Virtual Film Festival Partnering With Their Film Makers
As film festivals enter the era of virtual events, a lot is changing around execution, ranging from choosing online hosting platforms to pricing. The most crucial aspect that defines how successful an online festival is its marketing. Marketing is the game-changer that has had some established brands fail, and new festivals perform amazing feats.
Being virtual is a double-edged sword. From an audience size perspective, the world is your oyster (film licensing depending), as people can tune in from everywhere. At the same time, you’re competing for their attention like everything else: Instagram, Netflix, etc.
At BingeWave, we’ve executed quite a few festivals and independent filmmakers who have their premieres on the platform. From those experiences, we put together this marketing resource for festivals along with a case study using KindomWood International Film Festival.
To view other articles on film festivals, visit our Film Festivals Blog. To test the festival platform, please visit https://distribution.bingewave.com/l/festival.
The Mistake — Build It And They Will Come
One of the most common mistakes is the “Build It And They Will Come,” which is the belief that if you put something online, people will gravitate towards it, and you will be successful. Unless you are SXSW status, this will not be the case. Remember, festivals are competing against a lot of other online media:
- Netflix/Hulu/Disney +/VOD services
- Other festivals and festival fatigue. Remember, there are 5,000+ festivals worldwide
- Other Virtual Events, which are up by over 1000% according to Forbes
- Facebook/Instagram/Social Media and other attention grabbers
One of the charts we’ve talked about in other articles is ticket sales. We’ve compiled by surveying festivals online and taking data from festivals we’ve worked with.
We’ve seen major festivals fail, and new festivals perform amazingly well. Putting your festival up online is not enough; you have to be actively marketing it and give the value attendees want.
Marketing With Your Filmmakers
When it comes to marketing, there are the traditional routes that have been fairly standard. This includes social media, paid campaigns, email marketing, press releases and other marketing channels.
Your most powerful marketing asset for your virtual festival will be your filmmakers. There are a few reasons why marketing with them will create the most significant reach that is far cheaper and more cost-effective than the above strategies. The rest of the article will cover why your working with your filmmakers will generate the highest returns in marketing and to engage them.
Why Filmmakers Will Be The Best Marketers
When Combined, They Have A Much Larger Reach
Film festivals may accept anywhere from 10 to 300 films to screen. Each film typically has some market reach with their social media accounts, email lists, and other forms of outreach. Now add in the film teams that are getting involved with a little bit of marketing, including the actors and potentially the crew.
One of the key groups to get involved in marketing is the actors. Actors naturally have a much broader reach because they are constantly building a fanbase. The size of their following is part of what makes them “valuable” as actors. Below we will be discussing incentivizing actors to participate in marketing.
Friends and Family
When film festivals were done in physical locations, people actually had to be at the festival. If they weren’t local, they would book a flight, get a hotel, take time off work, and everything that required being present. It’s a haul to ask your friends, family, and network to be there so that they can watch your film.
Virtually, this has changed. They can simply go home, sit in front of their TVs or computers and watch. There is no excuse for why Aunt Susan can’t make time to watch her nephew’s work this year.
Panel Discussions
At BingeWave, one of the key drivers we found people are willing to pay for is panels. We have done screenings where the film has been FREE on Youtube, and attendees still paid for that interaction with the director.
People pay for experiences. In festivals, the first part of the experience is quality content. Natural additions to that experience is able to connect with the great minds behind compelling content, or the actors that brought it to life. These added values are also reasons to increase ticket prices.
Case Study With The KingdomWood International Film Festival
A film festival that executed working her filmmakers in marketing was an Atlanta based Christian film festival called KingdomWood International Film Festival. The way she worked with her submissions had a remarkable impact on her pre-sales and over festival revenue.
Group Meetings
Her first step in getting the filmmakers behind the festival was getting them all on the same page. This was performed by having a group call on Zoom that was done to motivate all the filmmakers, explain the vision of the festival, and layout the steps + benefits of promoting the festival.
Filmmakers, or anyone partnering with a festival, can have a greater impact when they are motivated to join a cause but also empowered. This means giving them the materials to market, what actions they should be taking, and when. The more of a guided path you provide, the better results you will see.
Monetization Incentivized
One of the key steps Audrey took was incentivizing her affiliates through monetization. Partnering with filmmakers can entail offering them a percentage of the ticket sales they help to sell. The percentage of ticket sales can also be provided to the cast and crew and other organizations.
One of BingeWave’s strong points is a built-in affiliate program, where the festival can invite people and assign percentages for promoting the film. See the short 1-minute video on how it works:
Not only can the cast and crew be invited as an affiliate, other organizations can as well. This becomes a driver for success.
The Outcome
A common pattern we’ve seen in the online buying of tickets for virtual events is the last-minute buy. This is when the majority of your tickets will be bought within the last day to the last hour of the festival. For many of our festivals, this behavior is common among ⅔ of the ticket buyers.
In KingdomWood’s case, she has managed to sell more than half of her tickets prior to the beginning of the festival. In chart format, her festival vs. an average festival would look like this:
In Conclusion
Marketing is one of the most crucial elements of your virtual festival. Taking the reins on it early will help ensure the success of your festival. From this article, you should take your filmmakers’ submissions and turn them into your marketing assets.
BingeWave is live streaming, community building and revenue generation platform for filmmakers. We serve everyone from web series, documentaries to features, and champion diverse narratives.
For information on hosting your own festival visit https://distribution.bingewave.com/l/festival or obtaining live/cinematic distribution, please visit: https://distribution.bingewave.com/
