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| Priyanka D Sangma

MANIPAL UNIVERSITY

A

STUDY

ON

GHAJINI

MARKETING

I have divided my research basically in two models one being:

1) Time Frame of the BUZZ created:

2) Another being MODE of Marketing used:

Ghajini-Marketing

Pre-Release Marketing

At the time of release.

Post Release Marketing

Gaming

Print

Broadcast Live & Ground Events

Internet

Time Frame

Mode Buzz

Pre-Release

Internet

Just after the announcement of GHAJINI, within few days of its shooting few Pics were revealed to give the feel of the movie. With a glimpse of Aamir Khan in desert and new actress Asin.

With introduction of this Pics Aamir simultaneously started giving all updates related to GHAJINI on his personal Blog.

Pre-release

Ground

Ground

The biggest spike in GHAJINI marketing was achieved in MARCH 2008 itself, since then GHAJINI promotion never took a backseat. People could easily sense the promise. It was March 20th when AAMIR KHAN made his first public appearance with GHAJINI s BUZZ CUT. At the Premiere of RACE it was AAMIR KHAN who hogged all the limelight and what followed was nothing less than hysteria.

The euphoria at RACE premiere was yet to settle, meanwhile AAMIR KHAN again hit the news, as this time he flexed his muscle as the producer for launching his nephew in his debut i.e JAANE TU JAANE NA (JTJN). He did all the promotion as if he himself was the hero. But, it was premiere of JTJN which made to the top headlines. When AAMIR KHAN with his new hairdo welcomed all who s whose of Bollywood industry. Aam Junta got to see a glimpse of AAMIR KHAN and SALMAN KHAN, AAMIR KHAN-AMITABH BACCHAN bonding first time in long span. These entire things eventually helped GHAJINI in building massive hype around movie.

Even before the initial euphoria around JTJN got settled AAMIR KHAN threw a GHAJINI success bash where he called SALMAN KHAN as chief guest again hogging limelight for this new found friendship.

Pre-Release

Print

The D-day arrived when whole of India woke up in the morning to continue their routine lifestyle but little they knew that AAMIR KHAN had a surprise gift in store for them. In October, AAMIR KHAN launched the first look of GHAJINI in all leading newspapers of India. This first look created never seen euphoria around a movie. AAMIR KHAN for the first time could be seen in chiseled look. People said, this was AAMIR s answer to Shahrukh Khan s 6 Pack abs gimmick for OM SHANTI OM.

Pre-Release

TV and Internet

This same look was publicized in a big way on Internet portals and news channels. Ghajini became talk of the town.

Aamir Khan s blog carried a full screen sized picture as on the film posters.

Ground

The next big leap in GHAJINI promotion was Tie ups with major Brands. 1) VANHEUSEN:

AAMIR KHAN dumped his shy nature and against people beliefs he walked the ramp for the first time. AAMIR KHAN s ramp walk and GHAJINI collection launch created a lot of hype again. From Television, to internet AAMIR KHAN was once again all over the place.

TV

Outdoor

And TV

2) Tata Sky: A new set of TATA SKY advertisement promoting GHAJINI were aired, this ad had GUL PANAG too, and classes love these cute ad because of AAMIR KHAN s sheer charm. Again he won hearts with this campaign

Reports started floating that ASIN will replace GUL PANAG in new set of ads. This news again created some flutter and gave topic to discuss to gossipmongers. It did happen ASIN was signed as brand ambassador for TATA SKY advertisement, but she came alone and did win few hearts.

3) Samsung Mobile: Samsung Mobile were the first one who after first DEKHO of GHAJINI look shot their campaign with AAMIR s new look. Followed by TITAN.

Once the promotion of GHAJINI was about to reach it s pinnacle SAMSUNG launched two GHAJINI EDITIONS i.e SAMSUNG L700 and SAMSUNG M200. These mobile offered pre-recorded GHAJINI s songs, ringtone, theme and wallpapers.

Tele- Com

4) TATA INDICOM

Played prerecorded message to all its 1 Crore out bound callers advertising GHAJINI s AAMIR s voice.

TV

With already so much created around GHAJINI, marketing supplemented the huge buzz with more than 400 paid slots daily on television. Distributed proportionally across all channels.

Internet

Aamir & co have got another important bit right i.e. Interactive

promotion . Rather than doing one way communication/broadcast through the film site or simply sharing content they involved his fans in the film s promotion.

1)Wall of suspects: A supporting viral website for the film aims to replicate a similar concept from the film. To check out the wall of suspects one required a code which could be obtained by uploading yours or your friend s images. One can also provide their mobile number which can be used to intimate if they win some prize.

2) Find Ghajini: Another viral website built around the film. It s a viral gaming

Application where the users could play the role of Aamir s character in the film and try to find Ghajini through the clues provided.

