If you search “Social Network” in Google , instead of giving the results about the definition of particular term the first result which comes up is about a movie “The Social network” which even got 8 nominations at 83rd Academy awards and was praised worldwide.

Conclusion: There is a strong relation between “Social Network” and “Movies”.

Over a period of time this relationship between Movies and Social networking has evolved and that is the main reason why there has been an enormous change in the way films are being marketed nowadays. Filmmakers and producers have realized that if they want to pull in audience to theaters there are only two ways, first either create a controversy around the film, second design a social media campaign. Controversies don’t last long but Social media campaign if done in a right manner can boost the ticket sales immensely. After then it’s the content which decides the fate of a movie.

Traditional ways like airing promos on television, giving ads in newspaper and magazine still exists but due to cyber revolution in late 90’s and early 20s Digital and Social Media marketing have taken a front seat. Today almost two third of the world population visits a social networking site once in a week and that’s a major reason why all the big studios and production house around the world are spending substantial amount of their marketing budget for a successful online campaigns.

For example movies like Harry Porter, Inception and Avatar had spend huge amount of money to make sure that they reach to their target audience easily and stay connect with them 24*7. Today “word of mouse” is equally important as “word of mouth” for a film success which can be easily seen with hundreds and thousands of fans across the world joining the social online platforms of their favorite movies on facebook/twitter within minutes of their creation.Harry Potter’s facebook community only has close to 27 millions fans and counting. It always remains the “talk of twitter” pre and post release time.

Though not everyone who joins these online communities turn out to be the theater audience but these figures helps in spreading the word which effects the sale of tickets significantly in the opening weeks.

It’s not only the Hollywood studios who are going the online way to create buzz filmmakers from India too have realized the power of Social media and online platforms as the best medium to talk about their films. Studios like Yashraj films,

ALT entertainment (Balaji Telefilms) are already running high on social networking platforms whereas filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar boasts of huge fan following online.

These mediums can also act as a financier for your upcoming flick. Filmmakers like Onir took a step forward and used these platforms smartly to collect funds for his recent film “I AM”.

One thing which plays a pivotal role in a successful Social media campaign is “Audience engagement”. Tapping active users and engaging them smartly helps in creating the awareness which increases the fan base exponentially.

Ashish Patil Producer at Y-films (YashRaj) says “83% of the movie going audience is between 15-35yrs and spends more time online than any other medium. Hence Social Media and digital marketing was the first and obvious choice. We also premiered lot of our content first online and then broke it on TV.”

Reason: Digital marketing catches more eyeballs and cost less as compared to other mediums

During the release of their film “Love ka the End” they started India’s first ever Youtube video chat with the cast and crew which pulled close to 9000 participants.

Gaurav Mishra, Co-founder at Media Redefined, one of the top social media agency in India says “Marketing needs to be at the place where people pay attention and when 1 out of 3 people in India hang out on social networking websites it becomes necessary for film industry to have a strong presence on these platforms for promoting their films.”

With the change in time ,marketing strategy for a film need to be revised so that good content reaches to every nook and corner of the world. To survive in an industry which gives out more than thousand films a year, a good and excellent movie matched with a right social media strategy can do wonders at box office and achieve its aim of entertaining a wider audience.

Nowadays the Idiot box at our home is serving is what we call as the GenNext content. But still for many years the question whether Television shows what we like to watch or we modify our taste buds as per the content shown is still looking for a well defined and balanced answer.

In the era of “Beep” and “Uncut” version it shouldn’t surprise you if you hear a Beep sound 100 times in a one hour episode of a reality show. In case of movies and feature films which transit through censor board categorization not allowing everyone to watch everything but when it comes to advertising and TV serial there seems no one to draw a line.

With recent orders by Information and Broadcasting ministry to certain brands to take their commercials off air has come as an alarm to TV and Advertisement industry. Ministry has notified ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) for seven ads which are considered visually obscene and seems to hamper the Indian culture. But the irony is that even ASCI get a chance to watch these films once they are on air. Though the Ads have a creative angle we can’t deny the raunchy feel which somewhere spoils the mind of audience specially youngsters.

Even the bigwigs of Advertising fraternity like Prahlad kakkar and Bharat Bala are supporting the ministry’s steps. They think that certain brands are going way ahead and making commercial which is inappropriate on moral grounds specially the one where a married gal drops her Manglasutra.

Manoj Shroff who heads Equinox films which boasts of making some of the most successful commercials in Indian Advertising history like “Hamara Bajaj” and “HappyDent” says “If they are obscene they must be taken off especially since TV is an open medium and children cannot be controlled from watching it. What and how much is obscene is however always debatable”.

