How the Film Industry is using Digital Marketing for film promotions

1. Introduction
2. Film Promotions through Digital Marketing = Film Marketing
3. Social media
4. YouTube
5. Virtual Reality of the Gaming Industry
6. Viral Marketing
7. Using Celebrity/Brand Endorsements
8. Meme Marketing
9. Press OK Please
10. Conclusion

Introduction

In this day and age, film promotions through digital marketing determine the success of a film. 

Wondering, Why? 

That’s because these days, it is necessary that your content should reach the maximum audience. And marketing on digital platforms can help you reach this goal. Gone are the days when the multi-city tours, mall visits, and campus visits used to happen to draw the attention of youth. These days teams are substituting it with virtual interactions with local language press meets across cities.  Scroll down and learn more about it: 

Film promotions through digital marketing = Film marketing

Film marketing is film promotion done through a distribution firm responsible for marketing the film through various channels and mediums.

Film promotions happen in coordination with film distribution, and the budget of such exercise is almost half equal to the total cost of movie production. That’s how important marketing is for a film.

There are numerous ways in which the film industry uses digital marketing for film promotions. We will discuss some of them here:

Social Media- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, among others.

When I say social media, it doesn’t mean that you should hire a digital marketing agency to get things done. Celebrities’ official accounts also have a good reach, which they use to engage with fans in various ways. They share BTS (Behind the Scenes) videos, memorable moments from the sets/with fellow actors or film crew or snippets from songs, etc. Actors of the film/series like marketing experts conduct Ask Me Anything sessions or questionnaires and contests around the film close to its release cycle.

Example: Baahubali Facebook marketing campaign

What stood out: ‘Baahubali Profile Picture Frame Contest’, ‘Baahubali Comics’, and Baahubali-inspired stickers in FB messenger.

Result: 4.21 million subscribers on the fan page and massive engagement activity. Yes,‘kattappa ne bahubali ko kyu mara’

Viral Marketing

It is a marketing technique that involves rapid dissemination of movie-related content, such as behind-the-scenes/making-of-the-movie snippets across various social platforms.

As a film promotion technique, this is an organic marketing exercise that aims to use word of mouth to spread a marketing message that reaches as many people as possible.

Even though it would be old-school to mention The Blair Witch Project, there would be no modern viral/moment marketing without giving credit to the film that started it all.

For those unfamiliar: The Blair Witch Project was an indie-horror flick filmed on handheld cameras on a micro-budget.

Backstory: In 1999, the marketers behind the film created a website and promoted the movie along documentary lines. They added pictures and interviews of family members and journal entries to keep people flocking to the film’s website. So much was the excitement around it that more than 20 million people had visited the site long before the movie even hit theaters. And, when the film did release, it made 4000 times more than its actual cost of production.

Now, you may say this was 1999, back when there was hardly any competition, not so many social platforms, but the dedicated and innovative approach of an indie film to use digital marketing( a cost-effective way) is something to learn from.

YouTube- biggest platform for film marketing & promotions

Against common perception, YouTube is not just used for movie trailers and teasers. It is also about press conferences, making-of-the-movie clips, interviews, pre-roll video advertising, trailer talk and deconstruction videos, etc.

Having said that, as a video-streaming platform, movie trailers and teasers receive massive engagement from targeted audiences on YouTube. That’s also the reason why this platform remains so popular for film promotions.

The virtual reality of the gaming industry

Most films, these days, use technologies like virtual reality for promotion. From Baahubali to Hunger Games, a visual-film-like experience is created through games that have a plot that resembles the film. Audience/fans then play along with the screenplay as actors or villains. It is similar to fantasy sports clubs these days. The only difference is that these games are advanced and involve social integration.

Using product placements/tie-ups or digital campaigns

In this digital age, thousands of films release across various movie industries and OTT platforms.

With such an increase in film production, not everyone has the budget for full-fledged film promotion. For many such players, product placements in films or tie-ups with major brands help.

A small film can partner with a brand whose products have been shown in it as was the case with Coca-Cola’s product placement in the James Bond film, Skyfall.

In response to this partnership, Coca-Cola helped Skyfall maximize its audience reach through its vast following on social media accounts.

The James Bond film’s social media fan following was 30x smaller than Cola’s collective fanbase on Facebook and Twitter. This partnership to promote their film using Cola’s social media presence and outreach helped Skyfall reach a much larger audience in a very short period.

Meme Marketing 

Even though digital marketing is quite diverse and has varied strands of film promotion strategies, Meme Marketing has its persona.

Because of how easily they can be made, customized, and shared to get engagement, memes are a common and popular film promotion tool.

One only has to Google ‘Game of Thrones Memes’ to see how popular and user-search-friendly meme marketing is.

Horn Press OK! Please

Let me start this section by stating some of the popular trends: 

As per the influencer marketing firm Mediakix, brands are expected to spend as much as $15 billion annually on influencer marketing by 2022, up from $8 billion in 2019. 

Thanks to social media, news, and media platforms are no longer the sole arbiters of popularizing news, articles, or interviews related to a film. Influencers, bloggers, and artists who have a huge fan following on social media or other platforms are also prospective press for film promotions.

These days, indie and mainstream movies both use the traditional press and this niche group of artists to collaborate for film promotions. From stand-up comics doing cameos on Instagram reels and YouTube, the market of possibility has expanded and taken on new heights.

Conclusion

That’s not it. Many other digital marketing tactics have been used by marketers for film promotions. To learn more of such tricks and become proficient in digital marketing, enroll in Great Learning’s Digital Marketing Postgraduate Course. 

Before signing off, I have a request, dear reader, if you found this blog an interesting read, do give a shout-out through the clap icon below.