FilmPlug

FILMPLUG friend, Chris Thilk of Movie Marketing Madness, gives us his wish list for marketing films in the New Year in iMedia Connection's Entertainment Spot. Great read. Amen.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 10:18 AM | Permalink

I'm loving the digg and del.icio.us links on the official Jesus Camp website.

But the "Wish I'd Thought Of That - Bet Your Ass I'll Steal It" award goes to the Coordinate With Friends To See Jesus Camp that links to a Google calendar with cities listed on corresponding dates. Bravo!

And by the looks of that trailer, I think they should've co-opted An Inconvenient Truth's tagline: "By far the most terrifying film you will ever see."

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 6:32 PM | Permalink

My good friend, Chris Thilk has wrapped up Snakes on a Plane - possibly the most blogged about, buzzed about and written about campaign ever. Good thing too, because instead of thinking "what more can be written on the subject?" (like me) he does a great job pointing out why and how it has worked.

They didn't get in the way of the identity being built for the brand through the ongoing discussion. They let people define the how, why and what of what was being said. So many marketers still, in the age of blogs, YouTube and MySpace, convinced that they and only they should be allowed to communicate any sort of marketing message. They think word-of-mouth is useless unless it's one of their budgeted and planned programs that started the WOM. New Line? The only thing they had to do to start buzz happening was green light a movie with the name Snakes on a Plane. They knew they weren't in charge of the campaign for this movie, that the net denizens would be in charge.

Amen.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 6:38 PM | Permalink

Universal recently did something very smart in promoting Miami Vice - they called a blogger named Chris Thilk of Movie Marketing Madness fame. What transpired over the last several days may go down as a milestone in the new marketing of movies...

The story as told by Mack Collier on Marketing Profs: Daily Fix with follow up on The Viral Garden.

The resulting MMM post by Chris.

Kudos to Uni for setting a great example that hopefully others will follow. Amazing work (as usual) by Chris who continues to be an inspiration (to this blogger, especially).

A word of caution to bloggers: the blogosphere can be a cruel, cruel place - please think twice before criticizing the next studio that tries to duplicate this effort as being a copycat. We need to encourage this behavior. The studios are already quite wary of reaching out to what can be a very fickle and unforgiving community.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 11:15 AM | Permalink

Kevin Smith's latest tirade against Joel Siegel makes me a) bust up laughing, and b) think about how great it can be when a star uses the internet to connect with his fans.

Actors and filmmakers have always been involved in the marketing process, usually in the form of press junkets, interviews and late night TV appearances, but the internet has given a select few the power to reach out further and ingratiate themselves with audiences. The question is: Does it work? And when it does, why, and why do others fail?

Awesome and effective as they were, high-concept production blogs like KongIsKing and BlueTights were such full-scale websites, they seem to lose the personal touch that actor and filmmaker blogs achieve. Each had blog-like journals, but by the sheer timing of a production blog it's hard to imagine Jackson or Singer reading hundreds of comments in the hotel room after an 18-hour day filming.

Even though the Clerks 2 video blog starts feeling like a huge marketing site, bloggers like Smith (and Zach Braff on Garden State) have a way of making their fans feel like they know them - like these stars are real people, and in this connected time, fans are more likely to respond to real-people celebrities than wanting to keep them up on pedestals. If the internet is the great equalizer, then audiences want their idols at eye-level.

A marketing exec at a studio told me last year that filmmakers were walking into meetings demanding to do podcasts and blogs - whether or not it was right for the campaign - because it was the thing to do. Obviously, this is the wrong approach and maybe there needs to be a perfect storm of willing and prolific talent, engaging film/story, timing and fanbase to get it right.

I was impressed by Jaguar's sponsorship last year of the Match Point video podcasts, but I'm not sure that EPK interviews intercut with film clips are what the podcasting audience is hungry for - of course the iTunes exposure alone made it a no-brainer, audience or not. The recent Nacho Libre Confessionals seemed better suited for podcasts, with Jack Black taking us on an unscripted, BTS tour during production.

Blog and podcast content works best when it comes from talent that understands and embraces the medium, and when it creates a relationship with the audience that feels - or even better, is - genuine.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 11:20 PM | Permalink