Marketing & Promotion – the first steps…

This unit is pretty much broken up into Marketing and Promoting 3 separate projects – The Comic-con, Film Festival and you.
The Comic-con – 4th May

Comic-con is more of a dog whistle promotion for the college – we are focussing on a good event that covers Film, TV, Comics, Video Games, Desktop games, cosplay,  Fantasy & Sci-Fi.

Content will be Cosplay related, with Vendors, Workshops (Computer Games, Video, Media Make-Up), Tabletop Games, Screenings, Retro Gaming, Artists and Special Guests.

We need to get a Logo, design the web page, promote the event to Vendors (Pricing and contracts), set ticket prices (using eventright?), Security, attract more guests (Actors, artists, writers, Cosplayers, youtubers etc)

Workshops will be an essential, especially to focus on the courses the college offers that link into this niche market. Establishing the revenue streams now is also essential if we are to expand this to a Saturday as well.
Film Festival – 25th April

A more corporate promotion of the college, we will need to promote it early to raise awareness of it for students and local schools alike.

Content will be a combination of Bridgwater & Taunton College Student Film work, based on projects they are doing for qualifications – so music videos, TV, Short films, Documentaries on a theme of Identity.

We need to get logo designed and develop the website, talk to Marketing, design posters and distribute them (around college, around local schools and colleges), set a budget for prizes – and most important of all, get it on Film Freeway ASAP. Design Academy is working on a Logo, and we can get Film Freeway moving before we update that.

We have an existing web WordPress website here.

You

You will need you do your Bio and Personal Statement, as well as any progression materials – UCAS applications, CV, Showreel, website, twitter feed, Facebook page, Linked in profile, Course Site, etc…

All this will support the college projects, as well as the college projects promoting you.

Promotion and Exhibition – The Submission

Rather than look in detail at Outcome 3 – which is pretty much “do it – following the plan…”, it is useful to look at what you need to submit by the deadline. There are 2 things – a large research folder, and evidence of what you have done.

Promotion and Exhibition: Professional Practice

LO1 – Critically analyse historical and current trends and apply relevant professional marketing and self- promotion methods.

So, step 1 – in English…

1. Identify Current Trends in Marketing and Promotion, relating them to their historical roots.
2. critically analyse them.
3. Identify the methods you are going to use, explaining why
4. plan how you will use them.

So, the purpose of this outcome is to look what happens in the real world, come up with some ideas for you own promotion & Exhibition, and then put it into action. LO2 & Lo3 follow on from this and are more concerned with skills building and application.

Managing contributors for FdA Fusion

We have the Web site set up, we have old content on there, and we have identified a range of stories to be putting up – including current and future projects (Creative Film Challenge, Major Projects, live brief) and how to guides (Networking, animation, working with clients, technical guides).

Marketing and Promotion

Marketing is a means of getting your product out to a market. It involves raising awareness of the product, and can be thought of as the 4 p’s – Product, Price, Place and Promotional Strategy.

Product – what is the product? This can be you. This can be your films, your photos. It can also be the social network, the Facebook or twitter feed, the blog. For our first project, we will be looking at the Course as a product.

Price – How much do you charge? This is always an issue for freelancers. But we have a way of lookign at this in terms of Short term and long term gains. So, in terms of the course we need to convince and customer that the short term loss (ie pay) is outweighed by the long term gain – ie increased turnover from the final advert.

Place – where does the product happen, or where do you need to go? Amazon wins on this, because they are everywhere. We may be limited to Bridgwater. But we aren’t – we look to Somerset (far more marketable!) or nationally (if we have transport) or internationally via the web. This can be in terms of production or distribution – in terms of the course, we operate in Somerset and promote internationally.

