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The first half of the year for the Indian film industry started on an underwhelming note. The cumulative box office for Jan-Jun releases stood at ₹4,868 Crore, 15% lower than in 2022. To recover from this rough patch, many movies turned to the power of marketing to work its magic. While some simply banked on star power and brand collabs to get the ball rolling.
The year for movie marketing started with makers taking a minimalistic approach. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, for example, relied on the brand SRK, and so did Ajay Devgn’s Bholaa.
On the one hand, where Bollywood was playing safe with marketing campaigns, according to reports, the Southern film industry was increasing its marketing budget to widen its audience appeal.
B-town’s marketing was limited to a handful of techniques – teaser launch, trailer reveal, pushing viral reels and relying on celeb reach. While this approach has worked for years, experts believe there is a need for change in the industry this year.
"I wish Bollywood was a little more fearless in applying higher-risk media approaches or campaign strategies,” Neeraj Joshi, had said in a previous interview with Social Samosa discussing how Bollywood usually sticks to a templatized marketing strategy.
The marketing side of the Hindi film industry did take some risks in the second half of the year. Movie makers and marketers started revising their strategies to strike a chord with the audience.
Sanmesh Sapkal, Director - Key Accounts, TheSmallBigIdea said that makers made a sense of FOMO for the viewers this year. He said, “The most common request from clients has been –‘Let’s make the movie look grand.’”
A report by Ormax stated that the Indian film industry had lost an estimated 2.4 cr audience to the pandemic. The first half of 2023 followed a similar pattern.
To avoid repeating this, movie makers altered their marketing strategy. Sapkal stated that the marketing aim this year was to show a larger-than-life story to the audience and get them to make a conscious decision that "I will watch this movie in the theatres first.”
The change in marketing techniques might have worked in their favor. According to Gautam Dutta, Co-CEO, of PVR INOX Limited, the theatre chain witnessed a substantial upswing in footfalls at the Year-to-Date (YTD) level spanning from April to December in comparison to the preceding fiscal year.
He added, “Q2 FY’24 was the best quarter of all time for PVR INOX in terms of admissions, average ticket price (ATP) and spending per head (SPH), leading to the highest-ever revenue, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and profit after tax (PAT). Notably, this heightened influx began gaining momentum from the inception of the second quarter, commencing in July 2023.”
A big reason for this trend picking up was Barbie’s in-the-face, grand marketing campaign. According to reports, the movie makers collaborated with more than 100 brands across categories and attempted to expand its target audience, moving beyond kids.
Barbie-fication of Bollywood
The makers were successful in garnering attention, and the movie made history by hitting the $1 billion mark in the first three weeks. Bollywood also made some notes, and brand collaborations became a recurring theme moving forward.
“It was a year where movie marketing rose above mere promotion and embraced strategic brand partnership,” said Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, White Rivers Media.
Brand partnerships saw a big pish in the Hindi film industry this year. The method went beyond just theatrical releases. Similar to the West’s Barbie, Netflix’s The Archies jumped on this trend back home.
The makers joined hands with brands like Maybelline, Starbucks, boAt, Skybags, and more to tap into its target audience in Tier I and metro cities, specifically focusing on Gen Z and, to an extent, millennials.
Both brands curated a movie-specific palette that matched the retro vibes of the movie.
Following the theme, The Archies collaborated with Maybelline India, offering limited edition Archies-themed makeup products. Suhana Khan, one of the actresses in the movie, was also recently roped in as the brand ambassador for the makeup brand.
Experts think that brand collaborations especially work because, with this, makers can tap into different cohorts, thus furthering their reach.
Sanmesh Sapkal said, “What works in a brand campaign is that you get to expose your content to the audience of the brand. You are introduced to a new set of audience universes that can latch onto the campaign.”
Similar to Archies, SRK’s Jawan and Salman Khan’s Tiger 3 collaborated with Bisleri to drop limited-edition bottles that featured the film’s characters and posters on the sleeve of the products.
Jawan also partnered with Zomato and released an ad that gave a twist to the movie's trailer.
