Marketing, Media and Communication II Marketing Plan for ...€¦ · Marketing Media and Communication !4 1.1 Introduction and Overview Brooklyn film festival is a multi-media organization

Marketing Media and Communication ! 1

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Marketing, Media and Communication II

Marketing Plan for Brooklyn Film Festival

AAD 610

by

Tiantian(Tina) Li

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!Executive Summary

This report has been conducted mainly to propose the marketing plan for Brooklyn that operates

as a multi-media organization and displays movies for the general audience. The report has been

based upon five parts. In the first part of the report the overview of the company has been

provided. In this part the marketing objectives of the company have also been discussed. In the

second part of the report the situational analysis has been conducted that mainly highlights the

strengths and weaknesses of the company. In the third part of the report the three strategies have

been proposed for the company in order to make its marketing plan more effective. One of these

strategies is related to the social media. The fourth part of the report discusses the

implementation of the strategies and in the last part how these strategies will be evaluated, has

been discussed.

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!Table of Contents

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1.1 Introduction and Overview 4 .............................................................................

2.1 Situational Analysis 5 .....................................................................................

3.1 Proposed Strategies 13 ...................................................................................

4.1 Implementation 17 .......................................................................................

5.1 Evaluation 20 ..............................................................................................

References 21 ...................................................................................................

Appendices 23..................................................................................................


1.1 Introduction and Overview

Brooklyn film festival is a multi-media organization that operates in the vicinity of USA,

particularly in Brooklyn, New York. The organization has been popular among the audience for

its independent film festivals that the company conducts every year in the month of June and that

lasts for ten days (Brooklyn Film Festival, 2014). Besides operating as a non- profit organization,

the company charges tickets from the audiences that can be utilized for the overall organized

event. In the light of the study of Brooklyn Film Festival (2014), the underlying marketing

objectives of the company is to catch the attention of large pool of customers towards its festival

and to make people believe that Brooklyn is a hub of cinema. The studies of Brooklyn Film

Festival (2014) have also concluded that the marketing goal of the company is to endorse and

encourage the independent filmmakers. By thorough situational analysis of the environment in

which the company operates and to make its marketing media plan more effective, three

strategies have been proposed to the company one of which is related to the social media. Other

strategies recommended are related to the marketing mix elements of the company. The desired

outcomes of the proposed strategies are numerous. One of the benefits that the company could

get from these strategies is that it can portray company’s brand all over the world in a very short

span of time. Moreover, through these strategies the company will also be able to operative in

more lucrative way as it is operating before.

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2.1 Situational Analysis

2.1.1 Economic Scan

The Brooklyn Film Festival is an organization that runs an annual and highly-competitive film

festival, spanning over a period of ten days, screening independent films to an audience of over

10,000 people. Contributed income, especially through corporate sources, is vital for this

organization. Though this organization charges its audience for tickets, the Brooklyn Film

Festival is a not-for-profit organization, with the goal of screening both New York based and

international films to facilitate a public forum around film and culture in the Brooklyn area. The

Brooklyn Film Festival is sponsored by many corporate organizations, including companies like

Yelp, WNYC and Windmill Studios NYC. In return for the corporate sponsorship funding, the

BFF provides advertisement opportunities to give the sponsors’ brands maximum visibility for its

audience.

The festival charges its audience $100 for a Full Festival Pass that allows access to all of the

events and screenings, $30 for a 4 Pack Pass that allows for the screening of 4 films, and also a

Single Program Ticket for $12 or $10 for students and senior citizens, which allows access to one

film screening. Because there is a great deal of expense involved in organizing this event, as well

as the $50,000 - $80,000 awarded in prizes to the winning films, tickets manage to cover the

costs and do not produce a considerable profit for the organization. Also, much of the labour

involved with organizing the event is dependent on volunteers.

Surveying this organization’s economic past and present reveals that its general financial health

has been significantly improving over the years. Since its inception in 1998, the organization has


substantially expanded beyond the boundaries of its Brooklyn base, into the international scene.

The great popularity of the festival has brought it more money to award its exceptional

participants and attract more competitive filmmakers from all across the world.

Another economic factor that influences the organization’s situation is the price of the venues,

which relate to the prices of living in Brooklyn. The location of the venues will, to a large

degree, determine the price. For example, showing in Bushwick would be much cheaper, though

likely unattractive for much of this festival’s target audience. It is important to balance venue

desirability with its price.

