INTRODUCTION

 The Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini has created

waves at the box office by raking in Rs 90 crore
worldwide on the first weekend of its release.
But much before that, the film had already
created waves in the world of marketing by
setting new standards for the industry.

 Ghajini has been marketed as ‘India’s first

event film’, one that has the potential to
become a successful business venture rather
than just the box office success of the movie.
 Apart from the ongoing success of Ghajini, the movie
was able to create much hype in the corporate world
through its well tuned and finely coordinated marketing
campaign pre and post movie release.

 The movie had released within the country with 1,400

prints. Reliance BIG Pictures had released 213 prints
overseas inorder to have maximum revenue in initial
weeks of curiosity.

 Ghajini is written and directed by AR Murugadass who

also directed the Tamil remake of Memento. Asin, who
starred in the Tamil movie, is part of the Hindi version
along with actress Jiah Khan.
 EMINENT THOUGHTS
 “I think at a time when big opening weekends have become
essential for the films' financial success, one needs to create an
urgency in people to see the film in the first couple of weeks. Our
marketing strategies are focused on creating this urgency."
- Madhu Mantena, Producer, Ghajini, in December 2008.

 "Bollywood publicists are clearly putting a whole lot of thought into

how to spread the word of mouth. We are seeing more and more
meaningful promotional campaigns that not just spread the word
about the films but also attempting to give the film a longer shelf-life
and emotional connect with audiences."
- A Trade Observer, commenting on the promotional strategies
of Ghajini, in December 2008
 PROMOTIONAL STRATERGIES

 The unofficial publicity for Ghajini began on

March 20, 2008, when Aamir made his first
public appearance with his 'buzz cut' - the
hairstyle he sports in the film - at the premier of
a Hindi film.

 The promotional strategies included viral

marketing, television advertising, multiplex
promotion, tie-ups with several well-known
brands, and merchandising.
 The Van Heusen Ghajini Collection was launched which
showcased Aamir’s tycoon look in the movie which is still
available at Van Heusen stores across India.

 Aamir has asked ushers in PVR multiplexes to don the

Aamir hair cut in Ghajini, After Ghajini was released,
ushers in PVR multiplexes were spotted sporting Aamir
Khan’s buzz cut.

 As part of a marketing initiative, Aamir Khan also gave

buzz haircuts to people for free. Big Cinemas promoted
the movie by getting its 105 members of staff sporting
Aamir’s hairstyle, life size models and tattoo stickers for
distribution
 They also launched a collectible small statue based on
Aamir Khan’s look in Ghajini, especially the tattoos and
eight packs. The makers of Ghajini, Geetha Arts, claim
that Aamir Khan’s statue is exquisitely carved and is a
premium collectible.

 Geetha Arts launched a computer game based on Ghajini,

called “Ghajini The Game”,developed by Hyderabad-
based “FX LABS”.Its a 3-D PC console game which was
built at a cost of Rs 30 million & It attracted a lot of fans.

 UTV owned Indiagames had also developed five mobile

based games on Ghajini which was a huge success.
 Incidentally Aamir Khan is the brand
ambassador of Tata Sky and Samsung Mobile,
Tata Sky aired making of Ghajini.

 Samsung Mobile went for a repositioning and

launched special Ghajini edition L700 and M200
models which had preloaded Ghajini ringtones,
pictures and songs.

 Tata Indicom also played pre-recorded

message to all its 1 crore outbound callers
advertising Ghajini in Aamir Khan’s voice.
 Paid previews were viewed as another
marketing strategy by film makers since they
helped in generating a certain amount of buzz
around the film. On December 23, 2008, the film
had 300 paid previews with the ticket prices
ranging between Rs. 100 and Rs. 500.

 Aamir also kept up the internet marketing of

Ghajini, with his blog and the new Ghajini site,
which invites journalists to register on the site,
upload their photos, and receive personal notes
from him.
 MARKETING OUTCOME
 According to a multiplex official, "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!" Earlier Hindi films like
“Dostana and Singh is King” had paid previews and collected Rs.
7.5 million and Rs. 5 million respectively.

 The promotional strategies adopted by the film makers resulted in

generating such hype that the film showed whopping results. In
contrast to the estimates made by experts that Rs. 10 million would
be collected from the paid previews, the film grossed Rs. 70 million
from December 23, 2008 to December 24, 2008

 The collections, as of 31st December, were Rs 140 crores ,the

money Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi earned in 3 weeks, Ghajini took a
week to earn.",
 Ghajini’s tie up with an apparel brand, toy stores,
cinema halls and a mobile phone company and more
than anything Aamir not just giving the occasional
interview leading up to the release, he seemed to have
taken the marketing of the film as seriously as his role in
the film.

 The first phase of Ghajini’s marketing life cycle was quite

active and promising & the second phase was made with
a budget of around 50 Crore and with marketing
expenses of about 14 Crore.

 Aamir’s “buzz cut” attracted 18 hours of television

coverage, translating into publicity worth Rs 129.6 lakh.
Further TV news channels showed 31 hours of coverage
translating into Rs. 423 lakh worth of publicity.
 Aamir Khan, who was present at the trial run of
the movie at a preview theatre in Mumbai
Wednesday, reportedly said that “Ghajini” has
created a record by becoming the first Bollywood
movie in recent times for which the tickets had
been sold in advance for all five days of the
opening week across the country.
 According to trade reports, in view of the
unprecedented audience expectation for the film,
the multiplexes were asking the distributors to
increase the number of prints,which clearly
depicts the impact of marketing mania created
on the audience.
 END RESULT
 The success of the film was widely attributed to
the aggressive promotional strategies adopted
by the film makers in conjunction with the lead
actor of the film, Aamir Khan , who played a
vital role in the promotion of the film.
 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.
 There is nothing in terms of marketing initiatives that have
not been covered for Ghajini, be it the teaser trailers,
photos of his new looks, and, of course, internet
marketing.

 According to “Box Office Mojo” Ghajini's box-office totals

were about Rs.280 crores ($54,316,564 USD) worldwide
as of 29th of January 2009 with a total run of 37 days /
5.3 weeks, making it Bollywood's highest grossing movie
of all time.

 Thus given the effort that went into promoting Ghajini, the
results are there for all to see which has set a new trend &
also will act as a benchmark for many upcoming
productions to keep up with it.
THANK YOU