New Ways of 'Reaching' Your Audience

Precursor: This blog is about technology and its affect on entertainment. Technology is not just new computers and gagets, but rather technological advances can be in the form of new techniques. That is what this blog will focus on - the new techniques employed when marketing a film.

FIRST OFF: Reach, in marketing terms, refers to how many people have literally scene/heard your ads. You want your reach to be as high as possible and be as cheap as possible - these two ideals rarely are attained simutaneously.

To reach an audience with a tentpole film back in 1995, the most expensive marketing campaign was for Toy Story (35 million dollars total). There were some just below that number, but the majority of films were much lower. This summer will see the total money spent on marketing come within striking distance of being the same as the film's entire production budget.

For example, the tentpole films of Indiana Jones, Speed Racer and the Dark Knight could all see their marketing budget be exactly the same as their 150 million production budgets. Now this drastic leap from 35 million to 150 million in just over a decade may sound crazy and simply a waste of money, but the new technology being employed is SUBTLE PRODUCT PLACEMENT.

Sex and the City, a movie that is expected to bring women to the theaters in droves, has deals with Mercedes Benz, Skyy Vodka and Vitaminwater. These deals are not small ventures, but rather multi-million dollar partnerships that translate into marketing budgets that seem astronomical. It simply is not the case.

I posted earlier in March about Speed Racer and its marketing budget exceeding 150 million. Well, after further examination, I have to disagree with my initial assumption that this amount was absurd for a movie that, I felt, would not make that money back. The budget for marketing has increased because the international community has increased (foreign box office is key for a films success and thusly you must spend lots of money on advertisements) and product placement deals have inflated all the marketing budgets to levels that would seem crazy to anyone who does not see the fine print.

I will end with one of the greatest stories I remember over the past year involving product placement. Rolex was James Bond's watch for years. Omega wanted the title. For Casino Royale, the newest Bond film, Omega paid millions of dollars to have this campy dialog.

HOT BOND BABE: (woman is insulting James, looks at his watch) "Rolex?"


BOND: "Omega"


HOT BOND BABE: "Gorgeous..."


Barely recognizable, but that brought the marketing campaign well over 2-3 million dollars from Omega alone. The Bond Franchise should of just had the entire script filled with these references (sarcastic comment -- they did...)

That is all, -- back to the final papers of my 6th college semester year...