Cinegolpo: A bridge between cinema and netizens 

We often come across various memes about Bangla films and series when we're scrolling through our social media news feeds. Some of them make us pause and laugh, but little do we realise that the meme was actually part of an official promotional campaign. 

Movie promotions have evolved with time. A campaign normally includes the release of teasers and trailers, posters are put up on walls and billboards, etc. But these methods don't always capture the attention of potential moviegoers anymore, particularly the younger audiences. This is where memes and other unconventional methods come into play.  

Most people are active on social media platforms in this day and age, which is why companies often market to customers through social media platforms. Social media marketing is nothing new, but Cinegolpo – a PR agency who started their journey as a simple page on Facebook, and describes themselves as a storytelling platform – uses unconventional means of marketing Bangladeshi films and series. 

They employ memes, articles, quotes, funny and interesting clips, etc to appeal to moviegoers in Bangladesh. 

Cinegolpo started its journey in May, 2021, through the efforts of six young individuals – Mukhtar Ibn Rafique, Mehedi Hasan Moon, Saiduzzaman Ahad, Syed Nazmus Sakib, Anower Hossain and Partho Chowdhury.

Mukhtar worked as a journalist at Prothom Alo, Mehedi worked as a marketing manager at Rokomari, Saiduzzaman studied BBA at East West University, Syed is a teacher at Bir Shreshtha Noor Mohammad Public College, Anower is a freelance web developer, and Partho is a computer engineer. 

Despite their diverse background, they had been movie buffs all their lives. Writing about films was a common hobby for all of the founders, and they got to know of each other through writing. 

Cinegolpo has promoted around four mainstream Bangladeshi movies and 25 web films and series using their unique style of promotion. 

"The Bangladeshi film industry is quite old. And older conventions of promotions are not as effective as it once was. We brainstormed and researched for years, trying to find out more effective means of promoting films. We want to bridge the gap between cinema and audience, and we have seen a lot of success in the last one year," said Mukhtar, CEO of Cinegolpo. 

"The first movie we promoted was 'Raat Jaga Phool'. The film's producer/director Mir Sabbir caught wind of Cinegolpo's page, and the type of content we posted there. He contacted us and wanted us to promote his film. This is how we got started," said Mehedi, CMO of Cinegolpo. "Our first campaign achieved a lot of success, and it caught the attention of other producers. From then on Cinegolpo never looked back."

During Cinegolpo's second movie promotion, they did something unique. They openly screened the trailer of 'Shaan' at TSC of Dhaka University and received an immense response from the people. Recently, the company has also been involved in the promotion of 'Poran' and 'Hawa'.

Cinegolpo's promotions are primarily run through campaigns on social media. Their page has close to three lakh followers, and also includes a web portal. 

"Cinema is a form of entertainment. We want to promote this medium by using other forms of entertainment, and getting people to the cinema halls," said Saiduzzaman, co-founders of Cinegolpo.

The 30-person team of Cinegolpo consists of skilled content and script writers.The team also conducts market research and scriptwriting. They have already worked on the script of some movies scheduled to be released soon. The company plans to build a library of quality scripts in the future, as well as conduct workshops for aspiring filmmakers and actors. 

"There are many good writers in our country, but there is also a huge gap between directors and writers. That is why they sometimes fail to find good writers. We want to create a content library to bridge this gap. That is our goal for the future," said Sakib, another Co-Founder of Cinegolpo.