Social Media and Films

 

Social Media

Brain Solis, a pioneer in social media and technologies, describes social media as “the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, and vlogs.” He then exemplifies with digg, Facebook, Myspace etc.

We can say social media to be a gathering platform in the web which provides engagement for the masses.

Marketing and Web

Marketing is no longer a trick of pricing, place, packing etc.; consumers are now creative, informed and they participate with the advent of new and simpler technologies. Marketing is now structured look into consumers as intelligent and sceptical human beings. Social Media and technology empowers the consumers by letting them connect and share their experiences.

Films and Social Media

Films even now experience the presence of social media and the wave generated by it.

The consumers of films are web savvy. It is not the posters that mark the presence of a film but its trailer in YouTube. Television is not only the source of a movie release but the Twitter, social networking sites and Blogs are getting into the league.

Use of social media for films promotion is very high paced specially in Hollywood cinema. Indian Film industry is now adapting itself to it. It is soon going to be a major player as the reach of broadband services gets wide spread and affordable.

Hollywood has a long story to say about its relationship with internet. Commendable outcome of the new-media and social sites had let to high marketing and revenue generation for movies like “Blair Witch project”. Currently Hollywood exploits every way to market itself on the social media. Citeable examples will be Twilight where MySpace and UStream broadcasted the live premier and the results were phenomenal: three million viewers, and two million unique visitors.

“Snakes on the plane” not only had massive online followers but also generated revenue through merchandizing online.

“Avatar” had a special Avatar Day which was highly promoted by Facebook and twitter and was the reason for high ticket sales, not in weeks, not in days but just in hours.

Warner Brothers came up with an innovative way to use twitter through its Site –“Welcome to the Wizarding Class”, depicting from Harry potter movies.

“Paranormal Activity” premiered the movie free of cost and encouraged to tweet their “tweet your scream”. The substantial part of their marketing was through social media

A visual example will be the case of “Watchmen” where the statistic shows the referred site for the word “watchmen” directed to 3 social networking platforms among the top 10. Facebook and Twitter bagged the 12^th and the 21^st position respectively. (Click for the source here)

 

This is just one side of the coin. The fundamentals are still intact. Films are a source of entertainment and when it fails the purpose even a good online marketing finds it tough to reverse the effect. Citing an example from http://www.ngonlinenews.com – “… online bloggers have been responsible for seriously damaging some films at the box office with reviews posted before the film is released. Aintitcool.com, for example, was cited as one of the reasons why Batman & Robin flopped at the box office.”

Indian Film fraternity has started using social media in its favour. Social networking is not only for movies but also to build up a web presence of movie stars and production houses. They use Twitter as their micro blogging platform and that indirectly markets the movie. Blogs of Amitabh Bacchan, RamGopal Verma, Amir Khan Etc. have a similar presence in web.

Social Media can leverage film marketing in the following levels:

Creating Buzz:

Social Media is now known for creating buzz. Viral marketing has taken the entire affair to a different level. Once known as ‘Teasers’ has evolved multiple folds. It has turned out to be the most economical way to market as it reaches to millions and millions of subscribers and generate the inquisitiveness. It helps in spreading word of mouth. You tube, Vimeo, Google Videos etc.

Participation:

Once on web, social media takes it a step ahead. Web 2.0 technologies have made sharing of information. Web studies say that 33% of web users share most of the material they come across. Web applications like bookmarking, RSS, tweets, Facebook etc. makes the process even simpler which was days ago done only through emails.

Engagement:

Web has personified the entire affair. It can be exemplified by the vast communities created by Harry Potter fans. They not only have their presence online but meet offline too. They create different twists to the story and share; they even gather comments under their kitty.

Reviews have their own place in the web. Social site applications now take polls of the common people and publish it.

Film marketing at all these levels helps it go be a common place affair and helps in getting audiences and followers. This in turn adds to the merchandizing business. Indian film industry has the long way to go in the field of merchandizing too and nothing helps well than the social networking sites in the new media.

Why social media is to stay:

Technology is simple and rampant:

Web 2.0 was once described to be a technology that one’s grand parents can use it without any guidance. The simplicity of a click has the capability to take the information all around the globe. New media can integrate with mobile which presently has a deeper penetration. These applications are capable of sending feeds and alerts from the social networking sites too. Lately mobile phones with Facebook button have also been developed. Technologies like 3G are already creating waves through its simplicity to communicate.

Affordable:

Though it is long way to go, broadband penetration is increasing at tremendous speed in India. Government has different policies to help the process further. The time is not far off when internet reach will be comparable to mobile reach too. This reach will help the Film industry to reach major segment of people and establish their presence.

