Verve Management

Entertainment Marketing and Why It’s Important

kevin — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:53:41 +0000

Entertainment Marketing is a process that includes many facets of marketing. It includes the different aspects of traditional marketing that we see every day. Some of these aspects include sports marketing, branding, public relations, endorsements, digital marketing, and social media marketing.

You see entertainment marketing is not limited to one specific method; it is a form of marketing that includes many different strategies and techniques. People will utilize marketing platforms to create exposure for up and coming stars in the entertainment world, including actors, independent film directors, fashion designers, and music artists, these platforms include fashion marketing, film promotion, and social media marketing. Marketing in general allows all these professions to reach out and connect to their target audience. It is necessary to stay up to date with various marketing techniques if you wish to stay competitive in the entertainment industry and reach the next level of success and exposure. Overall these sorts of techniques will allow you to expose oneself and connect with their respective audience.

How does one perform Entertainment Marketing?

There is a variety of strategies when it comes to practicing entertainment marketing. Typical techniques that are used for marketing include endorsements, media coverage, and branded products. These methods are still in use today, but digital media marketing and social media marketing are now becoming the focus for modern marketing techniques.
The process to carry out this type of marketing usually starts with identifying a set of goals as well as brainstorming ideas on how to meet those goals and market your brand. After setting goals we would start to produce the tools necessary to meet those goals. These tools include setting up a brand identity, reaching out to prospective audiences, creating the social media regarding our brand. After we have everything in place we would launch all our set tools and begin reaching out to our audience and making a name for you. It is important for that you know your goals and connect on a deeper more personal level with your target audience in order to be successful.

Entertainment Marketing Success Stories

Examples of inventive entertainment marketing date back through the last century, but there are some recent examples that attest to the power of marketing, specifically in social media. One example that occurred over a decade ago was the marketing campaign and film promotion of the movie: Blair Witch Project. Blair Witch Project created a website for their movie that included ambiguous details about the movie that made you question whether the movie and mythology behind it was real or not. It was backed by realistic photos and short clips that made viewers think the story of the Blair Witch Project was real. Even back in 1999 the movie’s website and method of film promotion went viral and marketing campaign was a huge success. For more information on film promotion check out our article on The Art of Film Promotion.

Another success story that was the result of great entertainment marketing was Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Barack Obama was able to get young adults and younger people to vote through the power of social media. He tapped into the major social mediums including millions of Facebook fans, a strong YouTube presence, and a vast emailing and text message chain. This utilization of digital marketing was crucial to Obama’s campaign success and is a prime example of successful social media marketing.

Hiring a Entertainment Marketing Company

If you’re like most people in the entertainment business, trying to lay out an intricate entertainment marketing plan could seem too big of a task to accomplish alone. The marketing of your brand can consume a lot of time and is essential to your own brand’s success and exposure
It may interest you to hire a marketing company such as VERVE Management to help out with your current marketing team or take over and manage the whole entertainment marketing process. We encourage this because we can guarantee positive exposure and results from our team of specialists who will bring success and exposure for your brand.

Schedule a Free Phone Consultation with VERVE Management

If you are interested in hiring an entertainment marketing company like VERVE Management, we would be happy to provide you with a free phone consultation to discuss your business goals and explain our services in more detail. VERVE Management has executed marketing for independent films and marketing campaigns for various companies. We debuted our marketing campaign for Hennessy Cognac in which we utilized interactive social media visualization that added a thrilling and fresh element to the event that really immersed the guests. Check out the link below to learn more about the Hennessy Cognac event.

http://www.vervemgmt.com/portfolio_item/hennessy/

To schedule a free phone consultation with VERVE Management, call 888-699-2189 or email info[at]vervemgmt.com.

http://www.vervemgmt.com/contact-us/

Essential Tips on How to Market a Film

kevin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 21:23:06 +0000

So you have completed the finishing touches on your film, and you are pretty happy with how it came out, but one question remains, how do you market your film? Well this article will give you the basic guidelines on how to market a film. There are many ways to approach marketing your film, depending on the scale of your production you may want to make a pitch at a network, corporation or a producer. It is important when making a pitch you know who your audience is and make a pitch in the correct context. For example, you would not make a pitch about a comedy film to a company that is known for its dramatic films.

