How Social Media Is Changing the Way Movies are Promoted

From self-funded independent projects to big-name Hollywood blockbusters, the movie industry has embraced social media. Big time.

Historically, of course, this makes a lot of sense. Classical Hollywood had the star system and fan magazines. Modern Hollywood has Facebook, Twitter and mobile phones.

From creating viral alternate reality campaigns to using social networks to build awareness, the movie industry is busy leveraging social media to connect with fans and promote its products.

Let’s look at some of the ways that social media is having an impact on movie marketing and promotion.

Crowdsourced Screening Locations

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In the world of the multiplex and billion dollar plus box office receipts, it’s easy to forget that not every film comes to every theater. Even films that ultimately go on to make a lot of money at the box office — like 2009’sPrecious — often start out in only a few cities.

The traditional marketing strategy for these films has been to expand to more and more markets as word of mouth, press and publicity propel the films forward. In the age of social media, however, studios can use theInternet to figure out where an interest in the film exists.

One of the best examples of this strategy was for Paramount’s Paranormal Activity. The film, which was made for less than $15,000 went on to gross more than $150 million at the box office.

Paramount extensively used Facebook to promote the film, partnering with Eventful to get would-be fans to request a screening of the film in their area. The goal was to get 1 million fan requests for the film to enter wide release. That goal was met pretty quickly, but the real proof came via the box office receipts.

MGM also used Eventful to have fans request screenings of its comedy, Hot Tub Time Machine.

The cool thing about this strategy is that it lets fans have a sense of ownership of the film. It also creates a level of awareness and connection that you might not get just with running radio or TV spots.

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Trailers & Poster Promotions

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It used to be that you had to go to the theater to see the trailers for the next batch of upcoming films. Then TV shows dedicated to showcasing previews hit the scene. While watching movie previews online has been old-hat for more than a decade, the rise of social media has changed how information gets exposed to fans.

Sure, movie studios still send out press releases and have special websites that news sites and blogs can access to get the latest scoop, but more and more studios are taking to Facebook and Twitter to debut their latest trailers.

Again, Disney gets props in this department. The studio used Facebook to debut its first character posters from Alice in Wonderland and has also used Facebook to show off movie trailers.

The irony that Sony couldn’t use Facebook to directly promote The Social Network didn’t mean the studio had to abstain from social media. On the contrary, the studio was able to use Twitter, MySpace and its ownsocial-themed site to promote the film.

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The Age of the Facebook App

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Facebook is a great avenue for marketers and brands to connect with consumers and would-be customers. For movie studios, Facebook also offers a way to engage audiences and even directly sell tickets.

Disney created a Facebook app for TRON: Legacy called the TRONiVerse. The app is still active; it pulls in posts, videos and photos from various social networks, displaying them in an interactive grid. This is just one example of a studio building an app specifically for a film.

Fox had a pretty in-depth Facebook campaign for Avatar, including apps and promotional tie-ins. Disney even offered movie tickets for Toy Story 3 via its Facebook Page, as pictured above.

Likewise, Sony has created its own in-house ticketing app for many of its films. The great thing about buying movie tickets via Facebook is that you can invite friends along with you.

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The Future

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We expect to see the movie industry embrace social media even more in the future. A look at some of the biggest hits at the box office this year proves that many of the most successful films also had strong social media campaigns.

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