Tushar Malhotra, Head of Marketing, Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd., said in a press statement, “Movies are an integral fabric of India’s culture, and Bisleri’s largest-ever Pan-India association with ‘Jawan’ brings the larger-than-life cinematic canvas to our consumers’ doorstep, creating brand love.”
Jawan also joined hands with Fully Filmy, a shopping platform, to release a merch line that included phone covers, t-shirts, hoodies, and more to fuel SRK fandom.
The #JawanOfficialMerchandise has finally dropped!!🔥💥
— Fully Filmy (@fullyfilmy_offl) August 25, 2023
➡️Get yours now: https://t.co/TAsmYCJg9o
Get ready for a gripping cinematic experience wearing the #jawanofficialmerchandise from @fullyfilmy_offl ✨#Jawan in cinemas on 07th Sept 2023💥
Bhumi Pednekar’s Thank You For Coming had a line of collaborations in its marketing strategy as well. The makers collaborated with Papacream to create a flavor of ice cream called ‘Pleasure Bomb.’
The movie also joined hands with Le15 Jumbo Macarons to create a custom range of #DontForgetToCome, Jewellery brand Giva and Nutrition brand Be Bodywise.
Sam Bahadur collaborated with Zomato where Vicky Kaushal became the notification writer for the delivery app.
Collaborating with Influencers
This year movies equally gave importance to influencer collabs, reaching a wider set of audience.
To target a younger audience, Thank You for Coming emphasized marketing the movie on social media platforms, especially Instagram considering its popularity among millennial and Gen-Z viewers. To facilitate this, collaborations were done with social media personalities and influencers across categories.
Netflix India collaborated with Vistara Airlines for a 'special flight' to Riverdale. Social media influencers and creators were invited to join the cast which included content creator Dolly Singh, travel influencer bruisedpassports, and more.
Marrying Bollywood & Music
This year, moviemakers revived an old trick from their marketing journals. Leveraging music and soundtracks stood out.
Anuja Trivedi, CMO of Shemaroo Entertainment said that movie makers this year leveraged the use of Nostalgia and old songs to popularize a movie’s songs, which worked in favor for them, especially on streaming platforms.
Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’s marketing focused on its soundtracks by teaming up with Saregama India. This collaboration resulted in multiple viral tracks including Tum Kya Mile, What Jhumka, Dhindora Baje Re, and more with the songs reaching millions of views within hours of release.
‘What Jhumka’ became an overnight trend on the internet and today the song has over 800K Reels on Instagram. The social media reach of these tracks further amplified the movie’s virality among the audience.
Similarly, Tere Vaaste from Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan’s Zara Hatke Zara Bachke saw popularity, too. The song trended on social media for weeks and has been recreated in various memes. The audio has close to 5 million Reels on Instagram.
Rishabh Khatter, Business Head of The Rabbit Hole also saw this trend kicking off this year. He said, “Movie trends that have taken an uptick or made a massive comeback are the promotions of the film's music. This is predominantly coming from a place of the Silver Screen getting back to its glory after the lockdown. Hence, a lot more emphasis is placed on the marketing of the movie’s music.”
Another trend that made its way into the industry was movies going old-school. The industry borrowed several tracks from the yesteryears to make hits in 2023. SRK’s Jawan took the 1966’s Beqarar karke, Bholaa borrowed ‘65 Aaj Phir Jeena Ki Tamanna Hai, RRKPK did it with ‘Jhumka gira re’ and Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal went international with an Iranian 50’s composition – Jamaal Jamaaloo.
Taking teaser-trailer launches up a notch
Recently, many old classics are been re-imagined in a vertical format. Movies like Devdas, Padmaavat, and Raavanan have been recreated for vertical viewing. This trend is picking up because of the rise of short-form videos and the use of mobile phones is increasing.
The popularity of vertical trend was used by the makers of Gadar 2 when they launched the theatrical release’s trailer on Reels. This unique launch was hashtag’d #ReelWalaTrailer and was released in partnership with Meta, Zee Studios and White Rivers Media.
Launching teasers and trailers has always been a part of movie promotions. It helps grab the audience’s attention and brings more crowds to the theatres.