2.1.2 Demographic Scan

The Brooklyn Film Festival attracts and is catered to an audience of students, young ‘trend-

setting’ professionals, especially indie-filmmakers, and professionals working in the arts. The

ten-day event is internationally renowned and attracts not only Brooklyners and New Yorkers,

but also people from all around the world. However, it is safe to say that its primary audience is

the residents of Brooklyn and New York City. Though there has not been a demographic study of

the participants and attendees of the Brooklyn Film Festival, the borough of Brooklyn is

renowned for its thriving young artists scene. The age demographic for the organization is

estimated to be males and females of 20 – 35 years old. The economic status of the audience is

estimated to be middle-class.

A person’s cultivation of interest in independent films, which would attract them to attend the

festival, is likely to depend upon an arts or liberal arts post-secondary education. Likewise, the

volunteers for the festival are likely to be students of an art of film centric education. As


Brooklyn is a greatly multicultural borough of New York, its attendants would likely also be of a

wide range of ethnic heritage.

2.1.3 Cultural Scan

The general culture of the organization’s team is so to speak, ‘indie’, reflecting Brooklyn culture

in general. The organizers are people with alternative and cultivated artistic taste, who have been

or are filmmakers themselves and have great experience and knowledge of the entertainment

industry.

The local cultural elements or social values that encourage participation in the Brooklyn Film

Festival are to a great degree the ‘cultural capital’ derived from something described as

‘Brooklyn’. Like New York City, the idea of Brooklyn is itself an internationally recognized

brand with distinct and quickly recognizable aesthetic and cultural qualities. This is why this

international film festival held in Brooklyn – as opposed to the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival,

which only features Brooklyn-based filmmakers – deliberately maintains this local reference in

its title. As it was previously titled as the Brooklyn International Film Festival, it had reverted

back to being the Brooklyn Film Festival, for this reason.

The attendance numbers for this festival largely depend on the degree of leisure of its target

demographic. The leisure trends that influence the organization depend on national economic

stability and in turn, people having disposable money and time to attend this event. To a degree,

the Brooklyn Film Festival is a part of the tourism and leisure industry. It’s status as a tourist

attraction makes it important to cultivate the festival’s international image through promotions

and advertisements.


Popular culture elements that influence the artistic offerings of the organization are especially

apparent in the “2014 Brooklyn Film Festival Trailer”, which features people in ‘Brooklyn-like’

scenarios offering intriguing ‘Brooklyn-type’ pitches for film-plots. The trailer concludes with

the words, “There are some things you can only see in BRKLYN” (0:39). The acronym

BRKLYN reflects the popular culture trend of the online social networking and the Internet

culture in general, which is popular with contemporary youth. Acronyms signify an engagement

with current technologies, such as cellphone texting, ‘apps’ and platforms like Twitter and

Facebook. The popularity of these technologies compounded with society’s obsession with

youth-culture, causes this association to benefit the Brooklyn Film Festival by giving it a fresh

and current quality.

2.1.4 Other Environmental Elements

The great amount of festivals that happen every year in and around the vicinity of Brooklyn

create a competitive pressure on this organization. There is a need to differentiate it from other

similar organizations that base their brand image on the Brooklyn brand, like the Art of Brooklyn

Film Festival. Also, other international film festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival

(TIFF) run the risk of overshadowing the BFF in the amount of media and celebrity attention that

it receives. BFF pertains to the local and international scenes, and has to compete on both of

these planes.

The tool that has been utilized to conduct the situational analysis of Brooklyn is SWOC Analysis.


Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Challenges

Cultural Product(s)

The Brooklyn Film Festival has established an international reputation, both benefiting from and contributing to the Brooklyn brand. The BFF attracts some of the best filmmakers in the world, bringing this elevated cultural experience to the residents of Brooklyn.

There are weaknesses that come with BFF being simultaneously local and international. The international culture has the effect of diluting Brooklyn’s unique and independent cultural flavour. Likewise, the filtering of international film applications through a Brooklyn-perspective limits to what degree the international film scene is represented.

The Brooklyn Film festival has the opportunity to more strongly ground itself in Brooklyn filmmaking culture by broadening its program to include smaller side film festivals that only feature Brooklyn filmmakers.

Though the Brooklyn Film Festival places a heavy emphasis on the particular cultural qualities of Brooklyn, it is essentially an internationally focused organization.


Pricing The pricing of the tickets is cheaper per-ticket when buying a larger number of screenings. The motivation for people to purchase the ‘value’ packages provides a kind of insurance for the festival’s financial success. The tickets are reasonably priced.

