Even though, as you might have noticed, I am very fond of wandering off to reflect on theoretical concepts and do some independent research, this week I’m going to come back to Earth and talk about what’s actually happening in class. The Fundraiser. We’ve had a lot of different ideas as to what the fundraiser might be and most of them revolved around films, which makes sense considering we are setting up a film festival. It seems we finally settled with the Canned Film Screening, which is great news. Now, let’s talk marketing.

Not going to lie, this is probably the most different product/service/event that I ever had to market so far. It’s an incredibly niche audience and the movies we chose for screening, Ben & Arthur and Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, are well… Not exactly the epiphany of cinematic art to say the least. I’ve done a lot of research trying to figure out the best way to promote it. I started with re-reading the week 5 reading by Bohdana Rambousková: “How to Successfully Promote Your Festival“.  Since this fundraiser was just a sort of a side-gig on our way to MIYFF, we had no time to create a campaign or develop a brand identity, which made half the article irrelevant. Something, however, caught my attention: Online Promotion. 

Launch your festival’s Facebook profile and you can update people on your programme, guests, behind-the-scenes developments, etc. for free (or for a low price when using advertising tools). Create a Facebook event for the festival’s opening 106 and/or closing ceremony and invite as many Facebook friends as possible.

I am currently doing a digital marketing slave intern and I was just working with Facebook ads, so that was a nice coincidence to see them mentioned in a course reading. The great thing about Facebook ads is that it really lets you narrow down your target audience to a very specific range of people. Apart from choosing a preferred age, gender and geographical location, you can also choose interests and behaviours that people display in their Internet searches and target these people specifically. I know, it’s creepy and invasive and I’m 95% sure that Zuckerberg is an alien lizard, but when it works out in my favour, I really don’t mind a bit of 1984. So, as per my proposal in class, I think it’s a great idea to spend $20 on Facebook and launch an ad that will reach specific people who are actually into that kind of staff. I don’t expect large sales at all, because, well… It’s only $3 per day. But we don’t need many people so it still works.

I wish we had more time to launch an A/B testing first and really nail the visuals, but we gotta work with what we have. With the ad launch and Ben inviting every single person he’s ever known, I think we’ll do okay!

Word count: 516 (I’m sorry I always go over the limit, I try my best not to)

Cited:
Bohdana Rambousková, “How to Successfully Promote Your Festival (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” in Setting Up a Human Rights Film Festival, vol. 2, Human Rights Film Network, Prague, 2015, pp. 97-114.