 with the Game contest.

The frenzy was kept alive with ‘Pixalot Labs’, the creators of the game, personally distributing the rewards and prizes, in the later stage.

Organic User-generated content with Scribbled Stories

Saaho reposted heart-warming, short tales from Scribbled Stories, which nurtured and enhanced the buzz around the movie.

#AskTeamSaaho?

In association with Twitter India and Pscp TV, the leading actors from the cinema indulged in a tête-à-tête with the viewers with #AskTeamSaaho live streaming session. The users could tweet any questions related to the movie to the stars generating curiosity amongst the audience.

The bond of brands and Saaho

Some prominent brands integrated and partnered with the movie to establish themselves as household, popular names to stand out in the cacophony of the clutter in the market.

1. Celio India

2. Monte Carlo

3. Astral Pipes

4. Arctic Fox

The brand partnered up with Saaho and decided to use the universe of the film to hijack attention and created a disruptive marketing campaign with the idea of anti-theft and anti-piracy at its core.

The brand created a feature-length film and put it out under the name 'Saaho Leaked' on all platforms where piracy is rampant. People looking to illegally watch the film would go on to platforms like KAT and Seedpeer and download a 900 MB file thinking they were downloading a pirated version of 'Saaho'. The fake torrent has been downloaded over 600 times so far and has fooled thousands of viewers across platforms! 

The video starts off as a normal feature film, with a voice actor speaking in the voice of Prabhas, taking the audience through the story of a crime-ridden city. Two minutes in, the video changes into something else entirely. The screen suddenly flashes a bright red caution sign and the text 'You have been caught' underneath it,  with a loud alarm blaring in the background. The film stumped the pirates on their home ground with a clear message to watch the film in theatres.

5. Netmeds

#SaahoPre-release surprises and grandeur

Team Saaho launched the pre-release event to interact with the audience and fans at the scintillating event at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad.

Surprise from the Fans in
Hyderabad!

During a pre-release event, such was the fervour of the Fans that they constructed a massive 70-feet hoarding of Prabhas where he was accompanied by his co-star, Shraddha Kapoor.

Memes, an open window to #ReviewSaaho

Saaho released on 30^th August’19 in Pan-India and fans gushed to express themselves on the movie through hilarious and unmissable memes.

While the movie continues to garner mixed-reviews, it would only be appropriate to say that the movie marketing team for #Saaho, have meticulously weaved the movie promotions strategy on the social media channels.

Movie marketing is an imperative aspect of a film. With countless conversations trending on the social media platforms, let's see if the social media Saahos (Jai Ho or Salute) the movie in the literal sense in terms of the results. Will the amount of money and the efforts that went behind in marketing the movie, will give the returns expected or this will be another case of great cast, great marketing, failed story.