PRSA Colorado Newsline

In the last few months I’ve started reviewing films for a variety of publications here in Colorado and I’ve also launched a film blog ingeniously named Dave On Film.  Now that I’m in that space, I’m a natural target for film studios seeking to tap into my connections and influence to help market and promote their upcoming movies, both good and bad.

As a tech-oriented public relations and marketing person myself, it’s proven very interesting to see how the major studios like Universal, Paramount, Miramax and Lionsgate promote films, and I think that a lot of what they do is quite applicable to general event marketing and PR.

Selling the sixth Harry Potter film isn’t a challenge, of course, and it’s clear that Michael Bay and Paramount have had no problem getting people to show up at the theater to watch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But what about a film that might prove more controversial, like Brüno, from Sacha Baron Cohen (who previously brought us the controversial but quite successful film Borat)?

In Hollywood, movie PR starts years before the film comes out, with agencies building up lists of media and online outlets that track that space, whether it’s animation, sci-fi, comedy, or drama. You know some of the A-list players, I bet, including Entertainment Weekly, Roger Ebert, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Before the first reel of film rolls in a camera, information has already been “leaked” to these outlets about who is signed up to direct, who’ll have the starring roles, which writers are brought in to tune up the script, and more.

In the event world, this is the equivalent of announcing your keynote speaker and emcee before you start selling tickets and it’s a critical step towards building buzz and – just as importantly – reserving the date of the event on your calendar.

As filming proceeds and then moves into post-production (editing, sound, special effects, etc) further information is sent to specific channels with the studios knowing that they’ll quickly disseminate into the greater fan community.  Trailers are now routinely produced six months or a year (or more!) before the anticipated release of the film. In fact, there’s a specific type of  trailer called a “teaser trailer” that serves this purpose, and some of them are little more than titles, a sound track and a voiceover, finishing with a target release date.

The last time you marketed an event, did you create any teaser trailers?  When I was involved in PR for Blogworld Expo, we did just that by releasing weekly podcast interviews with event speakers, starting months before the event and leading up to the conference itself. Same concept, different solution.

How do you tell the community about these teasers?  In the film world, here’s the kind of email I now get:

We are pleased to be able to present the teaser trailer for “THE LAST AIRBENDER,” now available for viewing at http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com or downloading at http://www.epk.tv . The film will be released nationwide on Friday, July 2, 2010.  The trailer is only for use in conjunction with reviews, features and reports on the film for a period of up to three months following the film’s release.

Does this work?  Did I disseminate to the thousands of readers and Twitter followers I have (for @FilmBuzz) the URL of this particular trailer to help create buzz for this upcoming M. Night Shyamalan film?  Of course I did.
Continue reading Publicizing your Event the Hollywood Way