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7. Publicity
- Southern Illinois University Press
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211 7 Publicity It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce. —Voltaire Publicity is the most cost-effective but is among the least predictable disciplines in film marketing. Film marketers do not control the extent of press coverage, whether positive or negative, or the timing of its dissemination. However, when everything clicks, a publicity campaign subtly saturates the marketplace with third-party endorsements of films via upbeat editorial coverage. Publicity campaigns rely on media outlets, such as magazines, television, online, radio, and newspaper, to cover a film with stories, gossip-column items, reviews, and posted content. The objective of movie marketers is to create in the marketplace a buzz that mushrooms. Industry organizations confer awards on publicity campaigns for excellence in exciting moviegoers (see fig. 7.1). “Even with technology changing the landscape, word of mouth—meaning old-fashioned buzz—is still the golden egg that we are all searching for,” said Jeffrey Godsick, senior executive vice president of marketing at Twentieth Century Fox. “You must penetrate the popular culture. The consumer must hear about your film from his or her inner friend base, the outer friend base, the DJ, from the news.” Publicity campaigns cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per film, which is a small slice of overall marketing expenditure when compared to paid advertising. Film-publicity roll-outs follow a standard schedule that has been honed over the years. To be able to deliver publicity goodies when a film is Fig. 7.1. Best-publicity-campaign winners and nominees, Maxwell Weinberg Publicist Showmanship award for motion pictures, 2003–121 Movie2 Studio 2012 Bridesmaids Universal Pictures Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 Warner Bros. Pictures The Help* Disney Studios Rise of the Planet of the Apes Twentieth Century Fox The Smurfs Sony Pictures Transformers: Dark of the Moon Paramount Pictures 2011 Despicable Me Universal Inception Warner Social Network* Sony Toy Story 3 Disney Waiting for Superman Paramount Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Fox 2010 Avatar Fox Couples Retreat Universal The Hangover* Warner Paranormal Activity Paramount The Proposal Disney 2012 Sony 2009 Beverly Hills Chihuahua Walt Disney Pictures The Dark Knight* Warner Bros. Pictures Hancock Columbia Pictures Iron Man Paramount Pictures Mama Mia Universal Pictures Marley & Me Twentieth Century Fox 2008 Enchanted Disney Knocked Up Universal The Simpsons Movie Fox 300* Warner Brothers Transformers DreamWorks/Paramount [3.86.235.207] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:35 GMT) 2007 Borat* Twentieth Century Fox Dreamgirls Paramount The Devil Wears Prada Twentieth Century Fox Happy Feet Warner Brothers Pirates of the Caribbean Disney Talladega Nights Sony Pictures United 93 Universal 2006 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Warner Brothers The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion Walt Disney Pictures Good Night and Good Luck Warner Independent Memoirs of a Geisha Columbia Pictures Walk the Line* Twentieth Century Fox 2005 The Day after Tomorrow Twentieth Century Fox The Incredibles Disney/Pixar Mean Girls Paramount The Polar Express Warner Brothers Ray* Universal Spider-Man 2 Sony 2004 Big Fish Sony Master and Commander: Twentieth Century Fox The Far Side of the World Pirates of the Caribbean: Disney The Curse–Black Pearl* Seabiscuit Universal School of Rock Universal 2003 Die Another Day MGM 8 Mile Universal Pictures Ice Age Twentieth Century Fox Signs Touchstone Pictures Spider-Man* Columbia Pictures source: Local 600, International Cinematographers Guild, https://www.cameraguild.com/ notes: 1. The Publicists Guild gives out this award. 2. Winners are marked in bold and with asterisks; others are nominees. 214 Publicity about to be released, the material needs to be assembled at the earliest stage of a film’s existence. The big opportunity for film marketers is online media, given cyberspace is mostly personal media (see chapter 4). The audience shift to online seems to have taken its toll on a Hollywood institution: the extravagant, splashy party. Instead of huge hooplas, film marketers are spreading their publicity budget over more and smaller events and publicity stunts because more events offer a better payoff. Film marketers find that crafting multiple events, each with a different thrust tailored to appeal to different audience segments, better addresses the interests of audiences on different cable TV and cyberspace outlets. Also, one big bash generating most of the publicity risks inundating moviegoers with repetitive content that all looks like it came from the same place, because it did. Thus, Hollywood’s new calculus suggests that staging a series of parties and events at $50,000 each is better than one big bash costing hundreds...