Film distribution & movie marketing seminar

Allen Chou, President 732-321-0711 [email_address] Follow me on Twitter @AllenChou Passion River Films Film Distribution & Marketing Seminar 04/29/10 - Jimmy’s #43, New York, NY

Agenda
Distributor’s story
Slides meant to drive panel discussion
Quick Q&A after presentation
Panel discussion
Panelist Q&A
Spread the love - meet & greet

Tweet questions using #Film429

Who is Passion River?
DVD distributor (retail, on-line, & library)
Non-Theatrical & Theatrical
Educational sales
Digital delivery
Broadcast licensing
Non-Exclusive
Netflix partner company

What’s your story?

Who’s sitting next to you?

What’s YOUR problem?

Got competition?

229 titles per week 2009 Total DVDs released= 11,934* *Per www.DVDreleasereport.com

What’s my challenge?

Your Fear is my Fear

My needs My competition

Basic film evaluations
Story
Audience
Buzz
Market potential
Piece of the pie

Great Film Challenges
B&W
Comedies
Shorts
Problems
No Buzz
No Team

Big Guns!

What do theaters want?
Built in audience
Mailing list
Long lead time
Events
Low cost

What Do Stores Want?
Strong consumer interest
Fast sales & turns
Affordable pricing
Demographic match
Money

What do libraries want?
Build collections
Service community
Relevant content
Affordable
Digital rights
PPR?

Big Sales Still DVD Retail

So Who’s My “Buyer”?

Are These My Buyers?

Maybe She’s My “Buyer”?

He’s a Buyer?

They’re All Buyers!
Retail store buyers purchase what’s best for THEIR store
Consumers are the real clients– not stores!

Don’t cash the check…

Returns

Returns Suck!

Retail Store Blues
Sam Goody, Music Land, Tower Records, Circuit City & more close
Blockbuster 4585 US stores 7/09, 3525 1/10
Less shelf space & no budget
Highly competitive
Returns likely

On-Line Renting Changes Everything!

• Over 14 million subscribers On Netflix • Over 1-2 million subscribers on Blockbuster • Consumer getting used to renting special interest titles on-line • Stores less interested in indie titles

15+ million on-line renters Is this good for your film?

DVD Kiosks
DVD kiosks placed in retail locations
No retail shelf space
Some kiosks offer burn-on-demand service
RedBox over 20k locations

So does RedBox want you?

How does my film get into the DVD retail marketplace? Home Video

Traditional US DVD Distribution
Exclusive - little or no mixed rights
Features
Distributor handles keyart, marketing, & DVD replication
Fulfillment

DVD Release Workflow

DVD Release Points
1 month between Order & Street Date
4 month lead time for new release
Street date driven sales- changing

Foreign Sales

Foreign Sales
How does it work?
What does a foreign buyer want?
How do you find or meet the buyers?
Is the market soft now?
Can you sell finished DVD products?

Foreign Film Markets

Strategies for Foreign Film Markets
Research - Research - Research
Attend markets, even if you do not have a completed film
Get last year’s “buyer’s list” before going
Get “market issue” trades (HWR, Variety,& Screen International)
When at a market get “buyer’s list” and collect related sales materials

Key Considerations For Foreign Film Markets
Foreign buyers discover new titles at markets
Sales agents negotiate & license deals
Markets can be very expensive
Timing can be critical

DIY Foreign Sales
Co-op booth space at markets
Get your own booth (expensive)
Can be non-exclusive
Solicit buyers BEFORE the market & set up appointments at “meeting locations”
Bring your own “standard deal memo”
Research Foreign Sales Companies
Consider making direct deals with buyers when attending

Strategies for selecting foreign sales company
Research integrity of sales agent
Appropriate catalog
Producer friendly contract
Reasonable “market expenses”
Reasonable commissions
Realistic sales figures

Digital Delivery & Sales
Pay flat fee
Pay per view
Revenue Share

Digital Sale Points
Must digitize to each site’s specs
May not be able to deal direct - may need to go through distributor
Streaming & Downloads help sell DVDs
Many “views” are not feature length

Streaming your film
Pro’s
Great exposure
Revenue
Piracy

Streaming your film
Cons
• Contract review
• Low revenue
Possible propagation
Piracy

Think about your film’s release strategy
How will you create buzz?
Who’s your marketing team?
Do you need film festivals?
What distributors could be interested?
Where can I sell my “product”?
Where do I start?
Day - Date?

