Archive for the 'Marketing' Category

Hey folks- I’m looking for some help here at Women & Hollywood. If you know of anyone, please send them my way.  Thanks

Women & Hollywood, a highly influential blog that focuses on feminism and popular culture, is looking for a marketing and communications intern to help grow traffic to and outreach of the site.  The site receives over 30,000 unique visitors per month and has become a leader in the conversation about women’s issues related to all areas of popular culture, especially film.  This internship is an opportunity to learn about the integration of social media, feminism and popular culture.  Feminists of all colors, cultures, and preferences are encouraged to apply

Requirements
The internship requires someone who is a self-starter and an idea-generator who loves popular culture and is especially interested in exploring social media.  Previous communications and/or marketing experience a plus.
Candidates must be willing to commit 8-10 hours per week.
Location is flexible.  (Can work from my home office)
Computer/internet savvy a must.

Projects for Spring 2010 include:
Publishing an e-book of interviews from women directors
Launching a blog radio show
Create outreach lists and strategies to film festivals and other women’s events
Creating sponsorship opportunities for blog and weekly newsletter
Development of new sections for site
Help generate funding ideas and proposals

Benefits
Small stipend (transportation and lunch) available, but additional compensation is possible based on any successful income-generating programs developed.
Will work with schools to help you earn credit.
Screenings of upcoming films and events.
Mentorship opportunity.
Hanging out with my dog while working.

Please check out the blog at: www.womenandhollywood.com

To apply for the position, email cover letter and resume to Melissa Silverstein at: melissa@womenandhollywood.com

Sandra Laing and Sophie Okonedo

Interesting story out of England about how director Anthony Fabian is resorting to guerrilla type outreach tactics to raise awareness and get an audience to see his new film Skin starring Oscar nominated actress Sophie Okonedo. The film premiered at Toronto last year and won awards at last winter’s Pan African film festival in LA.  Here is my piece from last winter with a link to the trailer.

But it can’t get distribution here in the US and is in very limited distribution in London because as Fabian says, it is a story about black people. I would also venture to guess that because it is about a woman it makes it even harder.

Here’s what he was told:

“I was told by a respectable distributor in Britain that it would not distribute a film with a black cast,” he said. “That appears to be the attitude in the industry. These films are perceived not to make money. So [because we didn't have a major distributor] we did not have any trailers in cinemas, or posters on the underground, or posters on the sides of buses,” he said.

Here’s a description:

It tells the story of Sandra Laing, played by Okonedo, who was born to white parents but was classified as “coloured” during the Apartheid era. The biopic depicts the struggle of her parents – who were white with black ancestry – to have her re-classified in order to provide her with a formal education in a “whites-only” school.

Director Anthony Fabian refuses to allow his film to go away and he has literally taken to the streets, as have other members of the film’s team and a few people from the public, to let people know that the film is playing.

Those of you in London should get out there and support this film.  If I was working on the film I would have them reach out to women’s film organizations like The Bird’s Eye Film Festival and Women in Film and TV in London and have them organize their members.  I have  a sneaking suspicion that if it fails to get any type of audience in London we will never see it here.

An apartheid story no one would screen (The Independent)

Update- In EW fall preview they have Skin opening in the US on October 30.

It’s too bad the Meryl Streep’s movies don’t come with action figures or a McDonald’s tie-in…because the woman has the midas touch way beyond the box office.

Here’s some other things that can be attributed to the Streep effect:

- The bump in Greek marriages the month after the release of Mamma Mia (flights were up 13%),

- Increase in cookware sales, cookbooks, and French cooking classes since Julie & Julia.

- Sales of Abba albums soared after Mamma Mia

- The books My Life in France and Julie & Julia are on the NY Times best selling list

- Tourism in Kenya increased after Out of Africa was released in the 80s

- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf made it to the best seller list for the first time  after the release of The Hours.

I just love the fact that we are talking about a 60 year old woman with ancillary economic power. Remember boomer women have money and time and LOVE Meryl Streep. If she continues to pick films that are diverse and interesting and continues to show us all how she is enjoying her work and her life she will be successful.

The Streep effect: Why economists love her (The Independent)

While Sex and the City’s success might not have changed all of Hollywood’s minds about women as a market one place where women are getting new found attention is New Line the studio that produced the film.

New Line, which has been around for 40 years and has been known in the past  for The Nightmare on Elm Street flicks and lately for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  It was subsumed last year under the Warner Brothers umbrella when the studios took all their smaller  entities under one roof.  There were questions at that time whether it would even exist at all in the future.

But according to the Hollywood Reporter under new president Toby Emmerich the studio is looking to make money off an underserved market — women.  Lynda Obst took her new pic What Was I Thinking with Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann there and they released the successful He’s Just Not That Into You.

But during the past year — while adjusting to the fact that it’s no longer an independent unit of Time Warner but a scaled-down production label within the Warner Bros. fold — New Line has softened its image so that it now comfortably nurtures female-skewing fare.

