The Indian Film Industry is finally waking up to the power of social media. Films have started creating websites and doing promotion online, ads were already seen from quite some time and twitter/ facebook/ orkut were also being tried a bit. A few days ago I reviewed Quickgun Murugun’s online marketing campaign, though it was a crap one altogether, recently I noticed that even India’s biggest production house, Yash Chopra’s Yash Raj Films (YRF) has understood the power of the internet and taken it up to the social media to get some branding and do good promotions for all its films. I decided to do a done a detailed analysis and was impressed to see the results. Let’s see what they’ve done and what are the thoughts behind the campaign.

The Website:
Yes I agree that a flash site looks good but I still do not favour its implementation primarily because of the slow internet speed in India. Quite a few users who see a flash loading page often tend to close the page straightaway, that’s because of no or little patience. We don’t like to wait! Anyways, once its loaded, a decent interface comes up with the latest release in background (Dil Bole Hadippa these days), a nice way to promote the latest. Also the 30% page flash assures that the recent previous or the upcoming films are also noticed. Contests winners about the previous films are also displayed, motivating people to take part in more contests.

YRF Official Website

Next thing I liked about the site was that each film gets a microsite. No need to create new domains, all on sub domain and having enough knowledge and stuff for the fans or the inquisitive lot. Also contests were promoted in good fashion, full marks to the designers for making them strikingly visible.

YRF-dedicated-movie-microsites with Contests-Facebook-Twitter-Youtube

YRF understands that website alone is not enough to promote and hence has a twitter profile, a facebook fan page, and a youtube channel (operating since 2006), the most essential of them all. All their promos are updated there much before they are aired on TV. A very nice move to get free advertising.

Yash Raj Films on Twitter

Not only YRF, each film has got it dedicated twitter profiles or facebook groups and they’ve mentioned that they are official, a good move once again winning the trust of fans, equally important.

Dil Bole Hadippa (DilBoleHadippa) on Twitter

They have also assured that no one has the slightest of doubts about being official, every profile is linked to one another. The website has links to twitter, facebook and youtube channels and vice versa as well.

Dil Bole Hadippa - Official Group (Yash Raj Films) - Facebook

Dil-Bole-Hadippa-Facebook-ads

Though I am not a big supporter of ads, but if you have the money in your pockets, you should do it is my take and that’s what they’ve done. Facebook ads are evident and done enough to gather a lot of support for the fan pages/ groups .

The engagement team has made a point to keep the fans busy and connected by promoting them all over the place. After all brands are made out of fans/ users. Hence by engaging them consistently they are doing a good job that they speak for them.

YRF-dedicated-Facebook-URL

The technical team seems to be doing a good job. Assuring customized URL’s for their pages, the youtube channel apart from the regular stuff, has branded the page very well.

YouTube - yrf's Channel

They’ve also made sure that every film gets its separate playlist so that the user does not miss any promo for a particular film. A good thought indeed.

Dil Bole Hadippa Playlist

Although they have done a very decent job, the absence of a blog is something which I could not understand. An industry like the film industry which relies heavily or rather completely on its viewers/ fans, keeping that informed is a very important aspect. But not having a blog they are missing on a lot of free advertising and PR. If I am not wrong, Aamir Khan’s dog is named Shahrukh is something that every fan of Asmir knows, but where did they come to know of it ? From his blog of course.

Asking what the fans wished to see in future, what are their opinions, what could be rectified or improved in future is an easy way to get public opinions and then deliver to them. This would improve their fan base, credibility and gain a lot of respect among the crowd. This can be seen by the amount of respect Google has in the online world. A major reason for that is that it does what it’s users want, also the reason why Google’s head designer quit, he had to do not what he thought, but what people wanted. But that’s a one off case, and negligible compared to amount of respect and confidence Google gained among its consumers. So listening to people is a must do for YRF.

Barring the blogging part, Yash Raj Films have done a commendable job on the social media as of now and I must say Kudos to their team altogether. I seriously suggest Quickgun Murugun’s online marketing agency to learn a thing or two or rather all what YRF has done as what they did was entirely crap. Cheers YRF !

Although I did a detailed analysis, I may have missed something which you have noticed. Also possible that you disagree with me on certain points. Do drop in the comments section and let’s have a discussion over it.

