Marketing to the Entertainment Industry

It's almost summer and, aside from school vacations and a turn in the weather, the prime indicator of this change in seasons can be found in the barrage of blockbuster films hitting the theaters. It's standard industry practice for major studios to save the most anticipated titles for the summer lineup, in the hopes that they'll break the bank with audiences eager to spend their well earned time and money in the cool, dark movie houses. But with the birth of social marketing came new tactics to build communities of eager fans long before a film releases. Success typically does hinge on opening...

Twitter is practically everywhere when it comes to entertainment--in music, on TV, in the film industry, and more. But how is social making an impact in the tourism industry? On a recent excursion to Las Vegas, I found myself checking into the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and staring at something that I've rarely seen in hotels and similar establishments. It was a giant-screen TV positioned behind the check-in desk that presented, in real-time, all interactions with the @MGMGrand Twitter handle. This does a couple different things for the hotel brand:

• Guests are immediately struck by the steps...

The recent success of social music platforms, such as Spotify and Songza, has inspired Twitter to expand its reach into the world of arts and entertainment. Primarily used as a collective newsource to share information in 140 character chunks, Twitter launched its music platform #Music last week to support music sharing and promotion. This comes only a few months after the release of Twitter's video support application, Vine, which can be used as further evidence of Twitter's expansion into other forms of communication and sharing.

#Music allows Twitter users to explore popular, emerging,...

Advertising Age magazine recently announced the opening for their annual cover competition. Creatives under the age of 30 from all over the world are invited to to design an original cover for the June 10th issue of Ad Age, the prize being a trip to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The brief for this contest is to present what encapsulates the meaning of creativity in the year 2013, which opens the door to use one's imagination to highlight individual thoughts and beliefs.

Several points can be made about what Ad Age's contest says about the importance of content...

Bonin Bough, VP of Global Media & Consumer Engagement at Mondelez Brands, presented a webinar with SocialChorus earlier this week. The focus of the presentation was how brands like Oreo and Wheat Thins have been generating consumer advocacy in a marketing world that now largely revolves around social channels and mobile devices.

Probably the most staggering fact shared was this statistic: 3% of brand fans create 75% of engagement. Furthermore, a customer typically has one interaction with a brand per year, while an advocate will have around 12 interactions per year. Clearly, the importance...

Mixed Martial Arts, or MMA, has had one of the fastest growing fan bases of any TV sports entertainment in the past decade. Boasting a huge audience--typically males in the teenage to 40s demographic--engagement has been key for retention as the sport has blossomed. As television broadcasts become less of a viewing experience and more of a conversation amongst individuals, Spike TV needed to discover a means of connecting MMA fans before, during, and after major events.

A little over a month ago, the Bellator app was born in the iTunes store. This mobile application for iPhone and iPad allows...

March 13, 2013, was a historic day for Kickstarter, the website dedicated to social funding for anything from software development to stage shows and everything inbetween. Ex-hit television series "Veronica Mars" launched a campaign to raise $2 million in financing to produce a motion picture of the cult favorite, hitting its goal in under 10 hours and setting a record for the quickest $1 million to be raised in the site's history.

Fans rejoice at the impending return of their favorite moonlighting private eye, but what does this mean for the film industry? And what does this say about...

Twitter's 6-second video-sharing application, Vine, has spent the first two months of its existence searching for a personal identity. How will this app be received by the general public? What are video clips capable of doing in 6-seconds? And how will brands find a way to use it as a promotional tool? The film industry may have found a great answer to all of these questions in the form of short teaser trailers, now being known as "tweasers." 

Monday March 25 saw the release of a 6-second teaser trailer for the upcoming X-Men film "The Wolverine." The big hype was due to the fact that this was...

Viral Marketing: A marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message. Similar to the way a virus infiltrates its host to spread, this marketing tactic has been used for years through a variety of different mediums.

But more recently, the internet has allowed for viral marketing to be a much more low-cost/high-effect strategy. Videos like Gangam Style and The Harlem Shake have multiplied through YouTube like wildfire, having great impact on sales for these musicians in turn. But these stories came at audiences so hard and so fast, can they actually...

The Golden Age of Cinema gave birth to the Big Six, or the six major movie studies producing motion pictures. The growth of the film industry over time saw variations as to which studios were considered the Big Six, as well as the rise of mini-major studios. Today, however, the line between major film studios and minor production companies is becoming increasingly blurred, thanks to the presence of original content being produced by Internet streaming services.

Ask any marketer what the most important determinant for content creation is, and the answer will almost always be--and...

