a-z

CONTENTS

a ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE by Klara Gavran P6 b BLOCKBUSTER PHENOMENON by Klara Malnar P12

c CINEMAS, ARE THEY DYING?

by Klara Malnar P17 d DID YOU KNOW?

by Irma Jakić P22

e ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING IN 2019 by Klara Malnar P27 f FAMOUS CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS by Irma Jakić P30 g GO BIG OR GO HOME

by Irma Jakić P31

h HOLLYWOOD VS BOLLYWOOD

by Klara Malnar P35

i I WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY…AND MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST

by Klara Malnar P38

j JOYS OF DIGITALIZATION by Klara Gavran P43 k KEEPING UP WITH THE STREAMING SERVICES by Klara Gavran P47

l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING by Klara Gavran P51 m MUSICIANS TO ACTORS AND VICE VERSA by Irma Jakić P60 n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN

by Klara Gavran P62

o OFF-CAMERA: ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY BY THE DOLLAR

by Irma Jakić P71

p PR NIGHTMARE, BUT LONG OVERDUE by Iva Anušić P75

q QUICK FIX by Iva Anušić P79

r RAZZIES by Irma Jakić P88

s SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY by Klara Malnar P90 t THE COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: HOW CAN STREAMING SERVICES BENEFIT

by Klara Gavran P96 u USER-GENERATED CONTENT by Klara Malnar P99

v VIEWER’S CHOICE by Klara Gavran P103 w WHAT ABOUT FILM FESTIVALS?

by Klara Malnar P105

x X FACTOR

by Irma Jakić P111

y YHBT (YOU HAVE BEEN TROLLED) CULTURE

by Iva Anušić P113

z ZOMBIES

by Irma Jakić P116 a

ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE

“Pay attention to what the people and the start a few months, half a year, or even a whole press are talking about. Recognize year in advance. emerging trends in conversations, what The way social listening can be useful during seems to be the thing attracting the most this period is by tracking its success. As our attention or causing disinterest or even ebook Media Analytics For Marketers explains, outrage.” there are three parts to keeping track of your promotional activities using media monitoring: before, during and after the campaign. Klara Gavran

ollection and interpretation of data are Before the campaign: create a C crucial in any marketing activity - from unique campaign tag market research to campaign analysis. As media monitoring tools work by tracking

In this chapter, we’ll mainly focus on the keywords, creating a tagline or a hashtag importance of tracking promotional activities. unique to your campaign ensures all mentions appearing in your feed would be Promotion is a big part of any entertainment campaign-related. It’s fairly easy for any project - be it a movie, TV show or an album entertainment project. Take movies for release. As any promotional campaign, it is example. The very name of the movie can meant to build awareness, create buzz and become a hashtag as well as the movie generate interest of the target audience. tagline. Avengers Endgame, for instance, It is not out of the ordinary for the campaign to heavily relied on the hashtag a ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE 7

#AvengersEndgame, using it in every social establishing them right away eases the media post during the campaign. However, process later on. another tagline caught on - “avenge the fallen” - following their posters featuring the fallen During the campaign: keeping track Avengers and those that lived. These were of online chatter & reacting to it taglines most closely related to the movie, and The best way to keep track of online chatter is ones that could have been easily traceable by to sort mentions into categories. For media monitoring tools, ensuring a better instance, Mediatoolkit allows you to separate mention quality. and group mentions by different factors using Before you launch your campaign, you’ll want tags or collections. to know which keywords to track, so

Source: Official Avengers Instagram Account a ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE 8

Let’s start more broadly by separating the and you care. Award the positive mentions media outlets and consumer mentions. That with your attention - the audience will love way, you can have a more organized insight it. into what the media and the fans, respectively, Don’t ignore the mentions with negative are saying about your campaign. sentiment, though. Then, you can group campaign mentions by Rather, address the possible issues head- positive or negative sentiment or actors who on. Did the audience react negatively to a part play in a movie. You can group them by of your campaign, did one of your actors or different taglines (if you have more than one), actresses cause negative press, did a leaked to see which one resulted in more TV show plot cause outrage over the direction engagement. the show is going? These are all things you By grouping mentions, you can have a more have to know are happening and which you comprehensive insight into your have to address as soon as possible. campaign. By reacting promptly to both positive and When going through your campaign mentions, negative mentions, you take control of the pay attention to what the people and the press narrative. are talking about. Recognize emerging trends in conversations, what seems to be After the campaign: analyze the the thing attracting the most attention or results causing disinterest or even outrage. What was the campaign outcome? Was it

Most importantly, once you do recognize ways successful or not? Media monitoring metrics people and press engage with your project - provide you with an insight into the return on engage in conversations yourself. your investment.

Don’t be a passive observer Few of the most important metrics are as follows: Look for opportunities to insert yourself in online conversations. Interact with the fans Reach or the number of people your over social media, respond to their tags and campaign has reached. Media monitoring tools comments and tweets - show you see them give you data on the total number of mentions a ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE 9

your campaign had, as well as the total Sentiment analysis number of impressions. Additionally, for each Sentiment analysis is important for figuring out specific campaign mention, you have access the impact your campaign had. While the to metrics like interactions (the number of reach is an important metric to take into people who’ve liked, shared, commented on a account, it doesn’t tell you much by itself - post), engagement rate (percentage of other than how many people saw your people who interacted with the mention via campaign efforts. comments, share, likes, etc.) and Sentiment analysis, on the other influence score (a score of 1 hand, offers you an insight to 10, indicating how into the way people influential the source is responded to your compared to any other promotional activities. source on the internet). It breaks the campaign down into positive Mention spikes and negative Media monitoring tools mentions. Thus, by also offer you an insight looking at the positive- into how your mentions Source: Mediatoolkit’s negative sentiment ratio, you Sentiment Chart performed over time, thus discover if the campaign was received indicating when there was a spike in mentions, positively or negatively, and in what i.e. when your keywords were mentioned far percentage. Likewise, you’ll have insight into more than usual for the observed period of both positive and negative mentions, so you’ll time. You can find out what caused more know exactly what caused the approval and engagement among the audience by looking what caused the disapproval. Again, making it into the mentions on peak days. Was it a something to take note of for the next certain aspect of the campaign - a new trailer, campaign. a theme song release, something an actor posted? By looking into what caused a bigger Channel dominance engagement, you can take note of it for future This metric refers to the social media campaigns. platforms’ performance and is great for a ANALYZE, ANALYZE, ANALYZE 10

evaluating your channel strategy. According to and making sure your investment was the data on how each channel performed, you worthwhile, you need to set up your analysis need to take note of which channels are you strategy from the very beginning. The end currently using and are they still profitable, results analysis is important, but to best which channels you need to add, and which understand it, you have to keep track of your channels do you need to remove from your campaign process from beginning to the strategy? end.

After all, results don’t come from focusing on every available social media channel, but rather from focusing your energy on a few platforms with the biggest impact.

Analyze, analyze, analyze

Marketing campaign analysis is an all- encompassing venture. For the best results

Source: Mediatoolkit Create brand reports in 24/7 mention minutes monitoring for 100+ million online sources

Analyze mentions and find brand influencers

Receive real-time mention alerts

Fast, affordable and simple for everyone to use.

SIGN UP FOR FREE b

BLOCKBUSTER PHENOMENON

“Movie studios spend an average of $30 Let’s dive into the process of creating and million to market the typical PG-13 action marketing blockbuster films and see what it film in the U.S.” takes for success!

How does a movie become a Klara Malnar blockbuster?

efore we begin, let’s define what a In 2018, Verdict spoke to advertising insiders in B blockbuster movie specifically means: the movie industry to find out. “A blockbuster is a Hollywood movie that's According to experts they talked with, there made with a large budget and big stars. A are 9 steps - finding a budget, deciding who true blockbuster is extremely popular and to market to, creating the first trailer, creating brings in a lot of money.” accompanying assets, dissemination, gauging Okay, so Hollywood, large budget, big stars, the reaction to the first trailer, keep advertising, popular and lots of money. junkets/interviews/clips, rinsing and repeating for the DVD release. At first glance, it could look fairly simple to create a blockbuster. Especially when it We’re going to follow the Verdict’s steps and comes to marketing. examine how the process works.

“Why do Avengers need tons of money spent Finding a budget on marketing when everybody around the According to Verdict, a few things are world knows about the franchise?” - you may important here. In order to define the budget, wonder. b BLOCKBUSTER PHENOMENON 13

you need to have a clear understanding of marketing accounts for an average of 29%. what type of movie you actually have on your Also, on the basis of his dataset, he debunked hands (independent, art…). To figure that out, a myth that marketing a Hollywood movie can you need to hold screenings for industry cost up to twice the cost of the film’s budget. insiders, cinema bookers, etc. in order to collect their feedback. That feedback is used Deciding who to market to to estimate the film’s lifetime box office gross Who’s your target audience? and size of its release. After you collect and analyze all of this data, you can set a budget Hint: everybody is not an answer.

for advertising. According to Neurostar, movie Red Rock Entertainment Ltd. cites Star Wars studios spend an average of $30 million to and Paranormal Activity as two examples of market the typical PG-13 action film in the U.S. good audience targeting. Star Wars

Stephen Follows analyzed 29 Hollywood encompassed everyone, no matter the age, blockbusters who cost more than $100 million gender, or where someone lives. Paranormal to make and concluded that out of the total activity, on the other hand, had an extremely costs that involved making and selling a movie, narrow niche that was interested in seeing the

The best blockbusters ever, source: Shortlist b BLOCKBUSTER PHENOMENON 14

movie. However, both are box-office Verdict writes that the agency that did work for successes and are known worldwide. Deadpool 2 created around 600 individual assets for all the markets around the world. In order to realize who’s your target audience, you need to know why your film is unique and A year ago, Rotten Tomatoes created a list of worth watching, refine the concept of the film, 10 killer marketing campaigns, and it’s full of conduct research to find out where your target creative approaches. For example, to promote audience is, and finally, refining the collected Inception, the studio created a game that data and testing. ultimately unlocked the movie trailer.

To promote the first Deadpool movie, the Creating the first trailer studio used parody posters, custom emojis, a According to Verdict, all the trailer has to do is feud with Wolverine (and Hugh Jackman), a to get as many people as possible to think “I costume reveal via the faux-nude spread and a want to see that film”. Furthermore, the trailer flaming bag of a poop yule log, to name a few. doesn’t have to be true to the plot or any Accompanying assets are important as they particular elements of the film, but only if the can reach a vast number of people through people approving the trailer agree with that. social media mainly, and arouse the curiosity of Also, there are myriad ways you can make the the ones who otherwise wouldn’t check out trailer. It can be linear (or not), you can tell little the movie in the cinema. with it (or a lot)... There aren’t any strict rules. Disseminating the trailer and posters Website Looper writes that film trailers evolved tremendously over the years, and are still Did you know that Walt Disney spent more continuing to change. Also, the site published than three years promoting “Tron: Legacy?” a list of the most epic trailers of all time. Well, according to the New York Times, the practice of creating long promotional Creating accompanying assets campaigns is no more. In this day and age, The trailer alone is not enough. You need to people don’t like to wait and want things “right have additional content that you’ll be able to away” so promotional campaigns are usually use to engage your audience and motivate shortened to four or five months for major them to check out your film. movie releases such as Avengers. b BLOCKBUSTER PHENOMENON 15

But, a shorter campaign doesn’t mean less. People were mortified with scenes of actors On the contrary. NYT writes that the promotion being CGI-ed into cats. The controversy soon of the latest Avengers movie “Endgame” went viral, and reactions were not what the started late, but the advertising bombardment director Tom Hooper expected. was aggressive. We’re going to talk about the social media When it comes to advertising budget impact on movies later on in this ebook. allocation, Neurostar’s study showed that Anna Zaikina pointed out to Verdict that digital media drove 46% of movie box office reactions to first trailers are informative revenue, despite making up just 14% of studio because, based on that input, they can marketing budgets, while TV accounted for change the campaign in order to influence 82% of marketing budgets and was more positive reactions. Also, they can let the responsible for driving just 42% of media- studio know which parts to include/exclude in driven box office revenue. the next trailers.

Anna Zaikina, head of social insights at DMS, Zaikina says that on-going social media described Verdict their social media strategy. tracking is essential for identifying any crises or They use native platform analytics and social negative publicity very early on and reacting to media listening tools to understand when them in a timely manner. account followers and people talking about certain titles are online and are likely to Keep advertising engage. That way they can understand more Just keep advertising. Just keep advertising. about behavioral patterns and interests of a Also, learn from your previous mistakes and particular segment they’re interested in. keep creating a buzz.

Gauge reaction to the first trailer Junkets, interviews, and clips

Have you seen the movie “Cats”? Better yet, This is the part where the stars of the movie have you seen the first trailer of the movie step in. “Cats”? After the first trailer aired, social media was on fire. According to Film Threat, there are a couple of ways they can promote their own movies. b BLOCKBUSTER PHENOMENON 16

Interviews - they are a great way to spread Most of these steps can be applied to every information about the upcoming movie. Movie movie marketing campaign, and it doesn’t stars can go on (late-night) talk shows, talk to matter that many don’t have blockbuster magazines and newspapers, they can do budgets to begin with. YouTube interviews, the list goes on. The point is to reveal a tiny bit of the plot to keep the audience interested. Unless you’re watching Mark Ruffalo that is. Then the chances are you might get your movie spoiled.

