Paramount's 'An Inconvenient Truth' Marketing Taps Current Events

With the brutal heat wave making headlines across the country, the marketing team behind ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ have spun current events into a creative series of advertisements, according to the “Marketplace Report” broadcast yesterday on American Public Media:

Global warming might seem like counter-intuitive programming for folks trying to escape the heat, but the new ad campaign for the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" has used the toasty weather to its advantage.

Newspaper ads for the film now list scorching temperatures in several US cities.

"It's kind of unusual in the 7th, 8th week of release to have fresh ad campaigns going out to keep a film in the public eye. I think it's been pretty effective."

The film has grossed just under $19 million through July 24th (very impressive for such a "didactic" documentary), and the platform release up to the current peak of 560+ theaters has been handled exceptionally well by the Paramount team. Keeping a film"fresh" during a long roll-out is one of the biggest challenges in film marketing, and tying into current events on both the publicity and advertising fronts is a smart approach to achieve that end.

The film is likely on track to gross in the $20-22 million dollar range, and has a good chance of usurping ‘Bowling for Columbine’ for the number three spot on the list of top-grossing documentaries of all time (‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ holds the top spot at $119 million, and ‘March of the Penguins’ is at #2 with $77.4 million).

Paramount Vantage and the Sierra Club Promo 'An Inconvenient Truth' with Robo-calls

According to Variety, last week Paramount Vantage and The Sierra Club teamed up to promote the release of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ with “robo-calls” – the same sort of prerecorded telephone calls that are usually used to promote political candidates.

On July 7th, approximately 300,000 of the automated calls were placed in New York and four other key markets. The call was a 38 second message from Al gore urging the listener to get out and see his film about global warming, which began like this:

"Hi, I'm Al Gore. The fight against global warming is not about right vs. left, it's about right vs. wrong. That's why the Sierra Club and I are asking you to see my film, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' this weekend.”

According to the article, this is the first time this technique has been used to promote a film, and at least one studio executive believes that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The real question is if people will consider this sort of "push" advertising as an intrusion or not. If done well and correctly targeted, it may work for certain genres of films -- political documentaries and comedies come to mind. And If this technique could be paired with Moviefone-like ticketing capabilities, the ROI tracking capabilities would be a huge boon to movie marketers.

‘An Inconvenient Truth’ has grossed $15.6 million since its release in late May.

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]