Marketing a film for women

trueindie

trueindie

So how would you brilliant people market a film towards women, without spending a lot of money?

Synopsis:
A scientist invents a device to read the song within human beings. Every human has his/her own unique song. Our protagonist Emma, goes to have her song read, and discovers that she has no song. So begins the quest for her song.

I'm interested in any ideas.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Cue sexist stereotypes.

It's a shame this forum has such a strong gender bias. It might be worth talking to female friends, family members, and posting on other forums (with stronger female memberships) etc, and ask what they look for in a movie.

Unless your making a chick flick (which it doesn't sound like you are) I imagine that the marketing would be fairly similar. Sci-fi, action and so on have more male fans. Drama and so on maybe more females. But in the mainstream, attendance (in my experience - I work at a cinema, I have no stats) seems to be split fairly evenly between sexes. I guess if you're trying to market your film so that it'll gain a stronger female following, you probably want to emphasise the human and emotional elements over the sci-fi elements which probably appeal more to geeky men (sexist stereotype).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm not sure why the idea of marketing a movie towards women or towards men is sexist, or why it is an indication of gender bias.

I've received emails from women who've read the script and men who've read the script. Almost every woman mentioned that they cried. The men didn't mention that. It confirmed my earlier opinion that my film would be better received by women. I'm not sure that's sexist.

I don't want to offend anybody. I actually don't even understand what is so offensive about marketing to a group/race/religion/creed? I'm asking a marketing question. It is not my intention to offend anybody.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I wasn't calling you or your film sexist.

The "cue sexist stereotypes" was predicting the inevitable stereotyping that has to come from such a question - seen in my own answer. Any question which relies on the generalising of a group is by extension going to have to make stereotypes I don't think there is any way around that, though. I said "men are more interested in nerdy sci-fi" - that's of course not exclusively true. The biggest sci-fi fan I know is a female. But in general it is true.

Since you've already had that response, follow up with those people and find what in particular appealed to them/provoked such a visceral emotional response. Your marketing should play up those elements. If you find that in general, people are particularly effected by the scene where Emma finds she has no song, look to the emotional core of that scene and figure out what exactly it is about that scene that works. If it's that tragic sense of loss and isolation, then your trailer might have a slow mournful feeling to it. You could throw in a few moments of hope so that people don't have the idea of complete negativity.

Sorry I can't give more specific advice, I'm not particularly experienced in marketing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cheeseandachallenge said:
Since you've already had that response, follow up with those people and find what in particular appealed to them/provoked such a visceral emotional response.
Click to expand...

I've followed up with everybody regarding what they like and don't like and I have a pretty good idea. I just don't ask people when I follow up to give me marketing suggestions. I'm doing that here, since I think people here think about marketing.

Thanks for your response.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I understand why you want to know more than the logline about the story, but I don't think I asked my question right. I'm not really looking for an answer specific to my film. I'm just trying to find out what is generally done in terms of marketing for films geared towards women. I'm just looking for more information to filter through. I'm really not looking for a marketing plan, or any plan specific to my film, just information on what is typical for such films?

Sorry about the confusion.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
From the information you've given it's impossible to even have a starting point.

Your story sounds like it's a coming of age style story.

You'll need to be very specific about who exactly your target audience is. Marketing is mostly based around what your target audience does.

If your story isn't niche enough to have a more specific target audience than women, then your options are to do what mass market films need to do to find an audience: Spend lots of money on advertising.

If it's a lot more niched based, work out what those niches are and do grass roots campaigns. Find out where those people hang out and follow them. Use what they use. Forums, facebook, twitter, instragramm, cafe's, community groups and so on. The lower budget options take up a lot of time. Have fun with it.

There is no point in giving you suggestions on how to market to empty nesting moms when your target audience young single females who surf. Odds on, I'm not going to know where the females you're targeting will congregate anyway.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't think a movie with strong female characters needs to be directed towards females. The Descent (2005), for example has an all female star cast, and the characters are strongly developed and well rounded overall, and me and my guy friends like the movie.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ItDonnedOnMe said:
Lots of pink in the poster, and a flowery font for the title.
Click to expand...

Not bad :). But the poster is going to be mostly white I think. It's on commission to an artist from the US actually. He's working on it. Dude is phenomenal. I'll post the artwork as soon as he's done in the next week or so. The artwork is symbolic to the story, incorporated in the story. So it can't really be pink and flowery:coffee:

But thanks :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Get Oprah to see it. :P
(Although I believe her influence has declined a bit.)

How to get her to see it?
I don't know... but finding your song sounds a bit like finding your purpose in life and finding your true self.
And that is something that interests her and a lot of people.
There are numerous of mass influencers you coud try to reach.
(But they often want to be sure their audience wants to hear it...)

