A Look at the Marketing Behind 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price'

The LA Times' Calendar section had an interesting feature on documentarian Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker behind last year's smash indie DVD releases Outfoxed and Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. So how did Greenwald find an audience for his docs? According to Ralph Tribbey of the DVD Release Report, DVDs have created a market where niche films, especially those covering hot-button topics, can readily find an audience:

"DVDs are where the money is," he said. "If just 3% or 4% of 75 million DVD households are into a social message, selling a couple of hundred thousand units isn't unreasonable. It's always hard for independent filmmakers. But home video, the Internet and [news-hungry] 24/7 cable news channels help.

Another point to take away from the article is just how early you can begin marketing issue-based, participatory films:

The Web, Greenwald found, is a powerful tool for fundraising and information gathering. So far, he's raised $750,000 -- of which $50,000 came from donors. (Anyone giving $30 or more gets a free DVD.) The director also used the Internet to sign up 600 field producers, novices as well as professionals, and elicit footage, photos and tips about Wal-Mart. The title of the movie was the winner of an online popularity contest.

"This is my universal studio," said the 61-year-old filmmaker, pointing to a computer in his Culver City office... "Through our website we've reached hundreds of thousands of people without a multimillion-dollar marketing push."

The combination of issue-fueled publicity and savvy online marketing is the one-two punch in overcoming a lack a traditional advertising-based release push. Fostering a passionate community is also important -- One look at the film's website illustrates just how integral this notion has become in all stages of an indie film's production, distribution and marketing:

1. The main feature on the homepage is a call to action to get involved in the filmmaking process:
2. Individuals have the opportunity to post opinions, stories and photos relating to their personal experiences with Wal-Mart.
3. The site offers a timely blog with an RSS feed.
4. They provide numerous opportunities to join in and participate with partnering activist groups.
5. They have a funny, participatory sub-site featuring the film's mascot, the "Evil Smiley." Incidentally, co-opting and modifying this universally recognized image has provided this film with arguably one of the best logos since Ghostbusters.

Based on an early look at blog trend tracking sites like Blogpulse, Icerocket and Technorati, the chatter in the blogosphere is just starting to pick up. But once the amplifying effect of thousands of linking blogs takes hold, expect this film to generate massive grassroots level buzz as the November 13th release date approaches.

[Via calendarlive.com]

Killer Biopic Stirs Controversy in Canada

According to the Montreal Gazette, 'Karla', a film about notorious Canadian killers Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo was pulled from the screening schedule of the Montreal Film Festival due to a political and sponsor backlash:

In recent months, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty had been urging people not to go see the movie, which documents the story of Canada's most notorious couple and the brutal killings of schoolgirls Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.

McGuinty congratulated the Montreal film festival organizers Thursday for cancelling the screening, which had been scheduled for later this month.

"These crimes were searing events in the life of this province," McGuinty said. "I have not understood how people would want to profit from that."

Sellers said he knew Air Canada, a sponsor of the Montreal festival, did not want its logo to be posted during the screening of Karla, and he believes the airline was among those sponsors pressuring the festival to drop the movie.

So has all of the negative publicity hurt the producer's chances for finding an audience? According to Quantum Entertainment producer Michael Sellers, Apparently not:

Sellers also said all the publicity generated by politicians like McGuinty speaking against the movie, and the cancellation by the Montreal festival, have actually helped his cause.

"I've had two other film festivals and two or three other distributors call already this morning, so the news value of this and the controversy may in the end be positive," he said.

Will politicians ever learn? If you don't want people to go see a movie, leave it alone. Instead, there are now over 300 articles on Google News, providing hundreds of free column inches -- the dream of every indie movie marketer. Right now, it looks like the producers are working the "freedom of artistic expression" and "no one's dragging you to see this" PR angles, which are straight out of the ol' Miramax playbook. Changing the films name from the generic "Deadly" to "Karla" was a pretty brash move, however, and looks like a blatant move to capitalize on the publicity surrounding Karla Homolka's recent release from prison. We don't care about all that though -- we're still shell-shocked from reading that the flick stars Laura Prepon from "The 70's Show" -- count us in!

[Via the Montreal Gazette]

['Karla' Official Site]

'Uncle Nino': The Little Indie Movie that Could

In case you've missed the slowly-building buzz, here's a short-but-sweet article from the Sun-Sentinel about 'Uncle Nino'. The simple, family-oriented indie film about family ran for over 55 weeks in a Grand Rapids, Michigan theater, grossing over $165,000. Here's a bit from the article:

"People show up every day for Uncle Nino," says Ron Van Timmeren, executive vice president of marketing and film for Celebration! Cinema. The regional, family-owned movie chain has 10 locations, including a multiplex in northeastern Grand Rapids where the film opened on Dec. 5, 2003 and played through last December.

The film stars Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer as parents who are disconnected from their two children and from each other. All that begins to change when the family receives a visit from an eccentric, long-lost relative from Italy, Uncle Nino, played by veteran character actor Pierrino Mascarino.

According to the article, one of the actors has spent tons of face time in Grand Rapids, and has even been named an "honorary Grand Rapidian" by the mayor.

With buzz building behind the backstory, Newmarket, sensing another 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' has dove in to roll out the title nationally.

So what lessons can a move marketer glean from this if planning their own limited release?

1) Your playdate locations should have some relevance. 'Uncle Nino' was filmed in Grand Rapids. Another example is 'Assisted Living', which is screening heavily in Kentucky where it was shot.

