Lessons from the 2011 Variety Film Marketing Summit: Part 1: Learning the ropes

A couple of weeks ago, Sam Margolius and I attended the second Variety Film Marketing Summit and came away with lots of great contacts and information. The attendees ranged from newbies like ourselves to film makers learning how to sell their movies to industry insiders, like our table-mates, Randy and Doug. They helped filter information and explain what was novel and what was drivel.

Defining blockbuster success

Are top movie marketers more impressed with the marketing team that makes the biggest gross or the team that exceeds expectations for the toughest-to-get gross? Not surprisingly, both are hard to pull off, but for different reasons. Insiders define target audiences in terms of quadrants, i.e. one quadrant versus four quadrant movies. Quadrants refer to young, old, male and female audiences. Blockbusters hit all four quadrants, thereby pulling in the largest audiences. An indie film usually reaches only one quadrant, similar to promoting a mean girls movie to teen girls or a slasher flick to teen boys.

People assume that blockbusters sell themselves. By this reasoning, people who saw the first six Harry Potter movies would go see the seventh. In reality nothing sells itself. Box office expectations are impossibly high for blockbuster movies, which are incredibly expensive to produce and even more to market. Hardcore Potter fans want to make sure their movie is done right and will scream the results (good or bad) to their cherished friends. The press reports opening numbers, which generates more press and helps increase audience attendance . . . if all goes well. The seventh Harry Potter movie blew past revenue expectations, so it was considered a huge success.

Marketing indie films

The indie folk need to be more nimble than the major studios because they typically do not have the same access to mobile, radio and TV. The Conspirator, a movie about Lincoln’s assassination directed by Robert Redford, opened to mixed (i.e poor) reviews at early first film festivals. Lacking good word-of-mouth, the team needed to go direct to their “old male” quadrant of fans, focusing on the Midwest, Civil War groups and history buffs. Robert Redford promoted his film by appearing on the Charlie Rose show (affordable TV) and by doing interviews with AARP (affordable print). Because of his efforts, the film managed to earn a satisfactory $3.5 million on opening weekend.

Other mini-majors are finding ways of replicating the majors. Relativity just signed deals with MTV, Spotify, Virgin Mobil, ESPN, Gamespot and UFC to help promote their movies.

Audiences types

When it comes to segmenting audiences, marketers use the following definitions:

1. General public – A blockbuster must appeal to all four quadrants: young, old, male and female, which drives the marketing costs up to and over $100 million.
2. Multi-core – A movie like Soul Surfer appeals to several different audiences, including Christian, mother/daughter and extreme sports fans.
3. Single-core – A Christian movie like Fireproof (marketed by the same company as Soul Surfer) sells well in a tight but large enough community.

How do you target audiences more effectively?

It’s necessary to understand how people relate to the world. If you are targeting hardcore gamers, don’t release your movie the same day a major game releases. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, TX, knows how to find passionate fans and connect them to killer events. The theater arranged to have Robosaurus come to the bar next door for Transformer 3’s opening night. Once the movie finished, everyone went out back, grabbed a beer and watched a 40 foot tall robot dinosaur rip cars in half and breath fire out its nostrils. The net result is that 40% of their customers see one movie per month on opening weekend and 20% see three movies a month on opening weekend.

Stay tuned for part two of my Variety Film Marketing Summit report in which we’ll look more closely at film marketing strategies.