India is the largest producer of Movies in the world with over 1,000 feature films being released every year. Movies, just like Cricket, are a religion. And Movie Stars are literally worshiped.

While Cricket/ Sports is fairly organized with everything from teams, players, matches, tournaments and equipment being attached to sponsors, Movies are still unorganized. Most associations and film placements are fairly tactical and ad-hoc with the odd signage, integration in a song, a consumption shot of product or licensing of footage to create a consumer promotion.

The major concern for marketers is the measurability of deliverables. Also, broadcasters and media typically do not allow any overt branding of a sponsor in editorial content. Typically, they don’t even carry film credits in editorial content as per policy.

Hence it’s critical to integrate at a thematic level so seamlessly that you can bypass all the ‘policy’ firewalls and help a brand justify the investment through measurable returns on eyeballs, views, hits, social media buzz and the value that is delivered.

Humor is THE most successful genre in Indian Movies. ‘Mere Dad Ki Maruti’ was designed as a comedy. The story of a boy who sneaks out his dad’s Maruti [car] to impress his girlfriend and loses it. A Big Fat Indian Wedding as backdrop brought in hilarious characters, lingo and the father-son love-hate relationship built a relatable connect with laugh out loud moments.

Song & dance are big in Bollywood, so the film soundtrack featured the biggest names in Punjabi music. Songs played out on music channels, radio stations besides getting over 5.5 million views on YouTube generating massive pre-release buzz.

When India’s largest automobile brand, Maruti Suzuki launched the Ertiga, they needed innovation to reach the nation & create buzz in a very competitive category.

So was born the World’s First Brand Feature Film! A full-length Bollywood film with the car at the heart of the story.

‘Mere Dad Ki Maruti’ incorporated the brand in the title ensuring carriage across every platform. Eventually delivering a cumulative reach of 100 million+ eyeballs, Maruti has already registered a 30% increase in enquiries for the Ertiga. At less than the cost of a month’s TV spend!

The film released in March 2013 to fantastic reviews across 600 screens in 40 Indian cities, backed by a massive 6-week marketing campaign.

• 24,000 TV spots delivered 1200 GRPs

• 5 music videos featuring Maruti across 20 music channels delivered 1 million+ seconds of airtime

• Press ads, billboards worth INR 10 million

• PR worth INR 100 million

• 125 videos on YouTube with 5.5 million+ hits

• Serious social media buzz [trending thrice and being among most watched video 4 times]

• Radio campaign across 17 cities

• Integrations on prime time TV & award shows

• Multiple telecasts across cable & satellite

• Release across home video, DTH, in-flight, VOD, digital, PPV

All this with the Maruti Ertiga and a father-son relationship that never fails to amuse or entertain!