MAM
Sony Pictures Entertainment & Google create an India-first ‘Trailer to Ticketing’ full funnel campaign for ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’
MUMBAI: For a long time, the film industry has produced and marketed films based on gut and the same instinct and some basic media reports have been used to reach out to the movie going audiences. But Sony Pictures Entertainment Films India partnered with Google, their agency Sokrati and movie ticketing portals to go beyond gut, and used a comprehensive data analytics based approach to execute a India first ‘Trailer to Ticket’ model. Through this, the entire journey of the movie going audience was mapped right from the time, the person viewed the trailer to the final purchase of the ticket.
“ We, at Sony Pictures Entertainment India have always believed in the power of a data analytics driven approach. Hence we were looking at optimizing the full funnel, from the “Trailer to Ticketing”, especially for our Tent-Pole films. The Google team have been our biggest partners, helping us map the right ‘intent based’ audiences for our campaigns, from awareness to conversion. This not only delivered great engagement for our content, but also delivered spectacular returns on every dollar spent ” Shony Panjikaran, Director & Head of Marketing, SPE Films India.
Google India has now created a special case-study on this campaign (report attached).
Performance marketing today is blending people expertise with the latest technology to invest every penny righteously into marketing efforts. Spider-Man: Far From Home has proved that data and technology coupled with marketing experts avoid spends’ loss and catalysts unprecedented returns on spends. Through the digital campaign about 5 Lakh tickets were sold, and the film went on to become the most successful Spider-Man sequel in India, and in fact Sony Pictures Entertainment’s biggest film till date.
“ The ambition is to transform from a traditional entertainment company to a data-driven, audience-first company. Today, we’re making smarter decisions about the kind of creatives to be used, the right people to target, exactly where to target them and in the process significantly bringing down the marketing costs. Very soon, data analytics will help us with the kind of movies we need to make, understanding the ever changing tastes of the people we are making movies for, and the experiences we need to deliver.” Shony Panjikaran, Director & Head of Marketing, SPE Films India.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