Self Distribution

Where do you sell your DVD?
Website
Groups, organizations, & institutions
Internet sites (Amazon, Ebay, etc…)
Independent Retail Stores
Local Barnes & Noble program

Keys To Successful Sales
Create consumer awareness
Internet Marketing
Social Media Optimization
Viral Marketing
Word of Mouth
Easy access for purchases

Pro’s To Self Distribution
You keep all the money!
Get payment fast
Rights retention
Your way - Your style
Get your film seen
Build customer list
Cross-sell other items

Con’s To Self Distribution
Time consuming
Must understand movie marketing
Requires extensive resources (time & $)
Often requires hiring specialists (publicist, key art designer, web designer, & marketing consultant)
DVD replication, storage, & fulfillment
Can’t sell direct into big retail accounts

So how do I sell more DVDs, product, & book more events?

Learn Marketing!

Yes. YOU. Did you think I was going to do it for you?

“ Advertising is a wasted pool of resources” The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (Hardcover) , by David Meerman Scott (Author)

Challenge

Can your audience find your:
Project ?
Subject Matter ?
Film Screening ?
Talent ?
DVD ?
Website?
YouTube Channel?
Twitter account?

Geting Found Without Advertising? What’s the plan?

Internet Marketing Strategy
Identify your audience (customer)
Find your audience
Allow your audience to find you
Engage with your audience and offer something “special”
Participate with your “community”
Incorporate a “call-to-action” & conversion strategy

Define Your Conversion Goals
Website visits
YouTube views & ratings
Twitter followers
Facebook friends
Google page results
DVD sales
Blog mentions & Re-Tweets
-Prioritize Your List-

Start with Content!

Content is King!

Keyword Research
User intent?
Building KW list
Use a KW tool
Generate new related KW & long tail KW
Divide list into groups
Prioritize groups & select top 10 KW
Create new content (text, video, image, & audio)

Keyword Tools
WordTracker
Google
Keyword Discovery
More Free & Paid…

Word Tracker

Google

Keyword Discovery

Who’s your customer?

Understand your customer
Where do they work, live, play?
What are their needs?
Married? Children?
What social class are they in?
How old?
Gender?
Religion?
What languages do they speak & read?
Interests?

“ Food Matters” Keyword Research Case Study

KW: Organic Food Google Adwords Tool popular Kw idea? Kw idea?

Long Tail Keywords Are KEY! Low volume search terms provide BIG aggregate traffic!!

Food Matters Keyword List
Organic Food
Organic Food Stores
Organic Whole Foods
Organic Food Recipes
Organic Raw Foods
About Organic Food
Organic Food List
Organic Food Restaurants
Organic Vegetarian Food
Health Food Stores

Create Content
3 U’s – Useful, Updated, Unique (Seth Godin)
Brainstorm new content ideas for Text, Video, Images, & Audio
Remember “Long Tail”!
Place content on your site, blogs, social networks, & everywhere else applicable
Content is KING!

Food Matters Content Ideas
Text - articles from food experts featured in DVD
Video - Scenes that support articles
Images - Farming, medical, food, & expert speakers (not always production stills)
Audio - Clips from film, interviews with experts, filmmakers, & fans
Where would you place newly created content?

Define Silos
Create a marketing plan for each silo
Target silos based on keywords
If silo is competitive or has a lot of “noise” try tier 2 keywords & long tail phrases

“ Organic Food” Silos
Health Foods
Vegetarians - Vegan Lifestyle
Organic Food Fans
Food Shopping & Recipes
Cooking, Meals, & Dining
Farming
Healthy Lifestyles (Yoga, Fitness, etc…)

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing Goals
Generate links & traffic
New contacts that can help
Sales
Authority building
Identify influencers & authorities for your targets

SMM success based on: Creativity Quality of Content

Where can the traffic come from?

StumbleUpon
User driven popularity
Users vote thumbs up or down
Can drive large volumes of traffic, even more than Digg & Reddit
Videos and images work very well
Set up account & stumble your site

voting See next comments

Twitter Strategy
Create transparent account
Include KW in user name if possible
Bio should speak to audience & include kw’s
Include target URL (conversion goals)
Tweet relevant content rich with kw’s
Follow & return follow
Show the love back
Use lists to find users

Twitter Tips
Cultivate a strong community
Don’t just Tweet things that are interesting to you
Don’t leave air between conversation
Don’t over Tweet
Don’t maintain a one-way channel
Monitor your competitors & your KW’s
Use call-to-actions & use a URL shortner to track
Important Tweets can be easily missed
Tweet summaries 1x p/week as re-written content

Finding Followers -Search for like minded people- use lists -Use advanced search options -Find related influential accounts and review their followers & following -Add followers, then remove those that don’t follow back -Does your last Tweet contain relevant or useful info?