2) Furthering number one, screen in communities whose demographics fit your subject matter. Based on the article, Grand Rapids was a good fit for this picture due to the conservative christian base. A good, free resource you can use is fedstats.gov.

3) Make appearances. The actor that played Uncle Nino his in the audience and surprised theatre-goers. As the director, you should figure out a way to make it to every city in your "barn-storming" tour. Sandy Dubowski, the director of doc 'Trembling Before G-D', practically lived on the road to support his film, but he nurtured it to nearly a million in grosses. Whether you do Q&As or throw parties, so something that people will generate buzz and bring more people back.

4) Do your legwork. Sending out clumps of postcards to regional organizations won't work. If you're marketing to the typical indie audience, contact a local indie record shop or popular nightclub - they will usually have a handle on a good promo point person. You have to run your campaign like a tour.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

From one-theater start, gentle indie film rides rising buzz across nation: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

A&E Network dips Toe in Indie Film Pool

According to the Hollywood Reporter, A&E is the latest channel to seek out indie fare:

A&E IndieFilms will showcase four documentaries per year in primetime, with select projects intended for a theatrical run as well. Documentaries coming under the new banner include "In Harm's Way," a chronicle of female journalists working in combat zones from filmmaker Barbara Kopple ("Harlan's Way").

While a boon for documentarians looking to sell their wares, it seems like more of a marketing move on A&E's part. Time will tell if the theatrical ambitions are just smoke and mirrors.

Yahoo! News - A&E Enters Indie Film Waters

Fake Murder Posters - Clever or Crass Indie Movie Marketing?

Francis Xavier promoted his indie flick "Johnny Come Lately" by plastering the streets of Baltimore with fake reward posters seeking a murderer. Unfortunately, it looks like Mr. Xavier didn't take into account the negative backlash:

Misleading. Exploitative. A senseless and painful ruse. That's the reaction from those for whom the murder of a child is reality, not fiction.

"When I really learned its purpose, my knee-jerk reaction was something parents of murdered children say – murder is not entertainment," says Roberta Roper. "You have to walk in someone's shoes to appreciate that journey."

So how did Xavier respond? He claims "he didn't intend to mislead or offend":

"I was just hoping people would go to the Web site and notice it's a movie." While he has no second thoughts about his ad campaign, he realizes that the poster might make some parents wince. He has a 12-year-old daughter and twin 6-month-old sons. "That picture represents everything that is lost in the city every day."

He says the poster was an easy and inexpensive way to promote the film. "We're starving artists,” says Xavier, 42. "We didn't have any money for any big-time marketing. That poster was the only thing I could really think of to get people to notice the movie."

Personally, I think this trumps the lame, misleading "Godsend" effort at generating controversy from earlier this year.

Listen up Indie marketers: the old adage of "all press is good press" refers to celebrities, NOT indie films. I know it's exciting to see your film's title plastered all over the printed page, but bad press like this is completely USELESS in brokering the sale of your film. Why? Because clippings of this sort are completely unusable to a potential distributor. They only draw attention to the marketing and not to the substance of the film. They add no color, no insight, no pullquotes, and they draw attention to the director's inexperience and lack of judgement, thus making the content of the film open to that same line of critique.

The goodwill generated by the "18,000" website hits (always be leery of someone using "hits" to describe web traffic in 2004) is completely negated by the 80,000 or more negative print impressions he probably received. And worse, now this marketing ploy is THE hook for the film, so most upcoming reviews will be "tainted" with references to the stunt (not to mention the fact that some reviewers will now come in with a NEGATIVE bias).

Your marketing and publicity efforts should focus on garnering POSITIVE press for your clip book. If you're thinking about doing a provocative stunt, the consequences can be the unintentional "labeling" of your film by the media, and it might not be very flattering. Just remember that:

positive press = film festival interest.
positive press = distributor interest.
positive press = audience interest.

I'm interested to know what you all think. Am I being too harsh here? What would you guys have done?

Journal Gazette | 09/27/2004 | Phony film poster gets bad reviews

Napoleon Dynamite's Marketing? Sweet!

I have yet to see Napoleon Dynamite, but I am impressed with the creativity of the guys and gals at Fox Searchlight's marketing department. If you've been Reading the Movie Marketing Blog this year, you've seen lots of innovations in the marketplace. Well, Fox has followed some of their own best practices and added a few new and interesting marketing tactics to boot:

1. New scenes -- with this Friday's expansion, Fox has added a 5 minute epilogue to entice fans to come back for a second showing. Straight out of the DVD playbook, this technique worked well for Fox with last year’s '28 Days Later'. The difference? The scenes were shot just 4 weeks ago...

2. Fan Club Competition -- Fox has heavily promoted the "Napoleon Dynamite Fan Club," and now has 20,000 people competing in a contest to select the club's president. The competition winner gets a free screening and other perks, and helps the movie by virally spreading the word among the target demographic.

3. Napoleon Dynamite Mixers -- Special pre-film events held in "tastemaker" cities to turn out the fan club base.

4. Audience Participation Script -- Ever heard of the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'?

5. Iron-On transfers -- Over 40 different designs that can be printed out and made into t-shirts. Branding, anyone? And no cost to the marketer?

All of this effort would be moot if the film was a dog, but the reviews have been pretty good. I did read somewhere (don't remember where) that the film is "like watching a Wes Anderson cover band" or something to that effect, but In my opinion, Fox Searchlight has done an incredible job of making the film into a unique viewer experience.

Related Links:

Official Site
Fan Club
Rotten Tomatoes Review Page