‘Entertainment is transcending borders’

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) Thanks to the popularity of online media, entertainment is transcending borders, feels Bettina Sherick of 20th Century Fox International.

“I being here, shows how popular has Hollywood become in India. It’s amazing to see how Hollywood has been accepted around the world. It’s amazing to see how content has spread around the world.

“Who would have thought couple of years ago that the most watched video on youtube ‘Gangnam Style’, with over 1.4 billion views, will be of singer Psy, who speaks a language that only 70 million people in the world speak,” Sherick, senior vice president, digital strategic marketing, 20th century Fox International said here Friday.

“Entertainment is definitely transcending borders and it is a very exciting time to be in the film market,” she said, at the digital marketing conference “ad:tech” on the topic, “Marketing the Cinema Experience in a Digital World”.

Citing the example of their recent release “Life of Pi”, Sherick dwelt on how film marketers leverage the proliferation of digital devices for marketing purposes, and at the same time, convince consumers to disconnect and experience films on the big screen.

“For anyone who is working in Bollywood, Hollywood or any other film industry, they know the most important thing to attract people towards the film is the trailer. There are experts, who can create this beautiful spectacle of a story by putting together the best parts of the movie and when people see it they say they want to go and see the movie,” she said.

“What we did was advertised the launch of trailer, we picked a day, which we call it as a debut day, everyone around the world knows that this is the day and we plan thereof that people are compelled to see the trailer,” she added.

And courtesy the strategy and tie ups with online mediums like Yahoo, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, “Life of Pi” trailer launch was the most successful trailer launches in India.

“Our team around the world did a great job, but India in particular was beautiful. It was one of the most successful launches of Hollywood film in India. We had coverage around a lot of online and video sites. Fox Star India trailer launch of ‘Life of Pi’ got more views than the US trailer on Youtube. And the film is doing extremely well as the box office,” she added.

IANS 2013-02-22 21:52:01