Another great strategy on how to market a film is to take advantage of free and local media outlets. For example, try submitting your film to a local news site, newspaper or other media outlet coupled with photos, trailers, and information about the film. This is a great method because you can reach a specific target audience that is interested in your content; also local outlets are not as competitive and more likely to publish about localized productions and filmmakers.

Basic Tips on How to Market a Film

An important tip on how to market a film is knowing your production’s identity and audience. You should not try to appeal to many audiences, but rather pick a target audience and market yourself appropriately. Consider your genre (comedy, romance, horror etc.) Look at the main concepts of your film and imagine yourself as a consumer and think about what it is about the film that is drawing you in. Knowing these things is vital to know how to market a film.

A great tip on how to market a film is using media on the internet, but not in the obvious social network way which you should be utilizing anyway. Using respective blogs on the internet that pertain to your genre and business is a great way to get your productions name out there. You can look at popular articles on blog sites and see what authors and journalists would be interested in your film. From here you can send them an email about your production along with a trailer and some basic information. Maybe they’ll find it interesting and write about it. Lastly one quick tip that can be useful is talk to other people in the industry that can also provide advice on how to market a film, and see what works for you.

If you want to learn even more about how to market a film and other tips, check out our article about “The Art of Film Promotion”.

Schedule a Free Phone Consultation with VERVE Management

If you are interested in hiring a company that can teach you how to market a film like VERVE Management, we would be happy to provide you with a free phone consultation to discuss your business goals and explain our services in more detail. VERVE Management has executed marketing for independent films and large film studios. Our most recent film was Lion’s Gate Entertainment’s WARRIOR, which was nominated for an OSCAR this year. Go to the following link for more information

http://www.vervemgmt.com/portfolio_item/lions-gate-entertainment/

To schedule a free phone consultation with VERVE Management, call 888-699-2189 or email info[at]vervemgmt.com.

http://www.vervemgmt.com/contact-us/

The Art of Film Promotion

kevin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 21:09:20 +0000

Film promotion is an art that is vital to any production, small or large, big time productions or small time indie filmmakers. Film promotion is an art that is nearly as vital as the actual making and filming of a production. When done right film promotion allows you to reach audiences you would never have thought was possible. Thus, you build your fan base and have a higher potential for success. Film promotion is even more important when it comes to small independent film makers who may not acquire any press at all without some effective promoting and marketing. While the idea of film promotion may seem costly; the art of film promotion is ultimately necessary to be competitive in our modern time where everyone has access to the tools of success.

Different Techniques of Film Promotion

Film promotion in our modern time now more than ever has many techniques that can be used to promote your film. One technique of film promotion that is popular is trailers which are often a short and condensed version of the film and what you can expect if you decide to go see the full film. Trailers are effective because of its succinctness and easy to follow video format. Other techniques consist of, TV advertisements, billboards, print and media advertisements etc. Once again these techniques may turn some people away because they often require large budgets which not everyone has access to, especially independent and small time productions.

The good news is that you don’t always need deep pockets to promote your film and get it some visibility. With the advent of social media there is now tons of free and simple ways to promote your film and other productions. There are the obvious social mediums such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google + which are effective when used correctly. It is important when you promote and market your film through these social networks you know what is effective. By this I mean identify your goals and what specifically about your content are people enjoying and being drawn to and take advantage of that. Also, another good tip on how to market your film is through YouTube which when geared towards the right audience and exposed in the right way can be very successful.

If you are interested in Independent Film Marketing check out our article about “Essential Tips on How to Market your Film”

Getting Help with Your Film Promotion

The managing and actual execution of these techniques for film promotion do require a lot of time and commitment, some film makers may not have the amount of time needed. Despite that proper film promotion through social media is a necessary way to expose your productions and compete in this day and age.
Utilizing a company such as VERVE Management to provide help or provide a full marketing plan for your film is a great decision to help bring your production to the next level of exposure. If you choose to outsource your film promotion to VERVE you will be able to focus on your personal productions and let VERVE bring your productions exponential exposure.

