Cinema: Filmmakers’ marketing gimmicks

Today’s filmmakers are a happy lot. Gone are the days when it took a lot of money, effort and time to market a movie in the most appealing fashion. Things are much easier and less complicated now. With technology providing instant access and quick results too, filmmakers are exploiting it to the core to promote their movies. And mind you, all these contribute to a movie’s success.

Pictures from the sets: Today, actors are allowed and encouraged to post pictures from the sets even when the movie is at a pre-production stage to get some early mileage for the movie. These pictures give a clue to film buffs on what to expect. Social media has become a great platform for stars to share their film news with the fans. Right from shooting experiences to birthday parties on the sets, stars share everything on their micro-blogging sites. Word-of-mouth publicity, retweets, sharing the posts give movies the much-needed push.

Audio launch, an expensive affair: Next is the music of the movie. It’s a known fact that filmmakers these days preserve a huge chunk of money for the audio launch. Audio launches today are impressive with a lot of pomp and show — right from the most exquisite looking invitation cards to out-of-the-box themes to launch the film audio, it’s one big event.

Power of singles: The latest trend is to release a single track from the movie online to garner some initial mileage and attention. Tamil flicks Mankatha, Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal,Vaanam released single tracks before audio launch and got wide appreciation. Who can forget the waves created by Kolaveri song from the movie 3. Debutant music director Anirudh became a phenomenon of sorts gaining global acclaim.
Behind the scenes: Recently, Shreya Ghoshal’s single in the movie Saattai was released online making it a hit. What caught people’s attention was not just the song or the singer but also the making of the video that made people sit up and take note. Aishwarya Dhanush too had adapted the same marketing strategy to promote her movie before release as she put up the making ofKolaveri video online.

First look: Thala Ajith’s Billa-2 is a much anticipated movie. When the filmmakers released the teaser of the film, it was nothing short of expectations. The trailer became a rage online within minutes of it being uploaded.

These apart, touring cities, media interviews and contests related to the movie are all part of the promotional campaign. All these with the sole mission of raking in the moolah!