SBS ‘did its best’ with Not Quite Hollywood
SBS group marketing manager Katherine Raskob responds to Not Quite Hollywood producer Craig Griffin, saying the doco “did not lack in attention from [SBS] in any way”.
Last week, Griffin sent a letter to Encore, saying he had expected a stronger promotional effort for the SBS One television premiere of Mark Hartley’s documentary about Australian genre cinema.
“I’m sorry to hear that there was disappointment with the publicity Not Quite Hollywood received,” Raskob told Encore. “With very limited resources, we did our best with regard to pre-publicity for the broadcast. Several weeks in advance of the 27 March broadcast, we sent a release with dubbed copies to reviewers across the country. We also posted it on our film and social media sites. This is what we do for all first-run films on SBS so it did not lack in attention from us in any way.”
According to Raskob, it is difficult for SBS to get significant coverage for television premieres, because most media outlets have done it prior to the film’s theatrical releases.
Raskob provided Encore with a report prepared by Media Monitors, with 25 mentions of the film’s screening in publications such as The Daily Telegraph, The Canberra Times, The Weekend Australian and The West Australian.
Raskob added that Griffin could “certainly discuss [the choice of broadcast date] with the SBS programming team”.
According to Griffin, the original contract established an 18-month window between the theatrical release (August 28, 2008) and the television premiere, but the distributor (Madman Entertainment) told SBS last year that the screening could be brought forward.
“We realised that the TV screening was good promotion for the DVD sales so we encouraged SBS to bring it forward, perhaps to coincide with [Not Quite Hollywood interviewee and supporter] Quentin Tarantino’s visit for the Melbourne International Film Festival last year. They just left it and ended up being screened for the first time on March 27,” Griffin told Encore.
“There were talks about having a season of Australian genre films, launched by our documentary, but that didn’t really happen […] Public broadcasters should program our films in the best possible way and give them the best possible promotion. SBS has a really strong film there and it was obviously a missed opportunity,” he added.
Griffin said he’d sent his letter to Encore because “he wouldn’t know who to talk to about it” at SBS.
Raskob is right. There can be few films that have already been so in your face as NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD. Where is the NEWS in it being shown on tv? The media do deal in NEWS, Craig. Certainly I was well aware myself of the SBS show. Maybe this producer should read about Mark Riviera’s blog about first timers in this issue?
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I would hate to break this to Australian distributors and broadcasters but film & TV reviews and publicity in print means just about jack for people under 55!
Gordon Paddison, myself and Stephanie Bohn discussed this at last years SPAA conference. Gordon is behind Stradella Road now doing marketing for Peter Jackson and Gordon was VP New Media at New Line. He was behind the marketing for Lord of The Rings, The Blade movies and many others and recently District 9. Stephanie heads up world wide Digital Distribution for Warner Bros.
Here is some research Gordon did late last year called ‘Moviegoers 2010’ http://bit.ly/bW4pUk
The old school ways of marketing feature films and for that matter documentaries and even TV have changed dramatically but unfortunately most industry marketers haven’t kept pace. Of course I am generalising but if we look at the marketing efforts for most Australian films released over the past few years with one or two exceptions like Mao’s Last Dancer and Samson & Delilah (but this had advantage of winning at Cannes) most Australians have never even heard of these films let alone there being any demand to see them.
We see the same old tired tactics of trailer release (but too close to film release to build any groundswell), a basic website with synopsis, cast list and links to Facebook and Twitter (which is not a social media strategy) and then most effort put into getting publicity and media reviews. Sometime there will be some above the line media support if the film is lucky.
I wrote this case study on Paranormal Activity http://bit.ly/14Ne6D which was made for $15k but which took over $160m at the box office as an example of how very clever marketing can make a film successful. In this case Paramount clearly understood their audience and their behaviour.
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I saw the film / doco promoted and publicised. I’m guessing, the reason it didn’t perform is the same reason it didn’t perform at the cinemas – that there is simply a lack of interest in a doco about the history of the Australian film industry. Although we in the media may think the subject / legacy of Australian film is fascinating, it’s not a view shared by the broader Australian public. If Griffin is after big audiences, maybe he should consider a doco about football or cricket or neighbours and sell it to Channel 10.
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