What is going on in movie advertising? A summary.

As I go back and look through my blog posts for the past couple of months I am noticing a trend in what I have had to say about the industry. Almost every post starts by me explaining how it is getting harder and harder to stand out in a market with so many products. This is fairly obvious in my post entitled “Too many Movies??” on October 13th about the challenges of finding your audience. Technology is becoming cheaper and easier to get a hold of. The Internet is unlimited. And people have a lot to say about a lot of issues. These three things are making movies easier to make and distribute. Because of this, we have a crowded market. And only the people that can use those tools to their advantage gets a good pay-off, not to mention a post about them on Tags Talk.

Check out sony.com to find the newest HD cameras for sale. These are great for a family to record their memories in Hi-Def, but that is not all they are being used for. A young filmmaker can go out and buy one of these and instantly improve her or his production quality in order to get noticed. The ad from Sony even says, “Shoot like a network cameraman.”

When I was in Singapore I was asked to be in a short film being produced by my friend’s friends. They needed a white guy to play an American and I fit the profile perfectly. The production company is bad alliteration productions. Check them out at www.bad-alliteration.com. Basically they are three guys that had a sony handycam with the dream of someday making full length feature films. They have the technology. Madhav bought a camera and some editing software. Their sound guy Siddesh has bought all the equipment needed for a mini-recording studio. And their go to man for everything else, Varun, can get the rest. Madhav is a banker by day and by night he reads up on editing and shooting movies using the Internet and the occasional book as sources. Spend a little time on their website and watch some their short films and you’ll see that they definitely have something to say about what is going on in the world today. “Fuel for Jimmy,” is the movie I star in. It is about the west’s need for oil and disregard for human life.

These guys are definitely on the far end of the spectrum. They don’t have a lot of money or time. But there are plenty of indie filmmakers out there that do. And they are doing what they do best, make films that offer a unique perspective on life. The only problem is there are so many on them, I can’t watch them all. I summed it up well in my September 12th post:

“…there is a crap load of indies out and none of them are breaking the clutter (hollywoodreporter.com) Even with box offices turning in record highs this summer, the spin-off companies of the major studios that invest in independent movies (you know, the ones with olive branches framed around "first place at blah blah blah" and stuff in the trailers), aren't getting recognized because everyone is doing it now. Hollywood reporter says that Fox Searchlight was one of the first to get into the indies and when people saw they were making money off things like Warner Independents' March of the Penguins everyone wanted a piece of the pie.”


The movie industry is starting to look more and more like the blogosphere. It takes very little money to set up a blog. Heck, use your public library and it's free. There are very few roadblocks, practically none. And the roadblocks for producing a movie are being reduced as well. This means that more and more opinions will be shown in theaters everywhere. And it’s up to the marketing gurus of the world to lift up the best and most provocative.

“Breaking the clutter,” probably the three biggest buzz words in the marketing handbook. But never have they been so true. Production companies are going to need to be creative in order to stand out. I posted about a few creative forms of advertising in the past month. The Nines had a make-a-trailer contest to introduce people to their film and add invested interest in its success. Leonardeo DiCaprio’s The 11th Hour used a cool widget with lots of fun features to spread the world about global warming. And some people like Michael Moore can just walk around and talk about his new movie to get noticed.

That is the issue in movie advertising right now. How do I get noticed? There is no longer an advertising and promotions formula to make your movie successful. You can’t just send out the trailer and go on Lettermen and expect big results. Advertisers need to look at the individual movie and see what the feel of it is, and then match the advertising and promotions to the movie. If it is a hard hitting documentary, you want a hard hitting feel to the advertising so you don’t draw in mockumentary fans that are going to SMS their friends and say, “it sux.” (see SMS Marketing, September 19)

I also posted about a new indie movie entitled, “Outsourced,” that may have a solution to mis-advertised movies. They are cutting out the middleman and doing their own. I love this idea. The same people that had the creativity and the passion to put together a film that they care about should be the same people to market that film with the same creativity and passion. Audience research is full of phony numbers and statistics on demographics and psychographics. Most of it is intuition anyway. So let the people that love their movie market it. You don’t need a marketing degree to see everyone is doing the same thing and know that you need to be out of the box in order to get noticed.

