Guerrilla Film Marketing

The Ultimate Guide to the Branding, Marketing and Promotion of Independent Films & Filmmakers

Robert G. Barnwell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351018050
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Create an irresistible brand image and build an audience of loyal and engaged fans…

Guerrilla Film Marketing takes readers through each step of the film branding, marketing and promotional process. Tailored specifically to low-budget independent films and filmmakers, Guerrilla Film Marketing offers practical and immediately implementable advice for marketing considerations across every stage of the film production process.

Written by leading film industry professional Robert G. Barnwell, Guerrilla Film Marketing teaches readers how to:

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• Master the fundamentals of guerrilla branding, marketing and promotion;

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• Create an integrated marketing plan and calendar based on realistic budgets and expectations;

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• Develop internet and social media marketing campaigns, including engaging studio and film websites and powerful, marketing-centric IMDb listings;

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• Assemble behind-the-scenes pictures, videos and documentaries;

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• Produce marketing materials such as key art, posters, film teasers, trailers and electronic press kits (aka "EPKs"); and

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• Maximize the marketing impact of events such as test screenings, premiers, film festivals and industry award ceremonies.

Guerrilla Film Marketing is filled with dozens of step-by-step instructions, checklists, tools, a glossary, templates and other resources. A downloadable eResource also includes a sample marketing plan and audit, a test screening questionnaire, and more.

1
Guerrilla Branding, Marketing & Promotion

It seems like only yesterday that Steven Spielberg, standing next to his good friend and colleague George Lucas, predicted an inevitable “implosion” of the film industry. Lucas echoed Spielberg’s concerns and complained about the high costs of marketing movies and the major studios’ obsession with big-budget mass-market films while ignoring niche audiences.

The inevitable implosion of the film industry Spielberg and Lucas spoke about at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts has arrived in greater force than could have been predicted. In fact, the technological and demographic pressures responsible for that implosion were well underway in the months and years leading up to their famous speech.

The greatest of these industry-altering pressures includes (i) the significant advances in low-cost film production technologies and digital video-on-demand distribution outlets (such as iTunes, Amazon, YouTube Rentals, Hulu and Netflix) coupled with (ii) the explosion in the number of entertainment alternatives available to audiences members (particularly computer gaming and social media applications available on web-enabled televisions, computers and mobile devices).

In the Introduction of this book, we discussed the resulting division of the film industry into two distinct halves. The first half is comprised of films produced by independent filmmakers for less than $2.5 million and the second group is comprised of those films typically produced by established studios for $25 million or more. We termed this separation of the film industry’s business model as the “barbell strategy.”

In large part, these two distinct categories of films are driven by marketing and promotional costs. A film with a production budget in excess of $2.5 to $5 million will need, almost by definition, a broad audience. In order to reach a broad audience, the studio or distributor will need to fund a national, and often global, print and broadcast advertising campaign. At a minimum, such a broad mass-market advertising campaign would require an investment of $20 million or more to be effective (the average marketing and promotional budget for major releases now averages ~$50 million according to The Hollywood Reporter).

As you can see, it typically makes little sense to spend $20 million plus promoting a film that costs less than $25 million to produce and which, in all likelihood, lacks the star power, production value and story elements expected from a mass audience.

FIGURE 1.1 Directors Steven Spielberg & George Lucas at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award gala at the Dolby Theatre, Hollywood.
(Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock.com)

Absent a broad advertising and promotional campaign, a film with a production budget in excess of $2.5 to $5 million will almost certainly be unable to attract a sufficient paying audience to (i) fund the film’s production and marketing costs as well as (ii) provide the film’s investors with an acceptable profit. On the other hand, films produced for less than $2.5 million will find it much easier to achieve profitable distribution.

Guerrilla Branding, Marketing & Promotion

Without access to the marketing and promotional budgets of large studios and dis tributors, independent filmmakers are forced to master and embrace low-cost non-traditional forms of marketing. This approach to marketing is typically referred to as “Guerrilla Marketing” in which an emphasis is placed on creativity, strategic thinking and highly focused promotional activities.

