Brands try to swing with Spider-Man 2

The release of Spider-Man 2 in India on Friday, will see the film's producers Sony Pictures Entertainment unleash a slew of promotional campaigns along with several national and regional brands.

The movie is being released across India with 300 prints, beating the previous record held by Spider-Man I of 250 prints.

"The movie is expected to gross an excess of Rs 28 crore and tipped to become the second highest grossing Hollywood movie in India of all time," predicted Vikramjit Roy, head-publicity and acquisitions, Sony Pictures.

In the US the movie has already broken most box office records and is estimated to have amassed $200 million in its opening eight days of release.

Sony Pictures with its fresh cash inflow is all set to dethrone Warner Bros. Pictures at the top. The Toby Maguire starring movie has also helped Marvel Comics jump out of the red and turn profitable.

Piggybacking on the blockbuster are major brands such as Airtel, Kellogg, Mirinda, Sony Ericsson and Twinkle Comics. The movie, which is also being released in Hindi,Tamil and Telugu, will have Lifestyle, Telegraph and several other regional brands. The total spend through brand association is estimated around Rs 3 crore.

Kellogg. which has a special Spider-Man 2 promotion running in 180 countries has chosen India as one of the few countries to sell 5.5 lakh packs of 'Spider-Man 2 cereal'.

They are promoting the spider and web shaped choco cereals through a specially created television commercial (TVC) currently being aired on popular children TV channels.

Airtel is running a specially designed Spider-Man game, wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones and is using print and outdoor advertising alongwith roadshows to promote the downloads.

Four limited edition cell-phone models have also been launched by Sony Ericsson who are also giving away VCDs and other freebies to customers. They have already kicked off a advertising campaign in print and are doing roadshows to accelerate sales.

Mirinda has launched a on pack promotion on 15 lakh pet bottles and have thrown in Spider-man tee-shirts and other free gifts to boost sales.

They like Kellogg are running a special TVC to create awareness about the promotion. Twinkle comics is running a contest which is designed around a Spiderman puzzle game.

Sony Pictures in its efforts to target kids, teenagers and adults is using all of its group company resources to promote the movie. Sony Music has released a special song for the hindi translation of the movie sung by the popular Pakistani band Strings.

Sony Entertainment Television features Spider-man in its popular 'jassi jaisi kohi nahi' and 'yeh meri life hai' through a tie-up in the script. In another program, 'Ab ayega maaza, there is a segment on Mandira Bedi's LA trip to interview the talent of the film.

AXN has had a inverted spider-man suspended from its logo for close to a month and has also been airing special behind the scenes footage.

Sony Electronics is giving away free Spider-man merchandise upon purchase of the cyber shot digital camera. A special TVC is being aired to promote the offer. The Home Entertainment division is giving away free gifts with the sale of DVDs and VCDs.

Big brands and big movies in the US have always had a symbiotic relationship helping boost ticket, merchandise and product sales through its resulting synergies.

Spider-man 2 spinning its web around multiple brands and creating a win-win equation may just be a curtain-raiser of things to come in India as well.