PR discussions: Re: [prpoint] why this kolaveri

Jagannathan raises a very important point. Where did we first hear about the song?

For me it was on the radio, Red FM to be precise, in Mumbai at about 7pm when I was returning back home. The RJ of Mumbai Local was talking about it and had actually gone to the extent of producing their own version of the song. Which is what made me curious about it. However I ignored it then and about after two days, saw it as a Gmail status update of friend who lives in Delhi. Thats when I added to the total number of youtube views. Then of course, few days from then Sharad Pawar was slapped and there was a Kolaveri version for that as well. The most recent was the Amul advt.

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 6:32 PM, Sandhya Raju <sandyraju@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

beautiful insight...

From: Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com>
To: prpoint@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2011 4:40 PM
Subject: Re: [prpoint] why this kolaveri - media hype

Hi all

Sandhya has raised a very good topic for discussion, which has generated lot of heat. According to me, it raises two dimensions (1) A planned sustained campaign to market even a very ordinary product to create a hype and (2) how the second level generation people are able to come up easily, because of their celebrated parents, who have really achieved through their hard work.

1. Campaign

The 'Kolaveri di' song was released in youtube on 16th November 2011. Within 15 days, as I am writing now, it has crossed around 11.7 million hits. As a social media and PR professional, I have been watching this almost for the past on week closely, to understand 'how and why' this song had become popular. I am also closely watching the film songs for more than 50 years. There are many film songs in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and other languages of 70s and 80s quite popular even among the youth today. One of the RJs of a popular Tamil FM was telling me that the listeners for specific old songs are more among the youth. These songs are still popular because of their quality of contents. 'Sankarabaranam' songs in Telugu are quite popular even after 30 years. 'Sound of Music' dates back to nearly 40 years. Many songs of RD Burman are still popular.

On the other side, many songs like Kolaveri, suddenly create hype and die down after few days. They donot survive for long, because of their lack of content or quality. They become popular due to many factors, like campaign, celebrity importance, etc. pl see the article om campaign India.

http://www.campaignindia.in/Article/281042,why-this-8216why-this-kolaveri-di8217.aspx

I also discussed this issue with some of the directors in Tamil cinema field. One experienced Director told me, "Any song that excites you temporarily, may not survive for long time. After few days, it will be forgotten. But the songs with 'soul' inside will survive for decades". He also quoted the examples of R D Burman, Ilayaraja, M S Viswanathan, A R Rahman and few others.

I also understand from some of the cine sources that the 'kolaveri' team wanted to leak this music in youtube. Instead, Sony Music bought from them and used their PR and Social Media Agencies to promote this music. Since Rajanikanth's daughter and son-in-law are appearing together with Kamalhassan's daughter in the same frame, it had added celebrity value. The video which you are seeing in the youtube was shot as a regular movie for promotion purposes. It is said, it was not the video of original one, but it was a re-created one, to look natural.

In my view, it is a good campaign success. They also got the endorsement from Amitab Bachan and Abishek Bachan, who are family friends of Rajanikanth. It is a good PR strategy. The agencies ensured that it was given a prominent coverage in all the mainline media and TV shows.

In the social media, comments were spread as if this song is very natural, casual and novel. People also retweeted this type of message thinking that it is novel and natural. This has created more and more hype. The agencies triggered such comments, to get viral. Without any further efforts, it has gone into second round of hype in the media, including social media, touching 11.7 million mark.

This is a good marketing communication. Now, the producers do not believe in CD/DVD sales. Even before the release of all movies, the songs get released in social media and the producers suffer heavily. Now, they get revenue from the caller tunes of mobile. They get good revenue from the service providers. Now, 'Kolaveri di' is one of the most preferred caller tunes in the mobile.

I would attribute the hype for the planned and careful campaign success, using all the celebrity status. In my view, this hype will be over within few days. Before that, they will earn the money, they have invested on the campaign.

2. Second generation of Celebrities.

As a social media person, I have come across several such novel, casual and natural presentations of music. Since they were made by lesser known persons, they do not get the desired attention, it deserves. I do not think, 'Kolaveri' is anything superior than the ones already created by many lesser known people.

Rajanikanth, Kamalhassan and Amitab Bachan have all come to this level of stature, due to their hard work and passion to the profession. The second generation of their family members, use the parent's stature, to get success in a short time. In this process, many of the creative youth get eclipsed by the less competent second generation people. This happens in politics too.

As long as the media focusses only on the celebrities and not on the quality of contents, this phenomenon will continue. We can not avoid this.

3. My Podcast experience.

As you know, I have done more than 300 podcasts both in audio and video. More than 90 percent of the podcasts are highly content rich and are watched or listened by the audience even after many months. I get sustained audience. In between, i used to publish podcasts on some of the popular films or actors, for a change and to promote my own podcast channel. I used to find those podcasts would be watched by many in thousands, within a week. They do not get any hit after one or two months. But good podcasts with rich contents, may not get sudden 'hype', but will be continuously watched.

This proves the earlier statement of a film director that anything, which creates temporary hype may not survive long, while those things, which have 'soul' inside may survive for long. This applices to human beings and corporates too.

K. Srinivasan
Prime Point
9176650273

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 11:14 PM, V Jagannathan <v_jagannathan@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well song is by the members of a celebrity family! Added to that is the number of people who accessed the song on the Internet. Two persons forwarded the song to me and one much before the papers wrote about it.

True, priorities of publications has changed now. Politics do not get the lions share of the newsprint. Now media is more youth oriented and urban centric. Whether that is good or bad one has to listen to what the current Press Council of India's head says. I agree with his views.

Jagannathan

From: Sandhya Raju <sandyraju@yahoo.co.uk>
To: "prpoint@yahoogroups.com" <prpoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 6:27 PM
Subject: [prpoint] why this kolaveri - media hype

It could not get worse than this! A front page story in a leading publication, feature in the news channels... the media hype around "why this kolaveri di" has indeed created a kolaveri in me. Has media run out of stories or has the priorities changed? It really pains when some worthy stories which is pitched is dumped and stories like this get centre stage. Am really curious to know what could have excited media to go all out with this kind of exposure, is it the rajni's daughter directing the movie or the national award winner dhanush singing the song, whichever way i look at it, my opinion is it doesnt deserve the importance it has garnered.

Would like to hear the views from the doyens in the PR and media industry and the youngsters.

Warm regards
Sandhya Raju