Social media - these days, social media is inevitable. When casting actors for the role, studios are taking into account the social media following a certain actor has. But, what a better way for actors to spread the word about new movies than on their highly followed social media accounts?

Teasers and posters - sometimes those two intertwine and are great for generating interest in movies.

Rinse and repeat for the DVD release

Verdict writes that once a film is out and the marketing cycle finishes, then it’s time to do it all over again. This time for the DVD release!

And that’s that! Creative thinking, relying on the data, listening to your audience are just a couple of things essential to implement to get a successful marketing campaign. c

CINEMAS, ARE THEY DYING?

“On the question about whether there's a whether we can draw conclusions from both future in theater for anything besides perspectives. blockbusters, the answers in part seemed grim. Most of the answers had a common B.C. - before Coronavirus thread which is the acknowledgment of the Last year, the New York Times gathered some dramatic change happening in the last few of the top Hollywood names to discuss what years and the urgency to act on it.” the next 10 years will look like for movies. They also talked about the future of theaters.

Klara Malnar Here are the main takeaways:

n normal times (i.e. not in the midst of a On the question about whether there's a I global pandemic), this would be a much future in theater for anything besides blockbusters, the answers in part seemed easier topic to cover. And many did cover it. grim. Most of the answers had a common But now, I can’t help but wonder if all that was thread which is the acknowledgment of the written before the pandemic applies now. dramatic change happening in the last few How much damage will Coronavirus, along years and the urgency to act on it. with existing archenemies such as streaming On the question of the importance of the services who are thriving right now, cause to theatrical release, many mentioned the cinemas around the world? dilemma they face when deciding whether to opt for theatrical release or to go to the Let’s analyze what was said before the streaming services directly. Some movies that pandemic, what is said right now, and see C CINEMAS, ARE THEY DYING? 18

weren’t successful in the theatre became Also, predicting the death of cinemas based popular later when aired on the TV or on the box office revenue trends may not be streaming services. the best thing to do since, as Forbes describes it, it’s a “consistently inconsistent” variable. In early February of 2020, Forbes published an article that focused on 7 reasons to be Let’s look at the seven reasons Forbes noted optimistic about cinemas (Hollywood) in 2020. to be signs for optimism: Yikes! Attendance isn’t as bad as it’s being made out to be - as the article points out if we look In the article, it says that even with all the at the big picture, the drop in the cinema streaming services, and the fact that in 2019 attendance was only 11% in the last 12 years. box office was down 4.2%, there’s a place for On the other hand, automobile sales dropped optimism if you dig deeper into the numbers 40% in the same period, but no one is painting and trends. The article highlights that the car buying as something that’s dying. cinema isn’t dying, but rather it’s evolving.

Source: Europa Cinemas C CINEMAS, ARE THEY DYING? 19

Global Box Office and Global Attendance the engine by which success or failure of a film hit all-time highs in 2019 - when reporting will be measured. The decision to premiere a about the movie-going, the media often film on a streaming channel instead of focuses on domestic attendance (USA) but thousands of cinema screens around the world doesn’t look at the global scale. The article will not be made lightly. points out a significant growth potential in The dissipation of CapEx - yes, cinema places like Africa and the Middle East. chains should continue upgrading their A return to the studio quality - studios are theaters to constantly improve the experience finally realizing that artistic success and box for moviegoers. But, in 2020 their capital office success can co-exist. expenditures should be a bit more reasonable.

The 800-pound gorilla loses some weight A.C. - After Coronavirus in 2020 - meaning, in 2020 Disney won’t have the big guns such as the Avengers movie, Will theatres survive Coronavirus? Vanity Fair Pixar sequel or Star Wars entry as it did in wondered the same. They write that the first 2019. That means spreading the wealth in the thing that happened after the outbreak is that industry. a bunch of blockbusters got postponed. Black Widow, Mulan, No Time to Die, A Quiet Place: 2020 is off and running - the box office in Part 2, New Mutants, F9… All postponed, and January ended up being 11% in plus. The the estimated box office revenue for those movie Bad Boys for life grossed $73 million in movies was $1 billion. the domestic opening weekend and it has become the highest nono-expansion January As was hinted in the Forbes article, Vanity Fair release in history. also states that 2020 was supposed to be a comeback year. That’s hardly true anymore. The threat of the collapse of “Windows” seems to be subsiding - it’s no news that Something that might hint the changes that’ll streaming services are trying to shrink the happen A.C. is the fact that Universal will theatrical window. The article poses a question release its animated adventure comedy Trolls of whether this will matter after the studios World Tour in theatres that are still open at the start to debut their streaming services. But, the same time as on streaming services which will article also points out that theaters will remain close the previously discussed theatrical C CINEMAS, ARE THEY DYING? 20

window. For theatres that window is still encouraging is that the audience attendance important as it provides 40% of the revenue for grew higher than any other decade before and theatres from the box office. after.

On the other hand, BBC paints a rather Even though the Coronavirus situation is much optimistic picture for the future of cinema more complicated than the “Spanish flu” was despite the pandemic by looking at the difficult from the standpoint of business (today, all historic events and how cinema survived. cinemas are closed, film festivals postponed, all filming halted), BBC points out that if we’re For example, a “Spanish flu” pandemic that to judge from history - cinemas always adapt happened a century ago. and bounce back. Being forced to watch movies indoors for months may motivate BBC states that when the flu hit, cinemas people to go to cinemas after all this is over. closed around the world but not in the same way as today because municipal governments To conclude in most had been responsible for making orders. Those orders didn’t come lightly, For me personally, going to movie theatres is especially in the UK. The British government something of a tradition. I love going to the actually saw cinemas as being essential for cinema and love the experience. I’m excited to public well-being (and propaganda). watch movies in theatres and usually go to see them in the first week of their release if I’m able Interestingly, the open theatres had to be to. Watching a movie on the TV or laptop ventilated for 30 minutes every three hours, (never have I ever watched a movie on a children were banned from entering, and all phone, I’m not crossing that line) is OK, but carpets were removed. Some were showing a I’m not as focused on the movie as I am in the 15-minute public information film. theatre. BBC notes that at that time the film industry Judging by the expert information compiled in was impacted but it didn’t suffer overall but this article, the answer to the question in the rather changed shape. Many small companies title is - no. Cinemas are not dying. Just as went out of business, and the bigger radio didn’t kill newspapers, and TV didn’t kill companies became even bigger resulting in radio, streaming services (and Coronavirus) will studios that we have now. What’s more C CINEMAS, ARE THEY DYING? 21

not kill cinema. It’ll change the cinema, but it won’t kill it. And change is not always a bad thing, right? Did yo u

k

n

o w dd? ?

500 hours of video are being uploaded on YouTube every minute. Source ?

The most pirated film of all time is Avatar. It was illegally downloaded over 21 million times. Source ?

The first celebrity to be pictured on the cover of Vogue Magazine was Madonna, in 1989. Source

23 ?

5,902 book titles are being published every day. Source ?

On average, people spend 18 hours a week listening to music. Source ?

89% of people listen to music through on-demand streaming. Source

24 ?

The movie Titanic cost more than the ship itself. Source ?

Bollywood produces twice as many films a year as Hollywood. Source ?

The highest grossing animated film of all-time is The Lion King (2019). Source

25 ?

The Oscar trophy costs $1 and it’s forbidden to resell it. Source ?

There’s a Starbucks cup in every Fight Club scene. Source ?

Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles was the 1st music video shown on MTV. Source

26 in 2019 nt indust me r y in a t r e t n eeE Virtual alternatives

Since everything in the world is canceled right now (and probably will be for some time), marketers have to rethink, adjust, and move all of their campaignings online. Strengthen your social media efforts and try to engage with your consumers through the content (e.g. live stream interviews, Q&As…).

Source: Marketing Week

Influencers

Luckily, there’s no shortage of influencers when it comes to the entertainment industry. You can integrate this point with the previous one for great results.

Source: Econsultancy

Think like a fan

Think of something you’re a fan of and ask yourself: “What would I like to see from “XY”? And do it!

Source: StoryFit

28 Artificial Intelligence

The Drum writes: “Deep learning can digest, asses and contextualize unstructured data quickly to derive actionable insights.” Data is king. Use it!

Source: The Drum

29 f

FAMOUS CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

“80s were a game changing period for on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial. But, celebrity endorsements.” Jackson decided not to sue and instead urged Pepsi to build a burn center in the hospital where he was treated so the incident ended Irma Jakić with a silver lining.

But, to take your mind off this story - we’ll ig sponsorship deals between remind you of a less grandiose sponsorship B companies and celebrities is and one of everyone’s favorite example of a something we’re all used to. But the 1980s funny endorsement. were a game changing period for celebrity It happened in 2010 when Kim Kardashian endorsement when two most famous MJs in teamed up with Charmin toilet to promote the world - Jackson and Jordan - became their public restrooms followed by the faces for big brands that way starting the statement that “During the holiday shopping era of co-branding and integrated season” she was “happy to join Charmin as marketing that lasts to this day. Jackson they give the gift of restrooms near Times included his music into Pepsi commercials Square.” Well, it is a very crucial gift. and Jordan used his basketball talent to team up with Nike in making the still very popular But, hey, money is money and promotion is Air Jordan’s, the first branded shoe. promotion - good or bad - and celebrities definitely know that. Though Jordan’s and Nike’s partnership went pretty well, Jackson and Pepsi had an incident in 1984 when the singer’s hair went

30 music & movies

e m o h o g

r

o

g

i

b o ggG The most profitable low-budget movies ever

Paranormal activity The Blair Witch Mad Max (2007) Project (1999) (1979)

Budget: $15,000 Budget: $60,000 Budget: $200,000 Box office: $193M+ Box office: $248M+ Box office: $99M+ Profit: 1,289,000% Profit: 414,300% Profit: 49,800%

Source: DigitalSpy

The most expensive movies ever

Pirates of the Spider-Man 3 – $294 Caribbean: On Stranger Titanic – $295 million million Tides – $378.5 million

Source: Showbizz CheatSheet

32 Highest paid actors in 2019

Dwayne Johnson Chris Hemsworth Robert Downey Jr. $89.4 million $76.4 million $66 million

Source: Forbes

Highest paid actresses in 2019

Jennifer Aniston Kaley Cuoco Elisabeth Moss $28 million $25 million $24 million

Source: USA Today

33 Biggest selling music albums ever and number of copies sold

Eagles - Their Greatest Michael Jackson - Eagles - Hotel Hits (1971-1975) Thriller California 36 million 33 million 26 million

Source: Business Insider

Highest paid musicians in 2019

Taylor Swift Kanye West Ed Sheeran $185 million $150 million $110 million

Source: Forbes

34 h

HOLLYWOOD VS BOLLYWOOD

“Bollywood produces more movies in a featured movie made in Bollywood was Raja year than Hollywood.” Harishchandra in 1913. But, some say that the Indian movie industry started long before that in 1899 with silent films. As for Bollywood, its Klara Malnar Golden age began around the 1950s and lasted for over a decade. In that period, many

et’s begin this chapter with a little Indian iconic movie stars, producers and L history lesson. directors emerged, and their legacy can still be seen in Bollywood movies.

To be precise, how did Hollywood become Hollywood and how did Bollywood become Differences between Hollywood and Bollywood. Bollywood

In 1910, In Old California was the first movie There are some of the key differences between made entirely in Hollywood, and the next year the two: the first studio appeared on Sunset A single Bollywood movie will encompass a Boulevard. Soon after, a Golden Age of bunch of genres. Meaning in one movie Hollywood began - large studios know as “Big you’ll get comedy, horror, drama, romance, Five” emerged, Hollywood movies and movie etc. Meanwhile, Hollywood movies will stars became internationally known, and usually be focused on one subject. some of the best movies were made in that Hollywood uses a lot of technology and era. special effects in the process of On the other side of the planet, the first moviemaking, while that’s not the case in h HOLLYWOOD VS BOLLYWOOD 36

Bollywood. In 2019, Dwayne The Rock Johnson was the Bollywood movies are much longer (around highest-paid actor with earnings of $89.4 3 hours) than Hollywood ones. million, while the highest-paid actress was Bollywood produces more movies in a year Scarlett Johanson with $56 million. than Hollywood. Bollywood, on the other hand, had $2.83 Hollywood is the highest-grossing film billion in revenue. The interesting thing is that industry, while Bollywood is grossing there are 2.2 billion Bollywood movie tickets comparatively less. sold annually throughout the country! Bollywood movies are typically based on Indian culture, real-life stories and issues, Akshay Kumar is the highest-paid actor in while Hollywood movies cover a wide range India with total earnings of $65 million from of topics. June 2018 to June 2019. The highest-paid Many Bollywood movies are inspired by actress in Bollywood was Kangana Ranaut Hollywood ones. with $26 million in earnings.

