Destination: Bollywood

"American Idol" promises to whisk ready and willing singers from America's heartland off to Hollywood. Now, Emirates Air promises to fly Middle Eastern and Indian talents away to Bollywood. Equal glitz, glamour, and talent. Slightly different rhythm and lyrics. Primary sponsor Emirates Airlines produces and promotes "Destination: Bollywood" with masterful management of multi-media, giving Middle Eastern and West Asian talents a chance to take their singing and dancing careers to "the next level." "Destination: Bollywood" offers a spectacular case study in twenty-first century multi-platform marketing. The show airs on Star India Plus, in Canada on Rogers video-on-demand; and it is widely available on Hulu. Emirates Air builds audience loyalty and attracts new viewers through skilled use of social networks both on the worldwide web and via mobile; they also do extensive in-theatre and radio promotions. The mobile element in "Destination: Bollywood" is essential, because"”like "American Idol" "”the show asks viewers to vote for their favourites via their handhelds. New York marketing analyst John Demarchi explains, "The mobile elements of the Emirates sponsorship [for "Destination: Bollywood] is mobile voting and also surveying after votes are cast. When people watch on TV, we ask them to vote using mobile voting, texting a keyword into a short code, and based on that mobile voting, we determine each week's winner who will advance to the finals."

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