Giving power to individuals is changing the way people research audiences. In my Audience research class, we talk about, “cost per thousand,” and, “gross rating points,” amongst a myriad of other ways professionals measure how effective a particular ad strategy will be. They use these buzz words and numbers to justify their spending where an independent person would just go with their gut. My professor said at the beginning of the semester, if you came up with the Nielson system of measuring TV ratings and handed it in as your final project at any university, you would have failed. Yeah, it’s that bad, and that is what the pros are using to spend advertising dollars.

I job shadowed a professional in NYC and found out some more cool stuff. The pros are moving away from GRPs and such. A GRP from the radio is not the same as a GRP from TV. Nor can you really measure GRP from a facebook group, or sticky notes posted all over a subway, or from a huge truck with your movie’s poster and soundtrack blaring while it drives through the city. Every ad agency is coming up with new abbreviations to describe how involved and effective a medium is. They are going through all this red tape so that they can prove to their clients that they are using their money wisely. Well and indie filmmaker is using her or his own money and more importantly investing themselves. These people are only going to pursue what they think will work. And they are not answering to some executive. I can see more and more indie filmmakers moving away from the big production studios in order to promote their movies the way they want to, the way they should be.

Just like the blogosphere, the movie business is getting crowded. Maybe crowded is the wrong word. It assumes that there is a finite space that will eventually have no more room.
Just like the blogoshpere, the movie business is becoming populated. And hopefully it will continue to grow in numbers and be filled with individuals that think for themselves. Those are the people I want advertising their movies to me.



There is a lot of opinion and voice in what I just wrote. And I love blogs for giving me this opportunity. I wrote this blog for class, Audience Research, as I have stated before. But I feel like I learned more about blogging then the movie advertising business. I found out it is hard to keep up a blog over time, but after talking with some professionals, I think it’s worth it. You may know Greg Verdino from Crayon Marketing, he keeps up his blog. He said to me that sometimes he feels like the blog is a lot of work too. But then someone calls him about something he wrote and asks him to come in and meet with them. Then he realizes it is worth it.

I think so too. I will keep bloging. As I look for jobs throughout my life, my blog will act as a cover letter to everything. People can see what I think and what I like. They can get to know me from my commentary on different things and hopefully look at whatever issue I am talking about a little differently. And who knows, some day I just might find myself being contacted because I said something someone important liked. So look for J Tags in the future for more fun commentary. And get your own, there are never enough voices in the blogosphere.

Theater Commericals

The National Guard has just officially launched their ad campaign for theaters (click here for story). Their first short feature entitled "Citizen Soldier" has already appeared in theaters around the country but starting next month will be seen in about 65% of all theaters. Those are really good odds that you are going to be seeing this.



The feature is directed by Antoine Fuqua, the director of the Academy Award-winning film, “Training Day.” And it has an original song by 3 Doors Down with the same name. It is not just a dinky commercial that you could see on tv. As a person that loves to get to the movies early so that I make sure I see the trailers, I am OK with this type of advertising before a movie.

I can't stand a 30-second spot before my movie! Nothing bothers me more than a coke commercial that I saw on TV a few days ago. I really like trailers because they are entertaining. Yes, they are trying to sell the movie to me, but they are also trying to prove that it is going to be an entertaining movie and therefore make the trailer entertaining. So I like the fact that the National Guard is not shlopping together a 30-second spot to get recruits. They put together a pretty cool highlight real of the Guard and all its glory to not only recruit the men and women looking to serve their country through military service, but to also entertain those that are paying ten bucks just to be there. That is extra entertainment, so National Guard, keep the cool videos coming, I'll watch 'em.

Bee Movie's tagline not so sweet

Jerry Seinfeld's new movie "Bee Movie" is facing some legal trouble as the studio is being sued for using the slogan, "Give Bees a Chance," in their marketing campaign. Beeceuticals is an organic cosmetics company that makes its products from honey and other bee byproducts. They are suing Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures, claiming that they have had the slogan trademarked since October 2006 and have lost business due to Bee Movie using it.

