Getting the word out about your independent production- whether it’s a film, series, or a different beast altogether- seems so easy up front. What many creatives come to realize is that indie film marketing is actually one of the more difficult aspects of filmmaking to tackle by yourself.
Luckily, the world has invented the wheel more times than it really needed to, so you have your pick of options. Trust us.
Before you dive into marketing your latest production, there’s some things you need to know about audiences, targeting them, and getting the most out of them.
Your Audience Doesn’t Exist
We’ve worked with audiences of all different races, beliefs, creeds, you name it. There is always something that separates an audience from another. Even more granularly, there are points of disparity between individual members of the same audience!
Why should you consider the individual members of your audience instead of your overall “target audience?” Because the “audience” is not a real thing, but the people that make it up are very real.
It may feel like filmmakers are Captain Ahab, obsessing over this mystical animal called an “audience,” as if it were a singular organism they want to herd into theaters or the living room to consume their latest productions en masse like some sort of couch potato man o’ war.
The individual members of your target audience, your ideal viewers, are the ones who are going to raise your view count and tell their friends. They will build your so-called “audience.”
Making a Connection With Viewers
Much like indie production, indie marketing is sloppy.
I’m not here to tell you what channels to use to maximize your outreach campaigns. Anyone can say it’s a lot of word of mouth, social media blasts, maybe even a few emails. Some influencers will tell you savvy ways to incorporate paid advertising on the cheap. It’s all good. It’s all right.
Instead, I want to share the secret to making a connection with viewers: they’re all human. (Let’s ignore the AI being fed short films to make memes in this case study.)
When you consider the thousands, yes, thousands, of data points that audience members can be targeted by, it almost seems like a behemoth of a task. However, you don’t need to worry so much about how to craft the perfect marketing message to the perfect audience member in most perfect way.
Instead you have to remember one thing: the story.
Marketing the Story of Your Story
If you have an idea that has been turned into a script. If you have a script that has been turned into a decent film or pilot, you most likely have a story- or at least the symblance of one.
Humanity has been drawn to storytelling for millennia. All the way back to cave paintings, we have oft sought escapism through the spoken, written, or at times drawn word.
Nothing will gather the masses like a good story. Whether you’re at a party, in a fallout shelter, or walking through Central Park, when you hear the utterance of a good story, it’s hard to not even eavesdrop.
What happens then? Gossip. People will text, tell, call, and post about the story. They will reach out wanting to know more. Story is how you build intrigue. It helps you suss out that “audience” you’re hunting down.
The most beautiful thing about story is that it can create new audiences where there may not have been one before. Look at Game of Thrones for example. A show with a story that was so good, it brought people together from different parts of the globe. The same can be said for Harry Potter, The Last of Us, Friends, The Nanny, and The Office.
Bridge the Gap Between Your Imagination and the Viewers’
Every one of the aforementioned franchises is vastly different from the others. They’re completely unique and their marketing strategies are in the same boat. The one thing that unites them is that they didn’t rest on viral trends, beating a dead horse with an onslaught of commercials, blind people with billboards and bus stop posters everywhere without a good story.
Figure out the elements of your story that are the most appealing to the people you want to watch it. Often, it’s a story about self-identity or familial disfunction. Show the main character’s journey in such a way that viewers can see themselves in the character’s shoes.
Once you bridge the gap between your imagination and the audiences, you’ve marketed your story.
Guidance For Marketers
While figuring out your story is a great first step to getting your marketing off the ground, there are key ways to push it out to potential viewers. This doesn’t refer to social media posts or text message marketing, it’s the actual medium in which you’re presenting your story.
This media can actually come from your pitch package- the pitch deck, a proof of concept, your show bible, etc. Creating character highlights that audience members will fall in love with, producing short teasers to build obsession and intrigue, pulling out script snippets of particularly dramatic moments are all great manners to plant the seed of interest in people’s minds.
If you’re struggling to creates these pieces of content, be sure to inquire about our development producer services. We will help you cater to the needs of your pitch package to build the material necessary for marketing your story to audience members and studio executives alike. Get in contact with us to share your manifesto with the world.
Scott Duvall 