Product Placement vs. Cross Promotion
Short of hunting down a proper definition of each (which you should know I will - eventually), I believe the difference between product placement and cross promotion is that the former has more of a passive "fire it and forget it" approach while the latter has more of an active "yeah, we're working on this on both sides."
Anyhow, much of this is
robbed from another thread where the emphasis was on marketing, the part I re-routed here is about supplementing the production budget before & during production via
cross promotion - an aspect of this thread's functional mission.
Later this morning I'll take some time to scour that last article to see what more I can uncover.
CROSS PROMOTION: THE AVENGERS, et al
704
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/168239/harley-davidson-follows-the-passion.html?print
"Bernacchi [the Harley-Davidson marketing communication director who helped develop the Chevrolet/Transformers partnership] tells Marketing Daily that programs like “The Avengers” are about reaching people who are interested, but thinking of swinging a leg over a Harley-Davidson motorcycle maybe later on. "We want to get people interested in Harley-Davidson products and lifestyle in a way that makes them think twice, in places they're living in already; Marvel is one of the largest male publications out there, with the average fan literally being 18 to 34 years of age, so it really hits a sweet spot for us."
Marvel fans are also 40% more likely to consider a Harley-Davidson than any other motorcycle brand and almost 25% more likely to be into motorcycles in general than fans of any other general publication, per Bernacchi. "We are focused on scale and on [relationships with] brands whose characters resonate with ours.""
Okay, so someone's already been doing his homework and knows where to go hunting for more customers.
Good boy. Earn your cheddar.
Speaking of cheddar...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_(2012_film)#Promotional_partners
"Other promotional partners include bracelet-maker Colantotte, Dr Pepper, Farmers Insurance, Harley-Davidson, Hershey, Land O'Frost lunchmeats, Oracle, Red Baron pizza, Symantec, Visa and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. In total Marvel and its' parent-company Disney secured an estimated $100 million in worldwide marketing support for The Avengers. Notable exclusions include Baskin-Robbins, Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts, who had partnered with Marvel in the past when their films were distributed by Paramount. Disney has long strayed away from pairing up with fast fooderies because it does not want to be seen promoting junk food to kids."
Hmm... the more I look at that the more I'm beginning to wonder EXACTLY what "$100 million in... marketing support" really means.
How much you wanna bet that
doesn't really mean the supporting companies are handing over checks to the producers?
Although there might be some nominal product supply as props and
mayyyybe some token cash, but how much you wanna bet that really means Company A tells the film producer it will commit to spending the bulk of it's $$ on advertising & promotion
along the venues and vectors it already has relationships with?
"You go do your thing, we'll do ours. We'll do them together, but separately."
Kinda like trading service for service with minimal or no cash actually trading.
Good old barter system. I'll give you a supper if you sing me some songs sort of deal.
To be more explicit:
Assuming relatively equal effectiveness in reaching customers, whatever $X amount a cross promotional partner commits to spending means you don't have to spend that $X amount out of your budget and allowing you to allocate your own fixed financial resources elsewhere.
Not a total bad deal.
From what I can figure it's actually fairly good.
For example, lettuce say you have a $100k feature budget.
Normal promotional budget would be equal to that amount, which seems rather far fetched in indie world.
(My personal belief is that any budget spent above vacation money and below the semi-official "micro budget film" lower limit @ $4mil is a no man's land of near certain financial death.)
You're looking at a GROSS BUDGET of $200k
$100k Production Budget
+ $100k Advertising & Promotion Budget
= $200k GROSS BUDGET
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's only a Gross Budget since indirect costs/overhead hasn't been factored in to render a Net Budget.
Wanna be nice and call that at $20k? Fine.
$200k GROSS BUDGET
+ $20k OVERHEAD
= $220k NET BUDGET
$220k in revenue or sales required just to break even using the "I'm gonna let this film walk on its own legs" approach.
Now, if you can get a cross promotional partner to commit to... $2k? $5k? of their own in advertising and promotion as they see fit, to more efficiently EXPAND the market you otherwise would have likely reached, assuming a relatively equal bang-for-the-buck/pound/euro/loonie/drachma/peso your break even point just lowered by that amount.
Can you get two or three cross promotional partners? For... $10k?
$100k Production Budget
+ $90k Advertising and Promotion Budget
= $190k Gross Budget
+ $20k Overhead
= $210k Net Budget
$210k in revenue or sales required to break even using the "I'm gonna ask some friends to help sell my movie" approach.
Lop off a zero to all of these and I think you'll have numbers closer to what most of us work with for a feature film.
(Except most of us just consider ONLY the direct costs of the production budget as our ONLY expense to recover - if even.)
I've already got enough shhhstuff to fool with trying to get this independent feature packaged - and they already have the know-how to appeal to their consumer demographic - and their contact knowledge is collectively broader than my own.
That last part is really where the gold is.
Try to have them introduce you to their own advertising and promotion people, for the sake of ensuring the entire program is coordinated.
On subsequent film projects you can ask those contacts if they may know someone interested.
Your informational networking resource pool just exponentially expanded.
Geometric Growth - Red Line
Exponential Growth - Blue and Green Lines
Citation from the above wiki source led to:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118052078?refCatId=13
Just...
read the whole d@mn thing.
This is why I'm peddling cross promotion:
"Studios often rely on partners to target various demographics. In the case of "The Avengers," Acura will help Marvel and Disney reach adults 25-44, while Oracle and Symantec are going after tech savvy males 18-49, Dr. Pepper will target teens and adults 19-24, and Land O'Frost reaches families.
Red Baron enables Marvel to target kids age 6-17 and moms 35-54 with "Avengers"-themed packaging on 13 million of its pizzas and in-store marketing programs at Walmart, Target, Kroger, Safeway, Meijer and Food Lion stores. Company is spending $5 million on its tie-in, which will also have it prominently featured at the April 11 premiere, alongside Harley-Davidson, in Hollywood.
Hershey will target a similar audience as Red Baron with film tie-ins for its Hershey Kisses and other Hershey branded chocolate products, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, York Peppermint Patties.Wyndham will promote the film to guests at the company's 14 hotel brands that include Ramada, Days Inn, Super 8 and Howard Johnson and members of its Wyndham Rewards loyalty program."
- Acura will help Marvel and Disney reach adults 25-44
- Oracle and Symantec are going after tech savvy males 18-49
- Dr. Pepper will target teens and adults 19-24
- Land O'Frost reaches families
- Red Baron enables Marvel to target kids age 6-17
- Red Baron enables Marvel to target moms 35-54
- Hershey will target a similar audience as Red Baron (Who woulda naturally thought pizza and chocolate kisses have the same/similar market?)
How were you gonna target specific demographics? Through what channels? And with what time resources?
This is the benefit of allowing specialists to do their jobs - just like on the set!
Jack of all trades = Master of none.