MUMBAI: Columbia Tristar will release one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year the animated The Incredibles in India on 17 December. It has lined up a host of promotional and marketing activities to create awareness.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, a company spokesperson says, “The Hindi title of the film is Hum Hain Lajawaab. There are actually two campaigns going out simultaneously, one for the English version and the other for the Hindi one. However, the core of the campaign will remain the same.”
The company will conduct a 360 degree integrated marketing campaign spanning television, print, radio and outdoors. The aim is to push the film as a blockbuster. In this manner Columbia Tristar is hoping to alter the perception that animation is niche. The campaign will highlight the fact that Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan is voicing the title character for the Hindi version.
Several companies have come on board as promotional partners. Among the more prominent is fast food major McDonalds. It is having Incredible Birthday Parties as well as the Incredible Happy Meal Programme.
Cadbury’s, meanwhile, has come out with a co-branded gems fun box. Customers get a set of jumbo stickers and jigsaw puzzles. Videocon is the associate media partner for print. Columbia Tristar is also in the process of finalising a mobile partner. Here customers will be able to download ringtones, games, photo frames, etc.
Radio Mirchi and Go 92.5 FM have lined up special programming around the Hindi and English versions of the film respectively. This will be in the form of contests where kids phoning in can talk about their idea of a super hero.
Columbia Tristar is also for the first time organising a themed premiere for an English film. Onground it is organising two Interactive Sunday’s at Oxford Book Stores. Kids will be invited and they can talk about their love for superheros and animation. In-store visibility will come courtesy Pantaloons and Archies.
Pantaloons has come out with a range of Incredibles themed garments. Archies meanwhile will sell merchandise from the film like masks, figurines and pillows.
On the outdoor front, two inflatable balloons featuring one of the characters Elastigirl will be released in Mumbai. Columbia Tristar is also using a double decker bus.
For the uninitiated, the film deals with Mr Incredible and his family. He used to be a superhero until a surge of lawsuits against superheroes forced the government to hide them in witness protection programs so they could lead normal, anonymous lives. Now known exclusively by his secret identity, Bob Parr, he lives with his wife Helen, formerly Elastigirl, and their three children Violet, Dash, and Jack Jack. He works as an insurance claims specialist, and he’s fed up with his pushy boss and his immoral profession. However his wife has worked too hard to build a normal life for her family to entertain his nostalgia for heroism.
When Mr Incredible’s offered the chance to play the role of hero again by a mysterious informant, he jumps at the opportunity, but when it turns out to be a trap set by an old nemesis he had a hand in corrupting, the whole family must reveal themselves to save Mr. Incredible and countless innocents.