My Hollywood System - Chapter 201
[3rd January, 2013]
The conference room was filled with people. The meeting was mainly focused to discuss the marketing of the movie release. It was decided to be released on 17th of January.
Among all the important people, Alan, the director of [Catch Me If You Can] was also present. Ever since the meeting started, they had been discussing several things related to [Catch Me If You Can]. People who were in the marketing department, and the PR department was present at the meeting.
A guy, who had a long beard and also was the head of the marketing team in Kron Studio was talking about how they were going to promote the film.
“And as always, the marketing sums up to the talk shows and the number of public interviews. It has become like a drill after every movie, since people love to know about upcoming movies, and it also attracts a lot of crowd every now and then. Not to mention, this will also make people talk about the movie in social media. Apart from that we’d request the actors to spread the word in their social media, and in ours,” The man who was the head of the team said.
Kron studios was known for not using a lot of money in marketing. In fact, it was an average amount of investment which a small budget movie would invest in the marketing process. And the facts about how the marketing process worked in Kron, was known by everyone else in the industry.
It was because how every time, in every movie they would do a minimum amount of marketing and would rely more on word of mouth and actor’s or director’s appeal to sell movies. Even now, they were trying to sell the movie with the support of Leo and Tom Hanks.
Listening to his words, Will thought differently about the entire situation. He was aware that the quality of the movie was great, therefore there’s nothing to be worried about the movie’s box office outcome. But Will thought and knew something different regarding the work
Something Will felt was that Kron was basically living in the past, and using old methods. And he knew that one day, when things drastically changed, this method would not work. Will was someone who believed that a movie should be promoted to the public in an efficient way; a way in which the people could understand and fully embrace the vision of the movie.
“I think it would be easy and simple if we did it that way. But again, it had been how we did things for quite a long time. Don’t you think we should try something new and make a difference?” A guy who sat in front of Will questioned.
Some people nodded at his question, and others kept staring at the man who stood with his beard.
“Not really, what we always do is cost effective. The budget to promote is basically always so limited, and that way we can create more profits. In comparison to other studios, they do the same thing, but add just a bit of stuff more which could go out of hand when we take the budget into consideration,” The head explained while the other man nodded agreeing with him.
“So, it would be, through the actors, social media, talk shows and public interviews,” The man from earlier repeated the same thing after the head finished his words.
“Is that it?” Will questioned grabbing the attention from everyone.
“Yes, Mr Evans. We have been doing that for so many movies now, it works,” The person who suggested the entire idea replied.
“I don’t think it’s enough,” Will said. After a few seconds, noticing how the entire room went silent, he continued, “The whole movie is about a very smart con man, and the marketing itself lacks improvisation, which I find very ionic,” Will completed what he thought about the idea.
The marketing head looked a bit surprised. He raised his right eyebrow and took a quick glance across the hall avoiding every eye contact. He did not take it nicely, which was expected by Will.
“Do you have any other ideas to present, Mr Evans?” The man questioned.
Will nodded and stepped up. He looked at everyone in the room. Most of their eyes were already focused on Will.
“So, something we are all aware of is that we don’t have a lot of days until the movie release. With that being said, there’s not a lot of options to rely on. But, instead of following a method which might not let the movie reach its potential, we can do something which could give out a lot of impact in a short time and also something that could probably relate to what the movie is about,” Will said and looked the marketing head, dead in his eyes.
“What do you have in mind?” The former asked curiously.
“First of all, the character Leo is playing, Frank Abagnale. Take the character into consideration, Frank is a very charismatic person. With that being said, we need to market the character since the audience, especially young adult girls, love suave guys. So, what I suggest is that Leo should play his character in literally every talk show he attends. Tom Hank–He can take part in a skit involving both of their characters, because they are the heart of the movie.” Will explained and took a short break before continuing further.
“Think about it, Tom Hanks in a skit is something not many people would think coming. And, when we deliver an unexpected marketing strategy, I bet the competitive studios might even talk about it, especially considering how the same old methods kept recurring over and over for the past few movies. More than that, this is something that not many had done, since the reputation of the studio is stable, this would make things better with [Catch Me If You Can],” Will said.
“It can even be done in a short time,” The marketing head of the Kron studio said as if he was agreeing to Will’s ideas. “That is actually a good one,” Hearing the words, Will sat back on his chair. “Let’s go with it. For that, take notes to prepare everything and let the actors know about it. Check-in with the dates, and appointments and still let the actors go with the public marketing using social media. And, we can promote as much as we can too. Will’s suggestion would be the priority in the whole project,” He said and everyone was impressed.
They knew that he was agreeing due to the fact that the whole process would not take a lot of money which also goes with their way of marketing.
“I think that is a good idea, also, what do we think about the banners and posters created for the campaign. I don’t think we discussed it a lot .” Another woman who sat across the long table asked.
The meeting went on for more than an hour, while they discussed all the details and the strategies for [Catch Me If You Can] promotions.
***
Will and Alexa were seated in the car, while the driver in front of them was taking them to their destination.
“Have you contacted the VFX department asking about the progress of [Spiderman]?”Will questioned.
“Yeah, they are working pretty hard on the movie. But considering it is the biggest CGI work they had ever done, the time they’d take for it might just increase than it is now. Even [Terminator] was easier than this one.” Alexa said.
Hearing her words, a frown appeared on Will’s face.
“It’s alright, they can take as much time as they want, but we need to get the teaser out by the time of the Super Bowl,” Will said, grabbing the attention of Alexa more.
The Super Bowl was a massive event in America. It was an annual playoff championship game of the National Football League. In Will’s previous world, the Super Bowl was an event where even celebrity singers performed, and trailers of famous movies were even released during the event. Basically, the popularity was the same, but the things that attracted the crowd were less than what was in Will’s previous world.
Will wanted to reveal the teaser of [Spiderman] on that day when thousands of people would be present to watch the biggest championship match happen. As it was a place where a huge crowd appeared, and considering the hype the media men give for it, the promotion of [Spiderman] would be the best idea which they could go with.
But, much to Will’s opportunity, that type of marketing during the event was not present—which also meant that Will was the first person to come up with it.
“Yeah, I think we can make arrangements to talk about it with them, they’ll hurry the process just in the favour of the teaser,” Alexa muttered.
“What’s more? How’s the editing for [Hitch] going? Any updates?” Will questioned as the car took a turn to the left of the street.
“I was meaning to talk about this. The process has slowed down.” Alexa said, grabbing Will’s attention.
“Why?”
“Foxtar is trying to get themselves involved in it to not include a few scenes which Carson wanted. It’s becoming hectic in the process of editing, I checked up yesterday,” Alexa said and took a break before saying, “It’s mostly the chairman, Colt who keeps doing that,” She said.
Listening to the words, Will frowned again. ‘What is the deal with him?’ Will thought to himself.
