Distribution Cont.

Release of films
Marketability: audience? devising a strategy.
How much money in marketing? What can the movie take?
Speaking to media partners; radio, newspapers, TV, cinemas?
Premiere.
Online websites, media, newspapers.
Choose the right target audience.

Positioning and audience
Genre of film? Speaks to which age group?
Target film using director and actors to certain people.

Target audience
Smaller films focus more on their target audience.
Gather ideas from past films, but there is also an element of gambling.
45+ age group - make decisions from TV, needs to be reinforced to make them go.
Teenagers - may just turn up at the cinema and watch whatever is on at the time, less fussy about what they see.

Marketing plan
Advertising - more expensive adverts in magazines ect.  publicity of the film, stories about the film aka media coverage.
Outdoor advertising - adverts on buses, billboards.
Word of mouth - free advertising, make or break a film.
Internet - emails and virals.
Screening programmes.

Competition
Films need to stand above other films released at the same time.
Why do the audience want to see your film?
Oct/Nov: good time for cinema going, bad weather, people more inclined to see a movie, good release time.
Weather plays a part in advertising.
Big outdoor posters in the summer mean more people will be more likely to see it as they spend more time outside.

Word of mouth
Critical to any movie, but mainly to smaller productions.
Can make a film either fantastically strong or very bad.
Companies work with media partners to show advance screenings.
People listen to what their friends think more than film reviews, if they say the film is good more people are likely to go and see it.
The life expectancy of a film is shorter if there is bad word of mouth.

Budget
Covers films prints and technical elements.
Advertising costs: making trailers, posters ect.
What is the target market audience? Where will they see adverts?
Radio advertising is cheap.

Viral marketing
Videos, quizzes ect, people send on the emails if the film looks good. (simple process)
Most effective means of advertising, more than press reviews ect.
Most spoof trailers are produced by the marketing company to generate more interest in the film.

Digital marketing
Piracy has escalated over the past few years, this will decrease the amount of piracy happening in the film industry.
20% of all DVD sales in the UK are pirate copies.
Piracy is damaging the film industry.