'Van Helsing' Overcomes Poor Reviews With Tightly Coordinated Marketing Effort
Here's a good article that illustrates how Universal overcame ho-hum reviews and grabbed the critical first week box office crown. 'Van Helsing' managed to pull in nearly $52 million, and while they have a long way to go to make back their production and marketing costs, they're right in line with expectations.
Despite the mega-budget marketing effort, there's a lot to learn for indie marketers from this case study. Summing up the meat of the article, the Universal marketing team:
1. Cut a great trailer.
2. Aggressively pursued their core demographic.
3. Conducted effective internet marketing.
4. Used the film's "geek appeal" to the fullest extent.
Notice the bold on number three -- I truly believe that this is the cheapest, most effective way to reach an audience, especially with niche films. Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks -- I'm writing a 10-part series on effective internet marketing for Indie filmmakers...
USATODAY.com - Marketing goes to heroic measures