Article cross-posted on Zapylacz blog.

Technorati Tags: aditya-chopra, bollywood, Branding, brands, dil-bole-hadippa, facebook, google, indian-brands, internet-power, PR, rani-mukherji, shahid-kapoor, social-media, twitter, yash-chopra, yash-raj-films, yrf

DevD was one example of an Indian movie that did some sort of online promotions for the film. Probably seeing the success of an offbeat film getting good response and Fox Production House from the US involved, the hype around Social Media, the producers were tempted enough to do some promotions for Quickgun Murugun (from now referred as QGM), another film with no star-cast around. But little did they know that the agency are sitting to make money and to fool people and not to do some real work.

I came to across a twitter profile of QGM sometime back when it followed me, but seeing the tweets I assumed that it’s some person who’s making fun of it or maybe just making use of the name since it’s promos were out. But when I came to know that there’s some agency that’s handling it I thought I should look over and see what they are doing. I always want to learn more and thought that I can learn a thing or 2 from their campaign. Had never thought that I would be writing this later on. I did a very basic analysis and was surprised to see such a crap campaign. Let me share a few of the primary faults which make the campaign a total waste. Wasted in the process is SOME effort, LARGE amount of money and created some negative thoughts in the mind of the people about online marketing as a medium.

First things first : Twitter Analysis :

How many personal twitter profiles do you have ? Well, I have one and I guess all of us have a single profile. No, managing more than one is a different issue. QGM has 2 profiles ! I have no clue which one is original, well I guess both are fake or both are real (real means handled by the marketing guys).

Well, my analysis showed that both were handled by the same people. What ? Why 2 profiles ? Doesn’t it create a confusion as to which one is real, which one should I follow, if any, am I not dividing my followers by creating 2 separate profiles ? Also makes it difficult to maintain 2 different profiles.
Loses authenticity, viewer trust, credibility, no of followers and makes the job difficult. In short foolish thing to do.
Not to forget the numbers, the profile does get even even half the no of people it is following and they call it they have spread the word. Crap.

Let’s come to Facebook now :

QGM has a profile as well as a fan page.

I wonder what are the people trying to promote, the character or the movie? Seems they are confused themselves. Before you jump to conclusions, I must verify that both of them are handled by the same people. The profile has some 700 friends while the fan page has some 1300 fans. Again the same problem, authenticity apart from double the work and most importantly dividing the fan base (whatever small it exists) ? 700 friends and 1300 fans means a meagre 2000 people connected (although there will be a lot of repeated people, so count would be much less).

Moreover they did not even bother to secure the personal fan page URL. It has a long 12 digit number making it impossible for a user to recall. To tell you all, after 100 fans you can secure the URL for your liking.

Well the confirmation for both the twitter profiles being handled by same people comes from here as the QGM profile page and Fan Page give links to different twitter profiles. Strange but true and moreover quite stupid I would comment. Keeping fans confused all the time I guess was the aim of the campaign, if it really was, then I must say, they did a splendid job. Fan page points to orkut profile and quickGmurugun twitter profile. Same twitter profile points to profile page on fb, the profile page points to blog and site and a DIFFERENT twitter profile which points God knows where. Phew!

Even though the movie has been released, it has been able to generate just a handful of people especially considering the fact that DevD generated some 14,000 fans that too in a time when Facebook was not the premier choice of the people in India. It’s been off late that people have switched to facebook from Orkut and that too in the metros, people in other parts of the country still stick to Orkut.

Orkut, well is a total tsunami. Atleast before the website disaster I would say. The orkut community was created a mere 5 days ago, that’s 2 days prior to the release date.

Probably the promoters realized that since FB and Twitter are not working, but my target audience (TG) are on Orkut as well and hence created a community. Well the community got all its posts on the same day, and was able to generate as many as 31 fans (till I last noticed). Yes you may check it, it’s only 31. Wonder how that was promoted, even if I create a community today, I know I can get a 50 people in a day, to say the least. QGM, being a movie should have generated a few 100′s atleast had it been managed properly. And if it was done on time, it would have generated a huge number as well with proper management.

