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Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images
TikTok is the new ground zero when it comes to entertainment marketing.
That was one of the views expressed by a panel of five top film and TV marketing executives held on Wednesday, which was typeEntertainment Marketing Summit at the One Hotel in West Hollywood.
A lively conversation moderated by Claudia Eller, Variety The chief production officer talks about the challenges of shrinking marketing budgets, the need to create bespoke content for a range of platforms, and the thrill of winning big through earned press and word of mouth. But the discussion got hottest when the panel discussed the outsized role TikTok now plays in distributing entertainment.
“It democratizes the ability for anyone to have a voice. It’s an eye-opener for the whole space,” said Christian Parkes, Neon’s chief marketing officer. “That’s where we’ve moved a lot of investment and advertising money there. We’ve been able to build a following there faster than on other platforms. TikTok is now at zero.”
Catherine Halaby, head of entertainment at TikTok North America, discusses how the platform is expanding to partner with entertainment companies to create content by thinking like TikTok users.
“We’re here to support and help these companies and partners create something like a creator,” Halaby said. “We help them build relationships with users like the TikTok community. They celebrate your wins by following you and engaging with your content. Our job is to help our partners understand how to be the best and how to connect with [TikTok] creator. “
Dwight Caines, Universal’s president of domestic marketing, offered a counterpoint, questioning whether gaining traction on TikTok is necessarily the way to get people into theaters at a certain time.
“TikTok is a long-tail game, where we can grow followers or engagement over time,” Cairns said. “Sometimes that engagement doesn’t convert people into ticket buyers. I want high-quality views of my content. I want that community to burn and drive box office.”
Marc Weinstock, president of worldwide marketing and distribution for Paramount Pictures, added that the studio’s marketers keep a close eye on search term trends. “It’s a big metric of our success,” he said, but it still takes some cue or call to action to drive people to the box office. “If everyone is out there saying everyone loves this, it’s not going to be a movie.”
Karen Bronzo, Chief Marketing Officer, Warner Bros. Discovery Channel USA Network, talks about her juggling act overseeing the marketing of nearly two dozen online brands, from TBS and TNT to Adult Swim and Cartoon Network to Discovery and Animal Planet. (As Eller reads the network list, Parkes quipped, “When do you sleep?” Bronzo replied, “I don’t, really.”)
“It’s really about understanding the audience. We have to look at any given show and figure out who it’s for. There can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach,” Bronzo said.
Bronzo also noted that after the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia in 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery has a wealth of marketing assets in-house with a broad channel under one roof. This is an advantage at a time when marketing budgets are being squeezed.
“I have tremendous owned and operated assets. In a world where spending is difficult, I have the ability to use our own platform in a very robust way,” Bronzo said. “One of the benefits of being part of a larger company is that we can use our property without having unlimited funds.”
Weinstock agrees, noting that support from other Paramount platforms will be important in raising awareness for Top Gun: Maverick. “It created a huge synergy across the company,” he said.
Marketing experts swapped stories about big wins driven by fan-relevant ideas rather than big spend.
Weinstock happily detailed the success of the studio’s efforts to support low-budget horror flick “Smile” last year with a grassroots viral video effort. One aspect of this is having people stand behind home plate in a baseball field and put on their best creepy smiles for the TV cameras. It took the public some time to absorb the message – but once they did, it took off like a rocket.
Weinstock described the approach as “doing more with less” — in the case of “Smile,” that meant $200 million for a film that cost $15 million and had a “paltry” marketing budget return.
“I scolded him in town,” Cairns said of Weinstock. “It’s been a fantastic campaign.”
Cairns described his experience working in a similar fashion on the 2022 hit “M3GAN,” which featured a terrifying-looking AI doll. The trick, Keynes observed, is to spread digital content and other early marketing messages that pique interest but don’t give away the whole secret.
“The danger of ‘M3GAN’ is that we become memes rather than movies,” Cairns said, citing a warning from his boss, Universal Pictures’ chief marketing officer Michael Moses. But when big names like Megan Thee Stallion started tweeting about the movie, the studio knew they were on the right track.
“The whole world and the audience felt the joy of ‘M3GAN.’ We had to make sure we amplified the thrill of the experiential theatrical release,” Cairns said.
Parks chimed in, saying that Neon would get a lot of free media by offering moviegoers a free Botox treatment if they went to see the distributor’s recent release of “The Triangle of Sorrow.” Weinstock laughed, but quipped that Paramount’s lawyers would never have allowed such a promotion.
“We don’t have an army of lawyers to say no to,” Parks responded. “There were two guys who worked in law and they hated me… We always wanted to be a little bit different, a bit disruptive.”
(Pictured: TikTok’s Catherine Halaby and Universal Pictures’ Dwight Caines)
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