Everybody loves Rajanikant, He is the most successful actor of Tamil cinema with fan following all over the country and across the globe. He is above the boundaries of language and geography. Original and dubbed both versions of his films are equally profitable for producers, and we can’t deny the fact that Rajani Jokes inspired by the larger than life characters played by him are equally responsible for the brand image he has.
Kabali his latest film is already creating history on box office and a total collection of over 600 crores is well expected from the film. Kabali’s trailer launched on Youtube got one million views in an hour and has now become first ever Indian film trailer to reach 1 million views and 100000 like in two hours.
The Tamil superstar is known for his simplistic life style and humble down to earth attitude and that is the reason everybody feels so connected with him, even those who doesn’t even like his work as an actor. In addition to that regular dose of Rajani jokes in day to day life makes him part of the most conversation and all this turns him in to a strong brand which connects with everybody beyond the parameters of age gender and economic and social background.
OBJECTIVE:
The excitement of the Kabali was so much that July 22 the day when film released, was declared holiday in many private firms and this day was called #Kabaliday, it became a popular phenomenon on social media and many brands associated with Kabali decided to cash this opportunity. The entire branding of the movie was estimated around 40 Crores and that too is when Rajanikant himself was not endorsing any of them. The brands associated with the movie unleashed massive marketing campaigns on social media and television to get the maximum mileage out of it.
APROACH AND STRATEGY
Many brands used animation, screen shots, GIF files and videos to generate the maximum engagement while some used various hash tags on their official social media pages like #Kabali and #KabaliDay.
Air Asia India:
The Malaysian low-budget airline company was the official airline partner of the movie and they redesigned a whole aircraft prior to the release of the film keeping in mind the promotion. To get the maximum engagement they shared a video of the process of designing of the aircraft of their social media page.
It also started a campaign- Fly Like A Superstar where they asked fans to post their Kabali style video on Facebook and twitter. Top10 winners got chance to fly from Bengalore to Chennai to catch the first show of the movie other three travelled to the shooting locations of the film in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Cadbury 5 star:
The official food and beverage partner of the film released special ad film showing its mascot Ramesh and Suresh watching Kabali with caption Excitement level while watching #Kabali. They released the image in their social media page and it got 2100 likes.
MYNTRA & AMAZON:
The online fashion retailer started new campaign addressing the customer to dress like Kabali and become the style icon while going to watch the film while on the other hand Amazon established an entire store of movie merchandise and asked viweres to buy merchandise if they couldn’t buy the tickets. Both the campaigns involved a call to action to insure maximum engagement.
AMUL:
Amul has always been spot on when it comes to using day-to-day events in their add campaign, they did same with Kabali and released special Kabali specific image on their social media page with punch line He makes onion cry, Tomato blush and butter fry!
TRULYMADLY:
The dating app decided to use quirky Rajni jokes to create excitement about the release and catch the eyeballs. Specifically jokes on relationship and dating were selected for this purpose.
FASSOS:
Food startup Fassos shared animated GIF on their social media page, conveying the story of a wrap making Rajni entry. They claimed it to be father of all disruptions.
FLIPKART:
Similary Flipkart used a Rajni joke showing an app visiting Thalaiva because Thalaiva doesn’t do that.
RESULT:
Plane makeover video shared by AirAsia received 11000 views, 189 shares and 350 likes while one simple picture shared by Amul got 683 retweets. Engagement is the name of the game and brads know how to grab attention of the customers and that’s what they did when they saw an opportunity in the name of Superstar Rajnikant. All brands used different media on their social media platforms and rode the wave of excitement. While some of them simply paid tribute to the superstar while some like Amazon turned it in to a business opportunity by launching specific product or services
LEARNING:
This was the first time in the history of cinema when release of a film was celebrated at such huge scale. It covered the social media extensively and brands got maximum mileage out of it. They invested in the emotions and craze of audience attached with the superstar and turned it in to great brand awareness opportunity.
Photo Credits: Official Social Media Pages of AirAisa/Cadbury/Myntra/Amazon/Amul/TrulyMadly/Fassos
