FILM INDUSTRY:Distribution: Elements of marketing

Prints and advertising

·         Distributors decides on the marketing strategy, after deciding on their target audience and USP

·         They determine how much to spend on advertising, publicity, and on actual prints of the film to send to cinemas

·         They have to predict how much they think the film will make at the box office, before they decide on how much to spend
-they compare their film with others that are similar and have already been release
-if the film features stars then a similar exercise is carried out
-they see how similar films are fared in the marketplace
-the film can be released in many big cinemas if it has a wide appeal, or if the audience isn’t as large, then the film may have a limited release.

Promotions

Promotions and Merchandise

·         It has become important in film marketing

·         Promotions and merchandising are both developed with the target audience in mind, they give added awareness of the film to the audience

·         Cross promotions with ‘3^rd parties’ help both the distributor as well as the company

·         Usually films aimed at a younger market offer opportunities to the distributor to produce merchandises.

Publicity

Advertising

Advertising is paid for the distribution companies have budgets to spend on the film title. The largest spend of any P and A (PRINTS & ADVERTISING). The budget will be on buying media space for the film; the main advertising avenues open to any distributor are:

·         Trailers

·         Posters

·         TV, Press and Radio advertising

·         Merchandise

·         Website

·         Outdoor (billboards, buses)