Let’s talk money! Bollywood remakes of Hollywood movies We’ve already mentioned that Hollywood is the highest-grossing film industry, but let’s break While researching this topic, I came across a down those earnings in detail. fun article that analyzed Hollywood and Bollywood movie pairings. And apparently, Last year, Yahoo! Finance analyzed which film there’s quite a few of them. industry earns the most. They analyzed the Cinema of China, Hollywood, and Bollywood, Hitch (2005) and Partner (2007) but we’re going to focus on the bottom two According to the author, Partner is by far the only. most obvious remake out there:

By the end of 2019 Hollywood was estimated “Both feature a “cool guy” who fixes up a “not- to earn $50.9 billion. Two years prior, in 2017, so-cool guy” with the girl of his dreams even the Marvel Cinematic Universe was though she’s way out of his league, while responsible for $9.8 billion in box-office simultaneously falling in love himself.” revenue alone. He even mentions some scenes that looked h HOLLYWOOD VS BOLLYWOOD 37

identical. The movies were so similar, that there was almost a lawsuit filed against the filmmakers!

Check out the rest of the article here! i

I WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY…AND MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST

“Serious Oscar campaigning started in nominated.”

1967 when Arthur Jacobs, a producer- Sure. publicist, persuaded Fox to throw festive parties on behalf of the musical Doctor Here’s how it all started Dolittle.” Peter Bart in his piece for Deadline writes that the actress Mary Pickford began it all in 1929 Klara Malnar when her rival Janet Gaynor won the first Best Actress Oscar. The next year she threw a lavish dinner party and won the Oscar. he road to the Oscars is quite simple, T right? You make a great movie, people But, according to Bart and his historian friend watch it, they like it, you get nominated, you Timothy Gray, serious Oscar campaigning (maybe) win an Oscar and you live happily started in 1967 when Arthur Jacobs, a ever after. The End. producer-publicist, persuaded Fox to throw festive parties on behalf of the musical Doctor Well, it turns out that the road to Oscars is Dolittle. The musical didn’t impress critics, but much more complex than that. it was nominated for eight Oscars and won Vox compared campaign for an Oscar to one. campaigning for public office but with a twist. Three decades after, in 1999, when The twist is if you campaign for the Oscars, Shakespeare in Love (read: Harvey Weinstein) you should pretend to be chill about the whole stole the Oscar away from Saving Private thing. Ryan, Bart says that Oscar gamesmanship “You know, it’s an honor just to be i I WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY…AND MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST 39

took on a new dimension (read: smear Studios pick their candidates based on the campaigns). “electability”, and the most important factor is the Oscar-worthiness narrative around the Modern campaigns film Oscar campaigns are calculated steps on Vox writes that according to the 2017 New the path to the Oscars - reflecting values, Yorker story, modern Oscar campaigns run as aligning candidate with a viable archetype, high as $15 million! campaign events, endorsements, even Now here’s where the similarities with playing a little dirty campaigning for the public office, according to The point is to craft a belief in voter’s minds Vox, step in: that not only the movie could win, but

Oscar campaign needs as much money and should the influence that it can indirectly buy (meaning: events, endorsements, The voters

advertising) Who are those voters campaigns are aiming

Source: Deadline i I WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY…AND MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST 40

at? How does the voting process work? (Oscar-friendly films tend to come out late in the year). According to Digital Spy, there are 7,000 Academy members, all film-industry Follows states that studios budget for their professionals, who are allowed to vote. Voting Oscar campaigns in two phases: the first is done in branches for each category (e.g. phase is to get nominated and the second Actors branch votes to nominate in all four one is winning the awards. acting categories). The only categories that He also notes that the exact split of the costs have rules about who gets the nomination are between two phases varies per film, but overall Best Picture and the four acting categories 56% of the budget is spent on the first phase, because they are voted for by the largest and the rest in the second phase. number of people. You need over 100 votes to get the nomination. Joaquin Phoenix: his own campaign And how does one win? strategist

Digital Spy says that once everyone votes, In 2012, when he was nominated for the best auditing firm PwC uses a very complex actor for the movie The Master, Joaquin weighting system to measure the results and Phoenix called Oscar campaigning “total, determine the five nominees for each category. utter bullshit” and said he doesn’t want to be a When that’s done, all members get to vote part of it. After that, The Hollywood Reporter across all categories. wondered if the “anti-campaigning” is the new campaigning and whether this will cost How’s it done? Phoenix his Oscar. Well, Phoenix didn’t win the Oscar that year, but he did win one eight years How do the studios influence voters? later. Writer and producer Stephen Follows note that And he was the strategist of his own “Oscar influencing includes: campaign”. Showing the film (screenings, on preview This time, he did all the usual Oscar campaign DVDs and via private VOD), Advertising, stops, but he used his platform to highlight Direct marketing, PR and lobbying, and some of the causes he’s passionate about. In Moving the film’s public release date every acceptance speech he gave, he used i I WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY…AND MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST 41

that time to point out what’s wrong in the You would think if studios are spending world, and what should be fixed. For instance, around $15 million for their Oscar campaigns in his Oscar speech, he talked about animal that there must be a great ROI for them. That rights. On Golden Globes he talked about was true before, but recently it turns out that climate change. On BAFTA awards he called the power of the Oscars (or so-called Oscar out systematic racism in the acting bump) is fading. community. Last year, the LA Times wrote that many in the These are not the type of speeches you hear in film industry are starting to increasingly the award shows. The fact that he has put question the economic and cultural value of himself and his success aside in those the awards. But, the reason behind the moments to highlight various issues is worthy studios’ decision to continue spending the big of applause alone. bucks is due to their fresh competition - Netflix. There were rumors that Netflix spent a Finally, are Oscar campaigns worth it? whopping $100 million for their Oscar

Source: HappyMag i I WANT TO THANK THE ACADEMY…AND MY CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST 42

campaigns for The Irishman and The marriage story. Netflix is denying those rumors.

But, it seems that Netflix is the only one who currently benefits from the Oscars campaigns.

As per the LA Times, the reason why Netflix is aiming at the Oscars is not that they want to attract viewers or boost the box office. Netflix wants to boost its brand and convince more top-tier filmmakers to make movies and TV shows for them.

The rise of streaming services forced major film studios to change a lot of their established practices, Oscar campaigning being one of them. It’s going to be interesting to watch how the future of Oscar campaigning will look like with new players stepping in the game. j

JOYS OF DIGITALIZATION

“According to research by PwC, virtual before the first digital transformation. reality and OTT video are the ones that will I say first because the entertainment industry be seeing the biggest annual growth by has already undergone that one 2023.” transformation, but is also currently undergoing a second one.

Klara Gavran In fact, by 2023, revenues for the global entertainment and media industry are expected to reach 2.6 trillion dollars and every year digital revenues account for a larger share of e’ve talked a lot about the that revenue. By 2023, it is expected that importance of digitalization and W digital revenues will account for 60% of total a joint shift towards social media in our revenue in the entertainment industry. pharmaceutical marketing ebook. However, that was not a key turning point specific to Let’s explore how the first digitalization this one industry only, but rather one that changed and benefited the world of permeated every industry ever - including entertainment and how it’s changing again, in entertainment. real-time.

The entertainment industry has come a long From analog to digital way and technological advances brought with it a lot of advantages. It made it possible to Sharper sound, clearer picture, immersive discover new opportunities for growth, as well experience - all characteristics of today’s films, as break out of the barriers of the world be it in cinemas or at home. j JOYS OF DIGITALIZATION 44

Back then having it rain on you as it rained in of downloading or streaming the content you the movie was unthinkable. Today, 3D and 4D want to consume. Playing video games online, are par for the course and a far cry from downloading your favorite album, or streaming analog. And even though, for instance, some the next season of your favorite TV show - all photographers are returning to film from the comfort of your home. photography - it’s exactly that, a matter of artistic choice and not the only option. Second screen experience

That’s exactly where entertainment benefited Enhanced or interactive TV, as are its from digitalization. It made creating easier and monikers, is exactly what its name suggests. of higher quality, but also offered creators a It’s a second device you use while watching TV multitude of choices. - be it a phone, tablet or your laptop. It has become, among many, a preferred method of Distribution: easier and cheaper watching TV. It’s a way to pass the time through uninteresting parts of the program, or Remember a time when there were such enhance your TV experience by interacting via providers like Blockbuster? Remember a time related apps or social media - learning more when you had to go to a physical location to about what you’re watching or sharing your rent or buy a movie or video game or an thoughts and commenting on social media album? If anything, digitalization made platforms. Networks may provide additional distribution a lot easier. Now there’s the option

Source: widerfunnel j JOYS OF DIGITALIZATION 45

coverage online, or an app with additional Avengers: Endgame and a remake of the Lion content. It’s a long way from simply sitting King, among others. down to watch TV and do nothing else. The rise of OTT The technological advances are continuous and the entertainment has since been steadily Over-the-top (OTT) media service is the and subtly been improving. But now, there’s a practice of delivering video and other media new era of digital transformation - one moving content directly to viewers bypassing towards virtual and augmented reality, artificial intermediaries like cable, satellite or intelligence, OTT video, among others. broadband. OTT usually refers to streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, According to research by PwC, virtual reality HBO Go, and Hulu among others. These and OTT video are the ones that will be seeing streaming services have especially seen a the biggest annual growth by 2023. boost in the last few years, with new platforms popping up left and right - one of the most Virtual reality popular of the latest additions being Disney’s It snuck into many facets of the entertainment streaming platform Disney+. You can read industry - from music and movies to video more on the rise of streaming services under games and museums. Today you can go on a the letter K. virtual reality tour or even have an enhanced experience visiting a museum with the help of Artificial intelligence VR or AR apps. By using AI, entertainment businesses can Missing out on your favorite artist’s concert predict consumer behavior by collecting and due to tickets selling out is no longer an issue, analyzing. This results in personalized content as many artists (e.g. Lewis Capaldi, Whiz and experience for their consumers. Netflix is a Khalifa, etc.) employ the use of VR for fine example of using AI for enhanced user streaming concerts to VR headsets. VR experience. Using AI to predict a user’s movie gaming is a big, coveted thing nowadays. or TV show choices and offer Even movies are not exempt from dipping their recommendations is part of their value toes into VR water. VR filmmaking is more proposition. The same goes for music present than ever - having been used in streaming services like Spotify which relies on j JOYS OF DIGITALIZATION 46

AI to deliver recommendations and curate playlists for their users.

And it hasn’t only changed the way we consume content, but also how we produce it. For instance, Google’s open-source platform Magenta project produced songs written and produced by AI.

Additionally, AI has found purpose in marketing, too - from chatbots to automating repetitive tasks that can help content creators easily deliver content.

And there are many more examples and there’ll be many more in the future, too, as AI becomes a staple in the world of entertainment.

This digital transformation happening in the media and entertainment industry in general changes how the content is produced, but also consume. A lot of emphasis is put on user experience and engagement. Personalization and content consumption when and where the consumers want and on what device is at the heart of it. k

KEEPING UP WITH THE STREAMING SERVICES

“Netflix became the jumping-off point for consume media, especially movies and streaming services. It paved the way for music.Streaming has become a staple in the Hulu and then all the other streaming way we consume content. Now, we get lost in services that came after them.” the myriad of streaming services and barely keep count of how many there are - from the pioneer Netflix to HBO Go, Hulu, Prime Video, Klara Gavran Disney Plus, Spotify, Apple TV Plus and Apple Music. The number of streaming platforms keeps rising. nother joy of digitalization is streaming A and streaming services. As predicted But how did it all come to be? by research conducted by PwC, OTT media How did we go from physically renting movies service (which mostly refers to streaming) is to streaming them? expected to have the second-biggest annual growth between 2018 and 2023. And it’s The Netflix origin story turned out to be true thus far, as streaming has become widely popular, with new Netflix was launched in 1997 by Reed Hastings streaming platforms coming out every day, it and Marc Randolph. And even though some seems like. say Netflix was Hastings’s answer to avoid paying for Blockbuster’s late fees, the reason Just a decade or so ago, you’d be hard- was more business-minded. The duo’s pressed to find a household without cable or inspiration came from Amazon as they wanted satellite TV or radio. Fast forward to today, a media equivalent to this giant. They started and there’s a stark difference to how we by making it possible to rent movies by a click k KEEPING UP WITH THE STREAMING SERVICES 48

of the mouse and have it delivered home in the off their pedestal and tried getting into the now-iconic red envelopes. Sometime later, game too late. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. even though the technology wasn’t quite there Thus, Netflix became the jumping-off point yet, they set out to make their idea of for streaming services. It paved the way for streaming movies over the internet come to Hulu and then all the other streaming services life. Enter Blockbuster, the VHS-selling mogul, that came after them. to which Hastings proposed a business deal. Netflix would become Blockbuster’s streaming Today, there’s a steadily rising number of service for a cool $50M. Safe on their pedestal streaming services available that one can’t and still dismissive of the digital media, help but wonder - how many streaming Blockbuster refused - several times. services are too many?

Hastings remained undeterred and continued As the competition becomes more fierce, with his pursuit. And he did it very successfully streaming platforms have to fight to keep their if we look where Netflix is today. Blockbuster, subscribers. To do so, they’re fighting to keep on the other hand, now has one store left in exclusive rights to older shows and generating existence.It’s safe to say they’ve been knocked original content.