So, get your female friends to talk about it on facebook, twitter, fora.
People like to share what they like, but you sometimes just have to give them a little gentle push to do so.

Actually marketing is marketing.
Only the message and the channels can really differ.
So you have to chart which channels (people, print, web, TV) your audience uses.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You need to figure out first WHICH women you are marketing to, then figure out how.

We aren't monolithic: older or younger, straight/gay/bi/transgender, wide range of races and ethnicities ....
And tastes vary tremendously just as they do among men.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
trueindie said:
Not bad :). But the poster is going to be mostly white I think. It's on commission to an artist from the US actually. He's working on it. Dude is phenomenal. I'll post the artwork as soon as he's done in the next week or so. The artwork is symbolic to the story, incorporated in the story. So it can't really be pink and flowery:coffee:

But thanks :)
Click to expand...

That's good, I was being sarcastic. My wife is in the motorcycle apparel industry and is constantly railing against the manufacturers who bring out 'womens' gear by making it pink and flowery.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
rayw said:
What are the plans for distribution of the finished product?
How is the revenue providing target audience likely to acquire to view the film?
Click to expand...

It's kind of a crazy plan. I'm not sure you'd approve :).

I'll explain everything after the process is over, and only if it's successful. I'll save myself the ridicule from filmmakers for now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
:/

Well... in that case consider how similar scifi rom drams are marketed to their target audiences: The Time Traveler's Wife, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Lake House.

First, understand that you will put more work into self-marketing a film than actually making the film. The moment you stop marketing will be the moment your audience will stop being aware of it. Marketing is work.

Next, fire up all the usual social media venues: FB, YT, blog, twitter, even consider wagering for attention on your fave crowdsourcing site.

Third, join and actively contribute to forums relevant to your product and peddle your wares.

Paid advertising could be of use, it's hard to say with your coy reply above, but I'll hazard a guess that "kind of a crazy plan" falls outside the realm of an active distributorship. Of course with passive distributorship it's literally all on you: When you quits pimpin' the revenue quits comin'.
There's no mystery to this, no overlooked fuzzy grey areas to exploit, no way to put it more clearly.

Marketing is work.

Identify the product's audience.
Put the product in their face.
Pimp it.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
rayw said:
:/

Well... in that case consider how similar scifi rom drams are marketed to their target audiences: The Time Traveler's Wife, Safety Not Guaranteed, The Lake House.

First, understand that you will put more work into self-marketing a film than actually making the film. The moment you stop marketing will be the moment your audience will stop being aware of it. Marketing is work.

Next, fire up all the usual social media venues: FB, YT, blog, twitter, even consider wagering for attention on your fave crowdsourcing site.

Third, join and actively contribute to forums relevant to your product and peddle your wares.

Paid advertising could be of use, it's hard to say with your coy reply above, but I'll hazard a guess that "kind of a crazy plan" falls outside the realm of an active distributorship. Of course with passive distributorship it's literally all on you: When you quits pimpin' the revenue quits comin'.
There's no mystery to this, no overlooked fuzzy grey areas to exploit, no way to put it more clearly.

Marketing is work.

Identify the product's audience.
Put the product in their face.
Pimp it.
Click to expand...

Ray buddy, thanks for the tips. But let me elaborate on why I'm keeping things from you. It's one majorly f*cked up plan and you're going to think I'm crazy, if I told you any more about it. There will be no facebook or twitter campaigns. I do not plan on doing a festival run. I do not plan on even trying for any kind of theatrical release, 4 walling or otherwise. I do not plan on seeking distribution from anybody. The release will only be online (that's the plan right now). I do not plan to become rich. I plan just to recoup my costs. There will be a crowdsourcing push during post production. I plan to make about a grand from my brother. I think that might be it.

I do have a marketing plan, but it's not so simple to explain. It's kind of counter-intuitive, and would take me a lot of words and arguments to explain properly. And at this moment, spending time, checking into this site and others is a luxury that I can just about barely afford.

Cheers my friend.
Aveek

ps. I forgot to mention. The first 10 days of release, the film will be free to watch by everybody. I told you. It's one f*cked up plan that I cannot explain in a few paragraphs.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sounds very much like a typical low budget VOD release that Jerome (forgot his last name) suggestions, without the festival run. Depending on the genre, attachments and marketing, it could do well or it could go down in flames.

As for the free for the first days of release, there's a relatively successful short film that was released that did very well using this method. It did have some decent names attached and from what I heard, earned 7 figures.

I doubt there's much in your plan that we haven't heard before.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top