MUMBAI: ‘Cash to da left for me, Cash is right for me, Cash to da the front for me, Cash is the back for me…’ These lyrics from the movie’s title song tell us that ‘cash’ (money) is all pervasive for people. What’s more, the marketing and promotion of the movie also stands true to the ‘T’ to these lyrics.

Ever since the box office game became that of the opening weekend numbers, the Hindi film industry woke up to the concept of heavy duty marketing of movies in order to ensure good opening collections.

This week’s release Cash directed by Anubhav Sinha is a case in point of several wings of a corporate coming together for the distribution, marketing and promotion of a movie. The movie is being promoted like never before across all media platforms. The publicity is so in-your-face and spread across different media, that one just can’t miss it.

While Adlabs is the presenter and distributor of Cash, its newly formed entity Big Music and Home Entertainment has bought the music and India video rights. On the other hand, BIG 92.7 FM’s 21 radio stations are being used as a platform to promote the music, whereas Reliance Entertainment has acquired the worldwide satellite rights. In addition to this, Zapak.com has created a special game and contest around the movie. Reliance Mobile too has been roped in as a telecom partner.

Adlabs Film Distribution COO, Sunir Kheterpal says, “We are extremely happy with the way Cash has turned out and we are fully geared to give a wide release to one of this year’s most anticipated films. Apart from extensively leveraging Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s (R-ADAG) presence across diverse distribution platforms, the marketing team at Adlabs has roped in multiple brands and media partners to build highly effective marketing campaign for Cash. The overall value of marketing and promotion is approximately Rs 7 crores (Rs 70 million).”

Apart from the South Africa Tourism Board, brands that have been roped in for promotion include MAK Lubricants, Gitanjali Group, Kingfisher Premium, Moneycontrol.com amongst others.

Businessofcinema.com takes a peek into the marketing activity surrounding Cash.

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SOUTH AFRICA TOURISIM

The first and most prominent brand, which is visible throughout the film, is the city of Cape Town in South Africa. Cash has been shot entirely in Cape Town (excluding the songs, which were picturised in studios). While the incentives offered to producers for shooting Cash in Cape Town were not really phenomenal in nature, the South African Tourism Board has tied up with portal travel portal Makemytrip.com to run a contest for its active users. The portal will offer 10 free couple tickets to South Africa and also 10,000 free movie tickets for Cash. The tourism board is also airing 30 second commercials showcasing locales of Cape Town in Cash, which are being aired across news channels.

“Our goal is to get moviegoers to associate Cash‘s onscreen excitement and amazing locations, with what South Africa has to offer. As Anubhav Sinha has said, seeing Cash is a three letter word fun; and fun is exactly the kind of holiday South Africa offers,” says South African Tourism country manager, India Lance B Littlefield.

GITANJALI GROUP

Diamond robbery is a key incident of Cash and the movie highlights the message ‘earn money the hard way, steal it.’ Gitanjali Group found this a perfect brand fit to promote their new brand variant of loose diamonds – Ezee, which was launched in Mumbai and Delhi a few months ago.

“We have organized a ground activity and are running contests in multiplexes like Inox, Fun Republic and Satyam in various cities,” informs Gitanjali Group vice president Anuj Rakhyan. As a part of the contest eight winners will get a packet each of Ezee diamonds costing Rs 5,000 comprising five diamonds and a bumper prize of Rs 10,000.< Page Break >

MAK

While director producer Anubhav Sinha’s obsession for cars and bikes was prominent in his previous movie Dus, one can see more of it in Cash. In fact, Sinha burnt eight cars while shooting Dus and 11 cars while shooting Cash. With so many vehicles in the picture, lubricant company MAK came on board for a barter association. “This is MAK’s first association with a film for its promotional activity,” informs Group M’s senior director entertainment Vinit Karnik. Group M roped in MAK for its promotion with Cash. More than thousand television commercials of 30 second are being aired across leading channels.

ZAPAKMAIL.COM

‘Cash Back’ game on Zapakmail.com marks the website’s first association with a film. The game is in conjunction with an action stunt from the film, which shows Ajay Devgan and Riteish Deshmukh on a streetluge. The game offers the player a choice of three racing tracks to collect diamonds while steering the streetluge and reach his destination in record time. The top 10 scorers win music CDs and a Rs 1,000 Cash back offer has also been offered to Zapakmail.com users.

RELIANCE MOBILE

Telecom partner Reliance Mobile is airing co-branded TVCs and also offering branding across Reliance Communication outlets. In a contest taking place on R-World and Reliance Web Worlds, the download of Cash ringtones offers a free couple ticket to South Africa and costumes from the movie as prizes.< Page Break >

BIG MUSIC

Furthermore, in sync with the title and theme of the movie Cash, Big Music rolled out a Cash back offer for the first two weeks after the movies audio release. “As per the Cash back offer, the buyers of Cash audio CD were entitled to get Rs 30 back from the purchase counter. Apart from this we will also roll out a campaign highlighting the mobile promotions and downloads,” informs Big Music CEO Kulmeet Makkar.

MONEYCONTROL.COM

Cash further encashed on its title and tied up with financial portal Moneycontrol.com’s game called Moneybhai Investor, which is a real time stock market game that gives a chance to master the tricks of online stock trading. People can play with virtual money and win real money of up to Rs 3.7 lakhs everyday.

KINGFISHER PREMIUM

In a tie up with pubs, Kingfisher Premium offers a scratch card on purchase of its product, which gives one free couple ticket to ‘good times’ in South Africa.

Since the movie is tech savvy, computers were frequently shown in the movie. This called for an in-film product placement for South Africa based computer company Sahara Computers.< Page Break >

MULTIPLEXES, TELEVISION ET AL

Apart from various brand associations Adlabs has also structured promotion deals spanning diverse media platforms of print, television, outdoor and internet partners including Hungama, Bright Advertising, CNBC Network, Aaj Tak Network, MSN Network, Times Now and MTV Network. Cash is also being supported by multiplex chains like Adlabs, Inox, PVR, Cinemax and Fame for in theatre visibility. Outside Mumbai, Adlabs has aggressively promoted the film through outdoor advertising in Delhi, Goa, Surat, Ahmedabad, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow.

Commenting on the marketing activity Sinha says, “I am extremely happy with the tremendous efforts put in by Adlabs’ team for giving Cash an amazing pedestal from the perspective of distribution and marketing. Cash is a perfect example of how content, packaging, effective marketing and proactive teamwork across stakeholders can raise the awareness level and visibility of a film amongst the consumers.”

Cash is also the first film where Adlabs has ventured into centralized distribution and marketing of the film. The film is being distributed in territory of Mumbai, Delhi, UP, Punjab and overseas through Adlabs’ distribution offices. The movie is releasing with 375 physical prints in India, 136 prints in overseas and 350 digital prints.

“Although the film’s release was delayed by a week, it did not affect the marketing spends adversely. Besides, the film has more buzz now than before,” concludes Kheterpal.

However, the promotion and publicity material had to be changed and the name of producer Sohail Maklai was added to the same after the legal aspect was sorted out last week.

Going forward the marketing team at Adlabs will work in association with films acquired and distributed domestically and overseas by them.