Two things here that I have to say:
1. Giving Bees a Chance?? Is it really that good of a slogan. I can see why Paramount did not look very far into whether or not this line was trademarked. it is not very good, for either business. I haven't dissected Beeceuticals yet but I don't think that "giving bees a chance," is using their honey that worked so hard for. And it is not even a play on words or anything.

And Bee Movie has a lot more better stuff than that. The only thing that slogan does is give a little glimpse at the plot. But I don't think that is really Bee Movies style. Which brings me to number two.

2. I love how Bee Movie has been advertising itself. Jerry Seinfeld is at a very key point in his career after his show has ended and enough time has elapsed that it is not odd for him to be doing other things. So I love how the trailers show him struggling to do a movie. The trailers make it look like he is trying to put the movie together like he would a show. And it is not working out.



The campaign gives a good look into the idea of the film and doesn't try to sell you on the plot. The trailer tells me that this is going to be a funny movie because there is going to be a lot of Jerry Seinfeld comedy. I like that. I watched all the trailers a few times to see the story unfold until Spielberg finally tells Seinfeld to animate it. So Bee Movie, I love what you are doing, tough break with the crapy slogan lawsuit.

Too many movies??

Well this weekend was yet another awesome weekend for movies. Elizabeth: The Golden Age; We Own the Night; Lars and the Real Girl; Sleuth; and Across the Universe all opened around the country this weekend. These are just a few of the movies that came out. I am not even going to go into the tons of indy films that came out too.

Professionals are saying that now more than ever, there are a lot of movies. Chalk it up to more indy studios like Fow Searchlight and Warner Bros Indepent, or chalk it up to studios trying to release their films at the same time of year in order to set up their films for a better chance at producing a good Oscar buzz, but whatever you chalk it up to, know that it is harder than ever to get your movie noticed.

And with so many movies, it doesn't have more than two weeks in a theater to work its magic. Theaters are getting movies in and out as fast as they can.

This weekend I went to see Across the Universe, the new tripy Beatles movie. Wow was it amazing. But I will admit, if it wasn't for my friends being crazy about the Beatles, and getting high, I probably wouldn't have chosen that movie. So the moral of the story is that you have to get a few people fired up about your movie. If you can appeal to someone so strongly that it cuts through the clutter for them, then they will get their friends to go to. There are so many choices, people will gladly take a little guidance from someone that garuntees a good movie experience.

Assassinating Movies

Did you know that "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is coming out this Friday? Neither did I. There are lots of others that didn't know either. It turns out that the distributor, Warner Brothers Studios has just released the movie all willie-nillie-like. Little advertising and almost no promotion.

The trouble with deciding to release a movie quietly and neglecting to announce it until a few days before it is released is that there cannot be press screenings for the movie. And in the places where the theater scrambles to put together a press screening, they have to do it after many of the writers miss their deadlines.

Perhaps Warner Bros. did not think that Jesse James would do very well and decided to just wash their hands of it and let it go. But come on WB! The least you can do is release it in a normal way to encourage the usual publicity a movie gets. They didn't even get Brad Pitt to go on Conan to promote it.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but critics are giving it pretty good reviews. This might be robing people of a good movie experience. That doesn't bother me very much though, its not there is a noble cause promoted in the movie. But what does make me mad is the fact that it is someone's art being treated like a piece of crap. WB, I am disappointed in you.

"Thanks Blockbuster," says Netflix

There are three categories of movies in my life. I'll see it in theaters, I don't even want to talk about it, and of course I'll rent it. But that used to mean a lot more than it does now. My system was developed during the ice age when you had to walk down the streets of Reynoldsville, PA to go to video store, pick it out and tote it home. Then you had to worry about taking it back.

Now-a-days we are accustomed to just adding a movie to our Netflix list and wait for it to show up at our door. That's how Good Luck Chuck made it onto my list of renters seeing that I wouldn't have to actually exert effort to see it.

