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A Look At Ghajini’s Online Marketing Strategies - And Those Benefitting From It!

Aamir Khan is known for his use of the web and digital medium to create buzz and word of mouth for his movies. Right from his lagaan dvd selling days which prompted him to start his own website and blog. This preference for the digital medium has rubbed onto all the films he has been associated as well. So there was news that Ghajini would be heavily marketed on the web and so it has been. The makers of Ghajini have roped in Hungama to create maximum visibility for the film via the digital medium. Hungama has created multiple properties for Ghajini. Properties like www.rememberghajini.com, www.findghajini.com and www.wallofsuspects.com that drive the curiousity around the movie and provide an experience like the movie, over the Internet. Ghajini releases to a worldwide audience on Thursday, Dec. 25th 2008

Even AamirKhan’s personal blog dons the ghajini look. Check screenshot below:

The digital strategy has been aimed at maintaining the the suspense of this much awaited movie and hence the websites give very little on the story line of the movie. But instead the web is used to engage the user by driving curiosity around the movie via images and videos. Another unique aspect of the film that has been integrated into the website is that it refreshes itself every fifteen minutes. If one has seen the promo’s one would know that Aamir loses his memory every 15 minutes. So even on the website no matter which section the user is accessing, every fifteen minutes you are driven back to the homepage. To make sure that users get this there is a timer that runs at the bottom of each page.

Hungama was recently voted as the 2nd top most digital agency after Webchutney and this initiative for Aamir’s most awaited movie yet should add another feather on their cap!

Well if Hungama is promoting Ghajini Webchutney is being street smart by riding on someone else effort and promoting its own client Oktatabyebye by launching a Ghajini spoof viral called Gajodhar. Have a look for yourself below:

This is what I call a case of riding the hype. Contest2win had followed a similar strategy for the bucknor incident in cricket. I guess benefits of great marketing are for all to reap from even your competitors. Im off to see Ghajini tomorrow who else is going for it?

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Shilpa Shetty Launches Shilpa Channel - A Blog On Her Official Website

Shilpa Shetty seems to be going the Aamir Khan way as far as digital savviness is concerned. She had recently launched her own website and also was in the news for her Yoga training videos being available on mobile phones as well. But not it seems she wants to build a direct connect with her fans and has recently launched Shilpa Channel which is a personal blog on her official website.

Celebrities taking to blogging is fast becoming a norm with Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and mandir bedi as well taking to blogging. It outlines the benefits of communication via blogging and the fast rising status of the web and blogging as a communication tool to position and brand oneself. Also it can act as an ecommerce platform. Like how aamir started a blog to sell lagaan dvd’s. Even Shilpa seems to be using her official site to sell here yoga dvds.

Aamir Khan has been amazingly successful in getting the offline media to talk about him in the press just by making comments on his blog.

As more and more celebrities take to blogging one wonders if a elite celebrity blogging platform is the need of the hour? Folks at Bollywoodhungama or Chakpak who run bollywood centric sites should think about (if they haven’t already) providing blogging tools to film star and tv stars. After all 25% of BigAdda’s traffic comes from Amitabh Bachchans blog!

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Microsite Story - Idea and Dell Set Up Online Campaigns Promoting Change and Enterprise

The definition of microsite is generally agreed to as an extension of a primary website. The main distinction of a microsite versus its parent site is its purpose and specific cohesiveness as compared to the microsite’s broader overall parent website (say thanks to Wikipedia).

Extending their individual, vastly different and yet very successful campaigns both Idea and Dell have launched microsites catering to their branding goals. For Idea it is taking online their successful TV campaigns, their recent one with the political plug to it has been taken online with Bythepeople.in. While Dell continues its renowned online campaigning with an Indian twist this time through takeyourownpath.com to foster entrepreneurship.

Bythepeople.in would seem like an attempt on the lines of the much talked about Jaago Re campaign by Tata. And the initiative is to build a discussion about Participative Democracy as showcased in the popular TV commercial. According to their release, this is just phase 1 of their online campaign and in future they plan to extend the debate into action by taking the opinions generated on the site to the government to intitiate the changes sought ‘by the people’. The site offers a quick view and exit and basically asks for a 10 word opinion on an issue that the user wants to discuss and debate.

Dell’s initiative - takeyourownpath.com on the other hand is to foster the entrepreneurial mindset among Indians through success stories of others. The site features rich media content of 5 successful Indian entrepreneurs who chose their own path and who tell their story themselves. And of course the essential part of how their dell represents their goals and how it helped achieve success. The content structure and display on the site is creative and crisp and is more interactive compared to Idea’s venture.

Both sites if I am not wrong plan to promote the sites through online advertising mainly led through banner advertising on popular portals. This to my mind (and for obvious reasons) could have been backed by socialising the content. Right now there are no social sharing tools on either of the sites and are possiblly losing out on a major viral channel which could have reduced their eventual cost per visitor. Perhaps the audience segment they are targeting isn’t quite the kind who would contribute to a viral channel especially social media, but something as basic as email promotion and invitation could have been pursued. Given the fact that these initiatives are conceptualised and executed by digital only agencies the lack of user generated/driven promotion surely is a let down.

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