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worksheets

Reading Journal 6, Reading Skills

Title: Marketing A Movie Ain’t What It Complete
yes / no
Used To Be d:

source/web Forbes.com Signature

link: :

Marketing A Movie Ain't What It Used To Be

Yes I know, I used the word ain't. Let the grammar police and english teachers
unite and come at me en masse. Forgive me but in case you don't me by now, I
tend to write the way I speak. Highly conversational.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Did you know that last year in the U.S. alone there were nearly 1.3 billion movie
tickets sold with a total box office gross of $10.4 billion? The stat, which comes
from the-numbers.com speaks to the enormous popularity movies continue to be
for those looking to spend their entertainment dollar.

Now these numbers are just reflective of those who actually went to a theater to
view a movie. They don't take into account DVD sales, downloads, NetFlix, and on
and on. You can just imagine what the real total numbers would look like when it
comes to the amount of money that's up for grabs for those entrusted with the
marketing of a movie.

Back in the Day

" In the past, movie marketing was primarily a buy to get an advertisement on page
6 of the newspaper , and running commercials on Thursday night to bring

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awareness to people about the opening weekend for a film," says Dana Loberg, co-
founder of Silicon Valley-based social network and movie marketing
startup, MovieLaLa. "Everything was based on traditional marketing methods
(posters, billboards, commercials, etc)."

As it has with essentially everything else, social media had and continues to have a
significant impact.

"It was social media that initiated a sea change in movie marketing," says Arthur
Chan, EVP Digital Marketing, Palisades MediaGroup, a Santa Monica, CA-based
independent media agency.

He says social is at the core of almost every campaign as it not only elevates word
of mouth through earned media, but it’s the active link that keeps campaigns
integrated through each discipline.

Francois Martin, EVP Marketing & TV Sales for The Weinstein Company says
this shift was caused by a number of things including audience fragmentation,
which increased with the rise of cable programming. DVRs which meant less
people were watching commercials, in this case movie trailers. And finally,
something that is happening as we speak − the proliferation of streaming and on
demand services.

Chan is quick to point out that that little thing called mobile is most certainly at
play in all this.

"Over the last few years, digital consumption has rapidly shifted into the mobile
and “cord cutter” space," says Chan. "Driven by the increase in smartphone/smart
device adoption and the decrease in the cost of data, all movie studios now take a
platform agnostic approach to marketing ."

Roadblocks Dead Ahead

There are no shortage of roadblocks or obstacles for movie makers wanting to

market their films to the masses.

Loberg says size absolutely matters telling me "the length of the content usually
needs to be short in mobile, so the traditional length of trailers and marketing have
needed to change, too." She also believes the social networks and mobile chat apps
have completely taken over as the most time spent vs. television devices of the
past.
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She identified the following obstacles facing movie marketers today:

1. Movie fan demographic (14-24y/o) is more mobile and tech savvy

2. Movie fan demographic (14-24y/o) is also more social (Facebook, Twitter,

Snapchat etc)

3. Shorter attention spans

4. Savvier in terms of marketing (blind to banner ads and popups)

5. Fragmented audience makes marketing much more challenging (moving target

across devices, apps, etc) Hopping around more frequently and less committed and
loyal to one place.

The Future of Movie Marketing

Well one might say the future is in the "cards" as in Cardlytics, the company that
pioneered the global Card-Linked Marketing industry. Earlier this year they
partnered with both The Weinstein Company and Palisades MediaGroup in what
was described as innovative marketing campaign "that will take a tremendous
amount of guesswork out of getting proven moviegoers into theaters opening
weekend."

The movie's opening weekend in question was the boxing

drama Southpaw starring Jake Gyllenhaal which opened on July 24.

The Weinstein Company and Palisades MediaGroup used purchase data to target
active moviegoers who have not only purchased tickets online, but at the box
office of all theater locations. As a result, they had the ability to reach the 85%+ of
active moviegoers who purchase their tickets on site.

Having the ability to target true frequent moviegoers with advertising, based on the
purchasing data at the theaters is a "real game-changer" according to Martin.

"Studios promoting movies today are armed with more tools than ever before,
especially when it comes to data," says Arlo Laitin, Senior Vice President
Media."Leveraging real purchase data to identify fans and followers is where the
future of movie marketing is headed."

