Hollywood's marketing whizzes have just about exhausted all the tactics listed in their textbook. It took Jesus Christ and his right-hand, Mel Gibson, to rewrite it.

Look at what Gibson has done. A religious movie with an R rating (under 17 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian) made with a budget of USD30 million (all his own) and no big stars (James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern). The characters spoke Aramaic and Latin, and the subtitles were in English. The film is a cinematic rendering of the last 12 hours of Christ's life, with enough blood and gore to put a war movie to shame. Big distributors had refused to be associated with the movie. Gibson had earmarked just USD 15 million to market his film. And some shrewd thinking, of course!

Controversy - a potent PR tool

Conventional wisdom says controversy is bad for a movie -- negative PR, lesser ticket and DVD sales and a tarnished image for the producer. Gibson thought otherwise, probably taking the saying, The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference, to heart. Gibson wanted publicity, lots of it, but without shelling out much for it. He wanted people to talk about it. Whether they loved it or hated, it didn't matter. But they should talk about it and go see it. So, there is no other better tool than controversy to stay in the limelight. He fired the first salvo.

A month before the movie was released, Gibson appeared in Bill O'Reilly's talk show on Fox and defended his movie against allegations of promoting anti-Semitism. Before anyone could point out - since no critic or Jewish clergyman was shown the movie by then, no real accusation was actually made - the furore had gained momentum. Then, Gibson showed the movie to only selected Christian religious leaders. Jewish leaders cried foul. More attacks, more vigorous defences and more PR. Even before the movie could be released, (Ash Wednesday- Feb 25, 2004) it had been hogging the headlines; enough for audiences to get curious about it. And sure enough, The Passion enjoyed pre-sales tickets as high as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Within six weeks, it grossed over USD 350 million in America. The publicity had roused international audiences too, and about USD 300 million came in from the rest of the world.

Go where the audiences are!

Gibson chucked the traditional route of publicising a movie in cities like Los Angeles and New York that are inhabited by the core audiences for movies. Instead, he went into the hinterland, where people watched far fewer movies and were harder to reach. But they were the audiences Gibson had in mind for his movie. He tied up with local churches to spread the word. "Bridge commercials", where ads had footage from the film, but the last 10 seconds could be customised, were created and aired. In the last 10 seconds, the local pastor would promote the film and ask the audience to attend a discussion or worship session. Gibson persuaded both Protestant and Catholic churches to use the movie as an opportunity to promote their own evangelical activities. And they took the pain to create buzz for the film at the grassroots, sometimes even arranging for buses to take entire villages to the movie.

He also tied up with Outreach Inc., the largest provider of Christian outreach products and services in America. Outreach helped it distribute thousands of DVD kits, posters, booklets and movie guides to local churches who in turn passed them on to visitors. What you're seeing is a sort of the Evangelical message and the shrewd marketing are kind of dovetailing, says Gabriel Snyder of Variety magazine.

Tell a lot of stories

Advertising gurus have long been advising their clients to weave stories into their communication. A story is one of the best ways of ensuring mind and heart space for your product, they urge. Gibson had noted that down religiously. And even before the movie hit the theatres, he went on air to tell audiences why he made the movie, the passion and devotion that went into it, the 'miracles' that happened on the sets and how he felt the Holy Spirit's presence with him throughout his ordeals.

That led some media critics to observe that Gibson had created an image. An image that the movie was the work of one man's struggle to put his heart's passion, amidst obstacles, on the silver screen. They said that it wasn't overt, but a lot of people understood it that way, and inspiration sells like nothing does.

In their analysis of the movie's success, movie critics admitted that content aside, getting a clear message across had helped it enter the list of the most successful movies of all time. Gibson had not entirely abandoned traditional media vehicles like TV, Website and Radio. But his skill lay, say experts, in estimating the worth of each against their costs and scouting for new forms of advertising when he saw their limitations. Experts also say that Gibson's success has paved the way for movies like the controversial Fahrenheit 911 to find their mark!

Perhaps now, Movie marketers would be inspired to look beyond Advertising 101!

Kalyani Vemuri

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