Movie Marketing: Tips For Marketing Your Movie

Number of Internet users in India is estimated to be around 450 million. Why is this important? It is, because the new age movie promotion is highly depended on digital and analog bla bla. With the rapid increase in the usage of smart phones and high level of internet usage, thanks to Jio SIM, the present and future of marketing is directly equal to the amount of time people spend on social media for your movie.

Most important part (other than the unbeatable – ‘mouth publicity’!) is timing. Once the estimate date of the release is fixed, you should create as much hype as possible which should be carried to the launch. The hype does matter for the initial pull, especially when no big star is involved in the movie. Some movies has done incredible growth in business due to mouth publicity but we cannot always expect the same. ‘When’ to start the promotion is the second most important part of promotion after the ‘release date’.

Press-Meet and Print Media: Oldest in the list but the best to reach a good sector of movie fans. TV and Print Media still holds the top position for family audience and the largest set of movie goers. Spend some small amount here too.

Social Media: Marketing means spending 20 hours per day on social media. Make your Facebook and Twitter page interactive. Social Media is extremely powerful. They get users share the content/posts, which takes the content/posts to their friends, which is eventually like an invitation to the film’s page. There is an invention called ‘hashtag’ in Twitter. Try that. Must.

Trailer/Teasers: When you have a great trailer, your job is half done. A perfect trailer impresses the audience. It is the gateway to the movie ticket. If it is dull then we have to do something miraculous to bring audience to the hall. So better take time, consult and mold a trailer which can impress somebody who is not close to you. Be careful because it is not easy to find somebody who says the truth about it. Try pre-roll video ads.

Songs: Songs are an integral part of our industry, and for the success of the movie. I am personally against songs in a movie like ‘8 Thottaakkal’ but… but the reach of a good song is still way higher than everything else. Do you remember the hype ‘Kankal Irandaal’ or ‘Kolaveri Di’ song created. How we know if the song will be accepted by the audience!? Hey Raam.

Audio Launch: For simple reason. High media coverage.

Wikipedia Listing: People don’t believe that you exists if you are not in Facebook, so is Wikipedia for movies. It is a basic thing for a movie. Update as much details as possible. A good Wikipedia page is nothing but compulsory. How can something exists without having a page in Wikipedia! I won’t believe. Try IMDB also. Bonus points are available there.

There are other ways of marketing used by many gimmickers. Ethical and sometimes unethical. Eg. If involving audience in the making of the film is clever, casting call for the sake of marketing and fake news are unethical. But it is business. If you cannot convince them, then confuse them and bring them to cinema halls. I don’t like this.

These are the things you have to spend money on. No choices. Small or big, you have to spend. Pick the right team to market your movie. Do marketing. Anyway. There is no formula for movie marketing. That is the negative point to be noted, and the positive point is that there is NO FORMULA for movie marketing. Absolutely. You must prepare the marketing strategy according to the movie, the genre, the director, the story, the songs, the actors, music director, singers, and everything.