Let’s come to the tsunami now : The QGM Website

What’s the difference between a website and an image/photo/picture ? Probably you are thinking how can you compare the two, there’s no relation and can’t be done. But when you see the QGM website, even you can compare between them or rather end up saying like I did, the promoters do know the difference between a site and an image. To be precise, the site has just poster of the movie and a single clickable link on homepage, of course not to forget the designer’s link. The link (if you find it), redirects to a index page,wonder when will developers understand the need for specific URL’s and not just default ones. To make matters worse, the index page has a very heavy flash which takes ages to load that too on a broadband connection, no matter the bounce rate for the site is a whopping 60%. Wonder when will the people understand that usability has to be given preference rather than looks. Pardon me, but the fact is that the website is not a lady, for whom you fall for looks. Half of the internal links open in new windows creating to the agony of the user. Also there is no option to turn off the sound, which made me turn off my speakers for the few minutes I spent on the website trying to analyze it. Phew! Poor, really poor. What’s worse is that it doesn’t have a single interaction place.

Ah! Did I forget the blog ?

The website have a blog in itself ? Why ? The developers did not know how to install a wordpress or a blogger probably, so what did they do ? They started a blog on blogspot. What’s more surprising is that even though they did not get the desired URL on blogspot they did not bother to host the blog on the website itself. The desired name is wasted by someone on blogger and the wordpress similar domain name seems like they thought they might use this but then thought of something else. The wordpress blog has just ONE post, briefing about the movie, giving the site link, that’s all. Not even bothered to change anything else on the blog, not even the default text on the ABOUT page. Though it may be kept in mind here that there is no confirmation as to who’s handled that blog.

The original blog, on blogspot, has 21 posts generated around a period of 2 months. Problems :
In that span it has put just 2 movie trailers, that too the latest being more than a month ago, I suspect there are many more than 2 promos made.

There was an attempt to create some series of articles, a good thought but again lack of blogging experience was very highly evident. The first 2 articles in a series of 4 were posted way back on July 14-15 after which the bloggers went off to a sleep and woke up again a month later to complete the rest 2 that too on a single day. Objective is never established in such a case. The readers NEVER stick to an inconsistent blog. No wonder they managed just a handful of comments on the entire blog (spanning 21 posts). They even tried to engage the readers through a one off contest but that also didn’t manage a single comment, reason as even you can guess now, if now one reads the blog how will they come to know about the comment and what’s the reason of having in that case? Again a waste of time and effort.
Another big flaw is that none of the posts led to further pages about the movie, it does not have a link to the twitter profile, NOT EVEN TO THE WEBSITE. Yes, even I couldn’t believe this! God knows what were they thinking when they created that crappy blog.

The purpose of an online campaign is to engage the readers/viewers, keep them updated, occupy a small place in their mind at least whenever they are online and then connect to them for letting them know more of the brand. When this is done successfully only then can an investor think of some ROI (Return on Investment). If he spend X amount of money does not generate you X+Y amount of money (Y being a positive no), then what is the use of having the promotion done?

A movie which such great content to promote and that has to target straightaway to the young crowd (15-35), is able to generate only 1300 fans on FB (that’s the max they could do). It’s not wrong to say that they made a mess of what COULD have been a remarkable example of online branding and marketing in India.

And what they claim is that they have a team dedicated to run that campaign, probably I alone would have run a better campaign than that, especially with the amount of money they would have got; I say!

Just hope the movie does well, wanted to convey that what all you shouldn’t be doing in an online marketing campaign, or probably discuss with someone better in the field, not one who FAKES !

Technorati Tags: Branding, campaigns, ethics, false-campaigns, internet, internet-power, marketing, movies, online-branding, quickgun-murugun

Of late I have been asked by quite a few people about branding and what are the steps to become a brand but today I was asked a good question, What is a Brand or better put Define a Brand.

Wikipedia says : A brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or producer. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as “cultural accessories and personal philosophies”.

FreeDictionary.com says :

A trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or a manufacturer.
A product line so identified: a popular brand of soap.
A distinctive category; a particular kind

apart from a 100 other definitions.

Let’s talk practical : Shahrukh Khan is a brand, Farhan Akhtar is not; Harsha Bhogle is a brand, Arun Lal is not; Michael Jackson is a brand (yes, he still is), Rakhi Sawant is NOT. Even though I did write about her sometime back and that too in relation to branding, but she never was and can never be.