Iconic red envelopes, source: SecureThoughts k KEEPING UP WITH THE STREAMING SERVICES 49

And while it’s great that there’s so many old and new movies and TV shows at viewers’ disposal, it makes you question at what cost? Paying for one platform was fine, but having to pay for every single streaming service just to get to watch that one show is starting to become - simply put - unaffordable.

How does one choose between all these platforms then?

It’s all about finding competitive advantage. What sets one streaming service apart from another? They have to think about their unique selling points, and make sure they’re emphasized as such.

Netflix was built on personalizing its content to the user, HBO boasts its antiheroes, and Disney Plus is a family-oriented platform.

It all depends on the user and what is the unique value they respond to.

Still, is that enough? One streaming platform cannot possibly satisfy all of the user’s TV- consuming needs - they’re often too scattered across the different platforms.

So no, those unique selling points don’t diminish the issue of developing saturation in the streaming industry. In fact, it remains to be seen how long until it drives users to dust off their pirating hats once again. Monitor 100+ million online sources

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LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING

“Social media plays a big role in the audience reactions, and fan engagement. marketing of the entertainment industry. Social media analysis, specifically, can Competitor analysis: opening weekend uncover a sea of relevant information and & sequels opportunities.” “The biggest opening weekend ever” is probably one of the most revered sentences nowadays in the film industry. After all, a bad Klara Gavran opening weekend could mean the movie barely breaks even or doesn’t even make ocial listening or media monitoring, as money at all for the studio. And it seems the it’s otherwise known, has found its S box office records keep rising. It used to be place in entertainment marketing, too. that movies hitting below $100 million at the Nowadays, it’s rarely a case that an industry box office were considered unsuccessful, but doesn’t benefit from this practice. Marvel keeps breaking both the worldwide and From promotional activities, starting as far as US records. Avengers: Endgame grossed $1.2 a year in advance, to charting plotlines in a TV billion worldwide, and $350 million show - the benefits for the entertainment domestically, in its opening weekend. industry are vast. So, yes, one could argue that an opening Here, we’ll guide you through 6 ways you weekend is an important event for any movie. can take advantage of social listening: Likewise, you’d want to affect the opening competitor analysis, market research, weekend as much as is in your power, predictions, personal branding, analyzing especially if another movie is set to have the l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 52

same opening weekend as yours. This is lags behind the competition, you know you where competitor analysis comes in handy. need to take action. You can do it by boosting promotional activities - releasing By tracking both your own movie and ones sneak peeks, another trailer or new posters, that open on the same weekend, you can see engaging fans and pulling them into how each movie performs. Start with the interaction, using the actors’ influencer and share of voice metric which shows the share social media presence. Either way, you need to of exposure between each movie, which is identify areas for improvement by especially important leading up to the opening benchmarking your online presence with weekend. You want to see which movie that of the other movie. generates a bigger buzz, both among the audience and the press. If you see your movie

Marvel movies opening weekend box office, source: Good Brothers Digital l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 53

Sequels (& TV shows & albums) release, you’d have been able to analyze the audience’s reactions to it. If you’ve already used media monitoring for your movie, that means you have the data that What was their response to the plot, to the accompanies it. Thusly, you can benchmark characters, to the actors who play in the that data with the data of the movie’s sequel to movie? Was the sentiment mainly positive or compare campaign performance results. negative? What was the content of the Better yet, you can use the first movie’s data to mentions, were they talking about wanting to improve campaign strategy for the sequel, see the next part of the story, were some even as well as see which parts of the campaign asking for a sequel? performed better then and now. You can see if Maybe you’d even get an insight into what your efforts to improve the campaign bore their predictions for the future of the characters results or not. were, what would they want to see happen? This can also be applied to TV series for It may even happen you weren’t considering a each new season as well as an artist’s sequel, but the fan response inspired you to every new album. do one. Additionally, skip to the letter T (The This analysis of their reactions is a great competitive analysis: how can streaming starting point, either way. You can see if there’s services benefit) for a look into another way an interest and you can benchmark it against media monitoring can be used in competitive your own idea for the next steps. analysis. Either way, you’d be able to predict the

Market research: from concept to release response the audience would have to a sequel. Media monitoring is a great way to test the waters for a new project. For example, if Predictions: box office & awards you’re thinking about doing a sequel to a season movie, a media monitoring tool can help you get insight into how people might feel Another way to make the most of social about it.If you’ve been tracking your movie listening is to keep track of the online chatter during the promotion period and after its surrounding box office and awards predictions. l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 54

To get the best results, it’s important to track What exactly is the audience saying - are they select keywords during and after the praising the movie, the performances, the sets promotional activities. The period during the or the costume design? Did they love the campaign is the one that’ll lead you to box score? Are they championing for the movie or office predictions and the one after will lead actors to receive the recognition they feel they you to awards predictions. deserve?

For both, the keyword set-up has to be two- These are all important factors to consider part. when trying to get a feel for the predictions.

The first should be set up to track the Personal branding: the names behind official, trustworthy news outlets and the projects channels that report on those subjects.

Mediatoolkit allows you to filter your mentions It’s the actors, the singers - the performers that by the specific source - from websites and make any product of the entertainment forums to social media profiles and authors industry. (such as specific reviewers and/or critics). It’s the face on the screen or the stage - that The second set-up doesn’t rely on the source sometimes makes the movie, show, an album. as much, as it does on the general public Or breaks them. opinion. You want to know how much your movie is mentioned, are the mentions Personal brands are extremely important dominantly positive or negative, but you also when it comes to the entertainment industry. want to know the content of the mentions. The reputation they bring with themselves can

Keyword set-up for specific source, source: Mediatoolkit l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 55

either boost a project image or cause What’s important is to know to keep track of outrage. these things and stay vigilant while doing so.

Thus, it’s important to keep track of the Analyzing audience reactions performers’ online reputation, especially in the case of predicting and dealing with a PR Social media plays a big role in the marketing crisis. of the entertainment industry. Social media analysis, specifically, can uncover a sea of By simply tracking a performer’s name in relevant information and opportunities. association with a project, you can have real-time insight into people’s reactions to the It’s a place where fans flock to give their pairing online. You can choose to receive uncensored, blunt opinions regarding weekly or daily updates by way of alerts everything from movies and TV shows to video and digests (another feature media games. monitoring tools offer). There’s even a spike Social media gave space to the rise of fan alert that activates when there’s an unusual bases and stans, offering an insight into how spike in mentions. It can indicate a scandal is and what they think and feel. For them, a on the horizon, or it can mean a positive viral character or a plotline is not just a character or content. a plotline - it’s something they emphasize with

Keyword set-up for performers attached to a project, source: Mediatoolkit l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 56

and form an emotional connection to. immediately want to know if the audience’s response is positive or negative, you can And they’re what makes or breaks a movie or do so. If you want to compare the popularity a TV show. of certain keywords, you can do so. The They’re the ones behind the viewership and possibilities for analysis are endless. the ratings, and often enough, they hold the This kind of audience reaction analysis power. especially resonates with TV shows, as they There are examples of TV shows getting run on for years, accumulating strong fan canceled, getting back on the air or bases, and are more susceptible to their renewed, and changing plotlines due to reactions and how they affect ratings. the vocal power of a fan base on social Characters and actors that resonate with an media. audience can start being featured a lot more, Sense8 was brought back for a two-hour finale and likewise, those that don’t cause as strong after being canceled, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was of an audience reaction can be featured less. picked up by NBC after being dropped by Fox Take Riverdale for example. Riverdale is - all due to strong audience reactions. based on Archie Comics and as such features So, yes - analyzing social media is important. its characters. As its name suggests, Archie Even more important is taking note of Andrews was supposed to be the main audience reactions. And this is where media character, and it is - in certain aspects. monitoring comes in. By tracking keywords However, the character of Jughead Jones was (e.g. a TV show’s name, relevant hashtags, supposed to take more of a narrative role. actors, characters…) you get a feed that’s Instead, due to extremely positive fan reactions accumulated mentions from all over the to this character some of the series’ biggest internet. Even better, you can filter the plots revolve around Jughead. mentions by source - so if you want to see This is a show that has a very dedicated, nay, only Twitter mentions by a particular query, you passionate fan base that connects strongly to can do so. If you want to track how the the characters, but especially to the number of mentions changes over time characters’ romantic entanglements. Some (marking what event, in particular, caught the would argue their ships are the only thing audience’s attention), you can do so. If you l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 57

keeping the show still going. It would stand to relevant to the situation, the query reason that if you mess with the ships - you accumulated almost five thousand mess with the fans, and subsequently - the mentions, and incredibly, over 23 million ratings. impressions. The number of mentions truly peaked since the day of the leak, with a 231% And that’s exactly what Riverdale writers did. increase in mentions. Unfortunately for them, an episode recap leaked a week before the episode aired - Not surprisingly, the mentions were mostly causing quite the commotion amongst fans. It negative (58%) as a result of fans expressing involves a cheating scandal and, assumingly, outrage and starting trending hashtags like breaking up the biggest relationships on the #riverdaleisoverparty, #boycottriverdale, show. Safe to say fans were not happy and and #riverdaleiscanceled. The outrage took to social media to express their ranged from petty hurls thrown at the writers dissatisfaction, claiming that they’re going to to carefully constructed criticism, but it seems stop watching the show. to be that the fandom was mostly heartbroken and reacting before thinking. We’ve analyzed the situation using a social listening tool Mediatoolkit. It didn’t help this happened in the time of extreme uncertainty in the entertainment In just a few days of tracking keywords

Source: Twitter l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 58

industry due to the coronavirus. Fans are Because the show very much did depend on feeling a lot more unmoored, especially the fandom’s amazing response to its two big knowing that season will end before its time, romances. as the show hasn’t been able to film the last By practicing social listening, though, shows few episodes because the production was can get an insight into the scale and gravity of halted. the developing situation, as well as get an This just goes to show how big of an impact insight into how their audience thinks and acts. a show can have on its audience, but also how big of an impact an audience can Fan engagement have on a show. A lot of the fans are already Tracking the audience’s reactions to any now saying they won’t be watching the cursed entertainment projects is not enough - it’s episode, as well as announcing their important to engage and interact. departures from the fandom and saying: “now I can finally stop watching Riverdale”. People love when they receive attention from

Ratings dropped, source: Twitter l LEANING INTO SOCIAL LISTENING 59

the official social media accounts (be it from user-generated content you’d like to share and movies, TV shows, celebrities or other). That’s group them under a tag UGC. why it’s beneficial to look for ways to Either way, social listening is a great way to get organically insert yourself into online a comprehensive look into how the audience conversations. Be it by answering to a behaves and reacts and to create a strategy comment, retweeting or replying to a for accomplishing greater engagement and tweet, liking and sharing user-generated positive response. content.

Social listening tools ease the process of finding the content you can engage with. By tracking all the relevant keywords (e.g. the movie taglines or promotional hashtags), these tools accumulate all the mentions in one place and making it easy to filter and sort through. You can filter them by specific social media platforms, for instance, if you only want to see Twitter mentions.

With Mediatoolkit, for instance, you can also group similar mentions, which works great for retweets. That way they don’t appear as a singular mention but are rather grouped into one (with the source of the retweets still visible).

Another way you can organize your feed for maximum efficiency is to group mentions into collections or create a tag. You can go through the feed and select mentions you want to retweet and group them under the tag Retweets. Or select mentions that contain m

MUSICIANS TO ACTORS AND VICE VERSA

“The first person to probably cross otherwise their musical talent and fame will not everyone’s mind when reading this is Lady promote the movie in a desirable way. And, it Gaga with her “knockout, charismatic sure won’t repair the damage their terrible performance” in the critically acclaimed A acting can do to the movie. So, before hiring Star Is Born for which she received, among famous entertainers in hopes of bigger other awards, nominations for an Academy promotion and earnings, movie directors and Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe movie companies should ask themselves one Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for question - can this person act? Best Actress.” Sometimes it turns out they can’t so hit- makers like Mariah Carey, Britney Spears and Vanilla Ice earn themselves the title of the Irma Jakić Worst Musicians Turned Actors Of All Time (according to Ranker). ome people have so many ambitions it S is hard to track all the things they had a But, other times musicians shape their short try at in their career, more or less acting career into a big hit. So, let’s rather successfully. One of the best examples for forget Mariah Carey’s role in Glitter, Spears’s that crossover in the entertainment industry is “lack of acting talent” in Crossroads and Vanilla when musicians have a try in acting. Even Ice’s fiasco in Cool as Ice and let’s rather focus though bringing a huge star to a movie screen on their music industry colleagues who’ve sounds very promising, it is not always that outdone themselves in acting. Even though way. Movie directors need to make sure their there are many examples, let’s name a few guest-star has some actual acting talent, most successful ones. m MUSICIANS TO ACTORS AND VICE VERSA 61

The first person to probably cross everyone’s the surface in hit movies such as Bad Boys, mind when reading this is Lady Gaga with her Men in Black, and, ofcourse, the unforgettable “knockout, charismatic performance” in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air which made critically acclaimed A Star Is Born for which him one of the best actors today. Besides she received, among other awards, Smith, there are many other examples of nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA successful rappers becoming successful Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen actors - Queen Latifah, Ice Cube, LL Cool Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. J, 2pac, to name a few.

