By Roger Jackson
Previously: VoD: Frequently Asked Questions
We continue to ramp-up deliveries of Kinonation films — we’ll have 100+ movies live on beta partner VoD outlets by the end of August. So now I have 100 producers asking about VoD marketing. I’ve been working on a marketing plan — not a gimmick, but an actionable, effective system to really launch a film, every time it goes live on any VoD outlet. The “launch” metaphor is apt, I think, because a film needs a booster-rocket to get things rolling. VoD outlets are driven by algorithms — you need maximum thrust in the first days live to get a film onto their best-seller list. Today, writing this post, I decided to nix the “secret plan” thing — it’s not like it’s rocket science anyway — and share pubicly.
Here’s Part I of our 19 point plan. The real secret is to get this done in a very compressed time horizon — a few weeks at most — so it has the biggest impact coinciding with each time your film goes live on an outlet. Executing on this plan is NOT a trivial amount of work, probably 100+ hours.
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IMDb: staggeringly important, everyone from consumers to VoD outlets to distributors make this site their first stop — and therefore their first impression of your film. Way too many films don’t even have a poster here. You must. It’s mission critical. I know, it costs $35. You have to do it. Next, get some people (cast, crew, friends, family) to rate AND review your film on IMDb. You need a credible # of people…9/10 is meaningless if it’s from a total of 4 people. Here’s the IMDb page for a successful Kinonation film. 8.9/10 from 80 users. Check. Forty critic reviews. Check. Only 3 user reviews. Needs work. Note that this film, like every film we distribute to Hulu, is now automatically available on IMDb via an embedded link. Cool.
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Poster: it’s my opinion that poster art is the single most important factor in getting “organic” sales on VoD platforms. By which I mean viewers who are just browsing. Keep it simple, big, bold, readable. Sexy helps too. Or gross.There are many reasons why the health doc Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead is a VoD best-seller — love it or hate it, this is a provocative poster.
