Industry
Studios embrace cross-promotions to woo viewers, boost engagement
Summary
This strategy benefits both creators and the audience by sharing costs, broadening the audience base, and elevating brand image. This trend is seen in both Bollywood and Hollywood, with crossovers extending to different platforms and production houses.
New Delhi: Film studios and web content creators are increasingly turning to cross-promotions as a cost-effective strategy to enhance audience engagement in a crowded content landscape.
For instance, Ayushmann Khurrana’s Dream Girl 2 collaborated with Netflix’s Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, while lead actors from Disney+ Hotstar’s original productions like The Trial and The Night Manager engaged with each other to generate more buzz.
Brand experts said there are multiple benefits of such collaborations, including cost-sharing and enhancing brand image. “Bringing different fictional worlds together, like in crossovers, is a smart move. It helps the audience connect with content better. It attracts more viewers, creating excitement among the fans and help in promotion," Tanvi Bosmia, associate account director at SoCheers, a digital marketing agency, said.
This strategy benefits both creators of the content and the audience, she said. For example, Amazon Prime Video’s strategy to get the characters from its shows Hush Hush, The Family Man, and Paatal Lok to come together for a video, which is particularly interesting given that all three shows featured cops, but with varying personalities. A senior streaming platform executive said OTT players are already staring at flat subscription growth this year due to a saturation in audience base in metros. To counter this, such platforms are initiating cost-cutting strategies by dropping episodes of non-premium, television-style shows and focusing on cost-effective marketing strategies, he added.
“As they observe viewership patterns stabilizing, services are trying out new things and don’t see a reason to spend for the sake of it," he said.
“Sharing vibes with brand partners splits costs, broadens audience base and elevates the brand image. Picture collaborations with like-minded partners help conquer new markets and makes for timeless and contemporary productions," Mitesh Kothari, the co-founder and chief creative officer at marketing agency White Rivers Media explained.
This trend is also evident in Hollywood. After the success of Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part I, Tom Cruise, endorsed consecutive screening of Barbie and Oppenheimer both releasing in theatres the following week.
Bollywood is catching onto this trend as well, with characters from Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and Dream Girl 2 engaging in playful banter. “This might mark Bollywood’s turning point, sparking excitement and boosting box office collections," he said.
It is clear that crossovers aren’t limited to shows of a single OTT platform but can extend to series or movies by multiple production houses for different platforms, either theatrical or digital.
“The most important aspect here is the theme or genre of the show or movie which can be found across different platforms and there is no harm in tapping into a newer audience as well. More and more OTT platforms are now seeing the value additions that crossovers bring to their marketing strategies to help sustain momentum of their campaigns in the long run," Bosmia said.