But, even though this star is born to excel in The list of successful singers-turned-to-actors both music and acting, she surely isn’t the only is very long, and we unfortunately cannot ace Hollywood has when it comes to acting name them all, so don’t mind us if we forgot to and singing. Let’s not forget Cher and her mention your favorite singer/actor! And, to all several acting accomplishments - her movie directors reading this - look for acting Broadway debut in Come Back to the Five and talent when hiring big stars! Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and her role in the film version of the play earned her a Golden Globe nomination, she won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival her role the movie Mask, and received an Oscar nomination for her role in the movie Silkwood. The Believe hit singer didn’t stop there and later won her first Oscar for Moonstruck.

We cannot discuss singers turning into successful actors without mentioning the one singer (rapper, to be exact) who turned out to be so talented in acting that everyone refers to him as an actor today - Will Smith. Even though he started out as a rapper whose career granted him several hits and a Grammy award, Smith’s other talent - acting - came to

Lady Gaga in “A star is born”, source n

NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN

“However cliché it may sound, try and think engagement that marketers count on, as you’ll outside the box. Create intrigue and see later on. curiosity among your audience. It’ll make Not your average marketing campaign looks at them want to engage.” some of the more successful and engaging marketing campaigns from 2019 and lessons we can take from them. Klara Gavran

Category: Movie / Avengers: Endgame arketing of the entertainment industry M most often utilizes celebrity Let’s start off with an important piece of endorsements, product placements, and information: “Avengers: Endgame” made brand partnerships to promote and Marvel Studios’ history due to the biggest generate interest in upcoming entertainment (and most expensive) promotional events. campaign. It is estimated at $200M, surpassing Infinity War. And was it ever worth it Social media platforms, especially Instagram - the movie broke the record by having the and Twitter, are a big player in these marketing best first-day US online ticket sales, tactics, as that’s where the fanbase has the beating Star Wars: The Force Awakens. opportunity to directly engage and interact with their favorite movie, tv-show or artist. So, where did all those promotional dollars go?

Fans and their dedicated support are a big The Endgame promotional campaign was 5- part of what makes the entertainment wheel part and it included trailers, cross-promotion, keep spinning. It’s that dedication and social media marketing, influencer marketing, n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 63

and brand partnerships (so many brand superhero was coping along with flashbacks to partnerships). previous movies meant to pull on those nostalgic strings, but no scene revealed They knew where and who their audience was, anything about the plot. In short, the focus and they acted accordingly. was on characters, and not the action. Trailers The second trailer was especially interesting These trailers were a new kind of trailer for from the marketing perspective, as it featured Marvel’s Avengers, as they were not action- a scene with a new superhero, one never based. Infinity War was emotional, the fans featured before. And that leads us to part two suffered a loss in the shape of their favorite - cross-promotion. characters, and Endgame trailers were a look Cross-promotion into the world that deals with the aftermath. They gave a peek into how each surviving The date the second Endgame trailer was

Endgame trailer featuring Captain Marvel, source: YouTube n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 64

published was no coincidence. In this case, that was Endgame and Captain Marvel served as a build-up. Fans were It was absolutely no coincidence that it excited to have another movie to tie them over happened to drop on the second weekend of and ease the wait for the last of the Avengers Marvel’s Captain Marvel. movies. This Endgame trailer with Captain Marvel Social Media herself was meant not only to promote the Captain Marvel movie but also to pull fans It seems that every new movie that comes out in even further with the new superhero. has its own Instagram, Twitter or YouTube After all, every Marvel fan knows that there’s profile. And it was no different for the Avengers more to come even after the credits roll. I movie. They made good use of these myself am one of those people who stubbornly platforms because that’s where their fanbase and impatiently wait for those famous Marvel is. It’s where they can directly communicate post-credit scenes. After all, they are a glimpse and engage with the audience. And it’s all into the next Marvel movie and what’s going to about the content they put out. Case in point, happen. their “Avenge the Fallen” posters. These were

Avenge the Fallen posters, source: Hollywood Reporter n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 65

again meant to highlight the characters, the that were canceled. superheroes themselves. The ones left Influencer marketing standing and the ones that need avenging. And the posters reflected that. Each poster Influencer marketing ties in well with the social featured one character, and if that character media, or rather the cast’s social media was one of the fallen, the poster was in black profiles. The Avengers movies have an and white. If it was a character left standing, it impressive list of cast members - from Robert was in color. This content was a way to Downey Junior and Chris Hemsworth to highlight the movie’s story and support the Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans. All with a trailers’ premise: it’s about the characters, not big social media following and influence of a the action. certain degree. And you better believe they advertised that movie on their social media. What’s more, fans and wider audiences reacted virally: “Avenge the Fallen” has Brand partnerships

become a meme. The phrase was featured A lot of those marketing dollars went into across a myriad of different characters we’ve broadening the scope of their audience. While lost on film or TV. And it wasn’t just characters, a lot of content was meant to connect with the it ranged from on-screen deaths to TV shows existing fanbase, these brand partnerships

“Avenge the Fallen” meme, source: eBaum's WORLD n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 66

didn’t speak just to them. They were meant to Coca Cola released limited edition Endgame appeal to wider audiences of millennials, cans featuring our favorite superheroes. families and multicultural audiences. Stand Up To Cancer featured Endgame stars That’s why they partnered with brands like talking about defeating the greatest enemy - Audi, Ulta Beauty, McDonald’s, Stand Up cancer. To Cancer, Coca Cola, GEICO - to name a few. Ulta Beauty partnership was meant to appeal to female viewership, as women are not as Audi video spot featured Robert Downey represented in the Marvel Universe. Junior talking to an Audi designer about its new electric model - making sure to take a And a lot more. quick trip down the memory lane all the way to Lessons: the first Iron Man movie and back to Endgame Know your audience (fans). Know where - both movies starring an Audi model.

Coca Cola Endgame Cans, source: Mike Shouts n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 67

they are and how to connect with them. Give It partnered with Red Cross, Mountain them enough to pull them in, but not enough Dew, Bud Light, Oreo, among others, and to spoil. Find that emotional connection - it can each of those partnerships was meant to re- be humorous, it can pull on their heartstrings. establish its appearance after a long But always know your tone of voice and stay hibernation period. consistent. Red Cross partnership was one for a good Content matters. (That’s it. That’s the lesson.) cause and garnered positive publicity whilst Find relevant brands worth partnering with putting the show back in the spotlight. The to reach a wider audience. Bleed #ForTheThrone campaign was meant to boost the number of blood donations, and as Category: TV show / Game Of Thrones an incentive for donating the blood and using Two years is a long time to wait for a new the hashtag - the prize was a life-size iron season, let alone a series finale of one the throne. Which of course the show’s fans biggest TV shows. In order to create a buzz flocked to. amongst the audience, Game of Thrones relied Mountain Dew partnership was realized in on a series of brand partnerships to promote the shape of their new limited edition its last season. packaging. These Mountain Dew cans

Game of Thrones & Mountain Dew, source: Forbes n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 68

featured the names on Arya’s kill list - but only engravings of all three remaining houses when the can was cold. To get their hands on battling for the throne. In this case, the one of these, fans had to post what they hashtags promoted were #GameOfCookies would sacrifice for the can on Twitter using the and once again, #ForTheThrone. hashtags #ACanHasNoName and Lesson: #ForTheThrone. Incentivize fans into engagement through Bud Light’s partnership brought Game of brand partnerships and corresponding Thrones all the way to Super Bowl. HBO and hashtags that make them want to interact. Bud Light aired a commercial featuring a fight between the Bud Knight and GoT’s Mountain, Category: Music / Harry Styles: Fine with a cameo from Danearys’ dragon. Line & Isle of Eroda Oreo partnership went a step further and Harry Styles’s new album came out at the end produced a reenactment of the GoT’s of 2019, and the campaign that preceded it is introduction - entirely made of Oreos. Oreo nothing short of interesting and - quirky. Just also launched a limited edition of cookies with

Game of Thrones & Oreo, source: Bustle n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 69

like the singer himself. people that have been seeing the ads were his fans - with pretty good investigative skills, it Leading up to the album release, video seemed. campaigns and social media posts started popping up featuring a tourist destination - They’ve noticed that the attractions listed on Isle of Eroda. the website are named after the album tracks, have recognized the photos of the Except, that island didn’t exist. island as places Styles has recently So, why was it popping up everywhere and visited and realized Eroda spelled confusing everyone? backward is Adore, which is also one of the

The island had its own website and social tracks on the album.

media channels and has adopted a hashtag Turns out the fans were right, and Island of #VisitEroda, although people started noticing Eroda was actually part of a story for “Adore inconsistencies and bread crumbs leading You” music video, and the video explains the them to believe it was all a part of a ruse. legend of Eroda - “shaped unmistakably like a

Well, it was. frown, it is home to all but forgotten fishing village that has had perpetual cloud cover for As the ads were targeting those who’ve as long as anyone can remember”. And in the visited Harry Styles’s website, a lot of

Isle of Eroda website, source: POP! goes the music n NOT YOUR AVERAGE MARKETING CAMPAIGN 70

video, Styles plays a boy born with a smile on his face, ostracizing him for the island’s people.

Isle of Eroda turned out to be a smart marketing move, attracting the attention of the internet and playing on people’s curiosity to pull them into the story.

Lesson:

However cliche it may sound, try and think outside the box. Create intrigue and curiosity among your audience. It’ll make them want to engage.

Isle of Eroda website, source: POP! goes the music A ER M A C -

F

F

O

oentertainment industry by othe dollar $

$11.1 billion - cinema box office revenue in 2019

Source $

27.8% - digital book’s percent of overall consumer books revenue in 2019

Source $

54.1% - percent of all films produced in 2017 that were action and adventure films

Source

72 $

34% - growth of streaming revenue

Source $

52.5 million - number of tickets sold in 2017 by events company LiveNation

Source $

2.6 trillion dollars - expected worth of the global entertainment and media market in 2023

Source

73 $

9.7% - growth of global recorded music revenues in 2019 Source $

$9.99 — mode price of online music streaming subscription services

Source $

$36 billion - the U.S. gaming industry revenue in 2017

Source

74 p

PR NIGHTMARE, BUT A LONG OVERDUE ONE

“It is not an understatement to say the The power games

Weinstein case marked the beginning of The New York Times broke the story about a both an unprecedented crisis and a shift in series of Weinstein’s sexual misconducts his the entertainment industry. “ female co-workers and aspiring actresses were subjected to over a period of nearly three decades.

Iva Anušić This caused a ripple effect: dozens of women came forward detailing how Weinstein

he appeal of the lavish lifestyle and promised to help advance their careers in the glitz and glam that seemingly return for sexual favours and then tried to T come with a job in the entertainment silence them by offering monetary industry is undeniable. Red carpet events, compensations or blacklisting them from the luxury homes, extravagant cars and branded Hollywood film scene he had so much clothes… It’s what we constantly see and influence on. what many consider an ultimate dream life.

It is also the image that Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood mogul and an Oscar-winning film producer, had portrayed until the sexual harassment and assault allegations against him surfaced in October of 2017 and shook the entertainment industry to its core.

Source: The Times p PR NIGHTMARE, BUT A LONG OVERDUE ONE 76

The list of women who spoke out against ‘Harvey Weinstein Is My Monster Too’, Weinstein soon became disturbingly long. At “women are talking today because, in this new one point, more than 80 women, including era, we finally can.“ actresses Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Even with new allegations emerging on an Gwyneth Paltrow, and Salma Hayek to name a almost daily basis and another New York few, accused him of making unwanted sexual Times article that uncovered the machinery of advances, ranging from forcing women to accomplices and gatekeepers who, knowingly watch him naked or massage him to raping or not, covered up the mogul’s tracks and some of them. enabled him to do what he did for such a long

Many women publicized their experience using time, Weinstein unequivocally denied the #MeToo hashtag that gained prominence everything. and became a global movement that He stayed persistent when everything went to empowers women to share their stories and court as well, pleading not guilty to numerous raises awareness of the sexual misconduct sexual assault charges filed against him in New that continues to this day. As Hayek wrote in York, while a number of lawsuits and reports her New York Times opinion piece titled

Source: The Times p PR NIGHTMARE, BUT A LONG OVERDUE ONE 77

followed both in the US and the UK.

On the 24th of February 2020, he was found guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping ex- actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and convicted to 23 years in prison. But, what holds even Although the problem of sexual harassment greater importance is that the voices of his certainly wasn’t resolved by one sole victims were heard and, finally, believed. conviction, the situation set firm grounds for clear disapproval of such misconduct.

