The success of a movie depends on the content quality. But its success also depends on how a particular movie is marketed.

Creative production houses or agencies conduct these marketing activities and create content around the movies to create interest in the audience and bring them to the movie houses.

In the past decade or so, we have seen marketing taking over content and films with average or poor content opening to big numbers and sustaining well at the box office.

The entertainment industry is one of the most lucrative businesses across the globe. Right from box office business to non-theatrical revenues, movies often turn out to be profitable ventures for the makers. However, the uncertainty of the box office performance has been a talking point among trade circles, especially after the post-pandemic era.

‘Content is the king’ has been a mantra not just in Bollywood but in other movie industries as well. However, in recent times, the good old mantra seems to take centre stage as we have seen many content-based films doing extremely well at the box office. The glorious and good old word of mouth from the audience was reflected in the numbers, and we saw movies holding phenomenally well at the ticket windows. The audience's taste has drastically changed in the post-pandemic era as the cinegoers have become very selective and thoughtful in choosing films to watch. It has become challenging for the makers to ensure the content is powerful, engaging and entertaining enough to give value for the audience's time and money.

One of the most critical aspects of film marketing is to understand the pulse of the movie and what makes it unique to the audiences. the accelerated digital transformation, the influx of mature audiences, dramatic changes in optimising budgets, and the changing narrative of the films and series in the country have cast a wider net of opportunities for film marketers.

Today, film-makers have many options such as meme marketing, Reels, Twitter, macro-micro-nano influencers, original content videos, etc., at their disposal apart from traditional marketing strategies such as first look, teaser, trailer and pre-release event launches and having cast and crew of the films meet the audiences directly in multiple cities. Innovative concepts create an environment of stronger resonance with the audience. It is important to assess the pulse and theme of the movie and connect with the audiences with a good social media mix, which will lead to the creation of a loyal community.

Films today build engagement with the audiences even before the launch and it is about aligning the right set of content beats that lead up strongly to the launch date of the film. There isn’t a template but leveraging the theme of the film and creating curiosity.
Today movie marketing is a phase that lends opportunities to digital creators like video creators and dancers to garner visibility for their talent and efforts. This is the time when the topic is relevant and has a sizeable audience interested in consuming peripheral content around it. It could be anything that isn’t directly related to be a part of the movie. For instance, TikTok influencers recreating dialogues from the trailer on the platform.

There are ways to reach certain communities of creators to explore and make them part of movie marketing.

• Brand community- Brands often jump on the bandwagon to create unique narratives, making it a trend when it comes to moments.
• Illustrators community- Instagram has become a hub for illustrators, artists and those who love to sketch out their thoughts. Leveraging a moment created by a movie helps which are often shared on official cast, crew and production houses pages and accounts.
• Performers community- Upcoming movies give influencers or performers a clear-cut content hook that they know will be engaging. Be it dance steps to a new song or a movie dialogue challenge.
• Meme community – It can hardly be a trend that makes noise if memes aren’t being made around it. The ones that don’t cross the line to inch towards trolling are always good news for they add new, funky, humorous dimensions to the movie promotion strategies.
• Curators community- Fanclubs are integral to the world of movies as they help build an actor’s value. By sharing relevant content, they can become influencers in their own right. Creating peripheral content in connection to a movie helps these pages get content that reels in more people to discover pages.

Marketing strategies are getting increasingly complex regarding data, tech, creative ideation, and execution as both strive to stay ahead of the curve and deliver solutions that highlight innovativeness of thought. Movie marketing strategies are only evolving leveraging the traditional and new age technologies/platforms to reach and engage audiences with the filmmakers’ unique content and storytelling experiences on the big screen and digital platforms.