Sanket Kulkarni, Head, of Business Development (theatrical) Ormax Media said, “Post-pandemic, the dependency on the trailer for a stronger first day has increased further, so much so that it can be a make or break for the film.”
For The Archies, the makers released their teaser trailer at Netflix’s global event Tudum in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Many movies created anticipation for the trailer launch, releasing countdown posts and leveraging the star casts’ following on social media.
Making connect with BTS & social media
This year, almost every movie took their viewers behind the scenes to build curiosity and connect with fans. Movies like Sam Bahadur, Gadar 2 and Ganpath were all about showing the realness to the audience.
Anuja Trivedi said, “Behind the scenes make the content and celebrities seem much more real to viewers.”
To capture the realness of Sam Bahadur and the cast, its director Meghna Gulzar made sure to keep the audience in the loop throughout the movie’s production. She extensively shared behind-the-scenes footage and pictures depicting the process of production.
Sanmesh Sapkal said, “BTS became one of the biggest trends of 2023. Amidst the clutter of movies, people wanted to see their favourite actors in real life and in their true elements. The moment you show the audience something more than their screen presence, they start relating more to the actor and eventually become fans of the movie.”
Bholaa took the same route. The makers let the audience behind the curtains and created an experience for them, showcasing the action sequences and more, thus building a connect with them.
Tiger Shroff’s Ganpath saw potential in this format as well. The action movie had a sequence of these BTS videos for the viewers which included dance practices, the cast learning their action scenes and more.
Outdoor amplification
OOH marketing played an important role in movie marketing this year. Many movies reserved a big chunk of their spends for this medium. Neeraj Joshi previously told us about Gadar 2’s marketing spends. He said, “More than 70% of the marketing budget went into on-ground activations.”
The movie created murals for the movie across Mumbai.
Jawan went international with its OOH amplification. Right after the trailer for the movie went live, SRK arrived in Dubai to celebrate its release with fans and showcased it on the Burj Khalifa. Besides that, the teaser of Jawan was also played at Times Square in New York.
Jawan ka jashn main aapke saath na manau yeh ho nahin sakta. Aa raha hoon main Burj Khalifa on 31st August at 9 PM and celebrate JAWAN with me. And since love is the most beautiful feeling in the world, toh pyaar ke rang mein rang jao and lets wear red...what say? READYYYY! pic.twitter.com/IUi4AkGrZy
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) August 28, 2023
The Archies had a billboard featuring a countdown for the movie’s release on the streets of Mumbai. Additionally, to amplify the retro feel of the movie, the makers made a large mural of the movie as well.
Two days before the movie’s release, a custom Archies-themed car was spotted roaming the streets of Mumbai as well.
Tech & Innovation
This year, the use of AI, CGI and innovation wasn’t just restricted to the A&M side, but it seamlessly made its way into movie marketing as well. Many movies tried their hands at incorporating tech into their amplification tactics.
“Technology became the narrative arc in 2023, with AI and CGI transforming into architects of immersive brand experiences, not just marketing tools,” said Shrenik Gandhi.
Fukrey 3 went all out by creating an AI Chatbot named “Choo CPT.” Named after the beloved character ‘Choocha,’ the bot was created in collaboration with Mugafi. The bot employed a conversational chat format with the character of Choocha seemingly talking to the users and answering their queries.
The Archies used CGI for a couple of occasions. The first was when they announced the movie’s arrival on Netflix. Then to create anticipation they did countdown posts using CGI.
On a smaller scale, Bholaa’s makers generated AI images of Ajay Devgn to stir the conversation.
This time last year, the Hindi film industry was struggling to retain its charm. 2023 has been a year when the industry seemingly redeemed itself. Of the total Indian box office revenue between January and September this year, Hindi films accounted for 42% of the collections, according to Ormax Media’s India Box Office report. With blockbuster movies and grand marketing techniques, the use of the star cast and making a brand out of them stood out and brand collaborations further drove conversations and amplified reach. This year movie marketing is wrapping up with a bang and is slowly bringing the ‘Bollywood charm’ back.