Most of the people use deodorant to fight the bad odour and not to seduce a gal, with a least expectation that gals around will chase or jump on them. But that’s what a commercial of Axe shows which even resulted into Unilever paying millions of dollar to a guy who sued the brand in court for false depiction and promise. He claimed that he used the deodorant for seven years but not even a single gal came closer to him.

Though time has changed and the content has evolved many folds in last few years but showing women as the object of desire seems unethical and unfit specially in Indian culture. It’s not about moral policing but we need to understand that what works in west might not go well with Indian audience. ASCI needs to be more careful in near future and upgrade its guidelines when it comes to commercial targeting Indian audience.

Last month Fevicol , the famous brand of Pidilite Industries Ltd. completed 50yrs since its inception in 1959. It has been ranked 54th amongst India’s Top 100 Most Trusted Brands in a market survey.Fevicol commercial are quite popular among consumers and has won several International awards for many years.This time Ogilvy & Mather developed a Moochwali ad for celebrating 50 yrs  wherein  a small gal is shown with moustaches while doing a stage play and it was stuck on her face with the help of a little dab of Fevicol .Moustache remains on her upper lip throughout her life until she dies and then takes rebirth with moustaches as a gesture towards the concept of reincarnation  showing the ever lasting association for many births.

She is shown in various stages of her life as a newly married bride, an eager mother, a middle aged woman, one nearing old age and the last, finally, on her death bed, all the while, sporting the moustache. With this commercial aired on television speculation in the market has already started about it’s nomination and winning prospects for the next advertising festivals.

A picture speaks a thousand words and no one knows it better than  art director of an Ad agency.That’s what they are famous for, a picture and few lines have enough potential to build a brand image in consumer’s eye. Have a look at some of the best print Ads of all time, some mindboggling  ads which you can easily recall once yoou come across these products and brands.

Honda Car: It  happens when you don’t use original parts

Sip-Chill-Relax: Coca Cola

Urgent Attention:Don’t kill a God’s Gift

Get to the point
Scholz & Friends, Berlin for N24

McCann Erickson for Maggi.
If only women spent less time cooking.

Threebond super glue: Cup
Quick dry.

Barb’s Harley Davidson Motor Cycles: License
Available in “Fast,” Balls out” and “License and registration please.”

Colgate Dental Floss: Pig
Colgate Dental Floss. Absolutely flawless.

Slice Woman’s TV: Dishes
Rated: DTBN
This network may cause you to neglect that deserve to be neglected anyway.
Slice. My vice is slice.

Toyota Land Cruiser: Crocodile
Land Cruiser
Be top of the food chain.

Thailand Post: William
Dearest Margaret, resembling my love, the red roses. Right at your front door is where my heart lies.

There, I have been yearning for your love. Please don’t make me wait till I wither like those red roses.

With much love, William.Good memories you won’t get from e-mail.

Oscarito video rental: Skeleton
The movie starts, the only place left is in the front row, and right behind you is that annoying kid. That is scary.
Rent a movie. Fear is only on the screen.

Sanyo Xacti: Octopus
100% water proof digital movie camera

WWF: Tarzan
15 square kilometer of rain forest disappears every minute.

Greenpeace: Frogange
Once you eat, it’s already too late.
Demand transgenic labelling now.

Alac: Rugby
Was last night really worth it?
It’s not the drinking – It’s how we’re drinking
Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand

The History Channel: Original Hitler
Unfortunately, we do show repeats.
The History Channel

Vitalab IVF Clinic: Pregnant
When our staff get together, somebody usually gets pregnant.
Not surprising considering that Vitalab is one of South Africa’s leading fertility clinics.

Petit Bateau: Game
During their last picnic, Tom, Léo and Lily made 198 changes to this picture.
Can you spot the differences?

CNN Turk: Lightning

Citta di Torino: Young sex dolls, boy
Who tells the grownups when to stop playing?

Almarai Fresh Juice: Mango India – Because we aspire for the best we have sent our experts to India to choose the best ingredients. They came back with a big story… (Arabic proverb) And the story is on this pack.

Olivia Women’s Magazine: Heaven is full

Don’t let smells mix.
Biolyse system refrigerator

Night vision. Now available. -BMW Night Vision: Owl

Be prepared to see things differently after visiting the Picasso exhibition at the NGV

Apple’s spoof Ad against Microsoft’s slogan “Where do you want to go tomorrow?”

“The Wrong Working Environment” Campaign (Germany)
Entrant: Scholz & Friends / Berlin Convergence Marketing/Birmingham, MI

Creative Dettol Hand Sanitizer advertisement. Everybody needs it. Great print advertisement.