The ticket prices are relatively cheap for an international event. For the number of films screenings available (over 100) over the 10-day period. They have more value than what the organization is charging.

The expansion of the organization could be facilitated by higher ticket prices.

Brooklyn’s reputation for being ‘cheaper’ than Manhattan generates the expectation that ticket-prices must be generally lower than for other film festivals in New York. The increase in already established ticket prices can cause recoil in the projected attendees.



Plane (Access) Annually, the festival is held in at least one venue around Brooklyn. In 2014, it was held at indieScreen, Wythe Hotel and Windmill Studios NYC. These locations were on the subway line and relatively close to one another, allowing for festival attendees to catch more of their preferred screenings in a single day. Multiple venues also allowed for more films could be screened in general.

Despite the venues’ relative closeness, there is an impairment in viewing the films, when they are scattered across multiple venues.

To make the Brooklyn Film Festival more accessible, it would be a better solution to hold the festival in one venue with multiple screening rooms. This way attendees will have easier access to more films.

Brooklyn, like New York City, is a densely populated urban area, without very many large-scale venues that would be affordable for the festival. Also, attendance in a single venue could create the challenge of over-crowding.



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Promotional Efforts

The video advertisement and posters for the festival is attractive to young adults in their twenties. The advertisements are interesting, and are of high quality in both concept and production value.

Associations with youth and popular culture can be detrimental to the seriousness with which the film festival is regarded. Its over-identification with a younger, student-aged audience may detract older and more experienced film-studies professionals.

There is an opportunity to calibrate a balance between a mature and a youthful approach to promotional activity. Giving these promotional efforts a greater degree of conceptual depth, and the inclusion of cultural references that more mature audiences can appreciate would assure that the festival’s image does not become overly identified with a ‘commercial’ or juvenile audience.

There are considerable challenges in maintaining the Brooklyn Film Festival’s image through its promotional efforts. The way that the organization is advertised will determine whose interest it will cultivate. It is important to not promise people an image that the film festival’s content does not deliver. It is most important to keep the promotional image aligned with the kinds of films screened in the festival. The challenge of adopting the promotion to reflect the films translates into the challenge of what participants are selected.



3.1 Proposed Strategies

One of the most important strategy is executing social media marketing within the company’s

promotional activities (Chin and Qualls, 2001). This strategy has been proposed for the company

because through it the company can reach large pool of its customer in a cost effective way and

also in a very short span of time.

In addition, this sort of marketing will also permit Brooklyn to make sure that the potential

customers are aware and they can recognize the brand name at the global level. As a result, it will

also facilitate the company to make people loyal to the brand. Moreover, through social media

marketing the company will not only be able to efficiently attract the general audience. However,

through this strategy the company can also attract large number of people who are interested in

the field of arts and wanted to pursue their career in filmmaking. In order to successfully

implement this strategy the foremost thing that the company will be required is the information

regarding the number of internet users in Brooklyn as well as the duration of their time they

spend on each of the social media network (Stelzner, 2011). Through this company will be able

to design the strategy in a way that it yields positive results for the firm. Furthermore, the

company will also require the communication methods which in this case are the fan pages on

these social networking sites. Therefore, an official fan page will be initiated so that the

customers can acknowledge the updates about the firm easily. The company will also require the

skilled writers that can draft effective and eye catching marketing messages for the company on

these sites. Actually, running a fan page is not as easy as it seems because it is more time

consuming as compared to other traditional marketing strategies. Through this strategy, the

company will be able to communicate with the desired audience. According to Cha, Kim and Lee


(2009) social media is an effective tool that is operating as a marketing hub for numerous well-

known brands. It plays a major role in attracting the targeted audience towards the products.

Second strategy that has been proposed for the company that will help management in achieving

its marketing goals and objectives more specifically is slight modification in its one of the

marketing mix element and that is place. At present the company organized its events in more

than one location. This practice not only increases the company’s cost but it also causes

hindrance in the way of customers to access the different locations of the events. Hence, it has

been suggested to the company that it should organize its events at one place and offers multiple

rooms for broadcasting of the movies to the audience (Ivy, 2008). The placement is one of the

critical factor of the marketing because it is essential that product should be located at the place

where it is easily accessible by the customers and consumers. Additionally, with the

implementation of this strategy Brooklyn will also be able to portray the image of its festival as a

multiplex cinema that offers a wide range of movies at the same time (Huang and Sarigollu,

2012). The placement will become known and customers will prefer to revisit the place. Actually,

customers are the key elements of every business; therefore, it is vital for the marketers to up

keep their interest with the offerings. Brooklyn should keenly emphasize on symbolizing a

certain place where they can locate their festivals. This strategy will provide Brooklyn a handful

support in retaining the customers.