Schedule a Free Phone Consultation with VERVE Management

If you are interested in hiring a film promotion company like VERVE Management, we would be happy to provide you with a free phone consultation to discuss your business goals and explain our services in more detail. VERVE Management has executed marketing for independent films and large film studios. Our most recent film was Lion’s Gate Entertainment’s WARRIOR, which was nominated for an OSCAR this year. Go to the following link for more information

http://www.vervemgmt.com/portfolio_item/lions-gate-entertainment/

To schedule a free phone consultation with VERVE Management, call 888-699-2189 or email info[at]vervemgmt.com.

http://www.vervemgmt.com/contact-us/

4 Steps to Developing a Fashion Social Media Marketing Strategy

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:26:12 +0000

Develop an Online Brand Identity (OBI)At VERVE Management we’ve developed something proprietary for our fashion clients called an Online Brand Identity (OBI). It’s important that you create one for your company, as well. An OBI is a document that lays out the personality of your brand. The idea is to take your core brand and product offering and build out all of the various elements that make up your brand. You want your brand online to jump off the screen as a living, breathing person with all these various colors and facets to its personality. This will help you transition from a 2-dimensional into a 3-dimensional brand online which will go a long way in building a meaningful community that actually follows your brand online and feels something positive towards it. In your OBI document, you should write down the tone of your brand’s “online voice,” what genre of music it likes, what genre of movies it watches, whether it’s political or not, what pop culture icons it follows, who it’s heroes are, it’s favorite hobbies, etc. You have to really get imaginative with this and be creative. You are bringing your brand to life after all! This is the biggest challenge business owners have when developing a successful fashion marketing strategy.
Develop a Fashion Marketing Editorial Calendar Once you’ve planned out your brands personality, the next step in developing your fashion marketing strategy is to create a fashion marketing editorial calendar. Set a weekly schedule where you plan to consistently share content. You have to be consistent. After all, if you don’t put time into your “relationship” with people online, they won’t put time back into your brand either. When creating your fashion marketing editorial calendar, use a simple online calendar management site and add an entry for each day of the week you plan to share content. You should also plan what content you’ll share that day. Use your personality elements in your OBI to inform your content. Share movies your brand likes, music artists that inspire your brand, favorite quotes, heroes, and of course promote your company and products/services. You want to strike a balance in promoting and sharing other content. The fashion marketing editorial calendar will help with that.
Grow Your Audience Unfortunately, I can’t dive into detail on how to grow your audience, as that alone would take up dozens of articles. I can give you advice on how to approach this task. A great first step is for you to research “influencers” and “innovators” in your industry, reach out to those people, and partner with them. You can provide them with free samples of your product to review or include them on a contest your having. The idea is to get them to promote your product/service/promotion to their online following which will in turn expose your online profiles to all of their existing followers!Another great step is to speak at events, guest author posts on other blogs, or hold and promote webinars/seminars!You can also go the guerilla marketing route and start posting/commenting on other pages/groups/etc. that have people who would be potential clients of your company. Taking part in conversations on these other pages, without blatantly promoting your company, will integrate you into the broader community and introduce you to a great deal of new people.
Track, Track, Track Your Results! Once you have your OBI and fashion marketing editorial calendar in place, the next step is to begin sharing content and tracking your results! There are social media analytics tools you can use to track how people respond to your content. You want to keep track of what content gets the most “likes”, the most “re-tweets”, the most “shares” and “comments.” Tracking your progress will inform you about your audience and what content is important to them. The more data you analyze, the more intimately familiar you will become with your market. This will inform your fashion marketing strategy as well as inform all other aspects of your business!

Schedule a Free Phone Consultation with VERVE Management

If you are interested in hiring a fashion marketing company like VERVE Management, we would be happy to provide you with a free phone consultation to discuss your business goals and explain our services in more detail.

To schedule a free phone consultation with VERVE Management, call 888-699-2189 or email info[at]vervemgmt.com.

Fashion Marketing 101

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:16:25 +0000

Fashion Marketing is vital to the success of any fashion brand or fashion tech company because of the role it plays in connecting the brand to wholesale buyers and consumers alike.

Most importantly, fashion marketing enables any fashion brand to successfully share its “brand story” with the world. Having a compelling story and being able to effectively communicate that story through creative fashion marketing campaigns, strategies, contests, and platforms, helps a fashion brand create rapport with its potential market and build a relationship that can then be leveraged into a sale.

What Does Fashion Marketing Success Look Like?

The fashion brands that achieve the most success with the utilizing the digital space to grow their company understand that social media and digital fashion marketing must not be about selling, selling, selling. Instead, it should be about sharing, connecting, and inspiring! To be successful with your fashion marketing strategy, it’s important that you share content that is valuable to the reader and isn’t always about your company! If, on a regular basis, you share interesting articles, news stories, music artists, videos, etc. that your audience appreciates, they will become emotionally attached to your brand in a way that will translate into financial reward down the road.