As for specific thoughts on the future of movie marketing.

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"As long as movie marketers embrace the new technologies, and they adapt to the
way people are consuming content as well as the way people are chatting around
content -- then the future looks bright for movie marketers." - Dana Loberg, co-
founder, MovieLaLa

"The pillars aren't going away just yet, trailers and posters in the movie theater or
spending on television. You'll see more media dollars moved to digital
advertising. I think the amount of data that movie marketers have at their disposal
is only going to get better, more detailed. We'll be able pinpoint ticket buyers in a
more granular way, on a title by title basis. Finally, someone is going to be able to
catalog all the social data, reference that with online polling and tell me how much
the picture is really going to gross this weekend." - Francois Martin, EVP
Marketing & TV Sales for The Weinstein Company.

This article is 965 words, not including this sentence.

Writer: Steve Olenski

Preparation Questions (BEFORE reading)

1. What are some things that you already know about the topic of this
reading text? (background information)
What do you expect to learn by reading this text? (preview and prediction)
[2-3sentences]
- Before reading the article, I’ve had some information about how movie
marketing works.

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 - By reading this text, I expect to learn more about the past and future of
movie marketing.

Organization Questions (WHILE reading)

2. Mind-map or outline very concrete main ideas of this reading so
that you can summarize it more effectively.
Overall Topic: Movie Marketing
Text Organization: Introduction – Marketing movie in the past – Obstacle –
Marketing Movie in the future
Main idea 1: Marketing a Movie in the past
Supporting 1: Social Media _ significant impact

Main idea 2: 5 Obstacles of marketing movies

- Movie fan demographic is more mobile and tech savvy
- Movie fan demographic (14-24y/o) is also more social (Facebook, Twitter,
Snapchat etc)

- Shorter attention spans

- Savvier in terms of marketing (blind to banner ads and popups)

- Fragmented audience makes marketing much more challenging (moving

target across devices, apps, etc) Hopping around more frequently and less
committed and loyal to one place.

Main idea 3: The future of movie marketing

Supporting 1: Purchase data to target active moviegoers => a real game-
changer

Make a list of discourse markers (You have learnt in this Academic

Reading course) you intend to cohere main ideas in the summary:
- Firstly, After that, Subsequently, Finally.

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3. Summarize the main ideas of this reading in a complete paragraph.
(summarizing) [5-7 sentences]
- In the article “Marketing A Movie Ain’t What It Used To Be” Steve Olenski
examines the way marketing movies works in the past and future as well as
its obstacles in promoting a movie. Firstly, the writer introduced briefly how
marketing movies affects its success. After that, he points out that social
media had an important role in advertising movies and became the core of
almost every campaign. Subsequently, the author also states 5 main
difficulties facing movie marketers nowadays. Finally, Olenski mentions the
future of Movie Marketing by giving an example of The Weinstein
Company and Palissades Media Group’s strategy in promoting the movie
“Southpaw” starring Jake Gyllenhaal. That marketing strategy is using data
to target active moviegoers which obviously works very effectively and
becomes a “real game-changer” in the marketing industry. At the end of the
text, the writer brings up some specific thoughts on the future of movie
marketing coming from Dana Loberg and Francois Martin.

Reflection Questions (AFTER reading)

4. What did you find difficult to understand? Why do you think that was so?
What could you do to resolve this problem and gain a better
understanding? (critical thinking) [3-4 sentences]
- The text to me is quite clear so I do not have difficulties in finding the main
ideas.

5. Vocabulary skills
 Select and write down 5 collocations from the reading which
are new to you:
- Roadblock, Leverage, granular, catalog, gross

 Write a paragraph below of at least five sentences using all five

collocations (or their related word forms):
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 NOTE: PLEASE DRAW A BOX AROUND EACH COLLOCATION
TO MAKE IT EASY TO SEE!
- Our car slows down for traffic, and Daddy says, ‘It's a roadblock, see the
cops way up there?
- The best candidates for Linux in the enterprise are organizations that can
leverage their existing knowledge base.
- Even structured information in databases is subject to this process, as
database software is now building in flexibility at the most granular level to
move information from different servers or storage pools.
- She explained what kinds of searches would work well in the
library catalog , or various licensed databases, or in Internet searching.
- For several years, it was the highest grossing film of all time, and that makes
a statement worth listening to.