Market
Cinema marketing in USA
The paper overviews the basic phases and
principles of cinema marketing in USA. In the Addenda,
the particular case of the highly succesfull marketing
of Jurassic Park is presented.
As in other provinces, cinema industry marketing has
gained in importance in the last few decades. Marketing
departments become more powerful then studio bosses, and
numerous film productions offer the possibility of high
creative achievements in marketing design. It is not wrong
to assert that marketing has become the new art of the
end of twentieth century. Marketing begins long before
the the very shooting of the film, and it greatly influences
the production of film (script choice and preparation,
choice of actors and title). Basic defining marketing »factors«
are, first, film itself (the product), second, the distributors,
and, third, the pomotional campaign. Each of these has
its own particular marketing aspect. In the »product« phase,
the nature of the film is stated, its target audience,
its title, and its possible »buyers« (producers and distributors,
the cinemas, and the audience).
In a distribution phase,
the important aspects are the choice of the distributor,
distributing plan, film royalties, and timing of the premiere.
Promotion phase comprises the timing of promotion (well
before the premiere), design of the promotional materials
(one-sheets, posters, trailers, EPK, stand-ups, tickets,
giveaways), preview and publicity, premiere, video-premiere,
etc. Though the film itself is highly important for its
market success (and the unfavorable »word of mouth« can
render inefficient the best marketing campaign), without
developed marketing the film has feeble chances on the
world market today. US market experts even assert that,
from the marketing point of view, to achieve the high income
with the premiere and the first few days of the film run
is not a problem anymore, but the maintenance of the high
audience attendance in longer run (few weeks) is highly
difficult problem, and then the qualities of the film itself
become more important.
Igor Tomljanović |