Change is a good thing Crisis management thus entered a new, post- Weinstein era in which the Hollywood machine It would truly be unfair to reduce the aftermath built on protecting the image and reputation of of Weinstein’s deeds to a mere PR nightmare. A-list celebrities regardless of their troubling But, it is not an understatement to say the characters is now much more selective about case marked the beginning of both an who they choose to work with. unprecedented crisis and a shift in the entertainment industry. The Weinstein scandal also debunked the myth that all PR is good PR, or as Oscar Publicists, lawyers, PR professionals, Wilde said, that “the only thing worse than organizations, and key industry figures involved being talked about, is not being talked about.“ in the situation started to disassociate themselves from the former Hollywood There is this misconception in the powerhouse in an attempt to mitigate the entertainment business that as long as damage to their own reputations. people talk about you, it’s a good thing. And when people stop talking about you, that’s it. The consequences were likewise inevitable for You’re nonexistent, or at least your career is. other alleged sexual offenders in the industry. Netflix, for instance, promptly cut all ties with So, some people really do strive for scandals the actor Kevin Spacey and the comedian and negative publicity to achieve a somewhat Lous CK as soon as the allegations against notorious reputation. Just think of how many them emerged. celebs you know that in a way boosted their career once they publicly displayed unseemly p PR NIGHTMARE, BUT A LONG OVERDUE ONE 78

and immoral or even self-destructive behavior, only to create a narrative of a positive change and become a role-model later on.

In this case, the extreme media coverage only made the case virtually impossible to deflect and, if I may add, rightfully so. I X F

K

C I

U qqQ In today’s episode of Being a Celebrity 101, we present you with an updated guide on managing a crisis in 2020.

Brought to you by yours truly,

the Notes poets.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a commercial break. Participated in the organization of a failed festival that is also the subject of a $100 million lawsuit?

No problem! Quick fix it with Notes. (Pro tip: consider not using “I truly apologize“ and “not my fault“ in the same sentence.)

Notes - a new way of dong damage coto. #ad Your wife and the entire Internet saw paparazzi photos of you being cozy with a co-star?

Publish a heartfelt Notes apology.

Notes - a new way of dong damage coto. #ad Have a national emergency announcement?

You guessed it - use the Notes app.

Notes - a new way of dong damage coto. #ad Notes - a new way of dong damage coto. All jokes aside 85

All jokes aside, has it ever caught your virtually anything: reminders, grocery lists, attention how celebrities love to use the iOS random ideas, and often some very personal Notes app for issuing a statement or thoughts. In that sense, it almost feels like a mitigating the damage caused by public journal - a place where one can be errors? vulnerable.

The art of celebrity apologies is an ever- Creating a note is also usually done on the evolving one. But, in the past few years, spur of the moment, which is the impression screenshoting and publishing a note seems to celebrities strive for with their apologies. be an ongoing trend and a go-to quick fix They try to make it seem like these notes are solution for those whose bare soul doesn’t fit not a result of consulting with their into the 280 character limit on Twitter. publicist at great lengths or having them Notes is a free app that comes preloaded onto release a statement to the press, but rather an Apple devices. It enables users to jot down intimate realization that is written without much

Source: Glitch All jokes aside 86

premeditation. Something they want to get off a statement on the situation using the Notes their chest and share with their fans app is the Search icon in the upper left corner, directly. suggesting that it might have been just one of many precomposed drafts and not an off-the- You can almost imagine them picking up their cuff response. phone and struggling to find the words. Then, an Aha! moment occurs and they pour their There are a few additional elements that are as hearts out and that makes it all feel so well often used to aid in the feeling of authentic. But, it doesn’t always work out that spontaneity and being fallibly human. way. Instant sense of familiarity since the app is Remember the whirlwind that was the feud so widely-used, between Kanye West and Kim Kardashian Lack of graphic aesthetic (as in “I didn’t even West on one side and Taylor Swift on the try to make it look good“), other? Grammatical and spelling errors, Use of phrases such as “had I known what I What many people noticed when Swift issued

Source: Twitter All jokes aside 87

know now...“, “I understand what I did was [enter the adverb of your choice]“, or a PR favorite, “I will use this as an opportunity to grow and learn from my mistakes“.

Not to undermine their validity, but it seems that in terms of their sincerity, the general attitude towards these kinds of statements and apologies is often sceptical.

You can’t really tell true emotion behind the written word, especially when it’s so carefully crafted and PR heavy. Chances are, it would simply sound unnatural or like a recitation had a celebrity tried to say some of these things in a normal conversation.

But, just as much as these apology Notes can backfire, the damage can be even greater with video or being live on air. Maybe that’s what makes it so easy - saying everything you need so eloquently, while also avoiding the potentially quirky or embarrassing situations of a live broadcast, for instance. At the end of the day, we’re all human, right?

By Iva Anušić r

RAZZIES

“The Razzies were first awarded in 1981 Redeemer Award and have since been handed out every year Worst Director to many (not-so-lucky) winners. “ Worst Supporting Actor Worst Supporting Actress Worst Screenplay Irma Jakić Worst Screen Combo Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel he Golden Raspberry Awards (also Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life T known as Razzies or Razzie Awards) and Public Property are a parody award show honoring the biggest cinematic under-achievements of the Razzies history and famous nominees year. The Razzies were first awarded in 1981 and have since been handed out every year to Which categories do they have? many (not-so-lucky) winners. The Razzies categories are meant to depict Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars have been award categories of some of the most famous nominated for the award, such as Ben award shows such as the Oscars or the Affleck, Dwayne Johnson, Anne Golden Globes. They have changed Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, John throughout the years. In 2020 the awards Travolta, Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, were handed out in the following categories: Will Smith, Adam Sandler, Bruce Willis and Worst Picture more. Some of the biggest hits were also not Worst Actor spared so movies like Joker, Mission: Worst Actress r RAZZIES 89

Impossible, The Mummy or Fifty Shades Darker found themselves on the undesirable nomination list.

Famous singers have also received the nomination for their try at acting - Madonna, Prince, Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey, to name a few.

Even though nominees don’t usually show up, some recipients, like Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock (who, by the way, won an Oscar and a Razzie in the same weekend) decided to embrace the negative criticism and accept the award at the Golden Raspberry Award ceremony. Pretty cool move, if you ask us.

Sandra Bullock accepting the Razzie award in 2010, source: Wikimedia s

SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

“Hollywood has been getting away with the What interests me is whether the same rules status quo for a long time now, and people apply to the entertainment industry? To be finally have the tools to demand the specific, how does the entertainment industry overdue change.“ handle social media in general, social media backlashes and where do streaming services come in all of this. Klara Malnar Sonic the Hedgehog ocial media platforms and the way I recently came across an interesting opinion people are using them is such an piece on AdAge titled “Why Sonic the Sinteresting phenomenon to research. Hedgehog (and porn) represents the future of One of the aspects of social media that always content”. The premise of the piece is that interested me is backlashes and PR crises that consumers are starting to use social media to are arising every once in a while. demand content not made for people like One of the positive sides of social media them, but for them specifically. platforms is the power that regular consumers The piece struck me because until now, we’ve now have, and the higher accountability seen actors backing out of roles due to demanded from brands. Nowadays, brands backlash, but never have we seen an entire can not allow themselves to ignore a customer (already filmed) movie changed because fans or treat him/her badly. Chances are that the demanded it to be. word will spread, and you’ll end up losing

customers and your reputation. Neil Patel In the Sonic the Hedgehog case, after the first even wrote a blog about 50 ways social media movie trailer came out, people started to can destroy your business. complain about the new character’s look on s SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 91

social media - he had human teeth, different The Iron Throne debacle eyes, and shoes, and so on. Remember what happened after the Game of The trailer came out in April, and in May the Thrones finale aired? All hell broke loose on movie director, Jeff Fowler tweeted that the social media platforms. Actual petitions were message is received and that there will be going around demanding a remake of the changes made in the design. whole Season 8.

After a while, HBO released a statement saying that there will be

no reshoots, but people are still not okay with it.

I just checked the petition on Change.org and to this day, a year later, people are signing it.

Now, I’m no expert, but I assume it’s much easier to change That’s something that was never seen before. animated movies like Sonic the Hedgehog If we’re to judge from the responses, fans were than to reshoot a whole season of Game of shocked as well, but appreciative of the Thrones that requires over 3000 crew gesture. Basically, a giant studio spent members. That’s why it would be truly hundreds of millions of dollars on a movie, and unbelievable if HBO decided to do the now they’re spending the extra money to make reshoots. corrections. But, if we look at the amount of attention Stephen Kelly, in his article on BBC, mentions Game of Thrones fans have attracted with their the term fan entitlement and argues that - efforts to make a difference, it’s kinda “After all, when you buy a product – when you impossible to mention Season 8 and not to spend your hard-earned attention, dedication mention the battle of the social media that and time – why should it not be exactly what happened (pun intended). you wanted?” s SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 92

Demanding/celebrating diversity for the role. Since Ghost in the Shell originated as Japanese manga series, and all For some, previously mentioned backlashes the other cast members were Japanese, the could be described as superficial and fans as choice of Johanson for the role seemed entitled. But, what about the examples of ridiculous. But, this time the director defended backlash when the goal is to make social his casting and decided to continue filming changes and promote diversity? with Johanson. For a long time now, Hollywood has a track Examples of solidarity record of whitewashing, especially when it comes to Asian characters. Back in 2017, Tagger Media pointed out two examples that there were two instances of Caucasian actors prove the impact of social media in 2020 being cast to play Asian characters. Oscars nominations.

In the first case, backlash was aimed at the The first example is Jojo Rabbit and the movie Hellboy. The problem was that the support of Ava Duvernay. Duvernay is a character Ed Skrein was supposed to play is director of an Oscar-nominated movie as well, Asian, and Skrein is British. Fans took to and she encouraged her Twitter followers (over Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with this 2 million of them) to watch Jojo Rabbit. casting choice.

The backlash was so strong that Ed Skrein voluntarily backed out of the role and agreed with what the fans were writing online. His action was met with praise and approval. Ultimately, the role went to the South Korean actor Daniel Dae Kim.

The other case was casting Scarlett Johanson in the movie Ghost in the Shell. As Time reports, this backlash started two years prior, when the casting was announced. Again, the petition started circulating, demanding a Japanese actress to be cast s SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 93

That’s huge exposure for a movie whose plot that represented $1.8 billion in total marketing made everyone scratch their heads in the spend. beginning! The results showed that digital media drove The second example is of this year’s Best 46% of movie box office revenue, despite Picture winner - Korean movie Parasite. making up just 14% of studio marketing budgets, while TV accounted for 82% of The authors say that the movie didn’t have the marketing budgets and was responsible for A-list celebrities to put on late-night couches, driving just 42% of media-driven box but they utilized the power of social media to office revenue. create a lot of buzz about the movie, which ultimately led to victory. Interestingly, the study suggests that shifting 6% of TV spend on digital media would According to LAist, after the movie won the boost box office revenue by 7%. Palme d'Or at Cannes, fans started using hashtag #Bonghive on social media. On top of that, Facebook proved to be the most lucrative channel. Every dollar spent on The buzz, ultimately, had an impact on the Facebook ads brought nearly $8 in return.This award ceremonies. Even Bong himself was data is not surprising if we take into account impressed by the impact social media had. In that younger people are spending most of their an interview he said: time on social media while spending less and “Unfortunately, I don’t have Twitter or less of their time watching traditional TV. Instagram – or any social media – so I’ve just Also, since the goal is to “sell the movie been hearing about these things. People tickets” social media channels are proving to would show me some of the memes. I’m just be the right place to do just that. grateful for the responses, I’ve never gone through any of that.” Social media campaigns

Social media and movie studios As the article on Investing News points out, social media campaigns for movies or TV Marketing Dive shared Neurostar’s study shows should be an exercise in storytelling in conducted on more than 70 U.S. movies itself. across different marketing channels (TV, online, display, online video, paid Facebook ads…) Building a hype about the movie long before it s SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 94

hits the theaters is something that is not new, that studios are taking into account social but in the last couple of years, it changed quite media following a certain actor or actress a bit. before they cast them.

Spoiler alert: social media has something to Streaming services do with it. A battle between movie studios and streaming Now, marketers are not building hype for the services has been going on for a couple of movie so to speak, they are building hype for years now… Streaming services disrupted the movie trailer first. This strategy can often the everyday life and finances of movie be seen in promotions of blockbuster studios in Hollywood. movies. Nowadays, people are leaning more towards Basically it goes something like this: staying at home and watching Netflix, than getting dressed and going out to the cinema. First, they’re reminding us that the teaser of a That’s why it’s been a challenge convincing movie trailer is going to air. There are people to watch movies (besides blockbusters) reminders, hashtags, social media posts...The in the cinema. Since movie studios rely on teaser usually doesn’t last more than 5 getting their money from the movie seconds, and it’s building up the interest for tickets, it became a problem. the trailer, and eventually for the movie itself.

The argument that nothing can replace Then we watch the teaser of a trailer. We’re watching a movie in the cinema is simply not hooked. We want more. good enough anymore. Habits and Then eventually, the whole trailer and different preferences change all the time, and if variations of it come out, and it’s widely shared something was appealing to audiences 10 and discussed on social media until the movie years ago, chances are it may not appeal to comes out. audiences now.

