The Art of film Partnerships... for no money??

Go on a subway, walk down an aisle of a grocery store, flip through your TV or page through a magazine and chances are you will see several ads for an upcoming movie or TV show. Now part of that is with the help of the big studios’ marketing budgets to support the film—on average about $35 Million is spent on marketing (or about 1/3 the cost of making a film). But another major part is through media exchanges with manufacturers that want to tie into the film.

Every studio is different, but many times if the brand is the right fit the studio will provide the following in exchange for the brand to incorporate the film into its advertising (usually about $1 MM worth of advertising):

• FREE licensing of the film
• FREE licensing of the characters (every actor has different contracts so sometimes you can not use them in any advertising, but the studio will give you an idea of the availability to use the actor’s character licensing… note you very rarely can get the actual actor to endorse a product—you have to go through their agent for that)
• Fulfillment of a sweepstakes (maybe tickets to the premiere of the film, posters, hats, and other merchandise)
• Private screenings for key customers, clients or part of a sweepstakes

Here are just a few examples as of late where a brand and a film tied together to make a compelling reason for a consumer to buy the brand and spread more awareness of the film.... a true testament of a win win partnership in marketing.

WATCHMEN and Night Owl Dark Roast Coffee
A limited number of commemorative cans of Night Owl Dark Roast coffee were sold by the Organic Coffee Cartel, which is actually owned by Clay Enos, the unit photographer on the set of the “Watchmen” film.

Organic Coffee Cartel (OCC) is selling the coffee through a number of online outlets and its own website. Only 10,000 collectible cans will be produced and sold. To promote the movie, they also ran a sweepstakes contest offering a chance to win 2 tickets to the LA premiere, which was held on March 3rd.

The Night Owl Coffee brand is marketed as a product of “Veidt Enterprises,” and some of the proceeds will go to charity to play homage to the superhero, Adrian Veidt, who becomes a millionaire global philanthropist.

Doing good, tying into a cult film and creating a sense of urgency, what else do you want from a promotion?

'Confessions of a Shopaholic' and Cotton Inc.
The target of Confessions of a Shopaholic is young teen girls, the target of Cotton?...well probably everyone, but to many fashionistas, it is oh so unfashionable. Tying into this film, Cotton was able to give itself a refreshing face lift and get the message out to young shoppers that products made of cotton are not just natural and comfortable but can be quite fashionable.

So what did Cotton and Disney do to get the message out?

• EVENTS- Mall events held to communicate the message from January 26th until the film’s opening on February 15th (included a photo booth centerpiece where those who participated were taped stating their “confessions of shopping” and then were uploaded to www.fabricofourlives.com website-the winners voted by the public received a video camera, a cotton shopping spree, and confessions merchandise)
• ADVERTISING- hanging banners and floorgraphics, TV spot called Runway to Everyday
• PROMOTION- spend $200 or more on cotton products, get a $20 gift certificate to buy more cotton items PLUS, win a chance to win tickets to the film premiere
• DIGITAL- sent out an e-blast to retailers to alert their consumers of the promotion, promoted "confessions" on website that was put to a consumer vote

**Note: some of the information provided in this post comes from content on PROMO MAGAZINE, www.promomagazine.com, a great source for inspiration and ideas when it comes to consumer promotions, events, digital campaigns and guerilla marketing strategies