Great advertisement that is really catchy. It’s kinda hard to see in this photo, but the advertisement

is for dog food and the dogs are “chasing the bus” for it.

Crash testing save human lives!

A watch company decided to utilize the handholders in buses to advertise their product.

The message on the handholders is “Try it here, the Big Pilots Watch.”

S2O Swissvernice. Keeps Hair Strong.

Agency: TBWA-ISC, Malaysia

Above advertisement have been made with a lesser intention to sell their products and rather build a brand or sustain to the level which they have already achieved in market.Some big companies around the world give more preference to Brand image graph over sales graph, and that’s the sole reason for their continuous growth.How effective an Advertisement can be for a brand is intelligibly expressed in the above Ads.

Celebrating 10 glorious yrs of Indian fashion Industry Lakme fashion week is currently being held at Hyatt,Mumbai from 18-22^nd september. This event will redefine the future of fashion and Integrate India into the global fashion world. British Airways new commercial shows life of Mumbaikars and recent Lakme fashion week going on.It starts with a broad view of Arabian sea and skyscrapers in background. Mumbaikars travelling in bus and little school going kids wearing raincoats amidst heavy rains which is unpredictable throughout the year and most people carry umbrella before stepping out from their home. Mumbai has a amazing buzz that never dies out that never goes off to sleep showing mundane affairs across the city with people going out for job and business travelling in Local trains ,taxi .There after it shows a designer and make-up artist experimenting with the outfits designed and appearance of a model. Designers use Indian raw materials mostly and do as much local work as possible. City buildings, textiles and diverse experience of millionaires and slumdogs.

Finally last few seconds of film tells that Lakme fashion week was first of its kind fashion week in India and if you want to mark your presence in Indian Fashion industry or anywhere to be recognized in Global fashion arena this show is the right place to start with urging buyers and designers to participate in this event.

Fly with British Airways and board flights which are quite frequent from UK to Mumbai.

It’s a fact in the advertising industry that ad agencies does anything and everything to prove their client’s service to be the best in industry.Though most of the time they try to produce something unique and different from their competitors  sometimes they try to spoof on the commercial produced by their counterparts and make ad films claiming a better service and virtually fights over advertisement.Let’s see few of the examples which justifies the title,

JET-Kingfisher-Go Air

Though you won’t find these hoardings anymore,these were one of the famous and much talked about billboards in Mumbai few months ago which not only attracted eyeballs of common people but befuddled all flyers as which airlines gives the best service.  Some changed ,some made them change and some didn’t change claimed by three of the big brands in Airline Industry.These company must focus more on its services than on its advertisement.

Microsoft-Apple

A decade ago Microsoft started a campaign “Where do you want to go tomorrow”

launching many of its key online services.Apple rolled its eye on the advert and slapped a new campaign “Where do you want to go Today” as if they are suggesting that  tomorrow never comes so better think about today.The two most coveted brands used Web advertising intensively to promote their brands and couldn’t restrain themselves from fighting via advertisement.

Nestle-Cadbury’s

The battle which inspired this article is the recent ongoing combat between two very old brands and this time they have chosen television as a platform to fight.Cadbury’s chocolate famous for making adverts which directly connects with the emotions of consumer aired a advertising commercial on TV urging people to celebrate with Cadbury’s chocolate on first day of every month as everyone gets their pocket heavy with monthly salary.After few days Cadbury’s strong competitor Nestle came up with a spoof advert asking consumers to enjoy Nestle Munch on the first,second,third and everyday of the month.The Punch line says”Khao bina Tareeq dekhe”(Enjoy without looking at calendar)showing that Munch can be eaten any day irrespective of the date and time.

Pepsi- Coke

These are big time rivals and the whole world knows it.Now this video clearly

reveals the revilement nature of one brand for another through Television

commercial.Such adverts only add fire to fuel,it generally doesn’t effect

much of the sales of any product.

As this sort of spoofing leaves the consumer talking about both the brands involved it doesn’t sends a very right and ethical message.A brand is good simply because it is good and not because others are bad.A advertising commercial must always show the quality features of its product and not comment on other’s quality.Though an ad plays a very important role in product sale at the end its consumers who decides the best product among myriads options available in market and not the company itself by making such advertisement.