Going from static to the dynamism:

The web has made the world change in the speed faster than ever anticipated. Social networks are majorly responsible for this effect and are appreciated by the users. Websites have shrunk to mode of information and social media has gained the vote of confidence. All these elevates the fidelity of social networks as now, user likes to participate and believe what peers say (not the owner).

Philosophy of every one’s world:

Social media comes with no bounds. Deepika Padukone and Sharukh Khan are equally found active on twitter as Sashi Tharoor. Demographics have transformed into communities and being in neighbourhood is all about being in friend’s/follower’s list. Films get a special advantage due to these transformations while marketing.

The Future

As the social media-fire goes wilder, the future looks prospective as web 2.0 plans to upgrade itself to web 3.0, hence forth being more intuitive and intelligent. Films are now capable of growing mature with globally digestible content and social media takes care of letting it reach without geographical boundaries.

This clearly speaks for itself that social media is here to say and as India grows with its religion in films, social media is sure to be its worship place.

Image cutesy: Click here

E-marketer approach to disintermediation

The intermediaries are the middle man in any industry. Disintermediation is to remove or eliminate the role of retailers, distributors, brokers, and other middlemen between the producer and the customer; hence the transaction becomes liner between the two. With the advent of web and related technologies it has now become easier to apply disintermediation in one’s business. This leads to delivery of products to the customer at cheaper rates as it saves the commission that went to the middlemen. Though it may seem that disintermediation is a boon but it is posing a threat to the e-commerce industry too. How does it sound if we get to know www.Amazone.com shuts down because all the writers plan to sell their books directly to the customers and does not need intermediary; that is disintermediation. Like a brick and mortar business, even e-commerce faces a threat to disintermediation. The only approach to disintermediation decision is to earn the importance of being the middle man.

Below are approaches that will help e-commerce business to address disintermediation.

Living with values:

It is for the fact that the intermediaries operate only because it adds some value to the customers. It does not need a web or technology to replace any intermediaries if it does not render values; competition eats them up. But when the market-game-play is changing with new technologies it becomes very important for them to adapt, or be ready to be replaced by another powerful intermediary. Google is a perfect example of middle man at work. It has almost become the face of today’s web world.

Going on the same lines e-commerce industry, though being the middleman (at most of the cases) needs to add value to the customers. Taking the example of www.makemytrip.com we can illustrate the same:

Though all the airlines sell their tickets from their private portals, makemytrip holds its place due to the values it renders to the customers in terms of choices, services and deals.

Thus clearly the survival approach of intermediaries against disintermediation is to add value to the customer. Life span of the market solely driven by customers and value addition will help customers to cling to middleman.

Symbiosis:

Any business would like to concentrate on in its core area of expertise. For example a movie theatre will always work upon delivering excellent movie shows rather than pondering upon how to sell its ticket online. For a theatre putting up a good movie is the core work. Whereas www.bookmyshow.com which is a middleman will make sure that the customers are driven to the theatre. This kind of middleman service is always invited which is symbiotic. This can also be held to be the reason why www.makemytrip.com is still in business (as it helps the airlines to focus on its core area that is maintaining and synchronizing their flights). Disintermediation is almost curbed out in such cases and instead helps the e-commerce to prosper.

It is also important to note that the two methods that are discussed are not optional but requirement for e-business.

It is to be noted that disintermediation can be fought by social protectors by enforcing laws. A short sighted view may make us believe that disintermediation is bringing unemployment and posing business threat. But it won’t be hard for us to recall how web technologies and IT was opposed at the early years of its advent in India in the name of automating industries and killing job opportunities. Presently IT caters to large number of jobs in India.  Disintermediation can be taken as the force that may compel the e-commerce to bring about even more value added services to the customers.

The answer to the e-marketer’s approach to disintermediation is to complement the business and keep customers happy with benefits and delivering values. It is very important for a e-marketer to make the business and the customer believe that they got the best deal.

Digital is lot more than Digital

It is a layman’s understanding if they feel web is all about Google and on the same lines it is a layman’s understanding if digital is taken to be facebook, twitter, websites etc.
Like any sort of advertising and marketing it is important for any digital guy to understand that digital also has a purpose and any work on it will certainly have an expiry date. These discussions will come in detail as I progress with this blog. Being a student I get a chance to look at different industry experts critically and also appreciatively and amalgamate with the knowledge that I gain from the institute like MICA.
Looking forward to contribute a bit from my side.

Cheers!
Zoy