The best line on Chandni Chowk to China would have to be this one on Twitter by Ramesh Srivats. It said, “I think Warner Brothers should change their name. They never warned us about CC2C”
That, and the launch of two (more) Bollywood centric websites – CineCurry, by Percept, and Big Oye, by well, BIG, and two posts which talked about the usage of the web for marketing a couple of ‘Coming soon’ Bolly films – Delhi 6 ( by Karthik, who also uses this to give a few good thoughts on how to use social media to promote film music), and Dev D (by Mayank, who talks about all the ways in which the movie has been marketed), and a conversation I had recently, set me thinking. Not on the marketing of movies on the web or social media, because there are quite a few tools out there, all/some of which can be used in tandem depending on the content and intended audience (Dev D’s work is a great example, replace it with Devdas, and you’ll see how it won’t work), but more on what I call the ‘stage of conversation’.
The analogy that got used in the conversation was quite simple – long before the Foodworld/Spencer/Spar/Star etc genre of retail came into existence, there were the local kirana stores. They were functionally quite fine, and also had the extra perk of a personal touch. I am not sure how they have fared post the arrival of the big brands, but from a subjective experience, I prefer the big branded outlets these days. There’s some convenience factor that plays a role in this choice, as well as the experience itself. Now it could be said that the choice depends on a lot of other things – geography, for example.
But what was the analogy for? Bollywood content websites. Along with the names I mentioned earlier, there also exist portals, like Bollywood Hungama, Glamsham etc, community driven ventures like PFC and individual blogs like Blogical Conclusion and WOGMA (which have their die hard followers. eg. er, me ) There is a plethora of content, good or bad is a subjective thing. You’d see everything from the kirana store to the branded store there.
Now, the net equalises a lot of things, like the geography, but in terms of content, it is not an equaliser, since the big guys can bring in resources there that a smaller entity will find difficult to scale up to. There is also a level of synergy that the larger entities can achieve (more easily) with others in the value chain, ( eg. Big Oye has rentals taking you to Big Flix, and a ticket booking tab) and in essence, make it a sort of one stop shop.
So, with most films having a site, and the virtual Bollywood malls, and the groups on social networks, and the microblogging on Twitter, and the smaller specialist sites, is there a long enough tail (and time) that will allow all of these to co exist? If there is, what will comprise the large head? Is there any other news vertical you can think of, where such a scenario exists?
until next time, content might be king, but…
and on the blog today, a Bollywood post http://www.manuprasad.com/?p=1740
Since you draw the retail analogy, it is worth pointing out that the Indian consumer confounds the average marketer because she buys from every type of outlet – from the chana-wala on the pavement to Bottega Veneta on Nariman Point. Focus groups notwithstanding, the long tail is determined by the quotidian vagaries of this consumer or pro-shopper.
The trouble with Hindi cinema is that too many films come out too fast. Not many are memorable. So the long tail for some will always be an illusion.
As for another news vertical, well, one of the reasons why I find it hard to follow Mashable is this drinking-from-a-hose-pipe effect. Sometimes the ‘consumer’ of content and goods alike needs a time-out of sorts to absorb things and determine which may be allowed a long tail. But then again, it may be a generational thing (which was one of the conversation threads we were meant to have).
PS: Why not implement intense debate? Or some such so you can see the long tail of comments?