But it is not just Netflix's system that caters to lazy couch potatoes that has boosted its stock to about $22. Blockbuster is helping out. Noticing the new trend to buy and rent movies online, blockbuster started its Total Access campaign to tap into the online market. This proved to not be profitable at all. The only thing that happened was it took away business from the walk in store buyers. Now enter the genius move. Blockbuster saw the non-value of advertising for its Total Access, and oops more online business goes to Netflix. The old bait and switch. Only not on purpose.

So if you are looking to invest in the movie renting industry, may I suggest the $22-a-share netflix as opposed to the $5 Blockbuster.

Convenient Advertising!

Well we have all heard of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Well Leonardo DiCaprio is hosting the next installment in the the-world-is-going-to-hell-unless-we-do-something-to-stop-it series. The new movie, "The 11th hour" picks up where Gore left off and talks about global warning thanks to the industrial age. But wait, there's more! The 11th hour goes on to talk about what we can all do as individuals in order to turn our worst hour, into our finest. That is some good stuff.

And they are teaching us to fight g-warming with style. The marketing plan for 11th hour is making it easy to spread the word about the movie, about the issues it talks about, and get involved in the solution. AdWeek.com reports that the great organization behind the film, along with this cool widget, is revolutionary for a movie like this.

This little widget features the trailer, links to environmental sites like its sponsor Gaiam, the option to mail to a friend, and even the embedded code to make it supper easy to place in a blog or social networking site. If you care about green issues, you can spread the word like hot butter on toast!



The widget technology also allowed non-profit websites to post it on their sites with their logo instead of the trailer's. This makes them look better while spreading word. Basically, the trailer can be distributed by individuals AND organizations. I love the cause, I love the fact that the marketing reflects the cause, and I love the environment.

And in honor of World Vegetarian Day, and National Vegetarian Month, I want to remind everyone that eating vegetarian conserves energy and helps turn the 11th hour into our finest.

And here is a funny video about veggies.

"I'm as mad as hell"

ShadowCatcher Entertainment is breaking all the rules with how they will market their new indy film "Outsourced." Fed up with the middle man distributing his films, owner and manager David Skinner has decided to do all his own marketing and distribution for his new film "Outsourced." After talking with Miramax/Disney, he decided that it makes much more sense to do it this way (check seatlepi.com for the whole story) and it is looking like others will follow.

"The studio had a lucrative cable deal in place, but we wouldn't see any of those profits. Meanwhile, they would invest nothing in the ad campaign." Skinner says. "We would have to raise that capital ourselves. Welcome to the wonderful world of independent film distribution." Skinner thinks it was just like when Peter Finch screamed "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" in "Network."

Skinner is taking the power and profits away from the big distribution companies and putting them back into the hands of independent film makers. I like this for two big reasons, Number one is that this should breed more creative marketing strategies. When the same company does all the marketing campaigns for every movie, they all start looking the same. Just like how every movie trailer sounds the same cause the same guy writes all the scripts.

The second reason I like it is because this is going to mean more money going back into the pockets of indy film makers. With most of Skinners advertising based on word of mouth, his movie has to be good in order for more people to go see it. Indy film makers do not have the money to a lot of advertising, but the well done films will get noticed and the profits will go straight back to the creator. This means good movies will be rewarded, which hopefully means movies getting better and better.

So thanks ShadowCatcher Entertainment, I'm not as mad now.

Nothing beats pudding

If you are tired of getting lost in the advertising soup, perhaps its time to through your name into the pudding. The pudding is a new internet calling service like skype that you provides calls for free. Plus it comes with voice recognizers that will listen in and send advertisements to your computer for whatever you happen to be talking about. pcworld.com reports on the idea.



I love it. This is about as direct as you can get. Someone is talking about your movie, it is in their head, and BLAM! up pops your trailer. Now they can continue to get more excited about your film and ohh look at that, the movie poster for it with the opening dates.

And you are not just getting people talking about your film. Let's say Johny Student is reading Beowulf in class and is talking to a classmate about it. He might not know about the movie, or be unsure of when it comes out. But up comes the poster, trailer, and hopefully the spark notes.

