Educating the masses
Written by Dan
Educating your target audience about current and upcoming films is as big an obstacle as any for art-house theaters, and even more so for those that don't have a large marketing budget; ourselves included. Now, before I begin, I need to clarify the differences between scheduling techniques and illustrate how each one offers its own unique advantages and disadvantages when it comes to film promotion.
Calendar House Scheduling
This form of scheduling is also known as block scheduling, wherein a theater owner, or booking agent, schedules all the films for a particular theater up to one month in advance. The theater would then advertise their films through means of a film calendar, with each day showing what film is playing and at what time. Ragtag Cinemacafe is a great example of a calendar house theater.
The biggest and most obvious advantage to this type of scheduling would be the distribution of printed calendars to your target market. At the beginning of each month, calendars could be printed with an entire month's worth of films, synopses, reviews, and any other pertinant information that your audience might need. Patrons could pick up calendars at the theater, or you could distribute them to areas frequented by your target market (i.e. college campuses, nearby restaurants, etc..). Either way, the main goal is to get your calendar to as many people as possible, thus educating them to the films you'll be showing throughout the upcoming month.
The biggest disadvantage to being a calendar house theater is the inability to switch movies at a moment's notice. Once your calendar is printed, it leaves little to no room for divergence. If you're screening a film that ends up being a complete failure, you're stuck with it until your calendar says it's time to go. Conversely, if a film does unexpectedly well and you'd like to hold it over for a few extra days... sorry, you're out of luck. You have to stick with your calendar, through thick and thin, in weakness and in health, for richer or for poorer, till next month do you part.
On-the-fly Scheduling
This type of scheduling is the one you're probably most familar with. When a new film comes on the market, you book it, then you advertise it, then you show it, then you ditch it after a couple weeks and the process starts all over again. The key advantage here is flexibility, but at a cost. You have to keep your audience abreast of what you're showing at all times, and that means you'll either have to shell out the money for expensive newspaper ads and a multi-line telephone "movie line" machine, or else think of some other clever ways to educate the masses.
Hybrid Scheduling
This one is a mix of calendar house and on-the-fly scheduling, so if you happen to have more than one screen, you can get the best of both worlds. I, for one, don't buy into this brand of scheduling, because I think it will lead to the same disadvantages that befall other calendar house AND on-the-fly theaters. Sure, you might be able to hold over unexpected hits for a few days or so by moving the print from the calendar house into the on-the-fly auditorium, but you still can't ditch the stink bombs in a timely manner... AND you still have to deal with the cost of advertising for the on-the-fly side. Although it combines the advantages of the aforementioned scheduling types, it also componds the disadvantages, and that's something I'm wary of. Compounding.
Now, I bet you're wondering what type of scheduling we plan to use, aren't you? Well, let me tell you, my curious friend, we plan on using on-the-fly scheduling... 100%, both auditoriums, all day, all night, wham, bam, thank you Dan. But what about the advertising costs! You'll be ruined! Au contraire, my thoughtful hypothetical question asker, we have a few ideas up our sleeves.
Nicole just happens to hold a degree in Journalism
from the oldest and most prestigous school of Journalism in the WORLD... the University of Missouri (if you're a Northwestern alum and you disagree with this comment, please take it up with Nicole)! She, and she alone, will be our in-house PR department, crafting press release after press release until all of Midwestburg's media outlets sing out in unison, "We love Cinema 24, and we encourage all our fellow Midwestburgians to go see the 8:15 showing of Garden State! Yipee!" Seriously though, press releases are the guerilla marketer's best friend. If timed correctly, we'll be able to garner free space in the weekend section of the local newspaper by spinning our movies as events, which, in all actuality, they are.
I, on the otherhand, hold a degree in English with a minor in Linguistics, which means I will be in charge of building our website! I bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? I've been working in web development for the last 4 years, so I know a thing or two about how to build a website... in fact, you're looking at one of my many web creations right now. I have plans for our website to be as much an intergral part of our business as anything else. We're going to plaster our web address on everything from tickets, to promotional items, to our monthly newsletters, and even the occasional newspaper ad.
Beyond the standard movie listings, the website will have lots of pretty pictures, synopses, links to external reviews, an online discussion board where visitors can review current movies or just gab about issues pertaining to the theater, and an art section where all the local and regional art that's currently being exhibited on our walls will be viewable and made available for purchase. I have lots and lots of ideas for the website, which means I'll probably end up overbuilding it and then have to cut out some of the useless features at a later date. Either way, the point still remains that our website will be just another effective weapon in our arsenal of cheap advertising.
Borrowing from the calendar house method, we also plan on printing monthly newsletters that outline potential upcoming films (synopses, reviews, etc..). We'll make sure to state that all the films are subject to availability, just in case one of them falls through and we're unable to book it, but in most cases it shouldn't be difficult to forecast the majority of the films we'll be showing over the next 4 or 5 weeks. These newsletters will be sent to people on our mailing list and distributed to key locations. We'll also send out a bi-weekly e-mail flyer that will briefly showcase the films that are currently playing, upcoming films, and any other events that need to be advertised.
Phew, I need to take a breather. I'm getting all worked up thinking about other ways to spread the word, so until tomorrow...
By the way, I'd love to hear any and all ideas regarding how we can better our guerilla marketing / advertising campaign. I really appreciate all the comments. Thanks.