Social media is a fundamental part of contemporary consumers’ lives. They use it to read the news, communicate with friends and family, shop, and learn new information about trends in various industries. Therefore, businesses need to utilize social media channels for their profit. Such strategies as reaching new and existing consumers by executing a mixture of promotional tactics are especially relevant in the movie industry (Nanda, Pattnaik, & Lu, 2017). This advertisement tool is particularly successful due to the experiential character of entertainment industry products. Thus, the movie’s value is created by the collaboration of the production company and the consumers. Overall, one of the significant impacts of a film’s success is the viewers who share their experiences online.
Billions of people use social media globally, and it has fast become the most relevant technology of the twenty-first century. Given the broad possible audience, who spends multiple hours a day on the various social media platforms, marketers have adopted social media as an effective marketing channel. The study suggests that social media marketing’s advantages can be visible through a link between the online word of mouth (WOM) and high sales (Appel, Grewal, Hadi, & Stephen, 2019). However, the possible disadvantage is related to growing privacy concerns, as the way customers perceive various brands and social media, in general, is becoming more adverse.
Return on investment (ROI) has been described in the business-related literature as a minor indicator, including the direct expenses and profits of each purchase. However, the ROI concept has developed to indicate not only financial but also social value (Michopoulou & Moisa, 2018). The study suggests that current research lacks concrete definitions and ways of operationalizing ROI, specifically in social media marketing. Overall, social media ROI can be estimated in both financial and non-financial forms.
As major online platforms, both Facebook and Youtube allow advertisers to reach large audiences regularly. The marketing campaign of 1920 Evil Returns benefits from the advertisement analytics provided by both platforms. This allows for a better understanding of what demographic is most actively engaging with the posts. Exhibit 8b and exhibit 5c (Kulkarni, Karthika, & Kumar, 2013) are the excellent examples of the sort of data the marketing campaign could utilize. The data indicate that the demographic most interested in the film, young men, also tend to be the most prolific social media users.
Exhibit 13 (Kulkarni et al., 2013) indicates mixed evidence for a direct link between Facebook engagement and box office collections. 1920 Evil Returns made the most at the box office in Mumbai Territory; however, Facebook engagement from Mumbai territory was lower than three other regions, Delhi, West Bengal, and Odisha. Odisha and Mumbai had relatively similar amounts of likes on the advertisement posts (999024 and 908104, respectively), yet 1920 Evil Returns made nearly 35 times more in Mumbai than in Odisha (Kulkarni et al., 2013). Overall, the effectiveness of Facebook engagement and box office income is mixed.
The positive WOM motivates the audience to watch a movie in the theaters leading to success in the box office. While the positive online presence of a film on the consumers’ social media feeds can increase its reputation and popularity, the negative discussions around the movie can have a damaging impact on the future sales (Nanda et al., 2017). Therefore, a company should include sentiment analysis into their marketing strategy, as it helps to investigate whether the generated feedback is positive or negative.
The focus of the 1920 Evil Returns marketing campaign should be on photos and videos. Exhibit 7 indicates that these two mediums get the average engagement (Kulkarni et al., 2013). Focusing on a specific type of advertisement can help save advertising costs, as the campaign does not have to pay for content that will likely get much engagement. Exhibit 5c (Kulkarni et al., 2013) shows that schoolchildren, college students, and young men are the most frequent social media users. Therefore, advertisements should focus on large, popular platforms such as Youtube and Facebook.
References
Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R, & Spethen A. (2019). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 79–95. Web.
Kulkarni, S., Karthika, A., & Kumar, U. (2013). 1920 Evil Returns – Bollywood and social media marketing. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. 1-24. Web.
Michopoulou, E., & Moisa, D. G. (2018). Hotel social media metrics: The ROI dilemma. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 76, 308-315. Web.
Nanda, M., Pattnaik, C., & Lu, Q. (2018). Innovation in social media strategy for movie success: a study of the Bollywood movie industry. Management Decision, 56, 233-251. Web.