The pudding will be starting their beta version that you can sign up for at their website thepudding.com I am curious to try it out and see if I get tired of having The Rock pop onto my screen every time I ask my friends what the game plan is for tonight.

Look for The Nines Trailer(s)

J.J. Abrams is not the only one that has some interesting marketing ideas this year. John August, writer and director of The Nines is letting his fans do his marketing for him, Literally.

August has launched a trailer making competition for his new film that stars Ryan Reynolds as three different characters interacting with each other as TV producer, actor and video game designer for what looks to be a horror film version of what it would be like if the Sims you controlled were real... and the ensuing drama and fright that would surely follow.

The competition is set up where contestants download clips from the website. They can then enter one of two competitions: Pure Trailer, using only the provided footage; Mash-up Trailer, using whichever clips from anywhere you want. But don't feel like you have to make a trailer that looks like the official trailer. August even says that they went in one direction with it but that contestants could do whatever they wanted.



I really like this idea. Not only does it get people involved and invested in the movie, but August does a great job of giving you just enough information to make you interested. The trailer doesn't give anything away, and it wasn't until I downloaded the footage that I feel like I have a general understanding of what the plot might maybe possibly be, maybe. I want to go see the movie now if for no other reason to see if Reynolds is the God of this world maliciously toying with himself, or if he is an oblivious avatar in a terrible game designed by him, or if that blond girl is the real one that is taking away the pool ladder. On the bright side, at least this one has a title for me.

SMS Marketing

Today's topic is brought to us from www.marketingvox.com as they talk about word of thumb and the dangers it brings to movie marketing. Basically, back in the olden days (before my dad could type a text message faster than a 16-year-old cheerleader after hearing Marissa cheated on Seth) it took at least a few days for the word to get out about a movie. Like when Die Hard came out. You didn't find out if your cousin thought the movie was awesome until you saw him at grandmas house Sunday afternoon.

Now, friends are texting their friends practically during the show with complete disregard for whatever corny jingle that particular theater decided to show about turning off your cell phones. So why is this killing movies? Two theories, the movie stinks OR it was advertised wrongly.

Like what would have happened if Sleepless in Seattle marketed itself as a horror movie. There would have been lots of horror movie fans watching it on opening night. Sleepless in Seattle is a terrible horror movie! And the people that like horror movies probably wont appriciate a good chick flick it they saw one.

Take a look at this trailer for Sleepless in Seattle

...a little misleading indeed. Check out more of these at http://dossing.blogspot.com

This is an extreme example, but good marketing could be the difference of getting people that like romantic comedies as opposed to people that like romantic mushy movies. Movie marketers are going to have be on top of their ads as technology advances. They need to make sure that they have the right people lining up at the box office Friday night. Or their movie is going to flop like the new Geico Caveman Show.

Why even go to the theater?

A few weeks ago I started classes again at Ithaca College, NY. With that of course came a few expenses, including pens, pencils, paper, folders, and the grizzly bear of them all... books. But this time I tried something. Instead of buying a $180 book from the bookstore I jumped online and found it online. Not on eBay though. I bought the downloadable version off the publisher's website for less than half the cost the hardback copy. Probably the most intelligent thing I will do all semester. So what does this have to do with movies? variety.com

Movies are now available on-demand like never before. A panel of professionals at the Toronto Film Festival announced that this idea will revolutionize the business by taking money away from third parties and giving it straight back to the holder of the copywrite. Michael Burns (vice chair of Lionsgate) estimates that it will be by about 60 to 70 percent. It is also making the cost of watching a new movie cheaper for the consumer.

Perhaps this is the answer to the independent film question I posted earlier. Indies are going to be able to make more money off their films that more people will be watching because it wont take ten dollars to see a new movie. And with a new contract between Fortissimo and Jaman, we are seeing movies available for download. Movies might evetually become as on-demand as tv is supposed to. And this has advertisers worried because ads are going to getting skiped.

