Aamir is using the following 2 environs to market 3 Idiots : 1. Socio-cultural 2.

Technological Aamir khan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra & Raj Kumar Hirwani when watching the first cut of 3 Idiots felt that the film had the potential to do something bigger than even the greatest Hindi film grosser of all time (Ghajni). They were not bothered about the Multiplexes in cities as they were pretty confident of the big crowds in there. They were concerned about the low collections of the Hindi films compared to regional cinema collections in smaller towns. According to the Industry sources, Regional cinema in smaller towns was still the king compared to Hindi cinemas. They thought that this could be due to two reasons: The film makers from Mumbai dont seem to connect with small town India. Hindi Films are not marketed well. Aamir wanted to connect with the common man in Varanasi, Bhopal with this film. For this he wanted a way to implement a rather vague idea of his which was to recreate the central plot of the film in real life. The entire film revolves around his disappearance and clues leading up to him. He wanted to gauge peoples reaction if he disappeared in real life. This idea took shape in the form of A-R-G (AlternateRealityGaming) which was an outcome of their tie-up with Zapak Online gaming. The 3Idiots team launched the Khans Disappearing Act in the form of the A-R-G (AlternateRealityGaming) with the intention to reach as many people possible. Aamir Disappears On December 12, Aamir disappeared leaving behind a video which said that he would be visiting 7 different places in the country along with 7 clues to find him. As a part of this act whenever Aamir left a particular place , he let the local people and media know that he was there in their place which made the local media go crazy. The local media found this entire event to be fascinating due to the surprise element. The English media could pick this happening only 4 times in those two weeks whereas the Hindi news channels and local print and TV media went ballistic. The local media would report every clue which Aamir had shared with them whenever he left a place and also it would interview people whom Aamir had met. He was on the front page in all the local newspapers. As a result of this, Aamir became popular among the people in small towns. He also goaded the media by writing letters to 15 editors in each city which said that he was passing through their city and felt like having some sweets. This was like a tease and the media loved it. That this idea was a resounding success can be seen in his first pass thru City Varanasi. 20000 people thronged to visit the teashop he had visited earlier. Aamir has started connecting with the common man in smaller towns.

As a part of his rural marketing strategy he gave only four interviews to TV stations during the entire tour which included only the regional TV Channels .He was particular that he be interviewed only by the regional stars which would boost his image. Also he stayed away from the English dailies and spoke very selectively to regional newspapers. This strategy created a situation where there was a huge clamoring for an upcoming Hindi film even though there was no mention of 3Idiots even once during his entire sojourn. That he established a reasonable connect with the rural audience was evident in his Palanpur School visit to highlight the importance of Girls Education. When Aamir asked the girls to give their message to TV cameras, they shouted that they need as much opportunities as boys and there was no mention of 3 Idiots anywhere. He had established a strong emotional connect. This is how Aamir used the Socio-cultural environment to induce peoples interest on his upcoming film. Technological Environment The 3Idiots teams first innovative use of technology was through their alliance with Zapak Gaming which gave way to Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG). This allows participants to interact with the characters in the game, participants themselves to analyze the story & stay connected. Within a month, ARG took up 60% marketing efforts. The 3Idiots team created a Facebook profile named Amir the Pucca Idiot stating that this page will be updated by Aamir himself. This became a sensation since it was the first time that an Indian celebrity has done this. This profile was to play an instrumental part during Aamirs small town disappearances. The 3Idiots team travel to small towns in Gujarat, Punjab, Bengal and Madhya Pradesh to carry out the recce of all the places which Aamir would visit during his disappearing act. In the meantime as part of marketing strategy, various multiplexes received Bum Chairs (like the ones the 3 Idiots sit on in the film) with a sticker saying You are the 4th Idiot about which no one has a clear idea of what it is. By December, Aamir was busy designing T-Shirts in partnership with Pantaloons. He created a new T-shirt line with doodles and 3Idiots converse sneakers which generated huge sales. Also Pantaloons provided an option to the people enabling them to gift this T- Shirt to their friends via Amir the Pucca Idiot profile page itself which had around 2 lakh fans by now. Business of cinema (Boc) which took care of the digital marketing launched Pantaloons gifts on Facebook, ticketing applications and also 3 idiots videos and songs and also readied themselves for ARG Launch. On December 12 Aamir disappeared leaving behind a video on the films website Idiotsacademy.com which gave the information that he will be travelling to 7 places across the country and he will leave 7 clues to find him.

The ARG game (first ever for a hindi film) became such a rage that it summed up 4.5 million plays within a very short time period. More & More people were drawn to Idiotacademy.com Another trump which Aamir had up in his sleeve was his decision to hold a Facebook live chat with his fans who could type their queries from Youstream, Twitter and Facebook. This became a huge hit as more than 1 lakh users chatted with Aamir from various parts of the world. Over 300,000 Facebook status updates were shared in a single day . On Twitter #AamirkhanLive became the sixth most buzzed word in the world. This was how Aamir used current technology to market his films effectively. The result of these efforts was there for all to see. 3Idiots ended up as the highest grossing Hindi film of all time. In rural India too, it outperformed all previous Hindi films and grossed 9 crore. There was even a 30% jump in B town collections compared to Ghajni(which was beaten by 3Idiots as the highest grosser of all time) .