If you’re interested on how to develop a successful fashion digital marketing strategy, read our article on “4 Steps to Developing a Fashion Social Media Marketing Strategy.” The article dives into 4 steps you can take to go from a 2-dimensional to a 3-dimensional brand online, which will go a long way in building a meaningful community of future buyers.

Hiring a Fashion Marketing Company

If you’re like most fashion designers and fashion tech business owners, the idea of developing and executing successful fashion marketing strategies can seem daunting. Fashion marketing is a full-time job and requires many different moving parts that can “make or break” the growth of your company.

Hiring a company like VERVE Management to either work alongside your existing marketing team or to completely take the reigns in managing the entire digital marketing process is almost always the best choice you can make for your company. After all, why go at it alone with the uncertainty of success when you can outsource the work to a professional fashion marketing firm who specializes in this work and will be much more likely to achieve success for you and your company.

Schedule a Free Phone Consultation with VERVE Management

To schedule a free phone consultation with VERVE Management, call 888-699-2189 or email info[at]vervemgmt.com.

15 Music Stars Discovered Through Social Media

admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:11:42 +0000

Talents scouts are more likely to find the hottest new musicians through social media than anywhere else. This makes life much easier for both the talent scouts and the talented artists. It is just so much easier for both parties—because the scouts know where to look, and the artists know where to perform.

Moreover, factors like time and geography no longer influence the process of discovering unusual talent since the Internet is accessible any time of the day or night from almost any developed country in the world.

What may have changed, however, is where the discoveries are made. In the past, rising young stars would post their songs on MySpace because that was the social platform where young people hung out online, but that social media platform has now been replaced by YouTube.

If you’re a talented youngster, uploading your musical performance on to YouTube may change your life. It certainly did for 15 young singers, who discovered fame, and often enough fortune, by sharing their talents on this trendy video-sharing platform.

Here are 15 musicians who made an impact on the world of music after they appeared on YouTube:

Avery, a teenager, was a smashing success on YouTube as far back as 2010. After a bidding war between top musical companies, she got a record contract from Universal Studios.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvJwHb_7X0&feature
Alyssa Bernal, caught Pharrell William’s attention when she uploaded her acoustics on to YouTube. Frantic in his quest to find her, he even got in touch with her High School. When he finally did get a hold of her, he signed her up for Star Trak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQz0U6LV-ME&feature
Justin Bieber, now a household name in the music industry, was spotted on YouTube by a talent scout who introduced the pre-pubescent to Usher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOFRZ1wNLw&feature
Ysabella Brave, a vocalist, signed up to Cordless, a digital label by Warner Musical Group, after her YouTube video was discovered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTngvEAcvbo&feature#!
Greyson Chance, was videotaped doing a Lady Gaga imitation at a school recital. He was discovered by Ellen DeGeneres, who invited him to her show and signed him up for her new record label.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqMixeRhGfg&feature
Esmee Denters, a singer-songwriter of Dutch origin, was spotted by Justin Timberlake, and she was the first artist to be signed her up for his label.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cndPHeBiM3s&feature
Dondria, discovered on YouTube by Jermaine Dupri, the founder of So So Def Recordings was offered a record contract. Dondria vs Phatfffat, her debut album rocketed to number 14 on the popular Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHsMyCf7q7M&feature
Kim Yeo-Hee, nicknamed the Apple Girl because of her uncanny ability to play music on her Apple iPhone’s user interface, signed up with Dreamhigh-Ent, a Seoul-based company. However, this was not without a fight from British, Chinese, and South Korean record companies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzh2UygPwDU&feature
Andy McKee, discovered as far back as 2006 on YouTube, is now on Tour after releasing his new album called Joyland. When he first appeared on YouTube, his video went viral with 35 million views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4&feature
Terra Naomi, created a YouTube hit when she sang “Say It’s Possible.” In 2006, Island Records signed her up, and today she is creating an independent record based on funding received from fans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARHyRI9_NB4&feature
Julia Nunes, known to her YouTube fans as “jaaaaaaa” became famous for singing while playing the complex ukulele. Since then she has cut 3 independent albums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk5L0-SIceg&feature
Chantelle Redman, a British teenager, was secretly filmed by her father while singing. He then posted the video on YouTube, where she became the second most subscribed musician on YouTube. She later signed up with Agency Global Enterprises and released her first single record.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwt1gL4xHSA&feature
Ria Ritchie, uploaded her video to YouTube after she recorded acoustic covers. Plan B, the UK musician, signed her up for her first album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcSIUElwP2k&feature
Mia Rose, a Portuguese-British teenager, uploaded her music to YouTube as far back as 2006. The next year, she enjoyed success in Britain and Portugal. Later, she made a career move to Los Angeles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmDR5SrKtt0&feature
Cody Simpson, a 12-year-old, was seen by record producer Shawn Campbell. Nicknamed the “Australian Justin Bieber,” Simpson released Flo Rida, his first single album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyyVkPntbhc&annotation_id=annotation_127573&feature

