Most impressive film promotions in 2014

There was a time when a star’s job was 100% complete after completing the shoot and dubbing for a film. But times have changed. Today, finishing a film is only half the job done. The second and the more critical half seems to have become film marketing and promotion. In marketing parlance, you need to be able to match every ‘P’ of marketing. Let me explain this.The marketing guru Dr Philip Kotler defines the 5 Ps of marketing as Product, Price, Place, Promotion and Positioning.
ALSO READ: Shah Rukh Khan to make 200 cr profit before Happy New Year releases
Product: The film itself, its story, cast, director and quality of storytelling and production
Price: The ticket price
Place: Distribution of the film that defines how many people the film is city-wise available to
Promotion: How well you promote your film and inform your audiences
Positioning: Which in some ways is the toughest and this is where you let your audiences know how you want to position your film in their minds. Just like in any other product category, an effective combination of all the above leads to a film achieving its defined objective, which could be either box office success, critical appreciation, high return on investment or a combination of any of these. Talking about film promotions in particular that have today become an integral part of most mid to big budget films and many a times even small films, we looked at film promotions so far in 2014 that impressed us.
ALSO READ: Shah Rukh Khan's 'Happy New Year' poster out
Happy New Year
One of the most innovative promotional ideas was for the film Happy New Year where the five lead actors — Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani and Vivaan Shah along with Deepika Padukone sent personalised signed posters to their fans on the New Year. It created buzz and interaction with the film and established the title of Happy New Year on the New Year.
ALSO READ: 'Holiday' not a typical Akshay Kumar film: Akshay
Holiday
Akshay Kumar visited Army camps in Jodhpur and Amritsar to promote his film Holiday, in which he was playing an army officer himself. It helped position the film that went on to get both critical as well as box office success, being the top grosser of 2014 so far.
Jai Ho
Keeping in line with the film’s idea of every person giving to three people in their lives, Salman proved that he is a good human being not just in the film, but also in real life. He visited places where he would just give. So, for instance in one place, he would organise 100 open heart surgeries, in another distribute water to a water deprived village. Salman chose to forego his chartered plane so that the money could be used for charity instead. The film certainly further enhanced Salman’s position as the most human star.
Listen to Jai Ho songs on Gaana.com
Akshay Kumar to do a fashion show with dogs
Akshay Kumar to do a fashion show with dogs to promote his film Entertainment. The dog plays a parallel with Akshay in the film and so Akshay will be doing a fashion show with dogs in Bangalore on July 31.
Ragini MMS 2
An important reason for the success of Ragini MMS 2 was the song Baby Doll. Sunny Leone visited different cities, where she danced in a cage at various places to the song Baby Doll. The film went on to become a hit, thanks to the song.
Watch: Jai Ho