- •International business school – budapest
- •1. Introduction
- •1.1. Academic Background
- •1.2. Key Terms
- •1.2.1. Film Promotion
- •1.2.2. Promotion Strategies and Tools
- •1.3. Research Question and Objectives
- •If some of the release and post-release strategies - as practiced in the us - were adopted by the Russian film industry, filmmaking would be far more profitable.
- •2. Literature review
- •2.1. Promotion Strategies and Techniques
- •2.1.1. Promotion as Part of Marketing
- •2.1.2. Promotions Specific to the Film Industry
- •2.2. Comparison of us and Russian Film Promotion Tools
- •2.3. Main Differences in Promotion Strategies
- •3. Research Methodology
- •3.1. Research Design
- •3.1.1. Research Approach
- •3.1.2 Research Strategy
- •3.2. Data Collection
- •3.2.1. Interviews
- •3.2.2. Questionnaires
- •3.2.3. Secondary Sources
- •3.3. Methodology of Evaluation
- •3.4. Validity and Reliability
- •4. Data Analysis
- •4.1. The American Film Promotion
- •4.1.1. Secondary Research
- •4.1.2. Survey Results
- •4.1.3. Interview Results
- •4.2. The Russian Film Promotion
- •4.2.1. Secondary Research
- •4.2.2. Survey Results
- •4.2.3. Interview Results
- •5. Conclusions
- •1) To give an overview of promotional tools and strategies in general and in the film industry in particular
- •2) To analyse us film promotion through examples
- •3) To review the Russian film industry with a focus on the promotional aspect
- •4) To compare different ways of promotion in the two countries
- •5) To summarise a list of strategies that can benefit the Russian film industry
4.2.3. Interview Results
The second interview was done with Sergei Shanovich, who has his own promotion company. His opinion was important because he has been in the industry for more than 20 years.
He confirmed that the lack of promotion of Russian films is a huge weakness of the local film industry. Not only is there a lack of promotion but there is a reluctance to spend money on it, while Russian audiences are exposed to foreign films they only see few trailers of Russian films.
He agreed strongly that promotion could make the Russian film industry far more profitable than it is. His company, Shan Design, created marketing and promotion campaigns for a number of films including Legend №17, Christmas Trees 3, Geographer Notched His Globe and others, which were shown in Russia only. No foreign distributors were interested in the films.
This company uses release and post-release strategies, however, on a much smaller scale due to lack of finances, lack of competent staff and lack of time given for film promotion. The example of Legend №17 was given, whose budget was $14 million but his promotion campaign was only $60 thousand with a month given for promoting Russian audiences.
It is absolutely necessary to monitor needs and expectations of audience before making new promotion campaign but Shan Design have not enough people or technical equipment for doing this. The company’s clients are also very strict and promotion campaigns should be done according to their requirements. Shanovich also agreed on the power of social media advertising just as the Head of 20th Century Fox did at the author’s suggestion.
Despite all negative aspects of Russian film promotion Shanovich thought that in the near future this industry will develop and become important for Russian film business and signs of that happening can be seen today.
Dmitry Puchkov, famous translator and voice actor, considers himself a one person promotion campaign because films under his translation and voice acting always draw a full house, while the same film with official translation draws only one tenth of that. This makes him the best celebrity endorsement for a film. Puchkov also sees the power of promotion campaigns and adds that Russian filmmakers and promoters should think also of the power of seasonality, that is that most viewed films premier in the autumn or winter. Summer is the worst time of the year for any film, with, perhaps, only one exception of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
Favouritism, as he confirmed, is huge in the Russian film industry. He gave an interesting example of one director who did not receive any financial support from the Ministry of Culture. Puchkov decided to support this director by organizing a collection through the Internet to enable the director to make the film. Currently the budget stands at $400 thousand and more donations are added daily. Puchkov said that examples like this show how effective promotion campaigns could be. He also added that the power of the Internet cannot be underestimated.