Film Release Time

Ground

Aamir personally gave the buzz cut

the hairstyle the actor sports in

Ghajini to his fans in Delhi.

Aamir and his producers tied up with leading multiplexes (PVR, BIG, Cinemax) across the country to give all the ushers, ticket-sellers the distinctive Buzz-cut that Aamir sports in the film.

AAMIR KHAN s GHAJINI STATUE

Call it AAMIR KHAN s one more brainer 12th December was touted as one of the big days for Bollywood as SHARUKH KHAN and ADITYA CHOPRA were gifting their next outing RAB NE BANA DI JODI (RBNDJ). Hype surrounding RBNDJ was high and masses and classes both were supposed to throng the theatres in great numbers. GHAJINI s marketing used this platform as one opportunity by putting GHAJINI s AAMIR KHAN s statue at Multiplex. It didn t just create hype rather fueled the speculation that AAMIR KHAN wanted to give few marketing lessons to SHAHRUKH KHAN. This act again hit the headlines bringing some free of cost promotion for GHAJINI.

TV & Internet

AAMIR KHAN s 8 pack abs were already earning him rave reviews and

simultaneous with GHJINI release he launched whole video showing his workouts and HOW HE ACHIEVE HIS 8 PACKS. Media which was already getting high TVR s on every GHAJINI special telecast didn t waste this launch too and dedicated hours showing these clippings.

Gaming

3D PC Games: 25th Dec saw the release of the film and also India s first 3D

PC Game built around a movie. This was the first time there was a complete game built around a movie. Lots of people were looking forward to it.

This game went on to become one of the biggest success and got sold like hot cakes. It is believed Eros made a huge chunk with this game on a longer run.

The game was developed by FX-LAB Hyderabad. It was a 3-D PC console game made at the cost of 30 Millions.

UTV owned INDIA GAMES also developed five mobile games based on GHAJINI.

Internet

Now that he got his fans involved what was left? Yes, the Media. Aamir &

co had tried to engage media persons and add a level of personal touch to the whole affair. http://www.rememberghajini.com/media/ was the place where media people could upload their pictures to which Aamir could add notes based on their previous interaction(s) with him/her. This repository would help him in remembering those media people more vividly and those who register in turn used to get information kit on Ghajini along with Aamir s personal note about them. As reported in one of the comments here Ghajini s marketing team shared movie stills with their site so that they could be used for promotion.

AAMIR KHAN s 6 looks in song BEHKA again gave a boost to already

soaring Buzz. People got the idea HOW BIG GHAJINI WAS GOING TO BE?

Time Frame

MODE

BUZZ

Ground

GHAJINI success bash, again created buzz where GHAJINI team announced their 200 Crore gross within a span of 7-10 days. This happened for the first time in Indian box office history.

Internet

Ghajini was one of the most searched movies of year 2008. Bollywood website like glamsham.com, bollywoodhungama.com saw maximum hits for trailers and songs related to GHAJINI.

Till today GHAJINI is among top5 Hindi movies, which shows maximum number of web pages on GOOGLE search.

TV

Most of the movies die down or slow down with their TV campaigns after 1 week of release, but that wasn t the case with GHAJINI. GHAJINI continued further with same amount of slots for three weeks. But this time trailer spoke about the collections which were massive.

News channels hit a gold mine with GHAJINI updates, because GHAJINI release was no more a film release rather it was an event and even the harshest AAMIR KHAN s or GHAJINI s critic admitted this fact.

Radio

Ghajini was already creating big news everywhere and radio was no where behind, from topping all charts at countdown to becoming first choice for listeners GHAJINI saw everything going in its favor.

Print

Area distributor did come with their advertisements regarding GHAJINI s collection but that didn t stop the people in print to stop writing about GHAJINI s success, there wasn t a single day, two weeks before and after GHAJINI s release when any national daily covered two or more than two article on GHAJINI.

It s not over yet: 1) GHAJINI COURT CASE:

Between all these hype hoopla surrounding it wasn t very easy for such big movie to escape controversies; GHAJINI did bring its share of controversies too. A little well known production banner, KBC pictures, had filed a case in MADRAS court, claiming that producer Madhu Mantena had infringed upon its copyright as it had acquired the right to remake GHAJINI in Hindi. This added some extra coverage to already much hyped epic.

2) GHAJINI s MUSIC: All hyped created would have come to a halt if music of this epic would not have supported this big film. But, music director AR REHMAN with GHAJINI once again proved that when it comes to music he cannot disappoint by any means. GHAJINI s music units got sold like hot cakes. BEHKA song soon became NATIONAL ANTHEM.

