Film Marketing During COVID-19

Arts and entertainment, like most fields, have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Theatrical film releases have mostly come to a standstill in the US, resulting in AMC, the largest cinema chain in America, tinkering on pursuing bankruptcy protection (Whitten, 2020). 

Fortunately, it has not been all doom and gloom in this space for subscription-based streaming services like Netflix are thriving by providing direct to home motion picture content for on-demand consumer viewing (Bacon, 2020). 

Disney has also entered the streaming video subscription fray in a major way with Disney+(Bacon, 2020). Furthermore, Amazon is doing excellent, offering their complimentary video streaming benefit to Amazon Prime members.  

Traditional American film companies must rethink their integrated marketing communication strategies to survive in this new paradigm or exclusively market projects to streaming services (Countryman, 2020). A few changes taking place involve the following:  

Public Relations 
Release Dates 
Smaller budgets

Traditional film companies are now required to utilize public relations in interesting ways to promote new releases remotely (Countryman, 2020). For example, more interviews with cast communicating directly to fans and the press via Zoom are essential now (Countryman, 2020).

Also, trailers and other promotional activities occur later, eliminating long lead times (Countryman, 2020). Finally, it is required to generate more buzz and engagement with significantly smaller budgets (Countryman, 2020). 

Heraclitus, the famous Greek philosopher, is quoted as saying that the only thing certain/constant is change (Mark, 2010). Ironically, even today, these words ring true for the marketing of theatrical releases during our pandemic.  

References

Bacon, T. (2020, November 17). How Much Streaming Services Actually Grew During 2020. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://screenrant.com/streaming-services-2020-growth-pandemic-subscribers/

Countryman, E. (2020, August 31). Film Marketing Execs on Reopening Theaters, Distributing Movies During COVID-19. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://variety.com/2020/film/news/film-marketing-covid-19-kenote-marketing-roundtable-1234749848/

Mark, J. (2010, July 14). Heraclitus of Ephesus. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://www.ancient.eu/Heraclitus_of_Ephesos/

Whitten, S. (2020, October 13). AMC warns it could run out of cash this year. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/13/amc-could-run-out-of-cash-by-then-end-of-2020-company-warns.html