Posts tagged marketing
Using Hashtags for Your Indie Film

There are about 186 million users on Twitter sending 500 million+ tweets sent each day, which comes out to approximately 200 billion tweets per year. Instagram users post more than 95 million photos and videos per day, or about 34 billion pieces of content per year, and if you’re brave enough to jump into TikTok, you’re joining 600 million users who post almost every day. It’s time to get smart about your hashtags.

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OUR FAVORITE FILM MARKETING IN 2020

2020 was obviously a VERY DIFFERENT year when it came to film, with many releases skipping their theatrical run, choosing a hybrid drive-in/virtual event approach, or just heading straight to a streaming release. As always, Team Smarthouse kept their eye on how these films were being marketed, and were wowed by the poster campaigns, innovative ideas, and other marketing bits that people and agencies came up with!


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Game of Thrones: The Art of the Pitch

As a filmmaker and an entrepreneur, I’ve made a lot of pitches. I’ve pitched start-up ideas, apps, screenplays, and myself to a variety of decision-makers. I’ve also taught workshops on how to make an effective pitch. But, it wasn’t until I rewatched the Season Eight finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones that I noticed what turns out to be a near-perfect example of a pitch that makes people literally sit up and take notice.

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Does Your Film Need a Publicist?

Planning your film, no matter how thrifty you can be with sets and equipment, is a daunting enterprise. Including a little extra for a publicist before you even begin shooting can seem like a luxury. So why is it worth it? Well, why make a film if no one sees it? A publicist is your best advocate for outreach, press coverage, and generally putting a good face on your project.

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AMA HIGHLIGHTS: DIGITAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL TIPS

Because social media is an ever-changing landscape, it can be hard to know where to spend your time, effort, and budget in order to get the word out about your project. Earlier this year, I participated in an “Ask Me Anything” marketing forum and answered questions about social media and digital marketing.

Here are some highlights that small biz owners may find useful:

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Bringing the PR love for our clients

The Seattle International Comedy Competition (and its sister event, The San Francisco Comedy Competition) is one of my favorite projects to work on. It’s a great showcase for emerging talents, delivers an evening of raucous entertainment to audiences, and is presented by one of the undersung OGs of comedy: Jon Fox.

That’s why it’s so great when we’re able to successfully convey all this to the media and get some awesome coverage. Here’s a round up of this year’s highlights:

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Online Ad Budget Calculator

Almost all of our independent film clients have questions about the appropriate size of their respective digital advertising budgets. It’s a tough question mainly because there isn’t a simple, one-size-fits-all answer. Of course, it would be great to have unlimited resources but, as I’m sure many of you reading this already know, that is almost never the case when it comes to independent artists.

And that’s why Smarthouse created our online ad budget calculator tool!

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DRIVING ITUNES MOVIE PRE-ORDERS WITH FACEBOOK ADS

If you’re serious about making a splash, you need to be serious about your marketing campaign. But, that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on your ads in order to make it work. You do, however, need to be smart about your platforms and your audience targeting.

The following case study will help illustrate, in practical terms, how an independent filmmaker might approach this data-intensive process.

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