Blockbuster Marketing

In anticipation of the summer blockbuster movie season, trailers have been playing for quite awhile now. The biggest stars, the biggest budgets, the most thrilling, action-packed, and special effects laden shows will all coalesce into a few short months vying for our dollars, our attention, and our word-of-mouth advertising.

I’ll freely admit, I love movies. I love going to the movies. And I especially love movie trailers. They are usually the best parts of the movie, carefully edited and packaged to create the most excitement and anticipation for the film. And, usually, it works.

I was thinking about the marketing we do for non profits, and how we could take a page from what Hollywood is doing.

1. Direct Appeal
Rarely do you watch a movie trailer and not get a pretty good idea as to what that movie is all about. It’s typically pretty clear if the movie is designed to scare you, make you laugh or cry, if it is going to be an action-packed romp, or a thriller that keeps you guessing till the last minute. And, typically, you as an audience member immediately know if that is something you want to see.

2. Emotionally Engaging
All movies trailers are designed to engage us emotionally. Execs know that emotions are at the heart of our purchase decisions and that our brains are wired to remember and recall things from an emotional perspective. Trailers engage us at the deepest core of who we are, what we believe, what our triggers are, and even how we want to feel about things.

3. Integrated Messaging
Movie trailers, posters, advertisements – online or offline – all use an integrated approach. First and foremost they try to keep the emotional connection built from the trailer in all their materials. Messaging is designed to tell a story and as you experience various mediums you get various parts of the same story. Typically there is no disconnect between any of the mediums used to promote a movie.

4. Adaptability
When a movie trailer is launched to the public, the messaging and promotional materials have usually been tested, either by using prior stats on similar successes, or by using focus groups and audience panel feedback. But after the launch, as a wider audience reacts to the upcoming movie, sometimes the message is modified to respond to critics or acclaim. The ability to quickly adapt to audience response is critical to the success of a movie launch.

5. Staged Roll Out
Movies are stories and as the time for the movie’s premiere date, more parts of the story are typically released to the target audience. This helps to maintain interest and momentum going into opening weekend as trailers can be in theaters as much as a year prior to the release of the film. Keeping audiences engaged for that time take a thoughtful roll out of the various story elements.

Okay, so as we think through our own marketing, one challenge for us is to think like a movie producer and find ways to tell an engaging story in stages. As we reveal threads of our story, we can do so by integrating different channels into the mix, and work to ensure our consistent message remains adaptable as we receive feedback. The whole goal here is to build anticipation, excitement, and word-of-mouth buzz for our premiere. And, as we get acclaim after the launch, we immediately tie that into our messaging.

I don’t think there’s any reason to wait for an event to start adding some of these elements into your marketing. So, why not try integrating these ideas into your existing marketing programs and see if you can’t create some blockbuster marketing of your own.

I’d love to hear how things work out if you try this approach. And, if you think I’ve missed an important element, let me know so others can consider adding it into their mix as well.

And, this summer, I'll see YOU at the movies!

-- David Kinard, PCM

Use Integration Instead of Interruption

My professional friend Katya Andresen recently had a visitor -- a door-to-door canvasser for Save the Children. She writes in her blog about his visit, and that she ended up giving him a pledge worth $336. Katya writes:

"...what I really wanted to know was why they were doing fundraising via canvassing. He said because it worked wonderfully. Most of Save’s child sponsors sign up via canvassers, apparently. Save is focused on this approach, scaling back TV ads and other broad-brush, less effective means of getting recurring, monthly gifts...."

I was surprised to read that they've found success in this form of highly-interruptive marketing. With so much focus these days on permission-based marketing, to hear that door-to-door fundraising is working makes me wonder what's going on. But after a bit of thought, it all made sense to me.

Of course Save was not getting any ROI from their TV ads and other "broad-brush" efforts -- it is precisely because they were so generic in nature that their impact was so low. The failure of Save, or any other nonprofit/cause related organization, to see any return from their marketing efforts is due to a lack of integration in their marketing mix.

Right time, right message, right person, through the right medium -- that's the challenge and opportunity we all face in getting out the good word of our organizations. And, when we fail to do that effectively, and resort to interruptive marketing tactics like door-to-door canvassing, of course we'll see an uptick in responses. And just because it's a worthy nonprofit doing the canvassing doesn't make it right.

I'd challenge Save the Children to rethink their approach and find a permission-based model to work from.

What do you think?

-- David Kinard, PCM

[image credit: Save the Children]