The key ingredients and characteristics of successful guerrilla marketing, include:

1. Highly targeted, primary, secondary and tertiary markets.
2. Efficient and effective use of a select number of focused no- or low-cost marketing materials, activities and channels.
3. An emphasis on inbound vs outbound marketing. In other words, rather than buying attention by spending money on outbound advertising, guerrilla marketing places an emphasis on attracting an audience into our community through low-/no-cost digital channels.
4. Integrated marketing which incorporates consistent brand messaging (as well as design elements) across marketing channels and the use of different promotional methods to mutually reinforce each other.
5. Leveraging marketing efforts, activities and materials across multiple marketing channels. Rather than producing unique content for each aspect of your marketing materials, activities and channels, you leverage content (film descriptions, cast and crew biographies, key art, teasers and trailers, electronic press kits [EPKs], etc.) across as much of your marketing and promotional campaigns as possible.

Before we move too far along on the topic of guerrilla marketing, we should agree on our terminology. For the purposes of our discussions, marketing is simply a broad term to describe all the activities we take (and will take) to promote ourselves and our films, including: market research, digital promotion, media relations, database marketing and, on a limited basis, advertising.

To make these marketing activities most effective, filmmakers must create a unique and powerful image of themselves and of their films in the minds of the target audience and marketplace. Developing and managing this unique image is referred to as branding.

The many elements that make up a film’s or filmmaker’s brand include: (i) the name or title of the film, studio and/or filmmaker; (ii) any taglines or slogans; (iii) colors and design elements used across the brand’s marketing materials and channels; (iv) the voice, personality or character of the brand; (v) use of specific language, vocabulary and phrases; (vi) constant and consistent marketing messages; (vii) key art and other marketing imagery; (viii) the genre and target market on which the studio and filmmaker concentrate; and (ix) the quality and storylines of the studio’s and filmmaker’s film and promotional product portfolios.

Promotion, on the other hand, represents all of the individual and collective activities, efforts and materials designed to present the brand in a way that creates audience awareness, interest and desire in the filmmaker and their films. Promotion helps to establish and solidify the brand and, ultimately, either directly or indirectly, to increase demand for the filmmaker’s movies and promotional products.

Your Strategic & Marketing Objectives

To maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of our branding, marketing and promotion, each filmmaker must first identify the most important strategic and marketing objectives for their films and their careers.

I think it’s safe to assume that the ultimate objective of every independent filmmaker is to have an enduring career characterized by a chain of successful films. Ideally, this will be a career in which the filmmaker maintains control over the production and distribution of the films and stories they tell. After all, what is an independent filmmaker, if not “independent”?

Unfortunately, the key to achieving a long-term career in filmmaking is elusive and multifaceted. An independent filmmaker needs a loyal and engaged audience as well as ready access to talented cast and crew, managers and agents, domestic and international distributors and, of course, investors and lenders.

Although elusive, during this and subsequent chapters, we’ll explore the marketing tools and techniques necessary for the independent filmmaker to develop and expand a loyal fan base of audience members, investors and other industry professionals.

Perhaps without even realizing it, we’ve already agreed on our two most important marketing objectives: the development of a large and expanding base of (i) loyal audience members and (ii) supportive industry professionals, advisors and investors.

Critical Success Factors: Fortunately, success within the entertainment business, like any other business, is typically dependent upon only a few significant determinants. These are known as the business’s or industry’s “Critical Success Factors.” For independent filmmakers, those success factors are broadly comprised of:

1. A film and/or filmmaker worthy of promotion.
2. An engaged and loyal fan base (as demonstrated by the audience’s willingness to purchase and/or rent the filmmaker’s films, leave positive ratings and reviews and provide active and long-term support of the film and filmmaker).
3. Access to production and distribution resources (typically in the form of supportive industry professionals, advisors, cast and crew members and investors).
4. Ability to discourage the “wrong” audience.

While most of these factors may appear to be common sense, the fourth factor – discouraging the “wrong” audience – likely comes as somewhat of a surprise to most readers.

