think outside the box office Archives - Biz Books

Guest Post: “Jon Reiss’ TOTBO Tip of the Day 4 – Setting Marketing Strategy”

Biz Books — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:31:05 +0000

Two helpful ways to think about marketing: 1) Reaching the audience that already exists for your film and 2) thinking creatively of what audiences might be interested in your film.

I recommend that you consider and conceive of a marketing strategy for your film early in the production process, even at inception. Who is its audience? How are you best going to reach them? Are there particular blogs, organizations, print media that they subscribe to? Who will you bring on to help you outreach to your audience? How does this audience consume media? Answering these questions will help to fashion your release strategy.

Guest Post: “Jon Reiss’ TOTBO Tip of the Day 2 – Every Film is Different”

Biz Books — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:45:46 +0000

Each film is unique and requires its own individual distribution and marketing strategy. A comedy about stoners will not have the same audience as a documentary about AIDS orphans in Tanzania. Similarly each filmmaker has a different set of goals, needs, and resources. While the studio one size fits all model worked well for some independent films over the last 20 years – it was a disaster for others. With the new hybrid model of distribution you can craft a distribution and marketing strategy that makes the most sense for your film. You have a unique vision. Use that vision to engage your audience in a unique manner. This will help separate you from the media noise that surrounds us every day.

What do you think?

Guest Post: “The Launch of Jon Reiss’ TOTBO Tips of the Day”

Biz Books — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 03:40:04 +0000

Many of you might know me from the book that I have written recently, Think Outside the Box Office (TOTBO for short). The primary reason that I wrote it was to share what I had learned while distributing my film Bomb It with other filmmakers so they could learn from my successes and mistakes. In the continuation of that mission I am launching two more initiatives – both in support of how people want to interact with this information. The first is a series of workshops around the world. It seems that the live experience is as important as the written word in imparting this information for many people. We are starting with London on May 8/9, Amsterdam on the 12/13, New York on June 5, Vancouver on June 12/13, San Francisco July 31/August 1 with more being lined up.

The second initiative is the launching of a TOTBO Tip of the Day. This will soon be joined by Resource of the Day. In these tips, I will give not only a sense of what’s in the book and workshop, but they will be a forum to convey new tips to you as I learn them.

I want to know what you think! Comment here or on my blog, or @Jon_Reiss on twitter, or on the TOTBO Facebook page. I look forward to hearing from you.