Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore (IIMB)’s Case Study on Bollywood & Social Media Marketing

Digital marketing is being used extensively to market bollywood movies. It includes creating a microsite, facebook/twitter/youtube profiles, hangout with movie stars, promotions, social media buzz & others. Youtube hits, social media reach/share/amplification & other metrics predict how the movie will perform post release. Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore (IIMB) has created a case study on bollywood movies & social media activities.

The case study has been done by Suhruta Kulkarni, U Dinesh Kumar and Karthika A S of IIMB. The case study has now been published by Harvard Business Publishing. It explores the link between box-office collection and social media activity wrt the Bollywood film ‘1920 Evil Returns’. 1920 Evil Returns is the 2nd film of the franchisee & ‘1920 London’ is the 3rd which will be released this year.

iimb case study Bollywood & Social Media Marketing

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How Digital Marketing has changed the promotions of Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood & Mollywood movies?

Digital marketing has changed the way promotions are done for Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood, Mollywood & other movies. Earlier we used to see the promos of up coming movies during the screening of movies in theaters
& in newspapers. With Digital Marketing following are some of the ways of promoting movies

1) Release trailers in video sites like youtube & others.
2) Trailers of songs in leading social media sites
3) Facebook, twitter & Google+ profile for the movies with regular updates
4) Microsite on the movie
5) Offers, merchandising & special online promotions of the movies.
6) Google+ hangout with the actors of the movie
7) Promote hashtags on Twitter, Facebook

Krrish 3 Movie & Role of Social Media in its Promotion

Bollywood has been using social media like Facebook, twitter, YouTube & others for promoting movies & to create buzz around it. Micro sites are also launched to provide updates to the fans. Live chat & Google+ hangout with the stars of the movies is done. Teaser clips & songs are released on YouTube. The number of views on Youtube has become a vital parameter in deciding the success of the film. Other sites like Tumblr, pinterest & others are also used to update with images & videos.

Krrish series has become one of the most successful movie in Bollywood. To promote the new Krrish 3 movie, a new microsite has been released. Twitter hashtag #Krrish3firstlook was promoted to reveal the Krrish 3 movie first look. The higher the number of tweets with this #Krrish3firstlook, microsite was designed to reveal more & more of the first look. A Krrish 3 facebook page with 353K likes is also up for promoting the movie. Krrish 3 Official Motion Poster has also been posted on Youtube. A Wikipedia entry on Krrish 3 has been created with complete info on the star cast & other details.

Bollywood Movies & Social Media

Indian cinema which is celebrating 100 years has a new critic in the form of social media. Earlier, it was film critics who would rate movies & now social media has added a new dimension to review movies. Right from the moment movies are announced till they are released & running in movie halls, social media is sparking conversations about the movies. All the movies now have a Facebook, twitter, YouTube profiles besides a micro-site. The marketing & promotional activities include social media conversation from the leading actors of the movies, Facebook chat, hangouts, video promotions & others.

It usually starts with the conversations surrounding the cast of the movie. Teaser clips of the movies are released in YouTube along with official trailer. The YouTube hits have become a chief indicator of how popular the movie will be. All the songs of the movies are released on YouTube. Mobile apps are also added to the movies along with the QR code to scan. People now tweet & update about the movies right from the movie halls expressing their opinion about the movies. This will have a major impact on the movies. Micro-site along with promotions, special movie screening & other drives are helping to build visibility for the movie.