Final Thoughts

If there is a lesson in all these fairy-like tales of career success, it’s simply this: through social media, talent can meet opportunity, and when it does, everything can change almost overnight.

Image credit: pressureUA / Shutterstock.com

5 Ways A Musician Can Misuse Social Media

admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:39:04 +0000

Social networking offers an artist numerous ways to build a wonderful relationship with those who admire and support their music. With a little thought about how social media works, you can leverage it to attract more fans and win the loyalty of those who follow your work.

Unfortunately, the converse is also true. Social media can expose an artist who is shallow, self-centered, and completely unconcerned about the well-being of others. Instead of building up a career and selling more albums, social media can be used to tear down a public image and ruin a fledgling musical career.

If used ineptly, social media can ruin your public image, creating an effect opposite of what you intended.

When using social media, here are five things that you, as an artist, should not do:

Being irrelevant on Twitter
Asking foolish questions
Appearing narcissistic
Demonstrating a false optimism
Hiding behind quotations

1. Being Irrelevant on Twitter

Twitter is a powerful platform to interact with fans directly. Through micro-blogging, you can spread the word about your next gig or offer some unique insight about the human experience.

Twitter works for those who have acquired fame from their hard work. A celebrity like Lady Gaga has worked hard to achieve the celebrity status that she now enjoys.

Twitter also works for those who have content that is interesting and informative, content, in other words, that is worth sharing.

If you are not yet famous, only hoping to be, then your posts should be aimed at providing fans information they can use. Using Twitter for irrelevant posts that do not add value to your fan’s lives will only make you look simple-minded and self-indulgent.

2. Posing Foolish Questions

In an attempt to build rapport and get “likes” on your social media platform, people often ask questions, hoping to elicit a response, interact with others and build rapport.

However, asking trivia-type of questions like, “Do you prefer the Beatles or the Stones?” or “Do you prefer to eat at McDonald’s or Burger King?” does not improve interactivity, but instead identifies you as someone shallow.

Alternatively, asking thought-provoking questions on topical subjects will create an opportunity for meaningful discussions.

3. Appearing Narcissistic

Narcissus, according to Greek mythology was a youth who accidentally spied his image in a pond for the first time, fell in love with it, and died of starvation because he could not bear to tear himself away from his own image. Musicians who can only talk about themselves, about what they have done or hope to achieve, can quickly turn fans off. Boasting about accomplishments does not create admiration.

4. Demonstrating a False Cheerfulness

While cheerfulness is an admirable quality, it can appear disingenuous when overdone. Platitudes, niceties, and excessive gushing can make an artist appear insincere. People admire artists for their expression of inner feelings, for keeping it real. Music often talks about the angst of life, the moments of lost loves and dashed hopes and dreams, and a musician who has depth of feeling will talk about these things.

5. Hiding Behind Quotations

While it is fine to offer a quotation as a way of introducing your own thoughts about something, merely quoting some luminary’s wise or witty words is an attempt to hide behind someone else’s intelligence.

Artists are expected to offer original, inspiring, even revolutionary ideas, gems of insight that led them to create memorable music.

Final Thoughts

A good use of social media is to share relevant thoughts, ideas, and concerns. Instead of talking about your own music and what it means to you, you can use social media to find out what fans like about you and how you can give them more of the music that attracts them to you.

Social media can be used to reach out, connect, learn, enhance, and touch people’s lives. While it may appear to be a medium that encourages spontaneity, you should not talk to your fans the way you talk to your close friends.

Instead, you should offer:

Useful links on Twitter
Ask rapport-building questions
Appear interested in other people and social issues
Share your feelings sincerely
Express your own ideas

By avoiding these five mistakes made by other musicians, you can use social media to enhance your musical career.