How to Generate Interest in Series that are on Post-production Stage
The project promotion department at the START online cinema was established just over two years ago and stimulated some structural changes. Currently, every launch is essentially a mini-production that involves a team consisting of a creative producer, executive producer, promo producer, editing director, a couple of graphic and motion designers assigned to the project, a PR expert, an SMM specialist, and a media buying manager. This team has the necessary personnel to provide 360 marketing.
We have three pairs of launch producers who are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the upcoming series and creating a promotion strategy. They receive materials in the form of either scripts or pre-masters depending on the project’s readiness. However, if they only have a script, the promotion plan can only be approximate as the success of the project depends heavily on the cast and director. To put it bluntly, any good script can be filmed badly, and no marketing will make up for it.
Now, during the greenlight, the promotion department evaluates the series as well, because their expertise will help to identify strengths and weaknesses of the project for promotion.
At START, we have no clear deadlines to launch projects. For instance, the second season of a franchise can be mapped out even after the first season’s last episode is released. Judging by the last year, new original projects are launched within one to three months. A month is not enough. Such deadlines are set if the series’ release is bumped up. Three months is a good timeframe, but projects often overlap. So at some point, the launching team takes on the next series while still handling operational tasks for the previous one. Sometimes unexpected tasks come up, such as movies or series that are purchased and require attention. In those cases, another less busy team would handle them, or they may solve some issues together via chats.
“We had a plan, and we followed it through”
Each original project has specific subscriber and viewer (from regular viewers) goals that are determined by cost and tracked by designated individuals. To achieve these goals, multiple departments collaborate to create a promotion strategy.
This involves setting a budget, creating an attraction funnel based on past launch numbers, and establishing targets for each department, including SMM, direct mail, PR, and media advertising.
At the same time, the launching team reviews the project and makes a presentation, which they will then defend in front of the management and the showrunner. The presentation will include the project’s statistics, as well as tagline options, target audience (their gender, preferences, selling points), poster sketches, teasers and trailers, and ideas for special projects. Depending on the complexity and importance of the project, there may be multiple concepts presented, and the best one will be chosen during the defense.
After agreeing on the promotion concept, the executive and creative producer team shares it with the design, SMM, media, PR, and promo departments. We identify areas for creativity and plan to have a creative brainstorm with each unit personally within 1 — 2 weeks, depending on the launch timing, to exchange ideas. It is important to note that the creative producer not only sets tasks but also generates ideas for all departments. The department head ultimately decides whether to use them or not.
We have a strong marketing team, and each department does its job well. We trust each other’s expertise and strive to support each other rather than demand or command.
The exact timeline for preparing creatives may be difficult to determine, so let’s discuss the processes involved.
The PR department is the first one to deal with the project, writing the first press release about the start of filming and guiding the product through all important stages. Their goal is to generate interest in the product, even when the only material available is a photo of a broken plate. They are the first to gather comments from directors, showrunners, actors, and our general producers. Then they arrange interviews for actors, look for mutually beneficial exclusive coverage for news publishers, come up with viral ideas and unique press release formats (we already had a song and dance ones, for example). We try to collaborate creatively to help each other.
The SMM department also supports the original project from the beginning. They broadcast all the important news from the PR department by transforming it into more interactive formats suitable for social media. They start promoting the series earlier than the teaser phase and continue until the end, even creating their own Making-of movie. Our SMM department operates rather independently, so the task of the launching team is to share texts, visuals, clips on time, and not to interfere :)
Our media buying department is highly efficient and organized. They plan ahead (for some peak seasons — six months in advance) by booking digital placements, outdoor advertising in cities and subways, ads on TV channels, or some non-standard advertising, such as on media facades, poster walls, etc.
Also, after getting a positioning brief from the launching team, they start selecting suitable bloggers and public pages for native advertising, either independently or with the help of an agency. To do this, the creative producer writes a Brief for Bloggers, which details the project so that after reading it was clear what type of bloggers can offer advertising. After reading it, one can come up with something creative. If a blogger is not ready to create their own video or post script, then we do it.
