Marketing plan

 

For the marketing of my film I’m using social media as a poll to see weather the sound and lighting fit the film from a wide range of P2P input giving me the chance to gain a wide range of information from a wide range of age, gender and locations.

The other way I’m marketing my film and to get feedback on a professional level from my peers and have invited media students from the collage to come and view with a Q and A session after.

 

If I was to produce a feature film there would be a marketing team employed to do testers as well as questionaires that can then be refined down. The other side for the marketing for small budget films I would use film festivals and youtube to create a buzz and get as may people to view it as possible.

Film festivals

 

There are many festivals out there for film makers but the main companies to get in touch with would be:

BFI

Film 4

These companies like to promote British talent at their events

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Techniques

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In theaters

• Trailers 

• Film posters

• Slideshows 

• Standess 

• Cardboard 3D displays​

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Television and radio

• Product placement 

• Extended placement

• Production and paid broadcast of behind-the-scenes documentary-style shows,

• Advance trailers, longer previews, or behind-the-scenes footage on rental videos and DVDs

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Internet

• Virtual relationship hyperlink marketing

• Creation of standalone studio-sponsored per-film websites 

• Online digital film screeners

• Viral marketing

• Creation of Internet Marketing campaign using Paid Advertisement and Social Media Marketing

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Print

• Paid advertisement in newspapers, magazines, and inserts in books.

• Cross-promotion of original book 

• Comic special editions or special episodes

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Merchandising

• Paid co-branding or co-advertising of a product with the film

• Promotional giveaways branded drink cups, toys, or food combinations at fast food chains

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Audience research

• Positioning studies versus other films that will premiere at the same time.

• Test screenings 

• Testing of audience response to advertising materials.

• Tracking surveys 

• Exit surveys 

• Title testing 

• Concept testing 

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Hollywood movie distributors spend about $4 billion a year to buy paid advertising

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Marketing plan for a major film production

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Week 1 – Define Your Movie’s Target Audience

It is now essential to define your target audience before you even put pen to paper. Is there an audience that already exists for your movie? Where does your audience congregate online?

• Make a list of 5 ideal movie fan categories for your title.

• Figure out why these fans should watch your movie.

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Week 2 – Set up Your Movie Website

A large part of movie marketing involves internet marketing. The reason for this is simple: We are quickly approaching a time where there will be no delineation between your computer and your television. Everything will be on demand and accessible. As a result of these changes, you will need to drive targeted Internet traffic to your desired point of sale and convert these visitors into customers.

• create a promotional movie website 

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Week 3 – Know Your Prospective Audience

While there are no hard and fast rules in indie filmmaking, without retail DVD distribution, your most important goal (aside from making the movie) is to seek out your audience for both your current project and your filmmaking career. 

Your audience is your movie business. Without an audience, you simply have no business!

• Discover where your fans congregate, both online and offline.

• Create as list of popular publications that cater to your fans.

 

Week 4 – Track everything

In movie marketing, it is very common for everybody involved in a project to present ideas on best marketing practices. But the truth is, the only good marketing idea is the one that works and the only way you know if your strategy is working is when you test it.

• Add tracking tools to  website.

• Modify website to influence user activity.

 

Week 5 – Refine Your Movie Marketing

Have you noticed when a big studio releases a movie, they sometimes first push it as an action films. Then later, the advertisements shift to a love story? Why does this happen? These changes take place because movie marketers are consistently testing the movie messaging in front of sample audiences.

And it is usually the audience, not the filmmaker who reveals what aspects of the movie are most interesting and memorable.

• Refine movie messaging based on audience feedback.

• Create a hook and refine it to emphasize your unique story.

• Get your movie in front of influencers  in your target market.

 

Week 6 – Search Engine Optimization For Your Movie

There are quite a few ways to do this, but one of the most effective ways of attracting traffic is by creating useful content, aimed at your target audience.

• Conduct keyword research relevant to audience.

• Implement movie website, with SEO friendly framework.

• Define content strategy, based on keyword research.

 

Week 7 – Create Relevant Content

When it comes to movie marketing, creating relevant content is essential for attracting visitors to your movie website. It is at this point when most filmmakers start to feel overwhelmed, thinking they need to focus on blog articles.

While writing keyword specific, relevant content is a useful way to attract visitors, writing is not the only way to create content. Internet content can be created and delivered as audio, video and text. Since each prospective viewer has preferred modality, the goal is to create a content strategy that incorporates all three.

•  create and outline a content strategy based on movie/story/genre specific keywords.

• Then figure out timeline for how frequently to deliver the content.

Week 8 – Spread The Word and Build Buzz

 Lets say you are making a zombie movie and you  decide to conduct an internet search for zombies. You will very quickly find thousands of websites devoted to zombie movies. Unless you have all the time in the world, contacting the owner of each blog or website is going to be impossible.

so the goal is to sort through the noise and focus on activity that will give the greatest potential for results.

• Build a database of the top 50 publications

• Test several low cost ads to drive targeted traffic to the movie website.

• Refine  trailer and post it everywhere!

•  distribute a press release.

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Week 9 – Leverage Social Networks and Blogging Community

Implement a social media strategy that encourages word of mouth.

• Engage with potential users via social networking channels.

• Implement a guest posting strategy on several blogs.

 

Week 10 – Launch

• Divide launch strategy into several tiers and milestones.

• Send copies of your movie to popular review websites for good reviews.

 

Week 11 – Utilize The Power of Email.

focus on creating and executing an email marketing campaign.

• Write a half-dozen targeted emails and send at pre-determined intervals.

• Reach out to other filmmakers and see if they would send similar emails to their list

 

Week 12 – Grow Your Community!

When it comes to modern film distribution, you can no longer plan on simply selling 10,000 DVDs to the big box video rental chain, because that doesn’t exist anymore. Instead your audience is your business – not just for your current project, but for all future titles as well focus on creating long term community engagement.

• Establish a community for fans.

• Get fans into a database.