I’m all for more women’s pictures but I really hope that making women’s films includes a wide variety of films and not just the regressive chick flicks like He’s Just Not That Into You and Ghosts of Girlfriends past.  I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now because on the docket is August’s The Time Traveler’s Wife and of course next summer’s Sex and the City 2.

New Line has always been smartly budget conscious and women’s flicks (and women stars) are cheaper and people are discovering they actually do make money, maybe just not all of it on the first weekend.  Warner Brothers head of marketing Sue Kroll who also handles the New Line releases understands how to reach women:

Here’s a quote from Kroll:

“Most women want to know more info before they go,” she said. “Women tend to read a lot and listen to their friends’ opinions.”

Finally. Someone has acknowledged out loud that you need to market to women differently.  It’s not that it costs more, it’s just different.

Here’s a quote from Emmerich on why they are focusing on women:

“Women make up two quadrants and I think they are underserved in theatrical,” Emmerich said. “Maybe not on network or cable, but I’ve always felt that for theatrical, women are underserved. Movies tend to be made for the guys, and women kind of go along.”

It’s about time we stopped just going along for the ride.  Power to New Line and Warner Brothers for getting in the game of women.  Hopefully others will follow and make some good flicks.

New Line Find Its Feminine Side (Hollywood Reporter)

We talk about this issue on this site all the time, but I love it when a woman in Hollywood gets down and dirty about how Hollywood treats women.

I love it even more when that woman is Nia Vardalos the keeper of one of the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time — My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  She is also in an elite club, her film was in the top 10 in 2002.

She has been everywhere pushing her return to Greece film My Life in Ruins.  My Life in Ruins is a bit like Mamma Mia, light romantic comedy that stars women with gorgeous scenery and a vibrant star.

But, it’s not a big budget action flick with commercials everywhere and opened last weekend on just 1,164 screens compared with 3,269 for The Hangover and 3,521 for Land of the Lost which has already been declared a flop.

But it still managed to make the top ten bringing in over $3,233,ooo at the box office.

The thing that we have been discussing on this site was whether the success of Sex and the City and Mamma Mia would change how Hollywood thinks about women.  The bad news from Nia is that these successes have done NOTHING to convince Hollywood that women are a market.

Here’s what she writes:

Lately, I’ve been in meetings regarding a new script idea I have. A studio executive asked me to change the female lead to a male, because… “women don’t go to movies.”

Really?

When I pointed out the box office successes of Sex and The City, Mamma Mia, and Obsessed, he called them “flukes.” He said “don’t quote me on this.” So, I’m telling everybody.

This is such blatant sexism and the only way its going to change is for people — women and men — to show that they want to see movies about women.  (I have been trying to get the gender breakdown for 2008 in terms of ticket sales but the MPAA is skipping 2008 and will next release data at the end of 2009.  I anyone has gender breakdown numbers, please send them my way.)

So give Nia your support and get off your ass out and see her flick.  She’s standing up for you and we need to have her back.

“Women Don’t Go to Movies” — Huh? (Huffington Post)

Sitting down with Nia Vardalos (Variety)

Nia Vardalos Gets It Done … and Then Some (wowOwow)

I’ve written before about how impressed I am that Tyler Perry is able to create films and TV shows outside the Hollywood model.  He didn’t get a lot of respect in the beginning especially because his films were targeted at African Americans, but now, he is defintely making an impression.  He will be branching out beyond his own product with Push later this year so I am going to watch this model with interest.

Perry sat down with the Hollywood Reporter to talk about the new release of Madea Goes to Jail and said some interesting things (I recommend reading the whole interview):

THR: Why has your audience been ignored by Hollywood?

Perry: For the most part people speak from their own experiences, and in Hollywood, there have not been a lot of African-Americans who have been able to tell their stories unfiltered, unedited, with no notes, and bring (them) directly to the people. That’s why I love my relationship with Lionsgate: It’s a no-note, we-don’t-show-up-to-the-set relationship. I bring them a finished film and we test it and it usually does extremely well.

THR: The studios do so much research about who audiences are and what they want, and this is an audience that for many years was just missed. How is that?

Perry: Even from my first movie (“Diary of a Mad Black Woman”), the tracking was way off. They have gotten better with tracking and understanding my films, but if you’re not a part of (the community), you can’t really get the information. I don’t know what it’s like to be Japanese. But if I was there in the culture I could get some sort of understanding. I think you need to be in the culture to understand it. I’m really only beginning to wrap my brain around how Hollywood can be so insulated from the rest of the world. There is Hollywood and then there is New York – and then America is in the middle. I’ve been to every major city in this country, with the exception of the Dakotas, I think, and we would sell shows out – 30,000-40,000 people a week coming in the doors. People find this hard to believe, and most of it was sold by e-mail before we even got to the city. I have the boxoffice record at the Kodak (Theatre, in Hollywood). I had 18 or 19 shows there that have all sold out.

THR: Why did you and Oprah Winfrey decide to put your names behind “Push”?
Perry: (Lionsgate execs) called me from Sundance. They brought it to me and I watched it and I called Oprah and said, “You’ve got to watch this film,” and she said, “I’ve got it, I’ve had it for a month.” So she watched it and then we were like, “What can we do to make this film get to an audience?” Mo’Nique should win the Academy Award. Mariah Carey is so freakin’ great in this movie and she is unrecognizable.

