Half spam and half individualized Movie Clock, the online service from the blockbuster MovieFone today unveiled a service it hopes will tap into fans' insatiable appetites for previews and tie studios into a direct-marketing powerhouse that has a line to movie junkies.
Building on the free phone service's success (but ditching the officious "MovieFone Guy" voice), MovieLink, the online component to MovieFone, announced the creation of MovieMail, which sends an email teaser, preview, and poster of an upcoming film to users who have provided their ZIP code, email address, and genre preferences. When a film opens, the service will send a list of theaters nearest the user with showtimes - and a link to the site's ticket-buying operation.
"There is so much clutter in movie marketing - in a newspaper there are 50 different ads," says Matt Blumberg, MovieLink's general manager. "In this, studios are reaching a very likely consumer for their film, and viewers get convenience."
MovieFone receives between 1 million to 2 million calls a week. MovieLink boasts 100,000 subscribers, and is currently available for use in 30 cities around the country with information on some 12,000 movie screens.
Today's first MovieMail missive featured Universal's The Jackal, and included a low-grade poster (3K), a story synopsis, and a link to the film trailer online (at MovieLink). The location-and-times mailing is due to arrive Friday.
The Jackal is only the first of six films that studios such as New Line, Sony, and Warner Bros. will pay to promote through the service, says Blumberg. The studios will pay a US$150-per-1,000-users fee, comparable to charges at MovieFone and MovieLink.
MovieMail effectively gives studios struggling with still-born movie marketing sites a shortcut to interested audiences. But the move toward smart-targeting movie audiences is already a tired formula, says Jonathan Sarno, who runs the filmmaking resource site Webcinema.org. "It's like, 'If you liked Friday the 13th, you'll love Halloween," says Sarno. "[MovieMail] is just a higher form of marketing - what's the big deal?"
For users in Manhattan, MovieMail could prove to be a real resource, says Microsoft Cinemania program manager Bridget Jennings. MovieFone is widely used there because theaters are often full to capacity, and users can reserve seats. An email service for wired filmgoers will find a niche in the same market. But despite its touted "service" possibilities, Jennings warns that MovieMail might not play well in smaller cities where the "theater is never sold out."