Bio & Url Followers ratio Keyword Rich

My Tweets Kw with CTA Answered question found when searching kw “Film Distribution ” Participated Useful info for My “audience”
Key Points
URL redirects
Call to actions
Keyword Rich
Found opportunities
to speak & offer useful
& relevant info

Advanced Search http://search.twitter.com/advanced

What your follower sees
Is last tweet relevant or useful?
What’s the image?
User name?
Spam test yourself

ReTweets
Indicates your content is relevant
Increases your popularity
Gets you more followers & traffic to your URL
Thank users for RTs (DM or Reply)

Twitter Key Points
GIVE - GIVE - GIVE
Contribute good relevant content to community
Monitor & find opportunities to participate with conversations
Listen to what users are interested in
Develop conversion goals and re-direct traffic to target URLs or street level destinations

YouTube
Ability to generate massive awareness
Video should include beginning and ending slates with cta
Optimize descriptions and content
Include url in description
Use target keywords
Choose target keywords in Tags
Label clip using target keywords
Upload other clips and change keywords
Optimize profile
Ratings and votes are important socially, as well with SERP
Participate with comments & responses, including Bad reviews

Massive Views Content Not Optimized Massive Ratings Deep comments

Organic Foods - Food Matters Initial Image Link to Food Matters No URL Nice Ratings & Views

YouTube Key Points
Think beyond the trailer - what’s your topic? (2-5 min)
Content needs to relevant & interesting to viewer
C reate a response video or link to related video
Participate with user comments on your video & related videos
E mbed YouTube onto your site to help increase views
L abel, tag, & write comments with KW in mind
Views, Ratings, & Comments are key for Google optimization
C reate a channel
Add CTA onto video (first frame & last frame)
Drive to increase conversion goals

Other Video Sites:
Metacafe
Google video
Vimeo
More…

Flickr
Get found in image search
Optimize images with target keyword descriptions
Use keywords for file name & tags
Find related discussion groups & participate
Search by topic, location

tags discuss

Social Networking
LinkedIn
MySpace
FaceBook
Ning
Forums & Mailing Lists
And more…

LinkedIn
Optimize your profile
Connect with people & groups
Can generate nice traffic to your site
Participate in Q&A section

Set up fan page
Get friends
Join Groups
Create Events
Private Message influencers & authorities
Consider FB ads
FaceBook

Ning.com
Create a social network based on primary & related keywords
Engage & participate with networks found
Consider geographic

Key Points for Social Networking
Give- don’t take
Engage & participate within community
Be transparent
Win friends & influence people
Communicate with “you” & “your”
Build trust
Offer FREE gifts
Exclusive or direct access to YOU

Forums & Mailing Lists
Newspaper Forums
Craig’s List (community, discussion, etc…)
Yahoo! Groups
Google Groups
Meetup.com
Industry specific sites (Mandy.com, IFP.org, IDA, etc…)
Newsletter blasts from industry sites (some organizations have 100,000’s of subscribers)

Social User Reviews
Join the community & participate
Write reviews & add friends
Build a solid reputation
Be careful if “self-reviewing”
Amazon.com (cross linking & listmania)
Netflix, Yelp, Yahoo & Google Answers
YouTube
Fickr

On-Line Publicity Strategies
Journalists bombarded
On-line PR often read by consumers
PR are distributed via RSS
Getting your story “picked up” & re-written onto a site is best
Indexed as “News” on search engines, so date & time sensitive
Don’t send releases at end of the week

Submitting a Press Release via Wire Service
Releases distributed on the internet should be SEO
Use wire services: PRweb, PRNewsire, & dozens of free wire services
Some services are expensive
Writing services available

Unique Press Releases
Integrate traditional promotions
Contests
Give aways
Exclusive interviews
Etc…

Google Alerts
Sign up & monitor your keywords, including your name, project, & competitors
Participate immediately, especially for damage control

Website Analytics
“ ABC” - A lways B e C onverting
“ ABT” - A lways B e T esting
Track your progress
Where is your traffic coming from?
What keywords were you found with?

“ Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want” Dan Stanford A reminder that failure isn’t just acceptable- but essential.

Recommend website:
www. SearchEngineWatch .com

-Remember- Hope is not a marketing strategy

Thank You! Be our friend on FaceBook- Passion River Follow me on Twitter @AllenChou Join our mailing list at: www. MarketMyMovie .com

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Film distribution & movie marketing seminar

by MarketMyMovie on Jun 01, 2010

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Film distribution & movie marketing seminar — Presentation Transcript