Josh Bernoff of Forrester.com reports on how on-demand advertising should work. He says that people are going to have to want to watch ads, and they are going to have to be more than 30 seconds. This is very encouraging to movie advertisers because they already have an audience lining up at apple trailers to view their ads. Ad video on-demand at the end of trailer, and who knows what could happen?

So when I decide to fork over the 10 dollars it takes to watch a movie in a theater, I am going to have many films to choose from. And since I have already seen all the new movies from the summer, the new Harry Potter doesn't come out for a while, and Ironman won't debute untill next summer, there isn't anything jumping out me.

Well the pros are saying that this is because there is a crap load of indies out and none of them are breaking the clutter (hollywoodreporter.com) Even with box offices turning in record highs this summer, the spin-off companies of the major studios that invest in independent movies (you know, the ones with olive branches framed around "first place at blah blah blah" and stuff in the trailers), aren't getting recognized because everyone is doing it now. Hollywood reporter says that Fox Searchlight was one of the first to get into the indies and when people saw they were making money off things like Warner Independents' March of the Penguins everyone wanted a piece of the pie.

So what is my theory on marketing indie films? Keep it cheap and easy. You can go the Micheal Moore way and throw your name around to get recognized like his new one Sicko but most indie directors don't have the clout to do that. So just keep it simple and easy. Make the movie cheap and market it modestly, if the product is good and thought-provoking and original, then it will find an audience. But right now there is definitely a feeling of, "it's not cool if everyone is doing it."

Learning About Consumers

If we are going to market to people through lots of different media, than we should probably know about how these crazy folks interact with these media. There are a few great articles from MediaPost that address this question well: On the Record: They aren't just like us ; Consumer 3.0 ; Calling all Pets ; Targeting Harried Commuters ; Portrait of a New Media Consumer.

The new media consumer is able to not just interact with multiple media at one time, but be creating and sharing ideas through these media as well. Marketers as being faced with smarter consumers that a little more difficult to figure out than the old tv-watching, radio-listening-to, newspaper-reading commuter.

Because of this, marketers are being forced to be much more creative in how they converse with their target audiences who are more like active members in a conversation than an audience. Take a look at "Consumer 3.0" and how they talk about social netwrking sites. Getting their info about how may kids have a social networking site from a study, marketers have to start using what consumers are in order to find out what their consumers want.

Lets continue using this idea of Social networking sites for an example: Some one does a study and reveals that kids are using facebook a lot. I mean A LOT. So now a marketer has to try and think like his client. Which after reading On the Record, you realize it is pretty hard. You can't say, "how do I interact with this site?" Cause are a weird media junkie and interact with everything a differently (especially media). Half the time consumers don't even realize they are being that engaging in the media they are using (New Media Consumer).

With TV, you are only guessing at how people are interacting with it. With the www, you need to find out what people are using, then go get some.

Podcasting??

Once you are tired of reading people's rants and would rather just listen to them, or maybe you are on the go and can't have your computer screen in front of you, podcasts are definitely your thing. Still relatively new (history of podcasting), we are still trying to figure out how to use this technology for something constructive instead of simply a distraction from my homework... umm, Ricky Gervais.

One of those new constructive ideas is to start using podcasts to inform professionals about their profession and all the new things going on with it. In the field of Marketing you already have a few. Across the Sound, and Marketing Edge are a couple good ones. Smart well-informed people telling the rest of what we should know through the magic of podcasting.

What do I think about the podcast? I am pro-podcast my friends. Spreading the news and trends in the advertising world via podcast is a great system. Podcasts can be made quickly and easily, making them more current than other media that takes a long time to produce and distribute. Plus, anyone can make a podcast (click here to make yours). This means you have a lot of people talking about current issues. That sounds like one fantastic conversation. I can load five or six opinions about a current issue into my iPod and then hit the road. Conversations with trade experts on my way to office. That is a better jump-start to my day than my favorite Starbucks mocha kappa latte.

Advertisers are not the only ones using podcasts for professionals. Here is one for educators. In this episode they are actually talking about why you too should podcast. Smart dudes.