Did a horrific SMS or MMS wake you up at 4 o’clock in the

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morning today? If yes, don’t get scared. If not, be prepared to get one. For, this is the new route to the promotion of Ram Gopal Varma’s new ‘supernatural horror’ movie — Agyaat.

Film promotion through mobile value added services (VAS) is at a nascent stage in India but the trend is picking up. According to industry experts, in the next 18-24 months, this will be the most common way to promote a film.

A production house spends 5 to 7 per cent of its promotional revenue in marketing through VAS. “The exact revenue depends on the genre, content and size of the movie. It varies from movie to movie,” said Ram Mirchandani, chief operating officer, UTV Rampage Motion Pictures.

It has been observed that film production companies release the mobile content of the film such as full tracks, videos, ring tones, dialer tones among others about two months prior to the release of a film, through music launch.

The frequency of mobile content downloaded by subscribers and the offtake of the associated VAS products, in turn, reflects the popularity of the music and indirectly contributes to the success of the film. According to Mirchandani, this kind of promotion is a win-win for both the production house and the mobile service provider amid global slowdown.

Bollywood movie Dhoom was among the first to use mobile as a medium. Advertising through VAS helps promote a big spot in a short duration. For instance, service providers send bulk SMSs, which costs them around 30 to 40 paise per SMS. “Mobile strategy is becoming an important part of film production,” said Alok Shende, principal analyst, Acsendia Consulting.

VAS services contribute approximately 10 per cent of total wireless telecom revenues for Indian operators. The total mobile VAS market is pegged at $1.1 billion in India in 2008, of which SMS services contribute almost 45 per cent of the revenues and remaining is contributed by IVR, WAP portal services and others. “Bollywood and cricket is the killer content in Mobile VAS,” said Prachi Mahale, senior research analyst of Acsendia Consulting.

According to Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), the VAS services market is projected to be worth $10 billion by 2010. At present, ring tones and caller ring-back tones account for two-thirds of the MVAS mix, but their growth is slowing.

“Most film producers have started recognising the importance of digital content in popularising the music, marketing the movie, and as a source of revenue, and, therefore, plan it along with the music release of the film,” Pradeep Shrivastava, chief marketing officer, Idea Cellular said. He added that mobile operators such as Idea Cellular were reaching the interiors of the country, thus offering option of choice to film marketers to reach to audiences spread across urban and rural India.

Recently, Straight, directed by Parvati Balagopalan, featuring Vinay Pathak and Gul Panag, tied up with SMS GupShup to create a mobile blog called Straight where fans and audiences could become members free of cost and interact with the actors.

Netcore Solutions had created the ad content for the movie, Via Darjeeling, and the total impressions served was 4,657,070

(the number of times the ad was sent to different subscribers).