Last night, I attended Digital LA’s “Movie Marketing: Online, Social, Mobile Panel” where industry experts from Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate discussed the digital marketing landscape and how they use online tools for promoting their films. While the marketing budget alone for most of these films is tens of times larger than the entire budget for the documentary films and grassroots campaigns that I usually work on, there was definitely some relevant take-aways.
Over and over again, we heard there is no one way to market a film online, and the key is identifying your target audience. Is there an existing audience for your film? What is the demographic you are trying to reach? Where does your audience hang out online? How do they use the web? Different age groups and demographics use the web differently – are they using email, facebook, twitter, blogs, game sites, mobile apps, etc.?
The panel talked about the importance of identify key influencers in the community in the early phases of marketing. Maybe this is a blogger, maybe this is a celebrity with a fan base, maybe this is a popular gamer … In the case of docs and grassroots campaigns, maybe this is an organization with a large or active membership, maybe this is a politician or grassroots leader, maybe this is a niche website that your audience spends a lot of time on. Reach out to these people – ask for an endorsement, offer them early clips, sneak previews, ways to get involved.
In the inner circles of outreach, offer materials early and continue giving them material in the lead up to your launch. As you approach your D-Day, you start to reach out farther and farther in your outreach, as you can see in the graphic below. In the farthest circle, you should only outreach/advertise when there is an immediate action to take (see the film, buy a dvd, sign a petition, etc).
Circles of Outreach as Launch approaches
In addition to roll outs and audiences, the panel talked about different online tools used to market/reach audiences/supporters. This list comes as no surprise, but is useful nonetheless.
- Online Ad Buys
- Search campaigns
- Viral Videos
- Social networking profiles
- Email Lists
- Games
- Mobile campaigns and apps
- Blogs
- Homepage skins
- Distributing clips such as trailers, behind the scenes, and DVD extras
If you have any adds to this list or thoughts on the graphic, please leave them in the comments!