Finger in the promotion pie

through a multi-media campaign.

Of the new films to be promoted by Starcom, another eight to nine will be from The Factory which is a JV between Varma's Varma Corporation and K Sera Sera Productions.

"We are on the verge of signing on two very large film production companies," admits Pranay Anthwal, group head, Starcom Digital, without divulging their names. The new clients are expected to be on board in a couple of weeks.

Besides negotiating deals with other film producers and TV software companies, Starcom Digital is also in the process of being re-launched as Starcom IP.

Starcom's Mumbai-based managing director Ravi Kiran says that the division will be renamed Starcom IP in keeping with the company's global brand name. "We plan to re-jig the whole division and expect to grow 100 per cent in 2004 over 2003," says Kiran.

For starters, the company has kicked off its business this year with Ek Hasina Thi scheduled for release on January 16. It will be followed by Ab Tak Chhappan produced by the same company.

"It is just the beginning," says Anthwal who looks pretty pleased with the integrated media campaign created for the Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar starrer Ek Hasina Thi. For the campaign, Starcom roped in indiatimes.com, Planet M and Barista. Foods major Heinz was also engaged as a sponsor.

According to Anthwal, media involved in the campaign include television, print, SMS, Internet and retail outlets. While a teaser campaign was launched on the indiatimes.com site, the film was also promoted on some other large community sites like sulekha.com, the website for NRIs.

The 18 Planet M music stores in the metros offered clues to its customers to enter the contest by either logging on to the indiatimes site or visiting the Barista outlets. More recently, a print campaign was released in city-specific supplements in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Kanpur. "Thanks to Heinz being a sponsor, we created special film posters for over a lakh FMCG retail outlets where Heinz products are stocked," says Anthwal.

However, the film's success at the box office will finally indicate whether Starcom's interactive marketing strategy worked or not. But Anthwal is not unduly worried. "We have created enough excitement around the film and advertising and marketing can only lead people up to the film," he says.

Besides, Anthwal is too busy chalking out strategies for The Factory's forthcoming films like Ab Tak Chhappan, Gayab, Naach and Darna Zarori Hai among others. Varma Corp's head of marketing Rajan Menon says that The Factory's business with Starcom has moved beyond online strategies to offline initiatives as well.

Meanwhile, in the near future, Anthwal's team may also get to market Spiderman films in India by virtue of Starcom's worldwide association with Columbia Tristar.

But though Starcom Digital is on a roll, Ravi Kiran is not willing to talk figures. "The billings will not be very large. In any case digital marketing is new to India and the total size of the market in the country is not more than Rs 45 crore," he concludes.