We found the content of the film to be the most challenging aspect regarding our marketing strategy. The film simply did not have the material needed to attract large groups of people. However, it was our job to look beyond the actual film in order to enhance those few attractive elements that it did have. The hooks that we found, although comparatively weak in terms of the actual film, were exploited to their fullest potential in order to attract our very small target audience.
One of the biggest setbacks occurred when we received instructions not to market the soundtrack due to licensing issues. This was a major blow to our initial marketing plan because we had centered our campaign around the music of the film. We initially wanted to use this hook as a means to attract radio attention, but our inability to provide the necessary musical information resulted in our failure to interest the radio stations we contacted.
Oddly enough, one of our most successful marketing techniques was the creation of a t-shirt. The “We Are the Mods” t-shirt attracted attention to our cause while providing the necessary information concerning the festival. We effectively became a walking advertisement, and the louder we made ourselves, the more people became interested. We discovered that people have a tendency to relate to a shirt better than a piece of paper because a shirt has value and is something that can be worn over and over again.
If we were in a position to fund a film like “We Are the Mods” with the single motivation of making money, we would demand that the film be approached from a more daring angle. By taking bold steps, such as maximizing the amount of teen sex and drug use, we would hopefully stir up enough controversy and appeal among the public. The phrase “sex sells” would be applicable to the films content while enhancing the attraction of our target audience. We would also request that the film choose either an R rating or a PG-13 rating instead of balancing between the two. In other words, instead of jumping between the two ratings throughout the film, the filmmaker should go all out on either one or the other. Also, if this film was purely made to generate a profit, the filmmaker should incorporate a stellar soundtrack that would be attractive to a mass population (which she did), and also a celebrity or a well-known name. This was the first film for most of the actors, and they were all unrecognizable.
If we worked for a distribution company and were given the task to win attention and awards at film festivals, we would probably suggest the same things stated above. The problem with this film isn’t that it is a particularly bad film; the problem is that it is lacking. The film does touch on subjects and content that are intriguing, such as teen sex, drugs, mod fashion, teen rebellion, coming of age, exc., but each one of these categories are just barely scrapped upon in the film. The filmmaker tries hard not to push that cinematic edge that separates one film from another – a scene from one film compared with a similar scene from another. By taking what the film does have and maximizing its potential on screen, the filmmaker can finally cross that boundary between films that are “just ok” to films that are either really good or really bad.
Some advice we would give to the filmmaker regarding the marketing of their future films would be to exploit the reliability of recurring themes. Instead of changing their style of filmmaking as suggested above, the filmmaker should incorporate recurring themes, such as gay and lesbian tendencies, in order to procure a fan base. Fan base’s are a reliable source of information regarding the success and failure of a film, and by selecting themes that are already popular that fan base will expand. Also, the soundtrack was the most attractive aspect of the movie. So by further exploiting the music in the film, the people marketing it can reach a much wider and much larger demographic than we did.