“An Apple IPod in hand keeps you away from doctor”This could be a catchy phrase in one of the advertisement of Apple IPod ,though it is not.But still Apple adverts manages successfully captivating the youth and music addicts with its some of the best commercials in digital music industry.Apple always follow a distinctive style of appealing its consumers whether its a TV commercial or a print Ad. Many a times we come across Apple billboards featuring dark silhouetted characters holding iPod in hand against bright-colored backgrounds and vice-versa.The silhouettes are usually dancing, and in television commercials are backed by up-beat music.Apple IPods are another synonyms to quality music and the same we can observe in their ad-films. Let’s have a look at some of the ad-films of Apple

Fifth-generation IPod featuring Eminem

At Macworld 2007, Apple debuted their new ad campaign,featuring Colored silhouettes with a dynamic, moving and multi-colored background.

In 2007 YouTube member Nick Haley created a fan commercial of the iPod touch. Apple was impressed with the commercial and then contacted him about putting the commercial on the air. He and Apple’s advertising agency TBWA then got to work on making a more polished version of the Ad which ran during the 2007 World Series on Fox.

A poster of silhouette of God wearing an iPod displayed on the wall of a Christian shop.

Image via  WorldbridgerMedia

Moreover silhouettes have become an icon for Apple ads. Even a commercial featuring a man walking past a set of silhouette posters, which came to life and danced when his iPod was playing, but froze when he paused it not only amused the audience but also the Apple management by its post ad sales graph.

Not only this you can also create your own IPod Ad using your own personal photo.

So more you listen to music ,more you feel good and better keeping you away from doctor.So let’s dance more vibrantly than silhouettes and who knows you could get a chance to shake your booty in the next ad-film of Apple.

Image via Topnews.us

Remember MSN search or ever used it. I won’t be surprised by a negative reply.Microsoft’s repeated efforts to build a credible search engine had fallen flat for many years.Since 2006 for almost 3 years they banged their heads in Microsoft Research lab and the finally their hard work is paying, BING Microsoft’s another search engine launched just 7 weeks ago is moving up the ladders of success everyday capturing close to 11 % of the search engine market ,which is worth $12 billion in the United States alone according to market sources.

One of the best thing it has is its “hover” feature. Hover allows users to see an excerpt of the page by moving the mouse to the left.Currently Bing remains a distant third in the search race. It would have to triple its audience to catch Yahoo – and grow eightfold to tie Google but user interest in Bing has already been said to have “rattled” Google .

This time we share some finest piece of advertising which played a vital role in spreading and buzzing BING ,which says “Some of the important decisions of our life we make depends on the information we collect from different sources, majorly from web,Introducing BING – Your decision Engine.”

The ad shows the people lost in links, Institutions and firms collapsing everywhere,debt of organization increasing,banks on the verge of closure. It says “We don’t need queries and keywords if they bring back questions and confusion.”Right information to make the right decision as decisions helps us to be at right place at right time. The new BING-Decision Engine.

A new place, Dad asking boy to choose bet’n LCD or plasma ,Where to find cheaper tickets, Women revealing about her back pain at a hospital reception, and then everyone gets an irrelevant answers comprised of mixed and confused statements. Finally a question mark on us “What has search overload done to us”? Cure for a search overload syndrome ..Introducing a cure tool BING.

A lady asking “Did you find out what you can eat during pregnancy” expecting a simple answer from pregnant woman, but unfortunately a mind full of irrelevant information speaks out “Pregnant panda gives birth to biggest cub born in captivity”.

Can you imagine a more weird answer !!!

A gal asking her dad about her cell phone and she too got stunned after getting response from her mom and dad,all caused due to overload.

BING clearly says we are too confused to reply any answer or in other words overloaded with information to find out the relevant stuff from it. Therefore Microsoft suggests BING to wipe out all the confusions and irrelevant information and make the right decision by getting the right information.

There is a fundamental concept that is taught in every Management Temple ,concept of 4Ps,i.e.,

Product? What the Solution you’re offering

Price? Value ,what is the cost of your product

Placement? Access,Where can the customer find the Product

Promotion? Is customer aware about your products and its advantage.

Of all the above P’s the most important of them is the last one,Promotion.How effectively your brand is promoted decides the fate of your product to a large extent.

I am not a market analyst or for the matter a MBA geek so that I could comment on how to sell your product,but with a mere foresight one could easily say or perhaps plan as “How to sell a product”. Marketing a product is not as simple as it sounds as the same crop cannot be grown every where in the world because it has its own requirement such as land,climate etc.On the same line to sell a product  different strategies are involved.Most effective of all of them is to associate the product to the most popular sports of that country,an easy way to  reach million of consumers at the same time.

