Big FM puts the spotlight back on in-theatre advertising

“Advertising – a judicious mixture of flattery and threats,” said Northrop Frye. It’s the first of the two – flattery – that Big 92.7 FM has used in its latest marketing effort, which might just revive in-theatre advertising in the country. Titled ‘Yeh Spotlight Jis Pe Giregi, Uski Life Banegi’, the station offers a surprise – and fame – to a winner selected from the audience at a cinema theatre. The activity was executed by Dimple Cine Advertising.

A few seconds before the interval in the film, a spotlight sweeps across the auditorium. A voiceover along with a slide saying ‘Yeh Spotlight Jis Pe Giregi, Uski Life Banegi’ comes on. The one on whom the spotlight falls is given a goodie bag as a prize.

Anand Chakravarthy, vice-president, marketing, Big FM, says, “Through this initiative, we are taking interactivity to a new level altogether. Instant fame supported with great gratification is the emotional peg through which Big 92.7 FM lives its brand line, ‘Suno sunao, life banao!’, thus impacting people’s lives positively in everything that we do. The surprise element in the cinema hall is an innovation in marketing and has been extremely well received by audiences at large.”

According to the radio station, the insight behind the activity is that people live in a world of fantasy and dreams, which they get to experience when in the theatre. They love to be in the limelight and the initiative helps to make this desire come true for them.

Big FM has plans to launch similar activities across other metro and non-metro theatres.