MARKETING

As a team, we tried the basic forms of digital advertisement. The film had very bad publicity coming into this festival, bad reviews by the score and no website for the film itself, so outside of the few materials the filmmakers gave us, we didn't have much to post on the blog or around the web. We had to improvise and adapt our marketing plan, focusing heavily on personal advertising. Below is a list of our forms of marketing from least effective to most effective:

MySpace: Heath made the Myspace quite early on, but that didn't seem to take off at all. It is most likely because of the randomness of its construction and the lack of content or use for promotion. The filmmakers also already had a Facebook group that had a huge following.

Blog: Since the film did not have a website during our promoting, we used the blog to fill that void (www.fffpoundcake.blogspot.com). We put everything we could on there, from cast bios, to production stills, to video interviews. Unfortunately, the blog never seemed to take flight. Aside from the group, nobody blogged on it. However, it did serve well as a means to link viewers to the purchase ticket page, and as a bulletin for the date and times.

Facebook Event: This worked pretty well. We managed to get a lot of friends to join the event, who in turn came to see the movie. We also connected the event with Troy Hall's Facebook, who in turn invited everyone in the Poundcake group, giving the appearance of a huge following. The Facebook event served better then a Facebook group because it listed specific times and helped to keep a tab on how many people were interested in attending.

Poster and Flier Distribution: Dan, Jonathan, and Aleigh from Attic Door walked around UCF, The Enzian, and Regal for hours a day on multiple occasions. They passed out fliers and postcards to anyone they came across, and if there was enough time, they pitched the movie. This seemed to attract a lot of attention, especially in front of the Regal Cinemas. One of the key components to this method’s success was the attention gained by Aleigh walking around on stilts. This would draw people to us, giving us the opportunity to talk to them about Poundcake.

O’Boys Food Deal: We convinced the owner of O’Boys BBQ to offer 20% off at the restaurant to anyone who purchased a ticket to Poundcake. This was the clincher for Poundcake sales. Countless times did people see the discount at O’Boys and make their decision based purely on that fact. The movie did build a lot of hype on its own, but this discount drew in stragglers who were on the fence about what to see and people who simply wanted the discount.

The Buzz: It was to our luck that despite all the bad press, Poundcake had an audience at this festival. There was a buzz about this film before we started our marketing campaign. This more than likely accounted for a good portion of tickets sold. However, this buzz helped us in more ways than one. Because people were talking about the film, there was a sort of a curiosity about it. When we hit the streets, we enhanced the buzz, and helped convince those who had heard about the film to go and see it.


Results: Whether it was our countless hours of street teaming, the buzz surrounding the film, the coupon deal with O’Boys, or a combination of all, seats were sold. Our first screening was on Monday, March 30th at 8:45 p.m. and the individuals working the ticket table told us that just about two hundred tickets had been sold for a theatre that holds two hundred eighty five. At our second screening we were told by those same individuals at the ticket table that all available tickets had been sold. Our goal was to fill seats, and ultimately that’s what we did.

Success

Our greatest success during this project was acquiring the food sponsor. At first we honestly did not think it was something we could actually accomplish. This feeling grew stronger and stronger as we went from one place on our list to the next only to be told “NO”. Then on a whim we went in to O’boys BBQ, and too our surprise we heard the word “YES”. This idea was suggested to us our first week on the project, and we didn’t complete it until three days before our first screening.

Our other success was our street team tactics. To be more specific it was Aleigh’s stilts. They drew so much attention and gave us several opportunities to tell people about the film. People would be drawn to the stilts and then we would plug Poundcake. Dan referred to the tactic as the bait and switch.

Failure

Our biggest weakness was the use of the Internet to market the film. We created a blog, and a Facebook event to compliment the filmmakers Facebook group they had previously created. Aside from that, we really did not pursue Internet marketing any further. We did not utilize the Facebook/Myspace ad idea due to a lack of funds and the disinterest of the filmmakers to pursue that type of advertising.

We also were unable to get any press for the film other than the press it got on its own. Jonathan sent out press kits and called various newspapers and radio stations, but nobody seemed to be that interested. Aside from sending information and calling, we weren’t very aggressive and probably could have been more persistent.

Next Time

If we were to do it again there are several things we would repeat and a few things we would do differently. First, we would defiantly hit the streets again (with the stilts, of course), handing out fliers and talking about the film. We would also try and get a food sponsor again, because that gets people go see the film simply for the food. We would probably be more persistent with the press next time, even if it means visiting them in person. We would also try and find more ways to advertise on the Internet, especially with Myspace and Facebook.