The Indian film industry is the world's biggest by the number of theatrical releases, but not all of its stakeholders are aware of its potential besides the seemingly obvious box-office collections.
To fill the needs gap and get a sense of the entire non-box-office business, media agency network GroupM's sports and entertainment programming specialist arm ESP Properties did an analysis of the untapped opportunities. It has just released its maiden report on film entertainment business, Showbiz, The Indian Superpower.
The report, released here Wednesday, points out that the total co-branded marketing media spends for Hindi films have reached approximately Rs 100 crore a year. In other words, 20% of films released include brand associations, where brands also share a part of the marketing budget.
Segmented into three parts — film marketing, the celebrity aspect and content licensing — the first edition of the Showbiz report includes viewpoints of those who work to maximise brand value through film promotions.
Vinit Karnik, business head, ESP Properties, said: "We touch upon the triggers of entertainment as an industry beyond content and infrastructure. We are telling the marketer — among other stakeholders — how entertainment can be looked at beyond the conventional view."
As per the report, FMCG, apparel and ecommerce are categories that are most active in in-film integrations and co-branded associations. Among these three, FMCG tops the brand integration charts. Between 2015 and 2017, there was at least one cobranded campaign for FMCG every month. There have been around 13 brands active in this category across genres and films.
However, the report added that brand categories or sectors that are warming up to film tie-ups go way beyond fashion and electronics. "The last few years witnessed many small and medium sized brands from confectionery, QSR (quick-service restaurants), alcohol (in a surrogate way) and travel sectors. In the 'Digital India' age, expect this pie to have even more slices," it reads.
Interestingly, of all films released in India across languages, approximately a fifth are used by brands for co-marketing. Alliances have increased steadily, with media spends exceeding marketing budgets of a film in a few cases. Besides Bollywood, other language films are also using this marketing medium. In 2017 alone,
Showbiz Report Shows Potential of India Movies ESP's report says India's marketing budgets for films meets global average 25% of Hollywood films, 15% of South Indian films and 17% of Marathi films had brand associations.
The report also points out that in India, marketing budgets for films have grown from 5-6% of production budget to 10-15% — closer to the global average. "Globally, 20-25% of the budget is spent on marketing and promotions, while it was just 5-7% in India until five years ago," Karnik added.
The report says that globally content licensing is a massive business, although it is in its infancy in India. However, it is growing at 7.4% a year, higher than the developed markets such as the US, UK and Canada.
On celebrity endorsements, the report says that in the last 10 years, 25% of brand advertising on television did feature a famous face or celebrity. "We see celebrities playing the role of active influencer to the brands rather than just endorsing them," the report said.