The strategy is fruitful because it helps Brooklyn in achieving its organizational goals and

objectives. However, the marketing objective that will be achieved if this strategy is

implemented by Brooklyn is customer loyalty and brand equity. Moreover, the company through


this strategy can also enhance its sales volume which further results in expanded revenues for the

firm. It is mainly because of providing convenience to the customers and wide range of movies

at a single place. Along with this, company will also be able to retain customers because the

place will come reachable for them. Another marketing objective that this strategy will help the

company to achieve is to design the high quality and technological environment for the

customers when they walk in the festival to watch movies. However, development of such

environment can result in enhanced interest of the customers which results in revisits.

Furthermore, to employ this strategy successfully, the company is required to have relevant

information regarding the places where it could find large crowd of people. Similar to this, the

place should also be in the center of the city so that it becomes accessible by the potential

customers. Moreover, the company is also required to execute the latest technological tools while

organizing the events.

The third important marketing strategy recommended to the company is also related to its

marketing mix element. This strategy is related to the diversification of the products offered for

the customers. This means that the company in addition to showing movies to the audiences

should also display folk plays within its festivals. The folk shows will bring in the variety for the

customers with which they will feel attracted towards the offerings of Brooklyn. This strategy

has been suggested because diversification can greatly minimize its risk (Cha, Kim and Lee,

2009). If the company fails to attract the customers through the screening of the movies then the

other option left for the company is to attract them through folk plays. The customers will find it

different and new and will decide to see it. These types of shows will spread out their interests


and encourage them to watch them. Apart from this, through showing the folk plays Brooklyn

will be able to expand its targeted audience.

Through this strategy the profits of the company will also be improved which also is one of the

marketing objectives of Brooklyn (Powers and Loyka, 2010). The profits of the company will be

improved in the sense that previously the company was targeting only the audience through

playing movies but with this new strategy the company now can also provides its audience with

the knowledge of different cultures and traditions that are followed worldwide. Further, more

customers means more reputation and sales; therefore, strategy will help Brooklyn in expanding its

business. To successfully implement this strategy the foremost thing that the company required is

the sponsorship from the world’s most popular brands. These sponsors will also act as the

communication method for the company.

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4.1 Implementation

The formulated strategy is of no use if it is not appropriately executed. Hence, in order to

implement the strategy that will also results in a win-win strategy Brooklyn will required the

resources, skills and capabilities (Vorhies and Morgan, 2003). The resources that the company

required for successful implementation of social media marketing are skilled staff that can

efficiently and effectively handle the web traffic on the fan pages designed on the social media

sites. The amount of budget that will be required for executing social media into the business

operations of Brooklyn will almost insignificant as social media marketing is the most cost

effective as compared to other means of marketing (Srinivasan and Hanssens, 2009). Moreover,

in order to make the fan page of the company most attractive and eye catching and that will also

stimulate and arouse the interest of the consumers the company have to first hire appropriate

content writer that can sketch effective marketing messages for the company that it wants to

articulate. Timeline that shows the action plan of this strategy has been mentioned below:

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Figure 1: Timeline for Completion of Proposed Action

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The second strategy of the company was to redesign the venue of its festival as a single place

that offers multiple screening of the movies. In order to implement this successfully the company

requires the resources such as large auditoriums that can be converted into many smaller

cinemas. Moreover, the company also required high quality multiple screens. As stated by Gupta,

Lehmann and Stuart (2004) that no business can run without incorporating human capital.

Therefore, the company will also require skilled and qualified staff for the management of these

multiple cinemas. For promotional purposes, the techniques utilized by the company will be

advertisements. The medium for the advertisements will be posters, pamphlets, bill boards,

hoardings, and stalls at various places of the city. In order to carry out the promotional activities

of this plan, the help of sponsors is required. Moreover, the funds required to carry out this entire

implementation of strategy will be approximately 10 million dollars. The budget of the company

for this strategy is 12 Million dollars and any fluctuations in the funds will be managed by the

sponsors.