He also has a big email list (which I am on) and here’s part of what I got yesterday:

You all know how important it is to go on the first weekend. If you don’t, I’ll tell you this. Because you all have showed up in record numbers on the first weekend, I have been able to keep making movies our way–the way we want to see them. So I sure hope you’ve made your plans to go to the theater this weekend. The only way that the film can get any credit is if you GO TO THE MOVIE THEATERS. So check your ticket stubs, make sure they say MADEA and enjoy the show. I did it for you…(smile)

Talk about motivating the base — if you come I will be able to keep making movies you like in the way you like them.

Q&A Tyler Perry

There has been some buzz about the recent piece in the New Yorker featuring on Tim Palen co-head of theatrical marketing at Lion’s Gate one of the only remaining independent studios around.  Lion’s Gate is an interesting studio of late because their slate of films are so different from slasher porn to Tyler Perry to the upcoming New in Town starring Renee Zellweger which is opening Friday.

As a person who does marketing/publicity  for women’s films my job is to get the word out about a certain film and I focus on making people aware of what I have and not trying to deny what I don’t have.  Because women’s films generally don’t get paid enough attention, getting the word out just to get people to notice a film is always a challenge.  But then again, I don’t have to promote slasher porn and honestly don’t think that I could.

The article was quite depressing on many levels especially when it talks about how deception is used to lure audiences and it exemplified the ongoing difficulties in marketing movies about women to women.

I was also surprised that Palen’s partner in theatrical marketing Sarah Greenberg was basically missing from the piece.  She focuses on the publicity front but it sucks that the article made it seem that Palen did everything to make these films successful.

The one thing I got out of the piece is that marketing is king and movies are made today not necessarily because it might be a good movie, but because it can be sold and marketed.  So it doesn’t come as a surprise that women are not valued since we are harder to market to.  Lots of industries have figured out how to market to women because they think it’s worth it because women make most of the purchasing decisions.  (Some studies say that women make over 80% of all purchasing decisions.)  The thing to note is that because women are harder to reach you also get the guys cause they are easier to sell to.  Motto of the story — if you figure out how to get women you get men and women.  If you figure out how to reach guys, you just get guys. Continue reading ‘Marketing Movies to “Discriminating Women”’

One of the stories the media played up over the holidays was the head to head film opening of exes Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.  Pitt stars in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Aniston co-stars in Marley & Me.  The Christmas opening of both films was depicted as a “smackdown” or war between the exes.  The two films couldn’t be more different and since both did very well, there clearly is room for both of them to have successful film careers.

But what set me me off was the crawl I saw yesterday on MSNBC that said something like “Aniston’s starrer Marley & Me top at the box office.”  What bothers me about this use of language is that the film stars Owen Wilson and while Jennifer Aniston is the co-star and has a very big part, the film is about Owen Wilson’s character- John Grogan.  I don’t think there is a single scene in the film where Aniston is alone, we never see her at her job (but we do know that she is more successful than her husband at the start of their careers).  Her role is the wife, mother, and general all around supporter.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Don’t get me wrong, she’s much better in this film than in anything she’s been in in a long time, but this is not her film the same way that Benjamin Button is Brad Pitt’s.  Nobody is saying that Cate Blanchett is the star of Benjamin Button. Why isn’t Marley & Me more seen as Owen Wilson’s film?  I guess there are probably some residual issues relating to Wilson’s suicide attempt, but the tabloids would play that up if it still had legs.  The story that nobody can seem to get enough of is the supposed issues between Jennifer Aniston and angelina Jolie.  I really wish we could let this one go, it’s really starting to bother me.

The good news for Jennifer Aniston is that she is back in the game.  Let’s see what happens with her next film (which is an ensemble) He’s Just Not That Into You opens in early February.

Why can’t films? It seems that women watched the Olympics more than men — 49% to 41%. I watched the Olympics mostly the first week because of the swimming and Dara Torres, but I also watched every women’s soccer game. NBC for all their stupidity in embracing the Chinese government to an ass kissing degree was able to lure women viewers to the TV sets in large, large numbers. Michael Phelp’s mom is even about to get an endorsement deal with Chico’s whose clothes she wore through all his races. Can we take any lessons from the success of the Olympics in reaching women?

The large female viewership for the Olympics and the spate of spots intended for women are anomalies in TV sports.

Although women do not generally watch as much sports on TV as men do, they do watch a lot of other programs that draw fewer male viewers, among them daytime soap operas and nighttime serialized dramas.

But the Olympics differs from more prosaic shows watched by women because it is “also the perfect family programming,” said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president for audience analysis at Magna, an Interpublic media agency in New York.

“The Olympics is a great educational venue for children,” said James Lou, managing director for strategy at the Chicago office of DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, “which gives it such an appeal to especially moms.”

Olympics Draw High Percentage of Women Viewers, and Ads Intended for Them (NY Times)