Studios such as WB and Lionsgate have leverage with the Cable MSOs and work to  get films marketed and New Video has marketing leverage with iTunes. New Video  works via social media outreach by disseminating a release with images & clips  to sites such as Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and posts a release on PR distribution sites (ClickPress, i-Newswire, eCommWire, The Open Press) along with feed-based announcements on Google blog search, Technorati, Yahoo! News, Topix etc., tagged with keywords for easier discovery. They also claim to do online grassroots outreach, email marketing and trailer and clip tagging.

Gravitas notes that its PR firms and staff release information about new titles to key websites and bloggers and they utilize what they call “VOD Guide Optimization” where they utilize  relationships with operators to raise the profile of certain Gravitas titles.

Distribber makes it clear that the marketing is up to the filmmaker (and they are also referring our TFC Marketing Services), but all the revenue goes to the filmmakers with no backend percentages taken.

CRM cites the marketing it does and we’re not sure what it entails beyond the usual Facebook and Twitter announcements, but we’re looking into it.

Whichever aggregator you choose to work with, make sure you have either a very firm marketing plan in place and committed to and/or know that you need to deploy one yourself.

Popular rental platforms include iTunes, YouTube, and Virgin Media. Caution: Rental in due time. New Video, for example, notes seeing a clear cannibalization of DTO when Rental is turned on too soon. The number of people who will buy, just have to have it, are stronger if a rental release is delayed. If released at the same time, those that would have bought will rent if they can.

To keep up with all of our latest updates and news relevant to the world of digital distribution, check our Facebook business page.

Download-To-Own (DTO) is a transactional platform. iTunes, Playstation, Xbox, Amazon VOD are all DTO sites.  iTunes and Xbox account for the majority of the non-cable revenue in the digital space, for now.

Several Hollywood studios have announced that they are doing deals with a new download-to-own store from DivX  and the site FreshFilm.com such that their movies will be playable on millions of DivX enabled devices.

To keep up with all of our latest updates and news relevant to the world of digital distribution, check our Facebook business page.

Sorry to have left this space unattended for so long. It was a whirlwind couple of weeks in Park City and now I am traveling cross country by car. But I did want to do a little check in so readers would know what was happening.

Slamdance was a blast, as expected, and I am still trying to frame it cohesively in my mind to give you a good perspective on what to expect from the experience should you have it next year. One thing I would like to address, because it came up for me and for many first time Slamdance visitors, is the issue of meeting people and networking.

It is a well kept secret that I am not the best mingler when it comes to cold introductions at parties and networking events. I hate walking into an event not knowing a soul and trying to go around introducing myself to groups of people all standing together in conversation and obviously already acquainted. While there was a filmmaker meet and greet at the festival, it consisted of rows and rows of chairs holding over 100 people and we stood up one by one and introduced ourselves and our projects.  Not the easiest setting for talking amongst the group when someone you might want to know is seated way across the room from you. Then we were adjourned and people went back to talking to their own group! The large festival setting is very overwhelming to most people.

I will say that this occasion allowed me to meet many of my tweeps from Twitter. When I met them in person, we already had loads to talk about from previous conversations. In fact, we arranged to meet ahead of time and it made all the difference in getting to know people to hang out with quickly. People may disparage Twitter, say it is dumb and all that, but I have met many a filmmaker and connection from my tweets. You can follow me @shericand, BTW. 

A filmmaker I met, Chuck Gomez from NY, complained about not meeting fellow filmmakers easily and we concluded that it would be a good idea to hook up with filmmakers involved in the festival ahead of time by emailing them or finding them on Twitter or Facebook and communicating well in advance of the event. Introduce yourself and your project, even if it is in competition with theirs, and tell them you would like to meet up for coffee or whatever. Get the details of films and filmmakers selected from the festival media coverage and go their film’s website, Facebook or Twitter page (because I KNOW they will have them, right?) and find out the contact details. Not all will respond, but many will because they are all going to have the same situation and should want to connect to their fellow attendees.

When I set up accounts for films and filmmakers on Facebook, I generally like to set up Fan pages rather than Group pages. Some ask what the difference is and here is a little explanation.

Fan pages are better used to create long lasting relationships and offer a more interactive community. They are meant for businesses, public figures and brands. Your film is a brand. Group pages are used to rally people around a certain cause or common interest, like guerilla filmmaking or users of the RED camera.

Group pages are not circulated into the members’ “feeds” on their user profile, therefore to see any updates, the group members must go directly to the page to see posts there. With a Fan page, updates are circulated into the home “feed” of the users. Fan pages are randomly suggested on the home page in the upper right hand corner. Facebook will often show Fan pages that friends are  fans of and will position them so one can easily join them. This spreads the word about your page through your existing fan base and their friends are more likely to become a fan of your film if they know someone who is. 