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In order to implement the third strategy the resources that the company required is highly depend

upon the human capital. It is because for displaying folk plays the company requires the

individuals from all over the world who are expert in play acts. The company also required to

search for sponsors who are willing to provide funds for the company’s new strategy. After that

the major success of this strategy depends upon the effectiveness of the promotion plan of the

company. In this case the promotional tools that will be utilized are the sales promotional,

advertisements and publicity. The sales promotion tactics that will be utilized are the freebies and

discounts. The timeline showing the duration that each activity in this action plan will take has

been mentioned below:

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5.1 Evaluation

The quantitative results of the proposed strategy will be measured through the financial

performance of the company. If the sales and revenues of the company has been tremendously

enhances that it can be said that the formulated and executed strategy have resulted in a win-win

strategy. Moreover, the quantitative results can also be measured through the financial ratios of

the company. The method to measure the quantitative results depends upon the customer loyalty

and brand equity of Brooklyn. It can also be measured through the number of new customers of

the company that were once potential customers. The effectiveness of social media marketing

strategy that has been proposed can be evaluated through various methods such as how much the

customers are responding to the messages, updates and blogs of the company that are placed on

the company’s social media page. The effectiveness of making the festival as a hub of cinema

can be evaluated by taking feedback from the customers. Through this feedback the company

will come to know that how much its new strategy has been appreciated by the customers. The

strategy of incorporating folk plays into the company’s events can be evaluated through the

brand equity of the company. If this brand equity has tremendously enhanced than the proposed

strategy is successful. Apart from this, in order to make its marketing plan always successful and

ongoing one of the recommendations that have been provided to the company is that it should

always attempt to bring innovations into its business operations. Moreover, it has also been

recommended that Brooklyn should also continuously modify its existing marketing strategies in

accordance with the change in its business environment.

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References

Brooklyn Film Festival (2014).About BFF.[Online].Available at http://

www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/about/, Accessed on 16 January 2015

Cha, J. E., Kim, S. and Lee, Y. (2009). Application of multidimensional scaling for marketing-

mix modification: A case study on mobile phone category. Expert Systems with

Applications, 36(3), 4884-4890

Chin, D. and Qualls, L. (2001). Open Circuits, Closed Markets: Festivals and Expositions of

Film and Video. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, 23(1), 33-47

Gupta, S., Lehmann, D. R. and Stuart, J. A. (2004). Valuing customers. Journal of marketing

research, 41(1), 7-18

Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E. (2012). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand

equity, and the marketing mix. Journal of Business Research,65(1), 92-99

Huffer, I. (2012). ‘Wellywood's Cinemas’: Theatrical film exhibition in ‘post-

industrial’Wellington. Studies in Australasian Cinema, 5(3), 251-264

Ivy, J. (2008). A new higher education marketing mix: the 7Ps for MBA marketing. International

Journal of Educational Management, 22(4), 288-299

Jardine, B. (2010). Between Madness and Art: The Prinzhorn Collection by Christian Beetz,

director. Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY, USA Release, 2008; copyright, 2007. DVD,

75 min. Distributor's web site:< icarusfilms. com/new2008/madn.

html>. Leonardo, 43(1), 72-72

Kirste, L. (2007). Collective effort: archiving LGBT moving images. Cinema Journal, 46(3),

134-140

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markets. Journal of global marketing, 23(1), 65-79

Rastegar, R. Z. (2013). Authenticity, Biography, and Race: A Critique of the 2013 Film Festival

Circuit. American Quarterly, 65(4), 905-913


Srinivasan, S. and Hanssens, D. M. (2009). Marketing and firm value: metrics, methods,

findings, and future directions. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(3), 293-312

Stelzner, M. A. (2011). Social media marketing industry report. How Marketers Are Using Social

Media to Grow Their Businesses http://www. socialmediaexaminer. com/

SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2012. pdf (Accessed March 2013)

Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E. and Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional

marketing: findings from an internet social networking site.Journal of

marketing, 73(5), 90-102

Vorhies, D. W. and Morgan, N. A. (2003). A configuration theory assessment of marketing

organization fit with business strategy and its relationship with marketing

performance. Journal of marketing, 67(1), 100-115

Wasserman, S. (2014). The Evolution of a Public Historian and Documentary

Filmmaker. American Jewish History, 98(2), 49-54

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!Appendices

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Documents

Marketing, Media and Communication II Marketing Plan for ...€¦ · Marketing Media and Communication !4 1.1 Introduction and Overview Brooklyn film festival is a multi-media organization