In terms of product value, I will say they are brands because the first thing is that THEY SELL. Any Shahrukh film just sells, even though the promos have not been good, even though the film is crap, even though it may have no other superstar in it, what matters is it sells. Same does not hold for Farhan Akhtar.

If Harsha Bhogle is on air, everyone listens to him, his name sells there. The same is not true in the case of an Arun Lal or a Rameez Raja, even though they are seen commentating on all channels and are all over the place, people may listen but do not respect their commentary.

Brand Michael Jackson

So who is a brand ? Let me tell what does not define it. Any person/product/company which catches the eye of the people simply is NOT termed a brand. It is a necessary condition but not a sufficient one. Something which fades away with time is NOT one. Negative publicity does NOT make one.

A brand is something/someone/product or company which :

is famous (the primary condition)
has earned respect in the society (society may be a variable term here, but constitutes of people who do not know or are NOT associated with the brand personally)
has value (the product is good or the person has excelled professionally or the company has done exceptionally good business)
which sells outright (does not need much of marketing)
raises eyeballs every now and then, with positive actions or sometimes even with neutral ones
no of people who love the brand >>> no of people who hate it (yes you ought-to/must have those who hate you)
does not become news for negative reasons

May be you can add more points ? I put what I could recall of but I guess you may have much more to add, looking forward to discuss and learn more from you people.

Technorati Tags: bollywood, Branding, farhan-akhtar, harsha-bhogle, michael-jackson, personal branding, rakhi sawant, shahrukh-khan

I recently came across an advertisement in The Economic Times, a national daily newspaper arguably read by each and every businessman across the country. The ad started with the words :

Kind Attention CMD’s, CEO’s, COO’s and top management

Following the address, it had information regarding the program which was succeeded with a 2 line statement about advertiser’s background. Now I guess we can imagine how much information can be dispensed in a 3″x4″ ad. And hence as a result of which the ads are always suffixed with a website link, an email id and a contact no, assuming the advertiser and the addressed people have enough technology exposure. You must be thinking so what’s wrong in this ? Nothing ! Absolutely correct.
The website has a single page and that page contains nothing more than a 1 paragraph information of the company. There are 4 other links on the website, one of which links to a related external site, good enough. But out of the other 3 links, 2 do not work. The last one says “News”. Hoping that this will have information at least about the ad, I clicked that link. And guess did I see.

This post has been deleted.

I assume that, okay, the website might be having some problems so I pick up my phone to call on the given number. You can’t believe what reply I got,

Please check the number you have dialed !!!

What my first reaction was, I probably cannot write here.  Still assuming that IT’S OKAY,  there might be a printing mistake, I gathered  some courage and clicked on the only link that was working (the linking to an external site). That website, though functional,  also did not have any info about the advertisement. Somhow I found a landline contact no and I had full confidence that atleast this should be working. Alas! it was not to be. No, the numbers were correct, but none of them was recieved. I dialled both the numbers but to no avail.

Harms caused by bad timing

Can you imagine what sort of impression would this sort of campaign do. It’s done more damage than you can imagine. The website’s not ready, has no information, the news section says post deleted, the mobile numbers don’t exist and nobody is bothered or responsible enough to recieve the landline calls. Waaaoow ! I am impressed. And in case you forgot, then I may remind you that the post was addressed to CEO’S, COO’S and CMD’S. No, I am not anyone of those, but yes I do own an organization or rather a startup I should say and the advertiser is connected to me due to previous background.

Things they lost from all this :

Trust :   Confidence :   Loyalty :   Growth/Business (for a short term and with some concerned people at least) : and the most important BRAND VALUE, if they had any.

Lesson to be learnt : If your soldiers aren’t ready, don’t FIRE !

This is a perfect example why you should synchronize your advertising and marketing/branding campaigns. Probably they should have waited at least till the date the website is ready. Since a bad impression lasts longer in the human brain, I guess next time such or may be any ad from the same organization, wouldn’t be treated trustworthy or would get the response it expects.

By the way, after all this, I didn’t bother to try the email id.

Technorati Tags: advertising, Branding, Learnings, lessons, mistakes, timing