3) ASIN and SOUTH REMAKE FACTOR: GHAJI NI saw a massive run down south which was quite unusual for BOLLYWOOD movie. But, GHAJINI, being remake of south super hit, already was being waited with bated breathes. ASIN always enjoyed a great fan following down south also helped GHAJINI gain some extra mileage.

4) INTERNET MARKETING: HUNGAMA Extensive presence of GHAJINI on internet which was handled by HUNGAMA group was also important factor towards GHAJINI s bumper opening.

RESULT:

Ghajini wave picks up; paid preview tickets fly off counter-businessofcinema.com

Ghajini earns Rs 70 million in paid previews-buzz18.com

Today, it's GHAJINI. Everywhere you go, every person you interact with, every newspaper you glance in the morning, every TV channel you surf, GHAJINI is in news, and it s the focal point of discussion. TARAN ADARSH (BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA)

Ghajini has blockbuster written all over it-Indiatimes.com

The GHAJINI CRAZE, It hits like a MONSTER-Rediff.com

This was just one glimpse, the real craze of GHAJINI can be explained by this article of ECONOMIC TIMES

A NEW CHAPTER CALLED PAID PREVIEWS:

ECONOMICS TIMES, 23rd DEC

GHAJINI TO FIRE UP SCREEN WITH 300 PAID Previews.

MUMBAI: With more than 300 paid previews of Ghajini lined up across the country for Wednesday evening, about 60,000 people can finally see what

Aamir Khan has on offer in his annual film of the year. After notching up the widest domestic release with 1,200 prints (domestic), the paid previews of

Khan s magnum opus are also the highest for any Hindi film this year. Spread across single and multiplex platforms, each cinema will have at least

three paid previews a day prior to the film s release.

Paid previews are screenings held a day before the release of a film. Most multiplexes charge about 30% premium while some sell tickets at regular

rates for such previews. The number of paid previews is so large that it is as good as a release. Earlier, we used to have three shows a day when a film

released, now each cinema is having three paid previews a day prior to the release! says PVR Cinemas GM (marketing & sales) Joydeep Ghosh Roy.

Ticket prices for paid previews range from Rs 100 to Rs 300.

The buzz around the film is so strong that when booking windows opened on Sunday, paid preview tickets flew off the counter. Most shows were sold out and theatre owners expect paid previews to be sold out by Tuesday. Block bookings, not so common for paid previews, have formed a large chunk of these bookings, says Mr Roy. Auto firms have booked up to 1,000 tickets to

give out to potential customers as freebies, he says.

Earlier in the year, Dostana and Singh is Kinng made a big splash with paid previews. As per industry estimates, Dostana raked in Rs 75 lakh, overtaking Singh Is Kinng s collection of Rs 50 lakh. With Ghajini breaking all records,

its paid preview collections are expected to touch at least Rs 1 crore. No other film has had so many paid previews in the past.

Usually, we have paid previews only in major cities, but since Ghajini is a much-awaited film, we re also having shows in small towns, says Fun

Cinemas COO Vishal Kapoor. Paid previews are an important marketing strategy for producers and distributors as they create a buzz around the film.

AAMIR KHAN s BUZZCUT

, attracted 18 hours of television

coverage, translating in publicity worth RS.129.6 Lakhs and further 31 hours of TV coverage worth Rs.423Lakhs of publicity.

Movie went on to become one of the biggest successes of all times with Grossing Rs. 280 Crore worldwide. In India it did theatrical business of 120 Crore Net Gross.

It was stated that till 31st December GHAJINI made decent Rs.140 Crore Gross worldwide, this same figure RABNE BANA DI JODI (which got release two weeks before GHAJINI) made in three weeks.

It was just Marketing which gave such a bumper initial to GHAJINI with opening weekend business crossing 60 Crore (extended weekend and Paid preview).

If the collections were not enough this AMUL campaign proved it all and made it loud and clear that GHAJINI had arrived and was here to stay in our minds for long.

Aamir Khan as most of us as Bollywood Fans know is not only a brilliant actor but also an intelligent marketer. In times like these when the success of a film hugely depends on the business it does in the first two weeks the marketing genius leaves no stone unturned to spread the word for his films and create a sense of rush among his fans to watch the film ASAP. Ghajini is the latest offering from Aamir s stable and needless to say he s all over the place promoting it and pulling off acts that ll put most marketers to shame. Also what s noteworthy is the fact that Internet Marketing for Ghajini has been a very significant chunk of the overall marketing strategy. Hungama is the brain behind the Internet Marketing for Ghajini. In this post let s try to find out various tactics that went into marketing Ghajini and how they were executed.

1) The Look (Online & Offline): 2) Getting fans Involved (Online): 3) Getting Media Involved (Online): 4) Maintain Suspense and Throw Hooks(Online): 5) Associations/Collaborations:

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