Media industry experts said some highly-anticipated films can make as much as Rs1 crore on the first day of the launch of a trailer, if they get significant views, and brands are looking to associate themselves with tent-pole films,

Blockbusters KGF: Chapter 2 and Rajinikanth’s 2.0 and Darbar, among others, have monetized their trailers, songs and other promotional material on YouTube, with brands tapping into advertising inventories.

Media industry experts said some highly-anticipated films can make as much as ₹ 1 crore on the first day of the launch of a trailer, if they get significant views, and brands are looking to associate themselves with tent-pole films, and promotional material is going beyond in-film brand integrations and collaborations with stars.

“Brands, especially pan-India entities, are interested in grabbing eyeballs, and there is enough data on the stars and artistes getting a larger share of views from the audience and can drive the numbers needed to sell to advertisers via partnerships with high-visibility movies," said Shahir Muneer, founder and director, Divo, a south Indian music and marketing firm that has executed brand campaigns for big-ticket films, including KGF 2.

“They can emerge as multi-crore campaigns if it is a single brand exclusively buying the full inventory of a leading film that is expected to organically yield millions of views, though multiple brands can also try and participate in the buyout," Muneer said.

When contacted a YouTube spokesman declined to comment on film producers monetizing promotional material on the platform.

A senior studio executive, seeking anonymity, said such campaigns are a source of revenue for the producers. “At a time everyone is trying to create some kind of viral content, it is good news that even a big trailer can ring in as much as ₹ 1 crore on the day of a launch."

According to Deepti Gupta, chief executive of music label Treasure Records,the release date announcement for Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan by Yash Raj Films, the trailer for Karan Johar’s Brahmastra, and the song Kesariya, are examples of big-budget films gaining traction from brands and advertisers on YouTube. “Consumers are highly engaged with movie content (on YouTube), particularly music and trailers which make brands more likely to put science behind movie marketing. The publicity of films and how much buzz has been generated after an announcement and before launching a trailer are factors that attract brands and advertisers," she added.

Travel, hospitality, ed-tech, fintech, gaming, fast-moving consumers goods and cryptocurrency platforms have taken great interest in partnering for these advertising campaigns.

Deepak Salvi, co-founder and chief operating officer of short video app Chingari said brands spending for advertising on platforms like YouTube is an old tool, but the phenomenon targeting big-ticket films is recent, which has especially grown post-pandemic as many films were not released in theatres or on a large scale. 

“The biggest criteria for brands to evaluate movies (whose promotional material they choose to spend on) would be the star cast, director, story concept and production house, basis which they would be able to figure out their target markets and promote accordingly," Salvi said. 

Brands and advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to reach their audiences and the idea behind targeting big films is to encash upon the anticipation that is being built for the movie. “Advertising during the release of a big-ticket film also offers attentive viewing by the audience and enables better brand recall. Having your brand advertisement play before the trailer of an upcoming and much-awaited movie, can definitely help brands in reaching out to the masses," Salvi added.

Digital marketing budget, which made for barely 1% of a film's total budget a few years ago, has now risen to as much as 40-50%, said Shrenik Gandhi, co-founder and CEO at digital agency White Rivers Media. “Additionally, non-commercial films that lack funding to promote in traditional media opt to promote even more on digital platforms."

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