In a world where we’re constantly bombarded Another problem for movie studios is that with new information every few seconds, this movies produced by Netflix started getting strategy provides a couple of waves in which nominated for awards (and winning) in the last movie marketers can capture our attention and couple of years. sell us the movie. What’s interesting is the fact s SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY 95

When it comes to social media, many are proved to be powerful tools for initiating applauding Netflix’s social media strategies change. As seen in some examples in the text, that are focused on creating value while it does not mean that every social media spending less on advertising. movement will eventually succeed, but it generates a standard of what’s acceptable and Netflix had its own trial and errors on the way, what’s not for the future. but using authentic communication in opposition to formal communication used by That especially comes to light when people are others, proved to be the winning strategy. demanding diversity. Hollywood has been Also, they understood who their target getting away with the status quo for a long audience is and what they like. And the time now, and people finally have the tools to answer is memes. demand the overdue change.

What I’m interested to see is will the situation with Sonic the Hedgehog happen again. To be precise, will the studios start changing their movies just to please the audience. Is that even a good strategy?

The one thing that’s sure is that the entertainment industry will have to pay even more attention and more resources toward social media platforms in order to attract their target audiences. As seen from the Netflix

They promote their content by creating fun and example, creativity and authenticity can relatable memes, and it seems that fans are produce a great response from social media appreciating it. User-generated content is users that show in the rise of subscriptions as strong in the Netflix community since fans well. The sooner movie marketers turn more of themselves started creating memes. their focus on creating innovative and productive social media campaigns, the better In conclusion for them. To paraphrase Thanos: “Social media Social media platforms impacted the is inevitable!” entertainment industry in many ways. They t

THE COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: HOW STREAMING SERVICES CAN BENEFIT FROM IT

“As the number of streaming platforms that was already explained under the letter K, keeps rising, the market starts to become but this chapter will venture to explain how saturated, and it’s more important than media monitoring can be used to analyze the ever to stand out from the competition.“ competition and find out where you fit on the proverbial food chain of the streaming services.

Klara Gavran In our ebook Media Analytics For Marketers, we’ve talked about four key areas of analyzing competition using a media monitoring tool: eeping up with the streaming services identifying competitors, has already tackled the issue that’s • • keeping up with the latest competitor news, become the growing number of K benchmarking online reputation with that of • streaming platforms. competitors, It’s no secret that streaming has become • and identifying areas for improvement. widely popular worldwide and that more and By identifying competitors, it’s mostly meant more people are flocking to these platforms to to keep track of any new streaming keep up with their favorite TV and reality services that might show up or those you shows. might not be yet aware of. To do this, you It’s also no secret that the competition has just have to set up your query in the best way become fierce since the streaming was first possible. For instance, you may want to track pioneered by Netflix. Nowadays, there’s a streaming services or platforms in the context streaming platform for every new show, it of “the best streaming services”, “new seems. We won’t go into much detail of the streaming platforms”, “streaming platforms to why’s and how’s of the streaming world, as look out for in 2020”, etc. t THE COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: HOW STREAMING SERVICES CAN BENEFIT FROM IT 97

This is how your query setup can look like:

That way, you’ll make sure to keep track of all brand holds in comparison to its new (and old) streaming services you might competitors. It’ll give you an insight into how have missed. your online reputation and presence compares to that of your competitors. If your share is Another way to do this is by tracking these smaller than that of your competitors, you can keywords, but also filtering them by specific start identifying areas for improvement. sources, such as trustworthy websites that cover your subject of choice. Essentially, by looking into your competition’s online strategy, you can find areas that are To keep up with the latest competitor lacking and may require improvements, such news, you’d want to track each main as your social media or content strategy. competitor individually. Specifically, you’d want to track their owned media. So, their social As the number of streaming platforms keeps media profiles and websites. This way, you’d rising, the market starts to become saturated, have all the new information on your and it’s more important than ever to stand out competition in one place, straight from the from the competition. Regularly analyzing your competitors themselves. competitors, their moves and their tactics, the way they promote themselves and their shows The best way to get insight into the share of - makes it easier to compare your own exposure between you and your competitors is strategies against theirs. It can also result in through a competitive analysis report (like the finding out what your competitive one Mediatoolkit offers). For instance, an advantage is and using it as a unique important metric is the share of voice which selling point meant to attract new users. is essentially a measure of reach and representative of the market percentage a Create brand reports in 24/7 mention minutes monitoring for 100+ million online sources

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USER-GENERATED CONTENT: NETFLIX

“The way Netflix engages with their 1. Promoting authenticity followers is a great example of how to Consumers find UGC to be almost 10 times establish great relationships with your more effective than influencer marketing. Also, consumers that is beneficial in the long- they’re finding UGC to be 2.4 times more run.” authentic than the one produced by brands. As Hootsuite notes, that offers brands an important credibility boost, since most people Klara Malnar say less than half of brands create authentic content. n recent years many brands started using content made by their customers in their 2. Creating trust Imarketing activities. In other words - user- Consumers want to know what they’re going generated content. It can be in the form of to get before they think of getting it. Hootsuite photos, videos, text, you name it. writes that it’s all about creating trust and that 92 percent of consumers trust Before we analyze how Netflix is using UGC to recommendations from people they know, and their advantage, let’s first see why would a 70 percent trust online consumer opinions. brand turn to UGC instead of creating their own content. 3. Driving purchasing decisions Hootsuite says that 90 percent of consumers Why UGC? say UGC has a high impact on their A social media management platform purchasing decisions. That’s a no brainer than! Hootsuite listed three reasons why it’s good for brands to use UGC. u USER-GENERATED CONTENT: NETFLIX 100

How does Netflix do it? Bird Box

Netflix has been one of the brands that are One such example is when they started excelling in user-generated content. If you promoting Bird Box, a movie about people scroll through Netflix’s Twitter page, for walking around blindfolded so they don’t example, you’ll see that they retweet a bunch accidentally look at the monster and commit of user-generated content. I would dare to say suicide as a result. Okaaay… Anyway, Sandra 80% percent of their posts is UGC. Bullock is in it.

According to The Ringer, before the release of the movie images of blindfolded Sandra Bullock started circulating on social media, and that’s how the fans first found out about the movie. Those images were soon turned into memes by fans and flooded the internet. Soon, different Bird Box challenges appeared (basically, people doing random stuff blindfolded) and also spread like wildfire on social media. Even Good Morning America wasn’t immune to Bird Box challenge.

Netflix utilizes social media to spread the word about their upcoming movies and TV shows but also teases followers about new projects to spark their curiosity. u USER-GENERATED CONTENT: NETFLIX 101

How does Netflix do it? Netflix even bragged about the viewership numbers which they usually keep in secret: Basically, Netflix brought the matches and the world light the fire.

As Leila Michele writes in her article: “...Netflix has done something that’s actually pretty incredible: Remained hidden in plain sight as they created one of the most effective social media marketing campaigns of all time, all the while using its fans on social media to spread the message – for completely free.”

She also mentions that there’s a chance Netflix created a number of bot accounts or paid real accounts to spread the first memes on social media. Netflix is denying that, so we can only speculate. But, the point was to create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) that would motivate people to watch the movie.

Tiger King

A similar thing happened this year with the Tiger King documentary, as well. Memes circulating, hashtags trending… Basically, Tiger King is ubiquitous.

Entertainment For Us writes that all of these posts going around on social media create the feeling that this is a show “everybody is talking about” and if you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out. Again, FOMO is strong with this one! u USER-GENERATED CONTENT: NETFLIX 102

In conclusion Remember those three reasons on why brands should use UGC from the beginning These examples are not the only ones when it of the chapter? comes to Netflix’s good usage of user- generated content. Netflix checks all of them. Marketers, take notes! If we would analyze Netflix in deep, we could make a whole another ebook on that topic.

Netflix’s social media strategy is great because it’s authentic, personal and fun if I do say so myself. The way that they engage with their followers is a great example of how to establish great relationships with your consumers that is beneficial in the long-run. v

VIEWER’S CHOICE

“None of the attempts at introducing the later having to make decisions between death interactive elements through history and life. Depending on the viewer’s choice, the proved to be a groundbreaking success.“ story adjusts accordingly, resulting in one of the five main endings. On average, the episode lasts about 90 minutes, but depending on the choices, it can last as short as 40 minutes. Klara Gavran

It was the most recent attempt to venture into interactive film, but certainly not the first. etflix’s Black Mirror pulled the audience in with its descent into the The first venture into interaction was a 60s Ndark place of high-tech, near-future movie Kinoautomat by Radúz Činčera, twisted scenarios, but it went a step further screened at the Expo 67 World’s Fair in when it introduced Black Mirror: Montreal. The film’s action was stopped nine Bandersnatch. It was the first venture into the times, presenting the viewer with a set of interactive film for the streaming giant. options. However, unlike in the Bandersnatch, this movie always had the same ending which The episode follows the life of a young was meant to illustrate the illusion of programmer Stefan Butler, as he begins to democracy. work on developing a video game and is set in the 80s. What really stands out, though, is that Fast forward to the 80s, and the interactive the course of the movie falls into the elements were used even in books. While not hands of the viewer. The viewer is presented the first such example, a book series “Choose with a series of options to move the story Your Own Adventure” certainly was the most further: from choosing what cereal the popular. It was written in second-person and protagonist will eat and a song he’ll listen to the reader assumed the place of a protagonist v VIEWER’S CHOICE 104

faced with making a decision every once in a appetite for finding out what happens next.” while. Based on the decision a reader would Either way, it was an interesting and make, the book would instruct the reader to innovative new direction for both Netflix go to a certain page in the book. And just like and Black Mirror to go. Bandersnatch, the books had multiple endings, depending on the choices you’ve Netflix due to the need for standing out and made in the interim. creating original, creative content amongst the fierce competition, and for Black Mirror it just After the Kinoautomat, filmmakers haven’t made sense plot-wise. It is a macabre, high- really ventured into the interactive content tech world that studies the daunting effects of before the 90s. There was a short film “I’m technology on privacy and people in general. Your Man”, which required cinemas to have To be introducing an episode where a viewer joysticks so the viewers could participate and gets to decide the fate of the protagonist just the movie “Mr. Payback” which didn’t achieve fits. big success.

In fact, none of these attempts at introducing the interactive elements through history proved to be a groundbreaking success.

Was Bandersnatch different?

The reviews, as for anything, are split. The Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rating of 72%, citing that even though it “marks an innovative step forward for interactive content, its meta- narrative can't quite sustain interest over multiple viewings”. The Guardian reviewer, though, said that “a new genre is now here. And it will get better, and more sophisticated and doubtless acquire emotional heft as well as simply stimulating excitement and an

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WHAT ABOUT FILM FESTIVALS?

“Film festivals are indeed one of the vital most important films of the last forty years to signs of a thriving cinema.” - David Sterritt audiences around the world.

Also, we must not forget festivals such as the Tribeca Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival Klara Malnar and South by Southwest Film Festival who, as MPA states, recently have given a new According to the Motion Picture Association generation of filmmakers an opportunity to (MPA), film festivals came a long way from exhibit their work. their humble beginnings in Venice, Italy in 1932 to over 3000 festivals being held around How do film festivals work? the world every year nowadays. If you’re not closely following what’s going on Fun fact alert! in the movie industry, you can probably name The very first film shown at the Venice Film one or two film festivals. The grandiose Festival was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and it venues, beautiful gowns, red carpets, and was screened at 9:15 p.m. on 6 August 1932. flashing lights may seem to be the most important part. To be true, it definitely is the Shortly after Venice, many other festivals, most covered aspect. such as the Cannes Film Festival, emerged. MPA cites that over the years, festivals like Sundance, TIFF, the Morelia International Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival have helped usher some of the

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But, in this part, we want to dig deep and see As Rewire mentions, aside from the biggest why film festivals are important and how festivals, the rest of them are mostly relying on they’re helping filmmakers, big and small, to the combination of ticket sales, membership present their work and get recognition. fees, and corporate sponsorship just to foot the bill for the festivities, with many even To do that, we first must see how film festivals operating as nonprofit organizations. come together. Why are film festivals important? Rewire wrote an interesting article about film festivals, where, in part, how do film festivals There are many reasons why film festivals are work. important. The answers may differ a bit, depending on who you ask. Also, they offered a great definition of what film festivals actually are: Many will agree on two things: sharing and connecting. “They truly represent a nexus for the whole of the film industry, bringing together members of Motion Picture Association describes the the media, the creative talent behind and in importance of film festivals in these words: front of the camera and business executives “Film festivals highlight the worldwide passion looking for the next project to take on.” of cinema and showcase the value of the film, Rewire states that more often than not, both creatively and economically. More than competition among filmmakers will be high. anything, film festivals deliver a new, unique The bigger the festival, the harder it is to get way to experience the movies, always driven your movie to be in the festival’s lineup. Even by the power of a good story.” though there are a lot of festivals that focus on specific genres or lengths, demand to be included is high, especially among young filmmakers. But, once you succeed it’s worth the effort. For some, it may be a career- changing experience, plus it’s an opportunity to attract potential investors or finance and distribution deals. w WHAT ABOUT FILM FESTIVALS? 107

The founder of Raindance Film Festival Tourism and local economy - Successful (1993) and the British Independent Film film festivals do not only bring an artistic, Awards (1998) Elliot Grove listed 10 reasons cultural, and commercial aspect to the city, why film festivals are important: they also provide jobs to the community and higher earnings. Expose independent cinema to new audiences - showing movies that are resistant De facto theatrical release - Theatrical to the commercial pressures of the standard releases of independent films are extremely mainstream fare. Precisely, expressing new difficult. With festival screenings (who run in ideas through independent films made by movie theatres) this can be seen as a independent voices. precursor to film’s home video and/or online distribution release. Test screenings - film festivals are a great place for filmmakers to get the audience’s Community engagement - Festivals create a reactions, and maybe using that information to sense of community among a wide range of re-edit a movie before its commercial release. people who came together to celebrate stories told by filmmakers. Marketing exercise - film festivals have three ways of assisting filmmakers in their film’s Celebrate diversity - Grove says that the marketing: through awards, reviews and best way to get rid of prejudices is to take the interviews, and selling the film. audience to different worlds these films portray and show how life really is. Learning - many festivals have panel discussions and masterclasses in which It’s important to point out that film festivals are attendees can learn about what goes on not only great for the filmmakers, but for the behind the scenes in the film industry. audiences as well!

