Lest you think we marketing folk engage in all of this derring-do to no particular end — that we perform it strictly to tickle our always-be-researching, information-addled minds – rest assured there is indeed a purpose to all of our tinkering.
In the case of indie film – the audience catered to at this blog and the raison d’être for PMD-For-Hire – filmmakers ultimately need you to sit watch their pictures, goddamit, if they intend on having a film career. They want you to fork over some shekels to see their art, regardless of which platform you consume it, and then they want you to ebulliently share your experiences with everybody else you know. Simple enough.
If you’ve just dropped in today, welcome! This is the fourth of the #BlogSomething2012 series, inspired by this initial Christopher S. Penn post (of the detail-icious podcast Marketing Over Coffee), with one final entry to follow on the morrow.
Posts one, two, and — #KABOOM! — three dealt with techniques we marketers use to collect our prospects, sift through them for juicy qualified leads, and then how best to engage them once they’ve decided to become customers. Post four – this one – is how to actually get these customers to physically do the very thing you’ve been puckering up to them for all week long…
How do we get this job done?
My suggestions again pertain to indie film, but are adaptable to your particular circumstances if you’re chiming in from other fields.
So, first off, craft a damn fine yarn!
Yeah, I know I’ve been harping about this all week long, but it bears mentioning again. If your story is poorly conceived, poorly told, or poorly edited, why should people give a hoot? Why should they willingly hand over their time? The most expensive commodity today, perhaps more lavish than all the natural resources submerged deep in the pristine Canadian tundra, is people’s time. Make it worth people’s scant hours, and they’ll almost certainly tell others how truly amazing you and your wicked creations are. In fact, they won’t be able to contain themselves – I guarantee it – and it will lead to even greater commitment on the part of others you don’t know yet but who they know. Soon, you’ll have more people than you can shake a boom mic at asking for a ticket, having sold out the house in no time flat. Offer additional channels in which to watch the film (see below) and you can swell your viewership by multiples.
You’ve also got to be unassailably truthful.
Sure, I realize the aim of most movie trailers is to get ample butts in those increasingly narrow seats, but given the typical dearth of star talent casted for the average indie coupled with resources usually adequate enough just for the single moon shot, ensure that all marketing collateral (egs. posters, one-sheets, banner ads, and especially your teaser/trailer) precisely mirrors what audiences are expecting to see in your film! Don’t flog a story which doesn’t exist and for godssake don’t shill. If it’s good, it speaks for itself. If actors have done their job properly – and you, as filmmaker, have directed them – you will have literally created “something outta’ nothing,” perhaps the single greatest achievement of the entire Hollywood industry.
For a good example of consistent content – from conception to execution to rollout to continuing audience engagement – examine closely how Boise’s Gregory Bayne gets the job done with BLOODSWORTH: An Innocent Man and his other projects on offer here.
The third way to finish off the dance is to make it totally easy for them. Don’t make your would-be audience jump through hoops to find you or buy from you.
For example, imagine the most basic organic Google search a potential viewer can execute, then work backwards from there and register all domains accordingly. Make sure to secure all possible permutations of the name as well – to wit (and if available), www (yourmoviename) dot com, www (your movie name) movie dot com, www (your movie name) themovie dot com, www buy (yourmoviename) dot com, and others, especially if you’re fortunate to have a generic term in your title. Be relentless with this sort of marketing, because serendipitous finds can often be the most viral, as I’ve often discovered, especially for those generic terms which can often get confused with other online gobbledygook.
Also, when it comes to online payment processing, make it easy for people to purchase. Don’t make them hop through endless hoops or register for a simple one-time $3.99 purchase. Make things as one-click as possible, because any minor delay in navigating a paywall is just another reason to persuade viewers to do something else and you’ll have lost the engagement opportunity forever.
Make it easy to share the news also. Your social share buttons and plugins should all be up-to-date and 1-clickable, which goes without saying…
As for ease-of-use, indies are fortunate because scads of platforms have cropped up in recent years to permit viewers to see films across a plethora of devices. Now there are almost no excuses for shabby audience engagement.
So which platforms exactly (hardly an exhaustive list, duh!)?
VOD:
- iTunes.
- Netflix (both streaming and by-mail).
- Hulu.
- Amazon VOD.
- Zip.ca (north of the 49th parallel).
- Indieflix.
In-line streaming:
Then there are mobile versions of same, then off the iPad, plus any manner of live events. If you’re keen for traditional theatrical, there are certain arthouse cinemas – in my burg of Toronto you have the Bloor Cinema, The Royal, and the Fox Theatre.
Another way to get them to sit and watch is to make the entire experience fun.
Make the experience about them not about you, and it will have a profound effect on the people you’re trying to engage. You’ll notice this increased appreciation in the form of increased views, sales, shares, and viral activity.
Your promotional materials should have a sense of intrigue, playfulness, or shock about them, and rather than checking promotional collateral off some deliverables list, put a lot of energy into designing in such a way as to really break through the clutter.
The reason we’re jonesing for upcoming summer smash hits like Prometheus, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, and Lockout is because we know a lot about these blockbusters already and what to expect from them. In the case of Prometheus in particular, 20th Century Fox has been engaging in an all-out media blitz with as much behind-the-scenes material, interview footage, TED Talks, and other distracting premiums and bonuses that has the studio’s audiences champing at the bit like restless stallions. The crescendo continues to build and the storm is on horizon. All of us can’t wait until Friday, June 08, 2012.
And lastly when all of this is said and done, don’t leave audiences hanging! Engage them today, tomorrow, and into the future. Make them a critical part of the entire process. Solicit their opinions. Seek their help. Source ideas from the crowd. Offer premiums to your most loyal fans. Get them to design mashups.
If you do anything, always ensure to treat your fans with appreciation, not just as the people who give you money.
That’s how you finish the dance.
Adam Daniel Mezei, PMD | Producer of Marketing and Distribution
http://pmdforhire.com
Indie Audience Engagement Services for Independent Feature Films and Documentaries
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