Consider every film distribution channel that you can think of – from theatrical release to digital video-on-demand (iTunes, YouTube Rentals, Vimeo, Netflix, etc.). Each and every one of these distribution channels has an established system for audience and professional ratings and reviews. And these reviews, usually summarized by the total number of stars out of 5, are typically placed in the most highly visible location possible . . . alongside the film’s title.

Unfortunately, all the marketing in the world cannot overcome bad reviews and feedback. Given this, the first critical success factor is to have a film and/or filmmaker worthy of promotion. However, perhaps counterintuitively, the fourth and final success factor is to discourage the “wrong” audience.

As an example: The films produced by my production company, Subic Bay Films, are political-military action films. Our films tell stories that highlight little-known conflicts around the world and feature the U.S. intelligence and special operations communities. However, my team and I must keep in mind that there are American and foreign audiences who have a negative view of the U.S. intelligence agencies and the use of American military power.

Understand that human beings are social animals that tend to follow the crowd. If your film’s first few (or most recent) reviews are positive, it is highly likely that the following reviews will also be positive. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Minimize the chances for negative feedback by dissuading those predisposed to leaving negative feedback from watching your films in the first place. The clearer your film’s title, tagline, key art, description, teasers, trailers and other marketing materials, the more your audience will be able to determine if your film is really “for them” . . . or not.

That said, I recognize that getting any group of people at all to watch our films is a lot easier said than done.

Attention, Interest, Desire and Action (aka “AIDA”): To better understand the marketing challenge facing each independent film and filmmaker, consider that every audience member must be guided through four stages: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.

First, each prospective audience member must be made Aware of the film’s existence and availability; secondly, the audience member needs to be sufficiently Interested in the film that they are willing to give it some thought and consideration; third, something about the film and its marketing needs to fuel a Desire in the prospective audience member to see the film (for practical purposes, interest and desire can often be viewed as a single stage); and fourth, the audience member needs to be driven to take Action in the form of actually renting or purchasing the film and/or promotional products.

FIGURE 1.2 AIDA.
(Robert G. Barnwell/Sandy O. Cagnan)

From this point forward, all of our marketing and promotional efforts will be focused on driving one or more of the “AIDA” factors. However, with a relatively small marketing and promotional budget (at least in comparison to major studio releases), generating audience awareness will remain the single largest challenge we will face throughout our careers as independent filmmakers.

The Marketing Process

The secret to building an audience and driving them through the AIDA process is a proper understanding and use of each step of the marketing process.

The marketing process is essentially an endless loop in which the filmmaker (i) performs audience, market, industry and competitor research and analysis; (ii) develops a strategic marketing plan and establishes a small set of performance objectives; (iii) executes (or implements) the marketing plan; and then (iv) monitors, measures and modifies the marketing campaign to optimize its impact and results.

As an aside, I’d like to highlight part of the final step of the process: “ . . . modifies the marketing campaign to optimize its impact and results.” At first you may not realize the power of this statement. In essence, it assumes that your marketing campaign is never perfect. This gives you permission to develop and execute an imperfect marketing and promotional campaign . . . particularly at the outset.

It’s important to allow yourself the luxury of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Guerrilla Branding, Marketing & Promotion
• Chapter 2 Creating an Irresistible Brand Identity
• Chapter 3 Building an Engaged Community of Friends & Fans
• Chapter 4 Marketability vs Playability (or "How to Produce Niche-Dominating Blockbusters")
• Chapter 5 Pitching & Networking
• Chapter 6 Key Art & Posters
• Chapter 7 Teasers & Trailers
• Chapter 8 Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Production Stills, Videos, Interviews & Special Features
• Chapter 9 IMDb — Marketing & Promotion
• Chapter 10 Social Media & Video Marketing Platforms
• Chapter 11 Dedicated Film & Filmmaker Websites
• Chapter 12 Electronic Press Kits (EPKs) & Press Books
• Chapter 13 Media Relations & Public Releases
• Chapter 14 Event Marketing: Premiers, Festivals, Film Markets & Other Events
• Chapter 15 High-Impact Low-Cost Advertising & Promotion
• Chapter 16 Distribution
• Branding, Marketing and Promotional Audit
• Marketing Plan
• Test Screening Questionnaire
• Glossary
• Works Cited
• About the Author
• Index