Star Movies assembles earth's mightiest heroes to save mankind this Republic Day

In keeping with the spirit of Republic Day, Star Movies is all set to premiere ‘The Avengers’ on January 26, 2013. The movie, a 2012 American superhero film, will be telecast at 1 .00 pm with a repeat telecast at 9.00 pm. An eagerly awaited movie, it will portray super heroes who fight the ultimate evil in order to save mankind.

Marvel's The Avengers is a 2012 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures,1 based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. The film is scripted and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. The Avengers premiered on April 11, 2012, at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre. The film received positive reviews from most film critics and set numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend in North America and the fastest film to gross $1 billion. The Avengers grossed $1.51 billion worldwide, and became the third highest-grossing film of all time.

The channel is leaving no stone unturned to promote the movie and has hence allocated a substantial marketing budget for 360-degree marketing across medium such as print, online, OOH and television. The channel has also designed a robust print plan across different cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, along with a 10-day outdoor plan in Delhi and Mumbai.

Adgully caught up with Rasika Tyagi, Senior VP, English programming, Star India who spoke about the upcoming premiere ,their marketing strategies to promote the premiere, the importance of social media and the reason for featuring the movie on Republic Day . Some excerpts of the conversation:

The movie ‘The Avengers’ is known to have created waves during its recent theatrical release in India. Speaking about the popularity of the movie she said, “The theatrical release of Marvel’s The Avengers witnessed one of the biggest box-office collections by an English movie in India making it the most coveted title to premiere on the Indian television. Being the biggest property of the year, we are extremely happy to bring it to our viewers on Star Movies on 26th January at 1pm with a repeat telecast on 9pm.”

Sharing the marketing and promotional strategies on the anvil in connection with the upcoming television premiere she informed that their marketing plan is focused on optimally targeting all spheres of media. “We have started with a 5 week on-air campaign on the home channel with support from network and outside network channels. The channels selected are those that share high affinity with our TG. The on-air promo focuses on Earths mightiest super heroes assembling to fight the ultimate evil. We also have a robust print plan across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, along with a 10-day outdoor plan in Delhi & Mumbai,” she said.

Tyagi believes that apart from television, print and outdoor, social media remains a powerful avenue to communicate directly with viewers. The channel has launched two innovative and interactive gaming applications for its target audiences on Facebook. It has also allocated some of the budget to leverage the reach offered by advertising on YouTube. In this connection she said, “On digital media we will be using YouTube’s Masthead and First Watch Ads and on social media, The Avenger Facebook tab offers movie trivia, downloads and interactive games.”

“We have also tied up with PVR Cinemas for branding at the multiplexes across 7 metros,” she added.

The bond between television and social media seems to be getting stronger with each passing day and it is seen of late that most television production houses are utilising this medium for their daily soaps or movie premieres . The reason for this trend being that this medium helps to maintain an interactive level of reaching out and creating conversations with the youth of today who are most active on the social networking sites.

There is no doubt that today social media is important to make a direct connection with viewers in comparison with the television, print or outdoor. Elaborating on the importance of social media she said, “Social media plays a key role for any channel to communicate to its TG. The core target group is more active on social media websites. Keeping in mind the growing importance of social media, we have launched two innovative games for our Facebook fans.”

When asked if there was any special reason for premiering the movie on India’s Republic Day  she concluded to say, “ Premiering the movie on Republic Day is in perfect sync with the movies central theme – Earth’s mightiest heroes assemble to save mankind.”

Star Movies known to premiere latest Hollywood blockbusters is reinstating their position as the ultimate destination to entertain audiences with their latest premiere of ‘The Avengers” - an action packed movie to watch out for this Republic Day!