Case V: Marketing of a Bollywood Film: Ankur Arora Murder Case

Analysis:

Movie theme: Medical negligence drama, family drama

Target audience: Indian audience of above 13 years age
Unique selling proposition: first medical negligence drama, inspired by true events
Positioning statement: “When Hope Kills”
Key messages and support messages: Target audience was neither able to connect with the death nor with
the mother-child bond.

IMC tools:

AAMC focused on
• mix of advertising (like print, television, radio, internet, in-cinema),
• public relations (announcement, press conferences, pre release interviews),
• social media marketing (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter),
• Out of Home (billboards, digital displays on buses, cafes, standalone banners, posters),
• guerrilla marketing (integration of promotion with other movie, donation to patients and hospital)

The Campaigns:

Television and Radio:

Campaign Manager: Super Cassettes, Blue Bang, TV9 Gujarat, Zee Entertainment, Media One
Duration: 2 weeks (pre-release and week of release) for television, 7 days for radio
Key platforms: Entertainment, Movies, Music, News and regional channels
Description: Dialogue promo and 2 songs promo each of 30 seconds were aired across keys platform
channels, special mention by disc jockeys across the country

Print Media:

Campaign Manager: Paras Publicity

Duration: 2 weeks (pre-release and week of release)
Key platforms: Leading national newspapers
Description: Series of smaller ads in one of the inner pages to cover more days instead of full page
advertisement due to low marketing budget; campaign highlighting victims of medical negligence showcasing
celebrities without signing any contracts with celebrities
Recommendation: Full page ad on front page could have attracted more audience as compared to small ads
in inner pages.

Public Relations:

Campaign Manager: Raindrop Media

Duration: 3 weeks before the release
Key platforms: One-to-one interviews of star cast, donation to cancer patients
Description: Conflict in Tisca Chopra’s statements during the 2 interviews; cancer donation campaign went
unnoticed, Due to the legal notice sent by Britannia, IntelliAssit decided to remove the existing movie trailer
and uploaded a new one with the blurred biscuit pack.
Recommendation: Controversial statement could have been avoided by star cast during interviews.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

IIM Ranchi PGDM 2018-20 Page 1 of 2 Marketing Management (Group 3)

Campaign Manager: IntelliAssist, a digital marketing agency
Duration: 4 months
Key Platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Youtube
Campaigns: 5 unique campaigns for different social media platforms each with a distinct objective

Let us discuss each of the 5 campaigns in details-

#1 Who was Ankur Arora?
• Although this campaign was designed to create ‘awareness’ about the movie, ironically it wasn’t
supported by advertisement.
• The ASA Productions’ social media platform was used for the same in order to leverage the previous
investments but they missed out on understanding that the genre and target audience of their movie
AAMC was very different from movies like Hate Story and 1920 Evil Returns.
• Hence, they couldn’t create an impact on the consumers and garnered attention only from a miniscule
Hindi movie lover population regardless of the genre.
#2 Meet the Cast
• This was the first time when the movie actually launched a campaign on it’s own social media handle.
• Although there were no big celebrities in the cast, they launched this campaign to introduce the relatively
new faces and also give an idea about the storyline.
• It is suggested to have a celebrity either for full time or guest appearance, as the Indian population
tends to connect more with the cast, which has a reflection on the movie revenues.

#3 Victims of Medical Negligence

• Through this campaign the idea was to build an emotional connect with the audience and draw attention
to a social evil by sharing reported cases of medical negligence.
• However even this campaign gathered a lackluster response because it might have appeared more like
a news bulletin than a promotional campaign.

#4 Do you remember?
• A three-day campaign using facts, quotes and numbers from “Satyameva Jayate” to show the dismal
condition of victims of medical negligence and malpractices.
• Leveraging the reach of the show, they could connect to a larger audience, which reflected in the
number of likes (double) on the social media post.

#5 Light a candle for Justice

• A virtual event on facebook using its inbuilt feature was preferred over the development of a new
application in order to create engagement.
• Candles of Awareness, Hope, Courage, Protest and Justice were lit in order to strike a chord with the
teenagers.
• This event was covered on various online platforms like twitter (#light a candle), SantaBanta.com,
FridayRelease.com and facebook.
• Increased audience engagement significantly.

Conclusion: As discussed above, the targeting & positioning was flawed due to which the product could not
deliver effectively. It received mixed reviews from the critics and failed at the box office. Also, the marketing
campaign was not planned properly.

IIM Ranchi PGDM 2018-20 Page 2 of 2 Marketing Management (Group 3)