Networking - It’s not what you know, but As per Rewire, film festivals provide audiences whom! with movies that are vastly different from the ones playing in the mainstream theatres. On A platform for new talent - Traditionally, top of that, festivals often host the world festivals have been the place where premieres of promising new films months professionals and filmmakers alike go to spot before they officially hit theatres. new talent.

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Sometimes, festival audiences may see films Top tier festivals (Sundance, Cannes, that never really receive a proper theatrical run, Toronto, etc) due to various reasons. Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground. Kroll suggests that you keep in Also, fans may have the opportunity to attend mind the statistics when aiming for the big special screenings with filmmakers and guns. Meaning, Sundance alone receives over actors, often followed with Q&A sessions ten thousand short film submissions, but only and discussions. screens about 150 of them. How to decide which film festival to If you think that your movie is strong enough to apply? compete, Kroll suggests you apply but don’t You’ve finished your movie, and now you want get discouraged if you get rejected because it people to see it. Obviously. You are aware that doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of your film festivals are a great way to get exposure, work. If you get in, you might see your career but there are so many of them! How do you launch! find the right ones to apply? How do you make If you have a feature film, you need to keep in sure you’re not wasting your time and money? mind the “premiere status”. Meaning, many Filmmaker Noam Kroll wrote some tips that large festivals want to have world premiere for can help you decide! their feature films, so if you apply to Cannes Kroll says that the first step in developing a and a small regional festival, and small festival festival strategy is to identify different types screens it first, there’s a good chance Cannes of festivals in which your movie could fit may disqualify you. in. This can save you a lot of money because Verdict: Kroll says that you might not want to festival submissions can range from $20 to rule out big festivals, but also suggest to not $100, and if you start applying to every festival put all your eggs in one basket. out there you’ll be wasting your money unnecessarily. Mid-range festivals (Slamdance, Palm Springs, South by Southwest, etc.) To make things simpler, Kroll divided festivals Kroll describes these festivals as “large enough into different categories and explained how that they get lots of media exposure and each works. w WHAT ABOUT FILM FESTIVALS? 109

celebrity appearances, but smaller than the and most importantly to not get discouraged if top tier festivals (meaning your film may have you don’t get accepted to a festival, no matter a better shot of actually getting in).“ big or small.

Plus, he adds that your film may get much “Parasite” - from film festivals to Oscar more attention because it won’t get win overshadowed by huge films. This year’s Oscars brought a lot of surprises

Verdict: Mid-rage festivals, says Kroll, are the but the biggest and historical one was Bong sweet spot for up and coming filmmakers. Joon Ho’s Parasite going home with the Oscar for Best Picture. Buzz about Parasite Niche festivals (genre festivals, themed started in May of 2019 after the movie won the festivals, small regional festivals, etc.) Palme d’Or at Cannes and received an eight-

Kroll says that these festivals are a good minute standing ovation. option because of their higher acceptance rate and the possibility of connecting you with the audience that is more likely to respond well to your film. Plus, they are usually relatively inexpensive to submit to.

Verdict: Before you apply, do a bit of research about the festival to see whether it’s good or not so you don’t end up wasting your time. Source: Vanity Fair Kroll highlights that it’s important to diversify As IndieWire notes, winners of Palme d’Or your submissions, and as for himself, his next have made it to the Best Picture race before strategy for a feature film submission will be: but never with such prominence across so • Submit 30% to major festivals many categories. Besides Best Picture win, • Submit 50% to mid-range festivals the movie also won Oscars for Best Director, • Submit 20% to niche festivals Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film, and was nominated for Best The last tips that Kroll suggests are to maybe Production Design and Best Film Editing. invest in the festival consultants because they may be saving you money in the long term, w WHAT ABOUT FILM FESTIVALS? 110

Before the Oscars ceremony, a lot of media the overseas festivals paid off, even though outlets such as The Washington Post and some weren’t too happy with the notion of Deadline published articles that wondered festivals being a marketing launchpad for whether it was possible for Parasite to “make Hollywood products. Best Picture history?” But, this sort of outcome, argues IndieWire, In a Deadline interview, Bong described how helps elevate festivals and allows the rest of the audience reacted to his movies: their programming to stand a shot at discovery amid the hype. “We first screened the film at Cannes, and the audience was comprised of people from many The future of film festivals countries. (...) People were clapping in the Film critic, author, and scholar David Sterritt middle and laughing out loud. It was quite a thinks that film festivals will retain their different, very heated response that we saw, popularity and will likely change their selection and that’s when it first felt that something was different. It wasn’t quite what I’d anticipated. standards and exhibition formats as Regardless of whether or not it would win technological developments in cinema alter the awards, I was very happy to see it receive nature of cinema itself. Also, Sterritt points out such an enthusiastic response. And then we that the program director will have to decide kept screening it. In Sydney, and Munich, and whether to focus primarily on the best Toronto. And the reactions were all quite cinematic art or turn to more commercially similar. That enthusiasm that we saw.” oriented directions.

But, Parasite wasn’t the only movie in this The shrinking number of art-film theaters, year’s Oscar nominations that attracted Sterritt says, is increasing the importance of audiences' attention on the film festival circuit. film festivals. He highlights the festival's ability As per IndieWire, among the nine nominees for to give exposure to new and unconventional Best Picture, seven premiered with prominent works that otherwise might be overlooked and slots at film festivals; several of them won spotlighting overlooked and forgotten movies prizes there, including “Jojo Rabbit” and from the past that would otherwise remain “Joker”. unknown.

Speaking of “Joker”, IndieWire writes that Sterritt finishes his predictions by saying - “Film Warner Bros.’s decision to launch the move on festivals are indeed one of the vital signs of a thriving cinema” x

X FACTOR

“What does it take to become famous? Is it Amy Winehouse’s friend sent her demo tape to talent? Is it luck? Is it both or something a record label owner which got her a deal, else?” Lennon and McCartney met by accident and decided to form a band together, Kanye West

Irma Jakić started out as a producer and was denied any serious rapping chance until one day he There are various theories and explanations on decided to force Jay-Z to listen to him rapping. how to become famous. For decades Tim Staffel formed a band called Smile, and his teenagers worldwide have been looking up to college friend Farrokh Bulsara didn’t like the their idols on TVs (nowadays more on their name of the band nor his own name so the smartphones) hoping to one day become just band was later named Queen and Farrokh like them. But what does it take to become became Freddie. Photographer David Conover famous? Is it talent? Is it luck? Is it both or stopped by the Van Nuys factory to snap something else? The one thing that everyone some pictures of the female workers, and he will probably agree on is that it takes the X found himself captivated by one worker’s factor - the one thing that makes you stand out bright smile and ebullient energy. With his help, in the crowd in any way. The other thing is the the worker later pursued modelling and acting courage to stand out. career and changed her name to Marilyn Throughout history, there’ve been numerous Monroe. stories about movie stars, singers and dancers All of these famous stories have the also who became famous overnight. Some by famous “and the rest is history” sentence at accident, some by being determined to the end. But, in the era of the Internet and become famous and looking for every chance social media, everything is changing. they could get. x X FACTOR 112

From the way we communicate, eat and learn One day in 2008, Scooter Braun was scrolling to the ways people are becoming famous. through YouTube. He accidentally clicked on a Many people are using social media to show video of a 12-year-old boy singing and themselves not only to their friends but to the decided to find out more about him, later turning Justin Bieber into one of the biggest whole wide world. Some are becoming teenage phenomena in the history of music. Instagram influencers, some are filming funny Tik-Tok stories, and some are becoming famous YouTubers. And some used the power of social media to catapult their singing talent to the world scene.

Big music names like Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, Lana del Rey, and Shawn Mendes used the power of social media, especially YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to show their work to the world, and possibly to the music producers. And it worked! After putting their homemade singing videos, covers of famous songs or their own recorded songs and music videos online, they caught the attention of the audience and later of the industry. They signed big record deals and became some of the biggest music stars with numerous Grammy nominations and #1 hits worldwide that way forever changing the music industry, the perception of social media and the becoming-famous stories.

So, instead of the classical “XY accidentally ran into a music producer on the street/in a bar” stories, in the ever-growing world of social media those stories are becoming to sound more and more like this one: y

YHBT (YOU HAVE BEEN TROLLED) CULTURE

“For brands that engage in troll marketing, just want to provoke some kind of reaction.

this means walking a fine line between That’s sort of a part of the trolling appeal, being witty and being cringe-worthy. “ marketing-wise - the fact that you often can’t help yourself from giving it attention. Iva Anušić The other part lies in the ever-growing popularity of the meme culture we’re all so arketing can be hard. With so many engulfed in. Troll marketing thus easily brands, products, and services translates to memes that younger generations Mcompeting for the attention of love, especially the millennials that are most consumers, it is often difficult to stand out. often a target audience for this sort of That’s why some marketers turn to more advertising. tongue-in-cheek strategies to ensure their You have been trolled message cuts through the noise more effectively. For brands that engage in troll marketing, this means walking a fine line between being witty Enter troll marketing. and being cringe-worthy. The Urban Dictionary defines trolling as “the But, when done right, it can be an incredibly art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing effective way of generating a buzz around a people off, usually via the internet, using brand and potentially lead to virality - and the dialogue.“ You surely know of internet trolls entertainment industry sure knows its way whose comments consistently make you around it. question human intelligence. They might not even believe their own statements, but they Take Netflix for example. y YHBT (YOU HAVE BEEN TROLLED) CULTURE 114

In December of 2017, in the wake of the also adds to the overall Netflix branding and holiday movies binge-watching season, the customer experience. streaming giant hilariously tweeted the following message to its followers: Also, their current Twitter bio is “hey all you cool cats and kittens“. Amazing.

Reward > risk

Spotify is another brand that gets troll marketing right. Every December, they sum up the listening habits of their 250 million listeners In case you’re wondering, A Christmas to showcase the year-end trends and biggest Prince is one of those cheesy movies you pick moments in their award-winning campaign when in the mood for some lighthearted called ‘Wrapped’. entertainment. Using the data Spotify collects on its users, Obviously, there are some people who just they also spice things up by putting up can’t seem to get enough of it, and it was a billboards at some of the world’s most frequent good enough reason for the company to locations and poke fun at their customers’ express their concerns. Funnily enough, the musical guilty pleasures. movie is made and distributed by Netflix itself. This campaign was also positively received by Granted, not everyone was thrilled to be both the customers and the media, and it trolled, but the general consensus is that this definitely succeeded in the goal of bringing was a great move by Netflix. Spotify’s customers together by connecting Not only did it get a ton of press, but in them over a common (hilarious) habit. comparison to the engagement their other Trolling your customers might be tricky since a tweets get on a regular basis (the number of brand is basically roasting the very same likes, comments, and retweet ranges from people they expect to purchase their products 1-10K), this one was a major hit. or services.

The tweet amassed a 100K retweets and a But, as the evidence suggests, as long as the whopping 400K+ likes. Aside from having trolling is done in a playful manner, it can great reach, the troll-style social media humour endear your audience to your brand even y YHBT (YOU HAVE BEEN TROLLED) CULTURE 115

even more. It just goes to show how wise use of marketing can deliver rewards that truly outweigh the risks.

Source: Verve zzZOMBIES Z

FIRST ZOMBIE MOVIE White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932)

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FIRST ZOMBIE BOOK Zombies appeared in literature as far back as 1697. Z

BEST ZOMBIE BOOK World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Max Brooks, 2006)

117 Z

BEST ZOMBIE MOVIE Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1979) Z

FIRST ZOMBIE VIDEO GAME Zombie Zombie (ZX Spectrum, 1984)

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MOST FAMOUS (ZOMBIE) MUSIC VIDEO Thriller (Michael Jackson, 1983), also the most famous music video ever.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Good Reads 118 a-z

Editor-in-chief Matija Martek

Executive Producer Klara Malnar

Creative Director Klara Gavran

Creative Assistant Klara Malnar

Creative Assistant Iva Anušić

Staff Writer Klara Malnar

Staff Writer Iva Anušić

Staff Writer Klara Gavran

Staff Writer Irma Jakić

Editorial Office Vukasovićeva 1, Zagreb Croatia Visit us at Mediatoolkit to find out more about our media monitoring tool and visit our blog for more fun content!