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FICCI Frames, the largest-of-its-kind media and entertainment convention held in India, also witnesses heavy-duty action outside the portals of the halls where the exhaustive deliberations and in-depth sessions take place. Frames 2005 had international location providers, high-end hardware manufacturers and tourism boards in addition to the usual suspects such as content providers, publications and telecom firms setting up shop. All these companies sought to increase their visibility and recall through specially created merchandising given away to the delegates.
The objectives of participants were manifold: to spread awareness about their brands; to induce ‘people interaction’ and thereby, trials. Frames 2005 also saw exhibitors produce innovative and colourful brochures and leaflets (advertising their services) and while these were hugely popular as takeaways, the question remains whether these leaflets generated genuine interest and feedback about that particular company once the visitors went back home.
Explaining the rationale why foreign tourism boards were prominently visible, David Leung, Regional Director, South & South East Asia, Hong Kong Tourism Board, says, “Being a Government agency, our job is to facilitate the completion of projects — be it funding, pre- and post-production facilities, special effects, etc. We intended to announce our presence to the Indian industry. Jackie Chan has already shot in India. We are interested in developing closer ties with Bollywood and take part in more collaborative projects.” For more extensive information, Leung directs us to read through their filmmaking guide to Hong Kong, which offers extensive information about the city.
Beautiful brochures notwithstanding, one needs to read the fine print before they book foreign locations. In most cases, foreign countries only allow you to shoot with their local production crew, with the director and cameraman being from the country of origin. This has proved to be a problem for Indian directors, who find communicating to the local crew to be a major stumbling block. We also gathered some presentation CDs, which looked very appealing, but actually, had no real matter inside, raising questions about the quality of the services offered by some of the exhibitors.
To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated April 18-24, 2005