Beggars can be Choosers? »
Posted on January 29th, 2007 by Justin Seibert in Online Marketing | Leave A Comment

One of the great pleasures I had while working in Santa Monica was taking my lunch out to the cliffs overlooking the beach everyday (for the one month I took a lunch). Being broke and cheap and viewing the purpose of lunch as sustenance rather than an endorphin releasing activity, I took my lunch with me. At times, I would just take the amino acids – they said they were the building blocks in high school biology, right? – of lunch and make it on the park bench.

If you’ve ever been to Santa Monica, two of the first things you would have noticed are the incredible weather and the amount of homeless people. Had I no place to stay, I’d go where it was warm and they had good food lines, too.

Continue reading →

TAGS: contest, free consultation

Now a Movie Contest for People that have Actually, You Know, Seen the Movie »
Posted on November 15th, 2006 by Justin Seibert in Marketing, Online Marketing | Leave A Comment

First off, let me thank everyone who came up to us at our table last night at the Washington County Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Banquet and Business Exposition last night. I was really pleased to learn more about your businesses and meet so many new people. We’ll do the actual drawing for the free portable DVD player today, but aren’t going to post the winner for privacy reasons. If you entered the contest, we’ll contact you to let you know whether or not you won.

Okay, the actual meat or meat-like substance of the post. A few days ago I wrote about We are Marshall’s contest for best fan page, which will be created and judged *before* the movie comes out and people could, oh I don’t know, actually figure out whether they liked the movie enough to devote a fan page to it.

Now Sony is promoting a contest for The Da Vinci Code prior to its release on DVD. They have a special contest Web site and are partnering with Yahoo’s Movie and Travel properties. Fans can enter clues to win a trip to Paris; the contest runs through February 8th.

A good contest all around it seems as far as contests go. They’re getting some free publicity and hopefully generating interest for fans to buy the movie when it comes out. By the way, if you’re ever running a contest for your company, be sure to put in rules about how often someone can enter. I should have learned that tip from Real Genius and Frito-Lay, but sadly I had to learn it the hard way from some jerk who designed a computer program to stuff the ballot box and won the grand prize.

What I’d really like to see, though, is a combination of the Marshall and Da Vinci contests. Have people that truly appreciate the movie devote Web space that will help drive traffic to your site and push sales for the DVD release. Or use something similar in having fans put up sites for an original in order to promote a sequel.

For you cynics, yes, the fan promotional information will still be somewhat contrived, but not nearly as much so. Especially if the prizes relate to the movie and are something true fans would really want to win.

TAGS: contest, movie marketing

A Great Idea - No a Really Bad One - Aww, I Give Up »
Posted on November 9th, 2006 by Justin Seibert in Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Media | Leave A Comment

The movie business has been in trouble for a little while. People aren’t going to the theatres as often as they used to.

Sure one could point to new entertainment options, the crazy high ticket and concession prices, and the gamble that one might likely get just another corporate owned studio’s formulaic sequel-hoping franchise instead of something worth $10-$15 and a couple hours. Instead it’s easier to demonize piracy and dvd’s as the real problems.

Don’t think it’s just me whining. The head of a very prominent film organization in Los Angeles and the director of classic films that you’ve heard of and seen lamented to me personally about how unoriginal many of the films that were being put out were getting due to the film industry being pressured into following rules of the rest of the business world. And that was a couple years before the film industry started getting worried about the turnout slowdown.

So what am I to make of this new promotional idea for films? Someone is going to win a $50k scholarship for the best fan film page on a social networking site (e.g. MySpace, Friendster, etc.) for the upcoming film, We are Marshall.

My first thought was, “Wow, what a great idea!” $50,000 is pretty cheap advertising to get press about the movie to be picked up in all sorts of different media, people talking about the film, and lots of Web pages with promotional material and links to their movie’s main site.

Then, I started worrying about the authenticity of these sites because no one will have seen the movie yet. You see, the contest ends the day the movie premiers. That’s like picking your favorite dancer before the season premier of Dancing with the Stars. Or so my wife tells me. I watch shows that your tv won’t even project if you don’t have enough testosterone and aren’t enjoying steak and beer at the time.

The problem is that movies have such a short shelf life and a lot depends on opening weekend. I just don’t know if this is the right way to go. Like judging or protesting a movie that hasn’t opened and you’ve never seen.

Still, interesting idea.

Barely Tangential Note #1: My wife, who used to be a literary manager in Hollywood, helps aspiring screenwriters get their scripts ready for the film industry. If you or anyone you know would like to break into that scene and can use some help, check her out at Pro Script Notes. Obviously, I’m biased, but if you check her out and compare to other options out there, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And cut me a break: if I’m writing about movies, I have to give her a plug.

BTN #2: Even though Marshall University is in West Virginia and the state is very close-knit generally, don’t make the mistake that every (or most) West Virginian you run into likes Marhsall. My aforementioned wife of no West Virginia higher educational affiliation, was wearing a Marshall t-shirt the other day. My father, a WVU graduate, told her he’d buy her two new shirts if she’d take that one off and burn it. And Marshall grads feel the same about the Mountaineers.

TAGS: contest, film industry, myspace, pro script notes