Marketing rules & lessons from Thalaiva’s Kabali

July 22, 2016: It took me an additional half an hour to reach my office on MG Road as I happened to cross one of the numerous theatres where Kabali was released.  This set me thinking on the hype, buzz and records created as part of the marketing of Kabali !

Kabali has not only created buzz & new records in the last few weeks, new marketing rules were applied that can be learnt. Kabali has built a new style of unprecedented branding and promoting without any special tricks the moviemakers. It should be noted that there was neither an audio release nor a press conference before the movie, and yet Kabali collected INR 250 crore on the first day!  Kabali has grossed INR 400 crores within first ten days in theatres across India and abroad. The overseas collection of Kabali in the opening weekend was around INR 90 crores. INR 30 crores was the collection from USA where it was one of the top ten films watched  in the country (despite the US presidential elections, the Kabali juggernaut was just too lucrative to ignore! )

Perhaps, Rajinikanth is the only star who steadfastly had refused to endorse any label after the first and last one he did at the beginning of his career for a regional cola brand, forty years ago !

Marketing rules have been re-written this time, with companies in metro cities booking theatres for employees and also declaring holidays!

Just Do It  -  differently !

Kabali’s only promotion from movie makers was an announcement of the movie with the release date and a 30-second teaser on social media which received 25 million views on YouTube. Kabali became the first Asian movie to have achieved those numbers. When you have Rajini Sir by your side, who needs all the other promotions like going to reality show or on a promotional tour?

Advertise - differently!

Avoid following the same old stereotyped marketing tricks!

Position your brand and product and do things differently. Show elusiveness while endorsing brands

Rajinikanth's demand as a brand endorser has risen even if he has been refusing to play into the game of endorsement. Rajini stays out of public eyes, does not endorse brands, politicians or even social causes. Brands such as Pepsi, Hindustan Unilever, India cements, ITC and Asian paints were a part of earlier Rajini movies.   

For this movie Kabali,  brands such as Muthoot, Foodpanda, Ola, Uber, Mobikwik, Air Asia, Cadbury 5 Star, Amazon, Shop CJ, Airtel  came on board and many are intending to keep their association going even after the movie goes off the screen. And it is not out of any charity but the brand Rajini has delivered value to them. While these reputed brands got associated with the movie, nowhere did the protagonist endorse these brands. In all these cases, the companies introduced new ways of associating themselves with the movie.  

Air Asia India – the official airline partner of Rajinikanth starrer Tamil film Kabali had launched a special re branded aircraft dedicated to Thalaiva Rajinikanth’s Kabali and his fans. The aircraft is bearing large posters of Rajinikanth. According to airline, the special aircraft is a sign of respect to superstar for his contribution in Indian cinema.

Air Asia Dedicated a Special Plane to Thalaiva Rajinikanth Kabali

The aircraft is painted and stickered with the Rajinikanth images and the plane has been used in few scenes in this film too. As the airline is a partner for Kabali, so it planned a special fight from Bengaluru to Chennai for Fans of 65 years old actor to watch Kabali’s first day first show.

Muthoot Fincorp joined the Kabali mania and introduced special Kabali silver coins, which has the face image of Rajinikanth embossed on the coins and pendants. The coins were made available in five, 10 and 20 grams from the date of release of Kabali - July 22.            Within a week's time from release of movie, 102 kg worth of coins were sold raking in close to INR 75 lakhs of rupees for the company.  

Special Kabali coins by Muthoot Fincorp

The eagerness of the brands to associate with a much awaited movie by Thalaiva is quite understandable but with these unique marketing strategies, the companies along with their promotions have clearly leveraged the superstar’s image which is essential right before the release of a movie.

Brand endorsements always grabs eyeballs, so next time you partner with a brand or even a movie, an event or a launch, think on how this brand endorsement can add real value to your brands and retain the elusiveness.

Unlike other Indian movie stars, Rajini Sir has never lent his name to products and campaigns. It is believed that this reclusive nature and status of Rajini makes it the unique selling point of actor Rajinikanth that delivers to his producers in the box office and thus making the companies leverage the power of his brand. Added to this is the super human status of the actor and his genuineness which are rare commodities in the world of glamour. 

Take on social media – differently!

Needless to say, social media has become an integral part of marketing these days, no matter what the product is. But Kabali has shown some real crazy use of these social media platforms.

One of the memes that did rounds in the social media!

We all know about Rajini Sir ’s jokes and memes, and these work for the product while creating awareness about the pros and cons of a product. It should not necessarily conceal the flaws as it further builds the trust on the brand and company as well as strengthens a long-term relationship with the consumer, which is essential in today’s marketing.

Producer Kalaipuli Thanu and Director Pa Ranjith only tweeted the date of release and social media, print and the electronic media did the rest, he pointed out. Kabali was a movie that was entirely driven by online marketing and social media. The marketing cost to gross sales may be the lowest for this film which could turn out to be Rajini’s biggest grosser.

The movie has set a new benchmark on what can be achieved in terms of ability to sell a movie. New styles of marketing gimmicks are unveiled every other day, but Kabali has shown certain unprecedented marketing craze. Kabali has also shown on how things are taken when you have a legendary icon by your side and then winning will be obvious!