The design department seems to create almost 800 resizes of the poster after it has been approved :) Good design is crucial in digital marketing. No one wants to click on a poorly made poster, we all know that. The campaign’s main poster plays a significant role, so we strive to give it the necessary attention to bring the visuals to perfection.
Along with creating the primary poster, designers considered how it could be adjusted to fit various surfaces while keeping in mind factors such as its size and Russian laws. Unfortunately, there was a poster that was not permitted in the subway, and our colleagues had to quickly create multiple new options to ensure our investment was not wasted.
Our job in working on the poster is to brainstorm ideas, choose the necessary actors, and determine their level of importance. After that, we step back and wait for possible alternatives.
Our company doesn’t have a separate promo department. Instead, each project is assigned a promo producer and an editing director who work together to prepare the campaign for launch. They come up with themes and scripts for commercials. The launch team’s role is to review and make necessary strategic changes. However, it’s important to have a clear request for positioning and then trust in the expertise of our colleagues. As the saying goes, “as you give, you receive.”
It might seem that if all the departments work so well on their own, then the launching team of creative and executive producers is unnecessary, but that’s not entirely true. First of all, there are special projects that are entirely the responsibility of this team — from their conception to implementation.
Second, this team focuses on answering all the questions that may arise during the project. They ensure that creative vision remains intact, that any spoilers don’t slip out, that all the texts for digital advertising are effective. Recently, we’ve started introducing creative producers to copywriting texts for push notifications and landing texts for long-form subscriptions.
Why not take the concept of the series, as prescribed by the writer and director, and build the texts around it? Or not take their ideas for visuals and make a poster based on them? While these materials can be helpful for marketing purposes, it’s important to keep in mind that there are limitations to this approach:
The creators of a product often understand it better than the outside viewer. They may think certain aspects are obvious, but they actually need to explain them. The script is all about creativity, while marketing is a combination of creativity and business. This is exactly what specially trained people are for — they filter the story and select only the most valuable ideas to use as the foundation of an advertising campaign.
At times, the creators may feel that marketing doesn’t fully understand or appreciate their story, but we do. We have only three seconds to win the viewer’s attention by highlighting the most attractive features of the project. The true beauty, depth, and metaphors of the story will be revealed as the viewer continues to watch the series.
Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful tools in advertising today. People trust bloggers and blogs they subscribe to. By using this format effectively, we can get great results! For instance, when promoting the first season of Two Hills*, we posted comments from angry men under the YouTube trailer on the popular journalist and influencer Xenia Sobchak’s Krovavaya Barynya telegram channel. Instead of using a typical poster or commercial, we used these comments that wrote that women need men not to only be happy, but to survive :)
The second tool is digital advertising. It follows us everywhere on the Internet and in all media, there is no escaping it. We aim to make our ads visually appealing, amusing, attractive, and various in format, such as commercials, posters, behind the scenes, and sneak peeks. Our goal is to ensure that viewers are not really annoyed by them.
The third tool is TV advertising. This approach is especially effective for projects aimed at a broad and diverse audience, such as comedies or movie premieres. In Russia, TV has a huge audience, and there is a stereotype that it only shows the most significant and expensive content, which is worth people’s attention. Additionally, commercials on TV, with the help of the announcer, help promote product awareness, even if a viewer is not looking at the screen.
The fourth one is viral special projects. It would be ideal to accompany each series with such a case study, which spreads to a multimillion-dollar audience through word of mouth, but, unfortunately, it is not as easy as one would like. Moreover, some shows require rather provocative viral ideas that can be dangerous to our reputation. One of the coolest examples that worked was the landing of a new project about a brand-new women-only housing, Two Hills, near Moscow. It became a hit despite minimal spending, due to the idea and execution of the series.*Two Hills is a comedy dystopian series set in a matriarchal future where women live in advanced cities, while men who survived a virus are viewed as savages and reside beyond the city limits.
