Marketing Film is broadly speaking the marketing of the film using promotional tools used by the Film Industry ever-since the foundation of Film Industry was laid in Hollywood. It usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution and involves a lot many numbers of components, small or big (including but not limited to) press dockets, media, free giveaways, film promotion, press releases, advertising campaigns, merchandising, franchising, gimmicks, events for promotion & making of the film, like interviews with actors and directors.
As with all business, it is an integral part of any film prior to its release because of the high costs & high financial risk involved. The conventional and the new tools to market a film are -
1. Trailers, mainstay of film promotion, because they are delivered directly to movie-goers. They screen in theaters before movie showings. Generally they tell the story of the movie in a highly condensed fashion compressing maximum appeal into two and half minutes. The studios in fact, get an idea about the film's projected business with the response to the trailer and all the strategies are altered as per the response.
1. Trailers, mainstay of film promotion, because they are delivered directly to movie-goers. They screen in theaters before movie showings. Generally they tell the story of the movie in a highly condensed fashion compressing maximum appeal into two and half minutes. The studios in fact, get an idea about the film's projected business with the response to the trailer and all the strategies are altered as per the response.
2. Film posters.
3. Slideshows - stills, trivia, and trivia games from the film, shown between movie showtimes or today on the internet.
4. Standees (freestanding paperboard life-size images of figures from the film).
5. Advertising: Hollywood movie distributors spend about $4 billion a year to buy paid advertising (30-second TV commercials, newspaper ads, etc.) and over half that total is placed on broadcast and cable TV, which are the main vehicles for advertising movies to audiences. TV is effective because it is an audio-visual medium – like film – and can deliver a vast audience quickly, which is crucial because films typically don’t play in theaters more than 4–6 weeks.
6. Online digital film screeners: These digital film screeners have the benefit of letting you send individual copies of your film or a promo to the press, sales agents, distributors etc. Using them its simple to send individually controlled copies of your film to various recipients with different expiry dates. Along with the security of individual expiry dates, you can see reports of who viewed your film and track their viewing of the film.
7. Viral marketing: free distribution of trailers on movie-oriented websites and video user-generated-content websites, and rapid dissemination of links to this content by email and blogs. Includes
alleged leakage of supposed "rushes" of film scenes. Original film shorts on YouTube while the film is in production, is fast gaining popularity.
8. Merchandising, involves, paid co-branding (Lifebuoy in Shamitabh) or co-advertising (Aston Martin and James Bond films)of a product with the film.
9. Promotional giveaways: branded drink cups, toys, or food combinations at fast food chains.
10. Promotional tours and interviews: Film actors, directors, and producers appear for television, cable, radio, print, and online media interviews, which can be conducted in person or remotely. During film production, these can take place on set. After the film's premiere, key personnel make appearances in major cities or connect with audiences via video-conferencing.
The purpose of interviews is to encourage journalists to publish stories about their "exclusive interviews" with the film's stars, thereby creating "marketing buzz" around the film and stimulating audience interest in watching the film.
Audience research is becoming an increasingly doable fad with top studios! There are seven distinct types of research conducted by film distributors in connection with domestic theatrical releases -
Audience research is becoming an increasingly doable fad with top studios! There are seven distinct types of research conducted by film distributors in connection with domestic theatrical releases -
i. Positioning studies versus other films that will premiere at the same time.
ii. Test screenings of finished or nearly finished films; this is the most well known.
iii. Testing of audience response to advertising materials.
iv. Tracking surveys of audience awareness of a film starting six weeks before premiere.
v. Exit surveys questioning film goers about their demographic makeup and effectiveness of marketing.
vi. Title testing in an early stage.
vii. Concept testing that would occur in development phase of a film before it is produced.
Marketing definitely plays a big role in whether or not a film gets the green light from the studio in the first place and finally a film's journey in becoming a hit or a blockbuster; as for studio's, in the end, a film is nothing but a product, a property, IP (Intellectual Property).