Promotion Strategy – well, how do we put it together? talk to people. Test things. We put the hyperlapse out and it was well received. We put the Cinemagraph out to a general “Meh..”. So, the idea of follwoing through techniques and pushing them out to an audience seems to be positive (Cue Comment about regular blog as promotion…)

Behind all of this is research – you need to do secondary research to establish the basis of what we are looking at, analyzing the existing methods and techniques. Choose Google. Choose the LRC. Choose talking to LRC staff about finding stuff. Then, when you talk to professionals and do your primary research, you are not wasting their time! You know what you are asking them – or clarifying from them. That way you can impress them and make a contacts at the same time. Find professionals, see if you can get them in, or record the conversation. Then from this conversation, you will go back to the secondary research to explore the techniques more – and then get in touch with other professionals…. etc, etc.

So, read books to find techniques. Use this to talk to people about how they apply the techniques, Read more books about techniques. Rinse and repeat.

Then apply techniques. Test. Retest.

Over to you!

FdA2: PO & WBL Presentations

OK – so someone mentions “Mission statements” and a quick search popped up a nice article on www.entrepreneur.com about how to write them. Not only do they serve a great purpose to focus you on what you actually want to achieve, the advice they give also serves as a great structure for the presentation!

So, a mission statement (in my opinion) is more useful as a personal tool than as an attempt to humanise a business. It is a statement of intent that influences your actions as a business (Freelancer, employee, film-maker etc.). As such, they need to be short and sweet – keep them punchy, positive and professional!

• Why are you in the Media Industry? What do you want for yoursefl, your family and your clients?Think about the spark that ignited your decision to start in media. What will keep it burning?
• Who are your customers? What can you do in your content for them that will enrich their lives and contribute to them–now and in the future?
• :What image of yourself as a media practitioner do you want to convey? Clients, peers and the public will all have perceptions of your wotk. How will you create the desired picture?
• What is the nature of your productions and products? What factors determine pricing and quality? Consider how these relate to the reasons for your working in the Media. How will all this change over time?
• What level of service do you provide? Don’t be vague; define what makes you as a media practitioner so extraordinary.
• What roles do you and your peers / contacts play? What are your strengths? How doe you bring other people into your productions? How do you communicate with them to encourage team work?
• What kind of relationships will you maintain with clients? Do you stay in touch with clients, and do they come back to you again and again? How doe you achieve this?
• How do you differ from your competitors? Many entrepreneurs forget they are pursuing the same dollars as their competitors. What do you do better, cheaper or faster than other content producers? How can you use competitors’ weaknesses to your advantage? How will you stand out form the crowd?
• How will you use technology, money, processes, products and services to reach your goals? A description of your strategy will keep your energies focused on your goals – pretty much the PO & WBL unit. How do you promote yourself using a variety of technology and channels?
• What underlying philosophies or values guided your responses to the previous questions? Some people choose to list these separately. Writing them down clarifies the “why” behind your mission. Are you out to change the world, or just entertain people?

So, with all this information you need to summarise what you are doing and focus on the positive actions within these. Imply certain things (live of films etc) and state doing – I cannot emphasise this enough – always emphasis what you actually do!

FdA2: PO&WBL planning

So, you have your case studies  (at least 16 of them by the last visitor reckoning, plus all the personal ones you found that relate to you alone) all neatly tucked away in your research folder and ready to go. That is just the start of it.

Now, you need to plan how you are going to promote yourself, your skills, your products etc. – ie what do you need to do to get noticed?

This could be developing:

• website – What goes in it? What does it look like? How will you build it?
• show reel – What are you promoting? Think how you would use a CV.
• networking – How do you build your contacts? Social Networking? In person?
• Film Festivals – Awareness of / Attendance at / entry into
• making business cards  /logos / headers for letters – for web / print / video – how necessary are they?

You may also want to organise a screening as part of the PO unit – This would be a good approach to promoting yourself, and even if it is planned for after this unit, I can grade the plan!

Another useful tool is to have a statement of intent.  A manifesto, as it where, of what you are trying to achieve. This could be private motivation or public education; and can work as a mantra to keep you motivated.

So, at this stage, what is your first instinctual plan of action? What are you going to do? Then, you can question it based on your case studies to develop your plan and, obviously, put it into action!