Summer is just around the corner, and for the music industry that means one thing: summer concert tours. And more than that, music festivals throughout the United States are gearing up for their 2013 edition.

Two weeks ago, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, hosted in Manchester, TN, announced its lineup for the June 13-16 festival. But unlike typical concert lineups announced online, Bonnaroo chose to turn this announcement into more of a virtual event.

On February 19, as a part of a 3-hour event hosted on the YouTube channel Bonnaroo365, the 2013 festival lineup was announced. In addition,...

The 85th Academy Awards were held this past Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. While stars from the films of the past year waltzed down the red carpet, a reported 40.3 million viewers around the world (Nielsen Ratings) tuned in to see what became the most-watched entertainment telecast in the last 3 years.

Total viewership nearly doubled the Golden Globes and quadrupled the Grammys. But in a world of increasing social connectivity, something was happening in the homes of many that may be more important than which actor was snubbed and which walked away with an award.

The Osca...

The film industry has used a variety of different tactics to interact with audiences and promote their products throughout the past 120 years. From the age-old tactics of print advertising to the new-fangled social networking approach, it's no secret that film distributors want to engage potential viewers and entice them to pay for admission.

Take a look at the timeline below for an in-depth view of how this industry communicates with the public, both past and present.

Clearly the trend of movie marketing has evolved from mass distribution to a more segmented 1-to-1 approach. Consider this type...

How many times have gotten stuck purchasing concert tickets for everyone in a large group because there's no other way to get seats next to each other? And what's worse, this creates a situation where each of your friends owes you money--which typically adds up to a considerable amount of cash.

That frustrating and painful ticketing experience may be a thing of the past by the next time your favorite act comes to town.

Interactive marketing software and social networking platforms have now made it possible for brands (like AEG's AXS.com) to vastly improve the ticket buying experience. Whether...

Sunday, February 10, was the biggest night of the year for the music industry, with the live broadcast of the Grammy Awards on CBS. Every year, millions of viewers huddle around their televisions to take in the many performances (and the few awards) that make up the 3.5 hour event. After host LL Cool J prompted viewers to engage with the show via Twitter hashtag #Grammys, it seemed like the awards show's social presence would be one of the evening's highlights.  

The big surprise for followers of television ratings came the next morning, when it was reported that AMC's cable program "The Walkin...

There's something new happening in the world of stand-up comedy, and it has nothing to do with the material that the "by-night" performers are delivering to audiences. Take Indianapolis-based comedy joint Crackers, for instance. On any given night, groups hungry for a laugh can grab a table, maybe an appetizer and a few beverages, and enjoy a lineup of amateur performers before the big-name headliner takes the stage for an hour-long set. But before the comedy starts, audience members are encouraged to subsribe to Crackers' "Mobile Text Club."

Essentially, venues like Crackers invite their loyal...

The months of January and February are well known in the film industry as a time to showcase movies that have been nominated for various awards. One work that has received a great deal of attention in the upcoming Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24, is David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook." This is the story of a man recently released from a mental institution following an infidelity by his wife. Bradley Cooper, in this lead role, meets a widower with her own struggles, played by Jennifer Lawrence. The two bond over a ballroom dance competition, using each other as a source...

Every year, one event consistently redefines the limits of hype, production value, and viewership when sports and entertainment are combined. That event, of course, is the Super Bowl. Companies spend millions of dollars to sponsor, advertise, and promote throughout the 4-hour broadcast, achieving a reach of over 100 million individuals. But not until 2013 has a brand attempted to create an interactive experience for these viewers.

The Super Bowl halftime performer was announced in early January to be Beyoncé, with the return of Destiny's Child. One would think that with this announcement, Pepsi...

CBS continues to push the boundaries of social presence in the television industry, this time with a real-time experiment through the popular "Hawaii 5-0" program. The 1-hour series, which runs on Monday nights, often involves the classic "who-done-it" mystery plot line. For the January 14 airing, the major twist was that audience members could help determine the ending.

Three different suspects were presented throughout the episode with varying alibis. Using the website and Twitter, individuals were able to vote on the culprit to view one of multiple different endings (obviously filmed ahead...

Millions of viewers to Sunday's NFL playoff broadcasts were given the rare treat of witnessing a revolution in the film industry's use of social media promotions. A 30-second spot for Broken City, the upcoming film starring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, used a tactic rarely seen by audiences up to that point. Instead of splicing intriguing one-liners and brief action scenes with quotes and ratings from industry critics, tweets from sneak preview audiences were used. Gone are the days of "Entertainment Weekly gives it 4 stars," and in is the era of "@emmadonnachie thinks Mark Wahlberg is...