Emvies 2010: 'Idiot'ic and 'Paa'werful

Two movie promotions -- 3 Idiots and Paa -- are shortlists in the Best Media Strategy - Media Property category

Under the category of Best Media Strategy - for a media property, Mudra Max presented case studies on the two big releases of 2009 -- 3 Idiots and Paa. The packed audience was witness to tales of how the two Hindi movies were promoted using interesting media vehicles.

Paa had already created a buzz with its unique proposition of Abhishek Bachchan playing the role of Amitabh Bachchan's father. For any movie, the first weekend's collection is typically the most crucial. Hence, all marketing efforts are usually aimed at boosting collections on the first weekend, after a film is released on Friday.

In the case of Paa however, due to the India-Sri Lanka series that the audiences were hooked to on Neo Cricket, the subsequent weekend collections were bound to get hit badly. Mudra Max decided to join the men in blue and capitalise on cricket's high viewership.

This was done not through promos, branded boundary boards or sponsorships; but by making the protagonist of the movie a part of the match for a full three hours. The objective was to get the non-regular film viewers to watch Paa

Thus, Mudra Max presented Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) on Neo Cricket as the commentator, live during the match, along with Murali Kartik, the other commentator, on December 12, 2009. Not only did audiences get to listen to Auro for three hours, but also got to see 30-minute specials of this innovation on Hindi news channels.

The agency claims that the movie enjoyed PR mileage worth Rs 1.2 crore; while the campaign's spend was zero. Around 2.9 million viewers watched the match. The end result was a 23 per cent rise in box-office collections over the previous week.

For 3 Idiots, the objective, and therefore, the strategy were slightly different. Prior to the release of the film, several movies had bombed at the box office. The last big film of the year wanted to extract 50 per cent of the expected revenue within the first week of release. While it did go the usual PR-music launch-celebrity appearances route, Mudra Max planned it a little differently.

Building intrigue around the movie's storyline was the key idea. There were PR announcements and celebrities attended Page 3 parties, while the music launch was done online. For the press conference, the lead actor of the movie, Aamir Khan did not appear, which raised eyebrows (in the movie too, the character disappears). Khan, as part of the promotion, went to several places in disguise and interacted with the masses.

An online community called the idiotsacademy.com was launched, complete with a college, classrooms, toilets and so on. There was also a tool for visitors to check their Idiot Quotient (IQ). In the ambient space, the backs of auto rickshaws were branded with 'Capacity: 3 Idiots'. Almost all multiplex lobbies had hip-shaped seats, as in the movie. The presenter of the case study even lamented that they had to re-paint these seats every week. On radio, radio jockeys launched a hunt for the biggest idiot.

As a result of this entire activity, the agency claims that the website attracted around 3 million visitors, 93 per cent of whom said they would watch the movie. The movie enjoyed 95 per cent occupancy across 2,000 theatres in the country. 3 Idiots has also been touted as the highest grosser in Bollywood.

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