More New Media News for Film Publicity

According to Robert Marich at marketingmovies.net, the days of investing all online publicity effort and budget for a film into a single website are over. The following excerpt states:

“….marketers ask themselves why attempt to build traffic from scratch for an official movie website that is a startup when they can place content such as video film trailers, mount tie-in promotions and buy ads on established websites with huge audiences. These days, Yahoo Movies, MySpace, YouTube and Google are a prime focus for most movie campaigns.”

Check out the full story.

Blogs: Embrace them, use them, don’t leave the set without them.

I love it when the numbers support my argument.   This headline makes me smile and pump my fist in the air a couple of times in affirmation:

8 Of 10 Americans Know About Blogs; Half Visit Them Regularly

Check out the full stats in all their glory at mediapost.com. 

Tip:  Movie goers are discussing film on blogs. Effective film publicity requires wading into the blogosphere.

Talk: Are you a filmmaker with a blog? Post the link in comments and I’ll add it to my blogroll.

Balancing Act: Traditional Publicity and Social Networking

Embracing Web 2.0, effectively interacting with the community of movie fans using the variety of social networking tools and sites is obviously something I advocate very strongly. Frankly, I doubt the wisdom of any studio or indie filmmaker who chooses to ignore the power of the conversations on the Internet. However, that doesn’t mean one should focus solely on the new media and forego the traditional press.  How much attention you focus on the traditional media depends, obviously, on the “star” factor of your film and how much money you have in your publicity budget, among other things. It’s a balancing act, even in the best of circumstances, and one that studios and independent filmmakers are still learning.

Today I listened to a podcast on just this subject. A three-way conversation between Joseph Jaffe, Across the Sound; Chris Thilk, Movie Marketing Madness; and Kirk Skodis, Real Pie Media. After a blessedly brief three-way love fest, including a declaration of a man-crush that I’m sure will haunt the declarer for some time, the guys discussed how the film industry is reacting and adapting to the new media and social networking. They used several recent examples of box office flops and successes, from studios and independents to demonstrate what appears to work, and doesn’t, in film publicity nowadays.

Check out the podcast and share your thoughts about it.

Digital Distribution: survival tool for indie filmmakers?

This article from pr-gb.com, while quite lengthy, and written by a digital distributor, does an excellent job of articulating the struggles of indie filmmakers to get their movies to audiences, and the hope that social networking and digital distribution provides.

Indie filmmakers have always been at an disadvantage against major studios, especially when it comes to promotion and distribution. And as the author suggests, it’s unlikely that indie filmmakers will successfully compete in the traditional fashion. Digital distribution, while it hasn’t exactly leveled the playing field, offers indies a cost-effective alternative.

As I said, it’s lengthy, but well worth taking the time to read.

A little ad in your viral video: YouTube’s new model

Online Media Daily reports that YouTube is now running semi-transparent ads as overlays and/or rich media animations  on professional and user-generated videos.

It’ll be interesting to see how YouTube users react to this. Would a Joe from Ohio wonder why he’s not getting a slice of the branding revenue when he realizes there’s an ad overlay playing concurrently on his popular video of his break-dancing dog?

In any case, it’s another sign of the times: publicity and marketing focus continues to shift and adapt to the world of Web 2.0.