The Film Agency programmes the BAM TALKS at the Bogotá Audiovisual Market. Over a week, 25 experts will deliver more than 180 marketing and distribution tips about film production, international film sales, VR, animation, television, transmedia and audience convergence.
Here are our 10 Favourite Film Marketing Lessons:
TIP 1: “None of the lessons that we’ve learned at the Oscars works by itself. It is actually the synergy of several factors that can generate a nomination.”
Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra – Ciudad Lunar
This is a very valuable marketing lesson that refers, between the lines, to the classic “marketing mix”: it is not one factor, one media or one component of the campaign that delivers the results. It is the blend of it all, which actually works: a good and balanced mix of Product, Place, Promotion and Price is what defines a good marketing strategy.
TIP 2: “Keep it simple: there might be loads of elements but we should only highlight those that are most important”
Jerry Le – Visit Films
This tip refers to what we call in marketing the USP: Unique Selling Proposal. A very important key is to be selective in the selling arguments and balance them in the right order.
TIP 3: “Listen to your client”
Audrey Kamga – Arte France
As simple as it may seem, this tip implies the essence of marketing: listening, taking the temperature of the market, understanding the needs of the audience is the DNA of good advertisement decisions and successful products.
TIP 4: “A first meeting with a distributor is like a blind date. You really need to ask many questions to know everything about that person see whether it is a good partner for you.
Amy Hobby – Tribeca Film institute
Finding the right partners is one of the most important keys to film business-to-business marketing. In a world led by networking, meeting people and quickly assessing the compatibility of the project with other partners is a must.
TIP 5: “Do your homework to understand the market, but also believe in your own intuition.”
Hernán Le Greca – Cartoon Network
There are thousands of market studies and lots of important contradictions among them. The world is changing too rapidly and consumption habits are a rollercoaster. Marketing is not an exact science and thus it is important to understand the figures, but also to go with your gut feeling.
TIP 6: “What I expect from a film, like any other human being, is to be moved.”
Charles Tesson – Semaine de la Critique Cannes
Marketing is about simple emotions. Films are too. Beyond all the sophistication of languages and auteurs, what all the different audiences need is just to feel in order to engage.
TIP 7: “In VR you, as creator, are always part of the audience and the more you put yourself in that place, the better the user experience will be”.
Karim Ben Khelifa – The Enemy & Juan Diaz – World Building Institute
When we develop products or services we’re always challenged to put ourselves in the shoes of our audience. In Transmedia the creator becomes the audience, and the audience becomes the creator. Empathy is a key word in marketing.
TIP 8: “Love your fans and think about them as players”
Trisha Williams – Pigeon Hole Productions & Juan Diaz – World Building Institute
Gaming experiences are now trending. Playing allows for going beyond the actual games to affect other forms of entertainment, art, consumption and life. Imagining our fans like players makes us understand our audiences and involve and engage them from the very first step of creation.
TIP 9: “Build a strong brand that can remain strong in the long term. Be patient.”
Archita Ghosh – E*DFilms
Generating an indie film that can last as a Brand or franchise is not easy. This might seem to be something that applies only to mainstream films. However, transmedia has been seen to generate brands and platforms that go beyond the actual first product. By creating brands we use all the potential of marketing and extend the expiration dates of our culture or entertainment products.
TIP 10: “Technology is evolving a lot but we are just human beings, we evolve slowly and have the same needs as always.”
Domenico La Porta – WALLIMAGES
As the world gets more and more complex, it is important to recall that the very basic needs of the human being haven’t changed one bit: eating, drinking, having sex, having company and being entertained are still the top reasons why people buy anything in this world.