I spend a lot of time talking about ways to improve online movie marketing efforts. Since the amount of time people spend online is ever increasing, it's a natural area for marketers of all stripes to move into. But it's important for movie marketers and others to remember that the online world exists because of and in relation to an offline world, and so it's best not to forget to attend to matters in the non-digital world as well.
Unfortunately, it seems that the ability to effectively market a film offline seems to be an art whose practitioners are being underutilized. Let me use my own personal experiences as an example (shocking, I know).
I work in downtown Chicago, and everyday I walk down the portion of Michigan Avenue known as the Magnificent Mile to get to and from my office. On my way, I often see young people -- a marketers' core demographic -- wearing shirts emblazoned with brand names such as DKNY, American Eagle, FUBU and a host of others. There's also the attire relating to a favored band-- recent t-shirts I've seen include Pearl Jam, Godsmack, R.E.M and a few others. I myself just bought a t-shirt with the logo of the band Chicago when I saw them in concert. What's the point of these shirts? To allow a person to express solidarity with a band and announce to the world that they are a fan of that band's music. Likewise, designer-labeled shirts announce the consumer's preference for that company's style.
An observant eye will recognize both these examples for what they truly are: branding opportunities. These brands and bands have found an easy way to let consumers spread the word for them. Every person who sees someone wearing a branded t-shirt also sees the wearer of that shirt-- and derives meaning from that combination. For example, you may view the wearer as a pretty, hip, friendly and seemingly successful 20-something woman. Maybe you want to be like her or, in the case of a single male, want to be with her, due to what you perceive about her from her choice in t-shirt messaging. The point is that the association of the brand with that collection of demographic attributes has had a powerful effect on you.
Now think about the last time you walked through a public place, be it shopping district, an area zoo or an airport. How many shirts did you see with band logos or company insignias? Now, think about how many shirts promoting movies you saw. None, right? That's because movie marketers don't do this, or much of anything else to enable offline word-of-mouth. I'm not so much referring to t-shirts specifically here as much as I'm trying to point out that there are ways movie marketers can go offline as both a primary objective and a way to encourage and push forward the online efforts they're working on.
Imagine this scenario with me for a moment. A studio is about to release a much-anticipated, big budget feature film about Hawkeye, the Marvel Comics hero. Six months before the movie opens, they begin selling Hawkeye-branded apparel on the studio's website, as well as on Amazon.com and in Target stores. The clothes are hip, comfortable and sport the title treatment-- a single purple arrow (Hawkeye's trademark) and the address of the movie's official website. The above mentioned 20-something cutie wears the shirt, prompting the geek who writes about movie marketing to check her out. Eventually, when said geek gets to his desk, he checks out the website. He then not only orders a shirt for himself (Hawkeye was always his favorite Avenger) but writes in his blog about how he saw the shirt and was moved to do some surfing of his own. In his blog post he includes not only a link to the official website but to Amazon.com as well, where people can order their own t-shirt (note: had said writer geek had a camera phone, he likely would have snapped a picture and posted it to his Flickr account as well).
Word of mouth achieved. And think about the number of people who saw that shirt and did their own surfing afterward, regardless of whether they blogged about it or not.
I'm using t-shirts as an example because they're so easy and they cross gender and age boundaries, but the same idea applies to any attempts to promote your online offerings through offline channels, rather than just vice versa. Your ultimate goal may be to promote a movie, but when you have sponsors who pay to be on your website, and interactive budgets to justify, can you afford not to look for any and every opportunity for marketing synergy?
Chris Thilk has been writing about movie marketing since May 2004. Read full bio.