To start with this concept let take the example of PEPSI,soft drink giant. In India this drink is associated with cricket,the most popular of all the games.Cricketers are worshipped like God and hence fans love to sip nectar drinks endorsed by their Gods.Millions  are paid to cricket player for these ads.Today many brands are endorsing famous cricket players to sell their product.Latest is FIAT PUNTO who backs hard hitter Yuvraj Singh. Lays is another brand which allures its consumers  by showing Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni doing “Lime and masala masti”.Royal Bank of Scotland made a contract with Sachin Tendulkar who is soaring new heights everyday “making it happen”.Leading Tyre manufacturer MRF once signed three of the most popular player for their brand promotion Brain Lara, Sachin and Steve Waugh. It’s not only cricket that attracts all the endorsement,Tennis sensation Sania Mirza too have big  contracts in her bag.These examples truly reflects that “What is visible and more famous,sells more”.

A market analysis report shows that Pepsi sale rose to several times when David Beckham endorsed Pepsi for the first time. Similarly Roger Federer featuring in Gillette, Rolex and  Nike makes a significant contribution to the sale of product.

European Country like Spain, UK where the famous sports is Soccer signs team like Real Madrid,  ManU, A C Milan for their brand promotion.Beer brand Carlsberg has signed many top players of European football league team to promote their brands. Brand like Audi,Barclays follows the same path.

Talking of beverages Australian liquor giant Foster has many option like Cricket, Rugby,etc to promote their brand.The story is not constrained to only beverages. IT giant Accenture preferred Tiger Woods as his brand ambassador as both are delivering the highest performance in their respective field.BlackBerry phone has also signed formula one Player for its brand promotion.

The whole point to use the famous sports celebrity as their brand ambassador is that they face no issue in reaching million  of consumers.So more the fans follow any sport more they will be curious about the product their players endorse.

Advertise on the Moon

In last few decades man has left no stone unturned, no part untouched on this earth to advertise their product reaching to different parts of world via different medium but no one in their wildest dream has ever imagined that technology would take such a giant leap to select Moon as the next platform to advertise, so called Moon Publicity. Yes!!! It has come true, On July 20, 2009, the 40th anniversary of man’s first step on the Moon a new technology, Shadow Shaping technology has been invented which will create a logo of your firm on the surface of moon with 12 billion eyeballs looking at your logo on a starlit night in the sky for several days every month for the next several thousand years. Launched by a website Moon Publicity this new kind of idea has the potential to reach every person ,every market and every corner after all Moon is visible from every part of Earth.

Image via Botropolis

What is Shadow Shaping Technology ?

Shadow Shaping technology is used to create images on the surface of the Moon that can be seen from Earth. Robots are used to create several small ridges in the lunar dust over large areas that capture shadows and shape them to form logos, domains names or memorials.

Patent License for  Shadow shaping technology is still not registered by any firm  but the bid has already started to grab this once in a life time opportunity. Exclusive transferable licensing is being made available for 44 regions of the visible side of the Moon.. Bidding will last for three months starting from 20^th July 2009.The winning bids will be announced in early November, 2009. Minimum bids start as low as 46,000 USD.

Though many of us will find this idea grotesque,let’s see how the website justifies billion dollar investment on such a advertisement during the time of recession.

Firstly “If 60 seconds during the Super Bowl costs 6 million dollars to reach 200 million viewers, then an eyeball minute costs about a penny and a half. Even if the average person were to look at your image on the moon for a total of only 10 seconds a month, then that image would be worth 360 million dollars a year in raw advertising value. Let’s suppose it would cost a billion dollars to create and send a fleet of Shadow Shaping robots to the moon, the project would pay for itself in less than 3 years after completion. Over the next 50 years it would generate 18 billion dollars worth of advertising. And since there is no atmosphere on the Moon, the image could last for thousands of years” says Moon publicity experts.

Secondly “ NASA is planning on creating a space station on the moon in the near future. During the Lunar Renaissance, the media will be looking for related stories. Even if you do nothing more than issue a press release that you have licensed technology to create advertising images on the Moon, you will be positioned for incredible exposure in the media. It will help in developing a brand that embodies being on the cutting edge and helping mankind move to other worlds ” senior analyst ,Moon Publicity.

Currently International space law prohibits the ownership of lunar property. Many experts believe that in the future this will change as technology makes the exploitation of the Moon commercially viable.By being the first to develop millions of square kilometers of the surface of the Moon through Shadow Shaping technology, you will be building a strong claim for ownership of the lunar land under your image.

Let’s see who all be fighting and dole out  billions of dollars to buy this extremely hot property ,it will be all together a different  feeling when you’ll find your company’s logo on Moon,no matter where you stand on this earth. If this turns into a reality Neil Armstrong sitting somewhere would smile quietly on the commercialization of Moon and another giant leap  by Mankind.