Here is a case study on the promotion of a Bollywood Movie, Ankur Arora Murder Case, using Social Media. The movie received excellent critic ratings & positive word of mouth however failed to dazzle at the Box office. Everyone agrees that the product was sound, however the quandary remains unsolved - Would this product have worked better if a prominent actor was part of the project or did the movie fail because it was late to go-to-market or was the theme too niche to attract a large audience? Here is an overview of the Social Media Marketing strategy adopted to promote the movie. Certainly the initial campaigns (LIKES/ COMMENTS/ SHARES per post on Facebook) signalled that vanilla strategy of promoting a Bollywood movie wouldn’t work. IntelliAssist then created an out-of-the-box LIGHT A CANDLE FOR JUSTICE campaign to engage youth & spread a positive word of mouth. The presentation captures a few screenshots!

1. Ankur Arora Murder Case
Digital & Social Media Marketing

2. Overview
• A Vikram Bhatt movie that was inspired by true events.
• Bollywood’s first Medical Negligence drama. The first half showcased
hospital events & the second half turned in to a courtroom drama.
• Story was written by Vikram Bhatt and movie was directed by Suhail
Tatari. Star Cast was Kay Kay Menon, Tisca Chopra, Paoli Dam, Arjun
Mathur & Vishakha Singh.
• Film was slated to release on April 05, 2013 but eventually released
on Jun 14, 2013 along with Fukrey.
• Received good critic ratings and positive reviews from trade media &
users; however turned to be a disaster at the Box Office.

3. Positioning & Key Challenges
• Movie Positioning
– Meaningful Cinema based on true events
• Key Messages & Talk Points
– Death & suffering due to Medical Negligence is a crime & the criminal
shouldn't go unpunished
– A death in the Operation Theatre due to negligence is plain Murder
– Not only the poor, anyone can be a victim of Medical Negligence – the Rich &
Affluent, the famous & powerful… It could be someone living next door… It
could be you!
• Key Challenges
– No prominent Star Cast & small marketing budget
– Niche Concept; Lack of mass appeal
• Audience for Indian movies is predominantly the youth. They neither connect with
death nor mother-child bond.
– Go-to-market was delayed multiple times

4. Facebook Advertising Campaign

5. Facebook Ad Campaign Creative

9. Facebook Content Strategy

10. Content Strategy
• Content Strategy: We ran five campaigns & created one event:
– Who is Ankur Arora?: Idea was to get the movie name out!
– Meet the Cast: Idea was to provide a brief introduction of lead roles.
– Medical Negligence Victims: Idea was to sensitize audience & help them relate
with the movie theme.
• Brand New Campaigns to enhance ENGAGEMENT
– Satyamev Jayate: Do U Remember? Idea was to Reinforce Research & findings
presented by Aamir Khan in the show.
– Light 5 Candles – Candle for Awareness, Candle for Hope, Candle for Courage,
Candle for Protest & Candle for Justice. Idea was to move the youth.
– Event - Light a Candle for Justice: Idea was to get audience engaged. Help them
relate with the movie theme and get them take the subject seriously and be part
of the cause/ movement.
• Without making use of any fancy application this was an innovative
way of creating active engagement by leveraging Facebook existing
framework
1st TIME
Bollywood Movie
Creates an Online Event

11. Campaign 1 - Who is Ankur Arora?
Content
Engagement

12. Campaign 2 - Meet the Cast

13. Campaign 3 – Victim of Medical Negligence

14. Content
Engagement

15. Campaign 4 – Satyamev Jayate

17. Campaign 5: Light 5 Candles

18. Day 1
Awareness

19. Day 2
Hope

20. Day 3
Courage

21. Day 4
Protest

22. Day 5
Justice

23. Event – Light a Candle for Justice

24. CONTENT
ENGAGEMENT

25. Event: Light a Candle - Engagement

26. How Event Creation Helped?
• An alternative to development
of expensive application
• Helped in creation of active
engagement and positive word
of mouth
• When an important update was
posted in an event, all those
who had selected GOING
received a NOTIFICATION

27. Voice of Media – Ankur Arora Murder Case
asks the audience to Light a Candle for Justice

28. Voice of Prospective Audience

29. Twitter Campaign
• Used #LightACandle – Trend continued for over 36
hours. We increased video views & event RSVP

31. YouTube Promotion

32. YouTube
• Theatrical Trailer that was first uploaded received over 4,75,000 video views; however that had
to be deleted as the producer received a legal notice from Britannia a few days before the movie
release
• A fresh video was created and uploaded. We shared new link with all online partners.

33. Advertising Campaign
- Times of India - Navbharat Times - Hindustan Times - Rediff.com - SantaBanta.com - Bollywood Hungama

36. Not all Good Things End Well!

38. Can We Assist You?
www.intelliassist.in Facebook.com/IntelliAssist Twitter.com/IntelliAssist