Marketing you movie

Most independent films just are not advertised. My background is more with CD distribution. With CD's $1.00 spent on advertising will not bring you back $1.00 in profits. I'd bet that for every dollar you spend on any advertising (whether print, TV, radio or whatever) will not even pay back 10 cents. Did you know that 4 out of 5 infomercials are not profitable. You have to sell "mass appeal" things like weight loss products, girls gone wild, and fast food if you want to show a profit off of advertising. Conclusion: Don't throw away your money!

I haven't done it here in Los Angeles. Way too many indie
films being shown all the time.

However, I know three examples of friends of mine who don't
live in a major, moviemaking area who have had great results.
A friend in Tucson got a lot of press coverage and did radio and
TV ads and filled the 350 seat theater for 8 shows. They had
to add 3 screenings due to the demand for tickets. He told me
he spent about $1,500 on advertising and sold 2,800 seats.

try contacting the local papers' entertainment editor and see if their paper does features on local talent/events...that could end up being free

I used to be a major player in Radio advertising, so I've seen the process from the other side of the fence.

The first thing you need to understand is the person pulling your quotes together has a sales target to hit, and therefore is going to present any information to you about their station in such a way that it looks like the advertising can't possibly fail. All they are interested in is getting your money into this month's figures... whether it's in your best interest or not. This is the reason it's best to cut an advertising deal at the end of the month when you can use the salesman's fear of not hitting their target to drive down the rate. Most advertising is based on a cost per thousand basis... there is a lot of room for negotiation on that rate... and nothing scares a salesman like a new client asking for the "cost per thousand rate"

The next thing you need to understand is that a radio stations figures are pretty meaningless, unless your product has universal appeal to a particular demographic. So, it doesn't matter that 40,000 people will hear your spot 6 times... it also doesn't matter how many times people hear your radio spot. Despite how many times a radio sales person says to you "Repetition builds reputation" it isn't true...unless you're establishing a local brand and then it does... In fact, if a radio sales person ever says to you "Repetition builds reputation" just look them in the eyes and say "And how is Giff Gifford these days?" when they've finished having a stroke on your carpet suggest that they cut the BS and talk to you like an adult.

Radio spots work on a very simple formula... does what you're offering fill a need or desire of the person listening?

Basically... WHAT'S THE OFFER?

If you've got a great offer then your ads will work... if you haven't, then they won't.

So, before you invest in radio spots (or any kind of advertising) you have to figure out whether what you're offering is going to motivate people to do whatever you're asking them to do.

The more effort the punter has to make, the greater the motivation has to be.

So it takes more to get someone to go to a cinema than it does to get them to buy something online, because you have to put your pants on to do the former.

The hardest thing for most businesses to do is objectively view what they are offering... the truth is advertising works, but most businesses don't. In all the years I worked in advertising, I would say 95% of the time business owners couldn't tell me why people should buy from them rather than their competition, without descending into meaningless cliches... like "quality" and "value for money"

I still think there's alot of free/cheap options for advertising...find the free art magazine/newpapers in your community and hand insert your playbill into them once they are put into the machine. Talk to Spatula...I'm sure he can come up with a million gray area guerilla tactics for marketing yourself/your film (up to and including threatening Terry Gilliam ).

knightly said:

Talk to Spatula...I'm sure he can come up with a million gray area guerilla tactics for marketing yourself/your film (up to and including threatening Terry Gilliam ).

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Now this I have to hear!

NEVER Pay... if the film is interesting enough (and I would hope it is if youhave taken the time to make it) then use that hook to get people intersted.

Made it for £5k and got Val Kilmer to star? Thats a hook. Find your hook and the film with market and sell itself...

I completely agree with Mr Modern Life and Knightly... everything I said about understanding what your "hook" or in advertising terms "offer" is also applies to free and guerilla advertising.

It pays to understand that even if the content of movie doesn't have an obvious hook... (like Val Kilmer) it's possible either the way you made the film or the people involved is a hook.

if you take a film like "Primer" the hook for that film was: a film made by a first time film maker, with no stars on a $7000 budget gets a great reception at Sundance.

The irony is, your biggest problems during production can become your biggest assets... if you understand how to spin them to your advantage.

What I loved about the whole "Blair Witch" media circus, was the way shoddy camera work became a selling point. I can't remember how many news crew interviewed people coming out of "Blair Witch" at Cannes after they'd thrown up... the implication was the film was that scary (when in fact it was just insane camera movement causing motion sickness).

One of the things I've been trying to drum into indie film makers for years now, is the concept that you need to have thought all of this out BEFORE you go into production, not when you've got a film completed. A good marketing strategy is designed before a product is made, not afterwards.

Zensteve said:

Now this I have to hear!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO-D7dDdv-s

I'd say try and get press before you get ads, and advertise to established people IN the industry BEFORE advertising to the public. Because of out relationship with the Youngcuts film festival (the Macbeth 3000 trailer wooed the festival directors and won the trailer category) our trailer screened on RAZOR network and Geoff got himself into a National Post article on young directors. Then, for CBC's "Exposure" program, the trailer actually screened TWICE on a major Canadian network... and we even got PAID for it. Paid... for our TRAILER to screen on TV.

So there's really quite a few options!

Just one thing NOT to do.... have the writer and director scotch tape flyers advertising your movie all over your bodies, put on a bat-man mask, and go in front of a local radio station and dance in the street handing out postcards with your screening info on it. We got an airhorn blown at us several times until we went home. And the subway ride back was WWWWIIIEERRRDD...