Seminar discusses the role marketing plays in entertainment
By Sujata Chakraborty | 13 Jan 2003
An attentive audience of more than 100 media marketing professionals were at the Oberoi Hotel on 11 January 2003 and presenters for the day included poet, writer, entrepreneur and member of parliament Pritish Nandy, film director Ashutosh Gowarikar, Bharti Enterprises’ Hemant Sachdev, radio host Anish Trivedi, UTV’s Zarina Mehta, Star TV’s Sameer Nair, Sanjay Bhutiani and Rekha Nigam.
While Gowarikar reiterated the importance of previewing the creative product, Sachdev, who represented the mobile phone leader in India, declared market segmentation to be the modus operandi of successful marketing.
The marketing virtues of McDonald’s, Bollywood and Kyunki Saas…were trotted out over and over again. Trivedi’s denouncements of the market research on radio listening and Nigam’s exhortations on using TV personalities for endorsements did not cut too much ice with the audience.
While the questions raised by Mehta’s presentation on the success and failure of serials were relevant and thought-provoking, Nair’s observation that building entertainment brands was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat was interestingly explained.
Media warhorse Amit Khanna wrapped up the session with questions on whether the success of both marketing and entertainment depends on how best they can leverage each other.
A lively and interactive all-day event, the day discussed issues like how the entertainment industry can leverage marketing; whether entertainment can make marketing fun; the future of radio; marketing serials and the impact of TV personalities; in-film advertising; building entertainment brands. What if the event was marred by the occasional glitch and factual error.