Fan pages also provide the ability to track who is visiting your page, their demographics, how often and the interactivity level of fans on the page through their metrics function. Group pages do not have a metrics capability. However, there must be more than 10 fans for the metrics capabilities to begin. Fan pages are indexed by search engines and are visible to people unregistered with Facebook. This helps with your overall film presence online. Groups are not indexed in the search engines.

When you want to bring attention to your Facebook presence, you have more options with a Page than with a Group. Group updates are  dependent on either  members taking an active interest in the group by visiting regularly and/or members’ personal News Feed settings being configured to show sufficient updates from the  group. Neither variable is under the control of the group owner.  A Page supports notification in update streams. These updates stand alone in a side-bar to the right hand side of the page under Highlights and are much less likely to get lost in the stream of other kinds of notifications on a profile newsfeed.

Pages allow for sending mass updates to all fans with an opt out function. Users can also specify which of their Fan Pages can notify them. This promotes good will to your fans that you are not spamming them with useless notifications and if they think you are, they can opt out. Updates also appear in a special subsection of your fans’ inbox, helping segregate it out from the rest of the messages they may be receiving on Facebook.

On Fan pages you can add applications such as quizzes and games or content from other sites such as your blog feed, Twitter feed, Digg, etc.  With Groups you cannot feed in outside content. Both Group and Fan pages allow for wall posts, video and photo uploads.

Facebook Pages — but not groups — can utilize the built-in demographic information to create micro-targeted ads. Through the use of your Fan metrics, you can determine who is likely to respond to your message and you only pay to target those people. You can set daily budgets that cannot be surpassed, but Facebook advertising is another conversation.

A Fan page is more of a running conversation with your audience. It provides interactivity between you and your fans and the fans with each other. This is what social media is all about. I would also suggest leaving the privacy settings on the page open so that all fans may post links, photos, videos etc. If a fan takes advantage in a spammy or objectionable way, administrators of the page can delete posts and report the behavior.

There are many seminars and programs that are trying to attract you to enroll (for a fee) with promises of driving traffic to your website and social media pages. These “marketing” proponents say they can teach you to harness the power of the internet to get your film buzzed about and sold. But what is the difference between “traffic” and “targeted traffic?” Does having a lot of “fans” on Facebook and MySpace do anything for your film really? Does having a million hits to your website mean anything in terms of sales?

Website traffic and fans of your page on Facebook do not mean anything in and of itself. It is targeted traffic that seeks your film out, attends a screening or buys a DVD or download. Building your site with your target audience in mind, using highly descriptive keywords to attract them, being visible on only the sites or in the places they are interested in are all elements that will build your audience and get your film seen and sold. So what if you have 2,500 “friends” on MySpace if most of them are there to promote their own films or products. So what if members of your crew become a “fan” on Facebook if your film is a period drama and they are personally interested in horror films and so are most of their friends. It will bulk up your friend list and traffic, but it will not automatically lead to an audience for your film. It is better to have 500 highly targeted “fans” who are interested in your film, want to see it or buy it, than a million hits to your site.

So, how do you build a targeted audience for your film? First, you must decide on your target. A key mistake of not just filmmakers, but small business in general, is not determining your target from the beginning. It is not enough to define your film’s genre with statements like “Saw” meets “The Exorcist.”  Define the group of people who will be interested in seeing your film.  The more specific you are, the more effective your marketing will be and the better you can determine what methods will be most cost effective. In building your website, you will know what information to include, what style you should speak in, what navigation will be appropriate and how much content will be required.  You will also find that you have different segments of audiences and you will need to determine to what extent to handle them differently while still adhering to your core message. It is reasonable to keep your segments at no more than three, preferably one or two. More than three reduces your ability to stay focused, effectively communicate your message and do it in an economical way.

Answer these questions. What are the characteristics of your audience? What are they interested in? Where do they congregate? What is their gender, age, occupation, income level, geographic area? Look for elements that bind this audience together into a cohesive group. Often you will find the answers give you a broad audience with very general characteristics. Try segmenting them into subgroups, identifying mini audiences within your main one. Each of these mini audiences will respond to a different theme within your core message.

Determining your target market is one of the elements of a marketing plan and all filmmakers need a marketing plan before they start production. The best way to decide which marketing methods will work best for your film and help it achieve success is to work with a marketing professional. This person has the knowledge and expertise to set a strategy and determine the most cost effective way to reach your audience.