September 27, 2004

Universal's Marketing Department Gets Schooled the G.E. Way

So we haven't heard much in the media about how the recent Universal acquisition has affected the way they market movies, but this recent article gives some compelling insight on their synergistic exploits:

Universal executives now regularly travel to NBC Universal's offices in New York for quarterly budget reviews and strategic planning sessions, topics that were discussed previously but never with such intensity and frequency. Movie marketing executives are teamed with their counterparts at the NBC television network to find new ways to promote the movies. (The studio had never been aligned with a network.) And Hollywood agents and producers said they were being told by production executives that they must hold the line on costs.

Universal has stumbled so far this year. Can "scientific management" work in the context of movie marketing? The Hollywood story teems with past attempts of mega-corporations at "taming the beast," but history seems to show that the studios operate best as autonomous units.
Six Sigma: A Hollywood Studio Learns the G.E. Way | theledger.com