1

The fundamentals of marketing have not changed. There are some great principles that come from traditional advertising, but people seem inclined to throw them out just because it’s digital. We can learn a lot from traditional advertising to help develop marketing thinking in this new landscape.

2

Do not go into the planning process with any prejudice, assumptions or illusions. Don’t approach a campaign preoccupied with the latest internet marketing buzz words. Consider what is right for your product, keeping in mind that people react to things that are original, that have a heart, that are human.

3

Try and identify what it is about the individual film that will get people talking. Think about who will love the film, what will be the key aspect they will like about it and come up with a creative way to feed into this audience and this aspect of the film.

4

Find your audience, target the opinion formers and be honest with them. Go to the top of the tree and treat them like friends. If a film is a biopic, for example, find the fans of the subject matter and say “we have this film, we think it is right up your street.”

5

The director’s eye is extremely important to create a consistent campaign that accurately represents the film being promoted. A really good online marketing campaign starts with the film-maker first.

6

Press on your clients the importance that the earlier you can get your promotional Assets and interrogate the themes of the film then the more intelligent and effective the campaign will be.

7

Do not be afraid to try things. There is no scientific formula to follow to create the ‘perfect’ online campaign. Learn from your previous films’ marketing, the things that worked and the things that were less effective, but always strive to give your consumer something they have not seen before.

8

On set blogs and diaries can serve a number of purposes from providingentertainment and information about the picture to making your potential audience feel part of the filmmaking process. It can also improve your ranking in organic search and help create a ready made audience for your film’s release.

9

Integrate. The best film campaigns of recent times, Cloverfield and Be Kind Rewind for example, have used a combination of digital and traditional approaches. These have not operated independently from one another, and have cross referenced and continued themes and calls to action. A great example of media and creative working together.

10

Identify your campaign objectives at the very start. This will help you ascertain exactly how you will measure its success and use the assortment of tools at your disposal to track the performance of your campaign and the amount of buzz it is generating.




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