WAR - Movie Marketing Done Right!

The WAR movie, ironically released on 2nd of October, has shattered all previous record set on Box-Office for the weekend thus far. This big-budgeted, muscle-flexing, and action spewing flick has brought action scenes at par with some of the Hollywood movies, we saw while growing up.

Incidentally, this Hrithik-Tiger starring movie used some cool marketing tactics to keep the thrill alive till the release and beyond! In this article, I will showcase some marketing activities that impressed me as a fan, of-course this wont cover the usual TV appearances and magazine shoots. Also, at the end of the article, I would mention some of the collaborations that could have been!!

Lets jump into the world of WAR Marketing:

Team Hrithik vs Team Tiger

The whole marketing strategy of WAR hinged around the unexpected rivalry of Hrithik and Tiger. Even in this post you will read a lot about how the teams were pitted against each other to bring the rivalry to the fore with different tricks and tips. As a first, teaser of this massive film was released on as early as in July 2019.

Teaser had everything that movie wanted to promise:

1. Unseen Rivalry between Hrithik and his disciple(in real and reel life) Tiger Shroff 2. Car Chases 3. Never-seen-Before Action sequences 4. Grandseque-locations and 5. A clip capturing dancing duo of Hrithik-Tiger!! If this dint get a fanboy's pulse racing, nothing will!

Re-enforcement of the idea of HRITHIK vs TIGER

Then as a customary schedule came the poster of this blockbuster, this time it clearly mentioned HRITHIK vs TIGER! As a quick note, Tiger has on many occasions has conveyed that Hrithik 'sir' is his inspiration, so this jodi is a tremendous inspirational choice i.e. to put a fan against his star!

Being Vernacular: Taking WAR beyond Hindi belt

Yes, most of the Hindi movies are dubbed especially for southern-circuit but WAR took it to another level, releasing Regional Posters along-with Hindi posters. Marketing team ensured that every poster was created in southern lingo not just a stupid-translation, an easy name eventually helped.

Especially, with a stiff competition from Sye raa Narsimha Reddy in south, this was a smart move to capture the fence-sitters.

Trailer Launch

In movie industry, nothing sets the Tempo for a movie as its trailer and WAR left no stone unturned to create a humongous hype, so much so that as I write the trailer has 89 Million+ views.

I think what broke-the-internet was the scene at 2:14, the fight sequence between Hrithik and Tiger set the ball rolling and how :) WAR weekend has already captured Rs. 100cr+with no sign of dying down.

Meme T-Shirts

If trailers, teasers and posters were not enough, Team decided to take the RIVALRY to another level. I think this was the masterstroke in all the usual media-blitz. Meme T-shirts poking fun at each other in a Bollywood realm is unheard of :) Both Hrithik and Tiger probably because of their shared camaraderie or respect went ahead to created a stir in the controversy-hungry media tabloids.

It was later alleged that idea was copied from a Nick Jonas promotional spree, I believe Inspirations are everywhere, what matters is the execution and WAR team won it hands down! This idea clicked among meme-making generation, leading to many spoofs hence the required buzz before the release.

D-Box has partnered with PVR for Yash Raj Films’ movie ‘War'

As part of the partnership, PVR will offer D-Box seats which offer a motion-based experience to moviegoers in order to make them feel a part of the action. This certainly is an cinematic enhancer to truly experience the scale of a movie such as WAR. Collaboration, thus, helps both the parties in targeting the fan-segment.

Launch of Jai Jai Shivshank 12 days before the release

As if the fighting sequence was not enough, YRF dropped the dance-bomb on the internet world. Knowing, the dance history of Hrithik and Tiger, marketing team did really well to use the brand power of the stars.

Honestly, without this sequence, fans would have felt cheated. Hence, the release of this sequence just 12 days before the release made sure fans go on dance frenzy, all video creating apps were flooded with fans either copying the steps or defining new ones.

And it trended!

No Love Lost: Another first-of-sorts!

In a world, where more is good, makers decided to take a risk. In an official statement, it was declared that both the stars wont promote the film together on any platform.

In my view, brand is all about full-filling your promise to the Target Segment and WAR took this head-on. The marketing team made sure to not show-off the mutual love/respect between the actors, who are pitted against so violently in the movie.

This bold move progressively helped the team in creating the anticipation as well covering more areas/audience, especially the different segment of fans of both stars.

Enter BMW: #RnineTScrambler vs. #F750GS

And just days before the release, BMW arrived in style to announce its collaboration with WAR. I think this was super clever of the team to ride along the massive brand of BMW, ensuring that quality of the movie is at-par with Hollywood flicks(a standard of sorts for action movies)

BMW was so invested in the idea that CEO of BMW Motorrad released his statement alongwith the twitter handle of BMW Motorrad, which HYPED the rivalry scene further by pitting its offerings against each other saying #RnineTScrambler vs. #F750GS who will win!!

Final Punch or Tweet!

Any marketing blitz in a movie parlance is a failure if it doesn't convert into massive foot-falls on the weekend and beyond. I still remember the scene during Kaante's release when a people revealed the suspense, leading to a lot of heartbreak.

Because of the frenzy, makers would have realized that weekend is going to be blockbuster but to ensure the hype, lets pitch it another level.

A personal request from Hrithik and Tiger drove the point through; Considering the hindi movie flicks of past, a thought about "is the routine of Hrithik-going-rogue is really the routine or not" wont skip your mind, so this request was to capture the imagination right. In new-age, Spoiler is catchphrase hence the tweets made sure the queues at cinema halls would be long very long :)

Personally, I loved the bold moves of WAR's marketing team but as promised, I am listing few of the collaborations that could have been!!

1. In PUBG hit world, a WAR game starring Hrithik and Tiger would have been a blockbuster. I think even Kaabil made a game out of the movie, WAR with its scale and storyline deserved a proper game. I couldn't find one from the YRF stable, if you do please share the link.
2. Teaser was released in July, I think a lot more relevant collaboration could have made the difference, like BMW a Ray-Ban could have been a classy combo considering Hrithik's character in the movie
3. WAR had its share of techie-moments, a certain collaboration on the lines of Mission Impossible with Apple could have helped both brands as Apple is trying to gain foothold in the Indian Market.

In the end, I must say there are many brands who are catching on to the success of WAR, the collaborations are just never ending so leaving that part for your exercise. Find out which collaboration or trick I missed and comment below for me to learn alongside :)

Thanks for reading!!