When it comes to entertainment- be it shows, web series or even films as a matter of fact, the one element which can make or break the opening duration and financial success is trailers as it is one of the first content gateways to the entire IP.
But did you know that there’s an actual group company which specialises in making trailers and is even named after them? Trailer Park Group does exactly that and yes, just like films and content pieces, they don’t just limit themselves to trailers and are currently making strides in the entertainment marketing arena, one shot and edit at a time!
In a candid interview with Marketing Mind, Tamagna Ghosh, Managing Director- Asia Pacific, Trailer Parker Group and Ankit Bhatia, Executive Director and Co-founder, White Turtle Studios (A Trailer Park Group Company) literally spoke their hearts out and in what we feel safe to call- one of the most interesting ways.
Kickstarting the discussion by elaborating on how Trailer Park Group approaches and dabbles in the entertainment marketing arena, Ghosh stated that every communication- be it for a show, film, etc. that comes to them is funneled through a creative strategy team in the company, whose work essentially is to work hand in hand with various platforms’ marketing teams- first by crafting compelling narratives in and around the show and then move down the funnel to incorporate creative, design and video elements and services at scale.
For example, the narratives for Mirzapur 3 were first worked upon by the agency’s creative strategists depending on parameters like script, audience, platform, etc. This will be then followed by ideas for a teaser, announcement, trailers, posters, and then a lot of adaptation and versioning for all the specific platforms that it needs to go on by White Turtle Studios, a production house that was acquired by the Trailer Park Group some time back.
Founded in 2012, White Turtle Studios was acquired by Trailer Park Group in 2022 as an effort for widening the agency’s entertainment marketing quotient for series, films and games not just in the country but globally.
Unlike traditional advertising agencies, the core competence of White Turtle Studios, as per Bhatia is building compelling narratives and storytelling, irrespective of it being an entertainment piece or an ad film, because the studio’s core skill sets of entertainment marketing helps it to drive narratives for a story which then builds the right intrigue to attract the audience.
One of the examples where the Indian and global teams of both White Turtle Studios and Trailer Park Group worked together is Amazon Prime Video’s international franchise- Citadel Honey Bunny as it was marketed internationally.
As per Bhatia, the one problem which is quite prominent in today’s trailer industry is that one- it has been a bit saturated with a handful of players doing the same job for about 15-20 years now, and hence the story of bringing in both White Turtle Studios and Trailer Park Group under one roof provided room for a little fresh breakthrough.
This story started with the new trailer industry player getting on some of the most stalwart editors who worked on the Marvel campaign franchise for cutting trailers for Indian movies like Maidaan, Mission Raniganj, etc. and fully flourished with the collaboration for Citadel Honey Bunny, Ghosh explains.
Upon being questioned as to how India’s trailer industry is positioned uniquely from the rest of the world, he replied, “At the heart entertainment is storytelling as it is human nature to get attracted to interesting stories. So whether it is India, APAC or even the US, Europe etc. interesting stories challenge and go beyond boundaries. But what is unique to India and the APAC region is that this entire region is a hyper localized market as within one India also, we have many Indias and every market comes with its own uniqueness, making it not so favourable for other parts.”
But of this entire fragment of land as well, the way he looks at it is that Korea and India are two countries whose content has the potential and pulse to go really big globally.
Having said that, Ghosh also asserted, “Hyper-localisation is very important because it gives birth to niche categories. When you are doing a pan India campaign, there is a specific targeting that happens, but with the advent of streaming, the niche audiences categories have evolved. Earlier, we had massive Hindi films that used to be targeted for HSM markets, but today, we have content which is being created for niche audiences and hence the challenge is to get the maximum ROI by designing communication targeting these segments, and not masses.
Taking the discussion ahead, he also stated that since streaming content is now releasing on platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, JioHotstar, etc. increasingly in shorter time duration, all of these platforms have intensified their marketing efforts, but not for every show and only selected ones for which they need marketing spikes because of budget restrictions, unlike yesteryears, and it is only now that the reality has dawned upon the entire streaming industry.
“Having said that, brand partnerships are now on a high because the number of content being produced has increased and now streaming marketing is also trying to embrace film marketing. The difference between a film marketing and a TV channel or GEC show’s marketing is the fact that in a film marketing, the actors and the actress and the talent behind the film do a lot of promotion in their individual capacities because they are influencers in their own and the way that marketing happens is extremely consumer friendly. And like film marketing, streaming marketing also has two cycles- one is a week or 10 days before the release and the other is sustenance week. Then comes the new means of micro-influencers who push out content in cost-effective methods,” he explained.
Furthermore, he also elaborated that in markets like India and Korea, there are two important things which actually define impact overall- one the story needs to have emotion and second is the advent of short form video advertising by influencers and creators.
With this, Trailer Park Group’s Ghosh also went on to highlight that the one challenge which comes with streaming marketing today is that it is becoming incrementally challenging in India owing to the country’s fragmented nature wherein TV is the most important reach driver, and hence for OTT players, the plan needs to have the media vehicle in their marketing plan. And in doing so, comes yet another challenge- the need to ensure that the communication strategy is such that people should think that the content is coming on a streaming platform and not on TV.
“The entire world today has gone to scrolling and for something that pops up on a user’s screen, if you have created an asset that is not forcing customers to stay and consume at least five to ten seconds of that, it means that they are failing their job!” he said.
Having presented the challenges of entertainment marketing, Ghosh also pointed out that the same is also living the best times as it is in today’s times that a crossover is happening between its various intersections, be it television series, GEC series, OTT series or even films which is in turn resulting in talent being shared across the industry, leading to an ever-growing combined knowledge pool.
With this foundation laid out, Bhatia also shared a glimpse into the agency’s future ambitions for the year while emphasising on the fact that the pandemic led to a ‘doubled and doubled’ revenue due to the OTT content boom.
“As things keep on getting more and more real over the past two years and the marketing content boom simmering down a bit not because the content being made is less but because clients are getting way more cost effective, we have now decided to skew ourselves and set certain processes to adapt to the means and methods of the new age of working with the existing clients. Our main objective now is to adapt to newer trends, use generative AI wherever possible with the consent of our clients and making sure we can conquer the trends in a better way. Additionally, we at Trailer Park Group also want to diversify ourselves- use our learnings and strengths to cater to some of the narrative storytelling needs of different kinds of clients and brands across categories and use the nuances of content marketing for entertainment in their own product marketing. We are now going to try to get back into not only doing ads, but telling stories for brands like we do for films or OTTs,” he elaborated.
Adding his take to the aforementioned point here, Ghosh emphasised that as of yet, Trailer Park Group India and APAC has two buckets- Local India Work where the agency works with the Netflixs, Primes and theatrical production houses of the world to build local campaigns and the other- Global Crossover Content capability, where the teams typically work on international products in a collaborative manner and get the work done in India.
“As a result of this entire process, global assignments and workflows, our teams are being trained on the global best practices and hence their learnings are also being used in servicing our local clients. Hence, for our teams who’re getting to work on some of the very popular international projects which hardly very few people in India get to work on, it’s basically becoming a very virtuous cycle where we are working on Indian clients, getting ourselves trained on international ones and then applying that to India and delivering better work. This way, we also have an open blank canvas for our teams to show off their work. In fact, we’ve suddenly seen a new found respect with the same clients and even employee traction inwards because of the international expertise and exposure that we’re getting with cross collaborations,” he concluded.
