Three marketing lessons you can learn from Thalaiva’s Kabali

From the buzz that Kabali created in the past few weeks, a lot can be learnt especially from the new set of marketing rules. Its built a new style of unprecedented branding and promoting with no special tricks set by the moviemakers. Even without an audio release or press conference before the movie, it collected Rs 250 crore on the first day and is expected to collect a whooping amount of Rs 120 crore over the weekend, as the theatres have already been pre-booked!

With companies booking theatres for employees, declaring holidays, the marketing rules have surely been re-written this time.

The marketing geniuses can definitely take some marketing lessons from this and brainstorm while doing their next go-to market strategy. 

Do it differently 

So, all that the moviemakers did for Kabali’s promotions was announce the movie, the release date and released a 30-second teaser on social media. The teaser received 25 million views on YouTube, becoming the first Asian movie to have achieved those numbers. No other promotions, like visiting reality shows or going on a tour, were done. But then, when you have Rajnikanth by your side, who needs all that. Right?

Now, this makes it amply clear that you don’t always need to follow the stereotype marketing tricks and can always position your brand and product and do things differently.

Show elusiveness while endorsing brands

None of the celebrities actually use the product they endorse. Next time you read it otherwise, think twice. But here is what happened with Kabali. A number of reputed brands like AirAsia, Cadbury Five Star, Muthoot Fincorp, Amazon, ShopCJ and Airtel got associated with the movie, but nowhere did the protagonist endorse these brands. Instead, the companies introduced new ways of associating themselves with the movie. For instance, Muthoot Fincorp introduced Kabali silver coins, which has the face image of Rajinikanth embossed on the coins.

Adding to the list, even the postal department released a “Special carried cover” to mark the aircraft that flew fans from Bengaluru to Chennai on the first day of the show. They bore the postmarks of Bengaluru and Chennai Airport post offices and was addressed to the Postmaster General Chennai City Region from Postmaster General of Bengaluru.

The eagerness of the brands to associate with such an awaited movie and a flamboyant icon like Thalaiva is quite understandable but with these unique marketing strategies, the companies along with their promotions have clearly leveraged the superstar’s image as well as the frowziness, which is much essential right before the release of a movie. 

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

Take on social media 

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

Don’t miss out on the memes doing rounds in the social media. Here are few:

This is gold!

We all know about Rajnikanth’s jokes and memes, and all of this could work for a product as well while helping in creating awareness about the pros and cons of a product. It shouldn’t 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.

With social media, everybody and anybody gets trolled. Learn to live with it and make it an added advantage. Remember Alia Bhatt’s video?

New styles of marketing gimmicks unveil every other day, but Kabali has shown some unprecedented marketing craze and how things are taken in one’s stride when you have a legendary icon by your side. Play well with the USP and winning will be an obvious!