2.3. Main Differences in Promotion Strategies

In charting the main differences the author’s approach will be a combination of business and cultural policy issues. In this part only those examples of release and post-release strategies and their tools will be considered which could benefit Russian film industry and make it more profitable with minimal costs.

Release strategies: In most cases Russian film promoters use the same techniques as the Americans, for example trailers on TV and in the cinema, billboards, printing advertising. The biggest American film studios started to add the term “3D” and feature it in trailers regularly after premiering 3D film Avatar. It is a popular practice by many Hollywood film studios (Abrams, 2010). Also this technique was adapted by Russian promoters. The quality of 3D between American and Russian films is quite different but the strategy of promotion is the same, by attracting audience attention through new technology.

In 2009 a social media website Kickstarter was introduced with a view to provide platform for sharing ideas and raise finance for film projects. By financial contribution ordinary people will become part of the film making process as well as the release strategy. The first Russian film which is being made in such a way is called 28 Panfilov’s Soldiers raised $300.000 so far and this sum still increases daily (Shalopa, 2014). The benefit of such a system is that films featured on this and similar online platforms do not need wide promotional campaigns.

The Minister of Culture Medinskiy proposed an increase of taxes for foreign films thereby aiding the Russian film industry and encouraging more Russian films to be shown in cinemas (Yampolskaya, 2013). This proposal was strongly criticised by moviegoers in Russia. This situation shows the involvement of the Russian government support of the film industry and its promotional campaigns while in the US it is a business of producers, promoters, distributors and film studios. Russian film industry also has specialists in these areas; however, the most famous films in Russia are supported only by government finances.

Post-release strategies: There is a big difference in the post-release promotion strategies between the two countries. American distributors and promoters have a clear strategy of film promotion, which is manifested, for example, in selling DVDs and Blu-ray of the film, selling to TVs and merchandising (Rennhoff and Wilbur, 2011). In Russia, on the other hand, promoters ignore post-release promotions because they think that it is not profitable. Russian films which are shown in cinemas are available on Russian TV channels and DVDs in shops. Mahlknecht (2012) agrees with the importance of post-production strategy citing plenty of examples used by American promoters, such as merchandising. For Russian people it is a novelty because only books and posters are used for advertising, not products like the once listed above.

Film award shows are also a good way to promote films after their release. In the US these awards are popular, for example the Oscars ceremony. Once nominations for best film or others are announced box office sales increase exponentially. Examples are the films Finding Nemo or Nebraska. The Russian Association of Film Critics created a national film award called Georges and in the voting process all people in Russia can take part (Belik, 2014). It is a popular way of film promotion because people are made to be part of the process and they view the films and they give their nominations.

Another effective way of post-release film promotion is making a sequel to very successful films. In the US, only those films which double their earnings with regards to the original budget can be eligible for a sequel (Gong et al., 2012). For Russian films which have sequels this formula is not applied, for example Mikhalkov’s film, Burnt by the Sun whose budget was $2.8 million and box office success amounted to only $2.4 million worldwide. According to Gong’s et al. formula this film was not eligible for a sequel but in 2010 in Russian cinemas released Burnt by the Sun 2. The budget of this film was $45 million and it earned just $7.5 million in the box office (KinoPoisk, 2014). Sequels do not need a big promotional campaign because most of the audiences know already about the film. The sequels of Russian films will be generally unpopular if the main film was unpopular.

In summary: An overview of promotional tools and strategies in general and in the film industry was given in the first part of this chapter. The analysis of US film promotion through examples and a review of Russian film industry with a focus on the promotional aspect were done in the second part by comparing their respective promotional tools. Finally a comparison of the different ways of promotion in the two countries was presented in the last part of the literature review chapter.

Both countries use pull strategy in film promotion mostly because it is business-to-customer kind of strategy. Sometimes films studios do not pay for distributors and promoters and create a promotional campaign by themselves, but doing this is ineffective. Also promoters of both countries use market segmentation, targeting, positioning and differentiation to create an effective promotional campaign.

It is clearly seen from the review that for Russian film promotion a definite change in release and post-release promotional strategies and the tools used should be made. At the release strategy stage the following tools should be applied and much more widely used by Russian film promoters: advertising, such as product advertising on big events; Internet advertising, which is the overlap of advertising and sales promotion, social media and film websites; public relations, for example sponsorship and right product placement of non-film companies who also provide financial backing to the promotional campaigns; international and domestic exhibitions, which is an overlap of personal selling and sales promotion.

Post-release strategy with the related tools, which is not yet customary in Russia, should be applied by Russian film promoters. Sales promotion, such as merchandising and Internet advertising could increase film’s attendance rate and create a chance for filmmakers to get a return on their finances. Also Russian filmmakers and promoters should apply the American formula for making sequels.

All the strategies and tools that were listed above could be applied to Russian film promotion based on the experience of the US film industry. They would make the Russian film industry far more profitable than it currently is. Russian film promoters and distributors should meanwhile think of ways by which they can make savings in their budget not only in terms of film release promotion but also in their post-release campaigns. And finally, Russian promoters should always remember that creativity generates interest.