Pornchai Wongsriudomporn, assistant director for marketing and film distribution, said yesterday that the revamp was not just to control production and marketing costs, but also to open up windows of revenue beyond ticket sales. These include a marketing budget allocated by strategic partners as well as licensing the film's scenes and soundtrack for production of such merchandise as telephone cards, wallpaper in mobile phones and ring tones. "We set the plan for the 'Rak Jung' project since June last year, one year before the movie was launched in theatres," Pornchai said. "We also discussed the project with our strategic partner AIS from the beginning so that they would synergise, doing cross-marketing activities and providing support to our film. AIS became part of our film."

AIS was allotted product placement in "Rak Jung".

They also introduced cross-media advertising and promotion activities together with the film. AIS used popular scenes with Rattapoom Tokongsub (Film) and Paula Taylor who starred in the romantic movie.

"Rak Jung" has been showing at local theatres since June 1.

"We have set all the schedules for 'Rak Jung' such as casting, shooting, post-production and the launch in theatres. This helps us to control our production costs more effectively," said Pornchai. "We did a lot of research on target viewers so that we can effectively forecast our sales from the film and use them to set up a budget."

"Rak Jung" required Bt17 million in production and Bt20 million in advertising and marketing.

"Rak Jung' has rung up over Bt50 million at box offices in Bangkok, which represents 35-40 per cent of overall revenues generated by other windows. Including these other sources - sponsorship, movie licences and co-activities with partners - it has produced overall revenue of more than Bt100 million.

RS started its restructuring at the end of last year by consolidating nine production houses and all cinema activities under a company named Avant Co Ltd. Those activities range from film production to marketing, public relations and distribution.

Prasong Rungsmaithong, deputy managing director of RS, said all units including cinema, music, media and new media will support each other to effectively create and maximum benefits for its entertainment assets. They will support the new business vision of RS as one of the leading entertainment content providers.

RS will launch the new unit's second movie titled "Phee Kon Pen" (Victim) casting Pitchanart Sakakorn (May). The ghost movie will hit local theatres on October 12. Another film is "Sor Sanit Sit Sai Na", which will debut on September 30.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation