Internet is where people go for movie information
According to a new study released by Google, 70 percent of the people who are actively seeking out information on a new movie go to the internet to do so. Some other take-away stats:
- One third of of those who use the internet say it carries the most influence when it comes to deciding to see a movie.
- 17 percent say the internet research they do is the most important factor influencing what movie they decide to see.
- Studios spend 2.6 percent of their marketing budgets online.
- One-third of the audience for An Inconvenient Truth says the first heard about the film online.
- AdSense ads for Inconvenient utilized their then brand-new click-to-play video ad format, which were placed on independent film sites as well as those with an environmental and political focus.
- TV, trailers and word-of-mouth are the most common sources of first awareness, but the internet fills in the time gap between that awareness and the ticket purchase.
There are some differences in these numbers between those “Infoseekers” and what the study labels the “Traditional” moviegoer. Basically the “Traditional” group is more likely to hear about a movie first from TV as opposed to the internet, which is where first awareness occurs almost half the time for “Infoseekers.”
I want to get back to that initial point. 70 percent of the people who look for more information are doing so online. Why are they doing that? Because the internet has the ability to store vastly more information that’s easily found than any other information source in history. You can’t search on TV coverage or newspaper stories unless you do so online. And here’s the kicker: The people who are conducting those searches are, to a great extent, also the people who are writing about those movies. So you have people who have been influenced then turning around the contributing to the pool of information that will be found by future “Infoseekers,” as the study calls them.
Right there you have the power of citizen publishing. We’re contributing to the a conversation that’s going to be overheard by those actively looking for it. People search Google for a trailer and find not only traditional movie information sites but also the bloggers and other writers who are riffing on those trailers. And depending upon the great unknown that is Google’s - or any other search engine’s - algorithem, those consumer-generated results may actually come up higher in a search. So you have, in military terms, secondary explosions that are now being viewed by seekers as the initial bombardment.
This is why studios need to pay attention to what is being said on various movie blogs and not only monitor but engage in a conversation with the people publishing them. Cause we’re not just being read by our moms and our aunts (I actually doubt either my mom or any of my aunts have ever read MMM). We’re talking about your brands and doing so in a way that’s going to be found by the “Infoseekers.” Those people are not only going to take our point of view and incorporate it into their own movie-going decision-making process, but there’s the potential that they’re going to take what we say and add to the conversation on their own blogs.
The stories on this make a big deal about the fact that the studios only spend an average of 2.6% of their marketing budgets online, and I do agree that the ideal number is likely “somewhere north” of that. But traditional advertising only goes so far in this new media environment. Instead of sending budgets into the stratosphere, it’s important to extend the amount of time connecting to the community of people who are influencing opinions and decisions. It’s low(er) cost and has the potential for a bigger return. Ads are great, especially if they’re contextual ads through Google or another search engine. But ads aren’t the opinion swayers they once were.
What ads are good for is creating awareness. Odds are, though, that if a person is running a search they’re already aware of the movie. They’re searching for more information. They’re searching for opinion. They’re searching for a voice they can find trustworthy, like asking a friend you trust for his or her opinion on a doctor or car mechanic. They already know the brand exists, they need context and opinion, something an ad just can’t provide. A person can. And they are. So if you’re a studio, what are you doing to influence those opinions and make sure they contain all the right facts?
That answer requires not a larger ad budget, but a bigger commitment to 21st century media relations.
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movie marketing, google
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I agree that the studios need to pay attention to what people are saying on the web about their movies.
Could a possible solution be to give out promotional material and stories to bloggers?
The studios can’t control the fan sites and stop out of control discussions.
I’m not sure of an answer to how they could influence what’s on the web.