Marketing & promoting a film in today’s times have become equally important as shooting for it. Akshay Kumar has been on a Taboo Breaking spree since a while, be it his choice of films, a variety of genres, working with debut directors and co-actors etc. What he is doing differently with PadMan is breaking the taboo of Film Marketing.
Not only did he ensure with the trailer, that the film looks like a breezy entertainer in spite of being centred around a taboo topic of menstrual hygiene. He is also shunning the usual ways of marketing the film.
For instance: –
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There was no trailer launch media event but he held a press conference 6 days after the trailer was launched so that it could be discussed at length and not a formality tick off from the list.
Instead of visiting any college or a public event, the team specifically targeted renowned colleges like IITs and IIMs across the country as Akshay wanted to have a dialogue with the students about the film and not just wave to the crowd like most of the films do.
Instead of visiting all reality shows without a connection to the topic the team only made selected appearances on shows that are relevant, for e.g.: – a special show on Sony was shot where females who are successful in their respective fields were called and spoken about. Even on a show like Bigg Boss, for the first time ever, the entire machine of the REAL PadMan was installed on the set and Akshay made a Pad LIVE on the grand finale along with Salman Khan.
Next, the PadMan Team in association with the National Innovation Foundation of India organized India’s first ever Innovation Conclave on January 12th at Bhaidas Hall of the renowned Mithibai College, where Innovators from across the country were called to exhibit their products and how they have benefitted the society at large. This was covered by Zee News exclusively and aired as a one hour special on 26th January on their channel.
Team PadMan in association with Franchise India organized an all India Entrepreneurship hunt where ideas that encouraged business with an aim of bringing about a change in the society around were called for and the best business Ideas were awarded seed capital for their start-ups.
Delhi University, one of the most reputed universities of our country organized the biggest women’s marathon for Tax-Free Wings that was flagged off by Akshay. Unlike an event the college organizes that and they get stars to please the crowd, this marathon was specially designed around the film and its cause.
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The #PadMan Challenge took the social media by storm where top celebrities started posting their pictures with a pad mentioning ‘Its Natural. Period’. This spread like wild fire in the release week of the film and ignited a lot of conversations, which was the sole motive of this activity.
Special screenings for Ministers and not just Industry friends: – while most films organize screenings for industry people and family team, PadMan went a step ahead and showcased it to the advocates and ministers of different states to ensure the message reaches the decision makers and the possibility of a change increases manifold.
The film stood on 3 pillars – PAD, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the PadMan Team smartly ensured all three are being touched upon without falling into the regular template of film promotions.
As a result, while a concept film done by an A-lister opens to an average 7 or 8 cr ( Dear Zindagi & Secret Superstar) – PadMan opened to a 10.5 crore. Day1 and its already passed the lifetime business of many other concept films featuring A-listers in it.
Now that’s what we call smart and targeted marketing that combines entertainment with a noble thought just like his films.
