When the movie Angamaly Dairies , which turned out to be big hit, was ready for release, its producer Vijay Babu had no clue how to market it.
Forget about stars, the film had no known faces and featured 86 newcomers.
“There was no point in marketing it the conventional way using hoardings and posters or promotions through television, radio and print mediums. Posters featuring unknown faces would not have connected with the audience anyway,” said Mr. Babu during an interaction here on Thursday.
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So, he practically did nothing till he released a two-minute trailer on YouTube as it was a youth-centric movie, primarily targeting a young audience.
With the support of Google, the trailer managed to get half-a-million views in just two to three days, which was phenomenal for a movie featuring newcomers.
“All these new faces became very popular overnight and that too at zero cost. This was then followed by conventional promotional campaigns,” said Mr. Babu.
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The movie was also screened in Mumbai for celebrities and videos were made based on the reactions of the likes of ace filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. This helped the movie’s popularity, across the rest of India and abroad.
Mr. Babu said there was a misconception that creating videos for YouTube needed a dedicated team.
Even the producers can do it if they are internet-savvy, he added.