Hollywood – always in search of hip, influential people who can get others to go see a film – is spending an increasing portion of its collective marketing resources online, shifting budgets and attention from traditional media like television and print toward the Web.
While the major movie studios spent just 1.3 percent of their $6.76 billion advertising budget online in 2003, the portion will balloon rapidly in coming years, industry executives say. Hollywood doesn't have a choice. Young men and other desirable audiences are not watching television, and they are relying less on newspapers to find reviews and movie times, according to industry research.
For example, to advertise The Manchurian Candidate, a political drama, Paramount Pictures has launched an advertising campaign on political blogs like Instapundit.com and The Truth Laid Bear.
Paramount's blog ad budget for The Manchurian Candidate only hit four figures, a mere fraction of the $34.84 million a major studio spends on average to market a film. Still, it shows that Hollywood is showing increasing sophistication in using the Internet to reach a specific potential audience with a tightly focused pitch – something that's becoming nearly impossible with network television.
"This is a big topic that is making everyone sweat right now," said Juliana Deeks, an analyst at Jupiter Media. "It's an important flag for everyone in the advertising industry, insomuch as it's indicative of changing habits."
According to Deeks, one-third of all adults now prefer to get movie reviews and listings online over newspapers, television, magazines and radio. Among younger adults, the numbers are even bigger. Deeks said 47 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds prefer the Web to traditional media for information about movies, versus 33 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds and 24 percent of 45- to 54-year-olds.
"Younger kids have had the Internet as part of their lives for at least half of their lives," Deeks said.
For the film industry, finding new ways to reach young males in particular is crucial. That's because young men under 34 are watching less television than they have in the past, spending more of their free time doing other activities, like playing video games or surfing online. But so far, no one seems to have settled on a plan.
"They're one of those elusive audiences," said David Card, another analyst at Jupiter.
He suggested that Hollywood is likely to begin spending more and more advertising money on online game sites – like GameSpy or CNET's GameSpot – as well as on sites frequented by players of EA Sports.
According to Doug Hirsch, general manager at Yahoo Movies, Hollywood is also going to be targeting music sites heavily frequented by young men, and social-networking sites like Friendster.
In any case, no matter who's being targeted, Hollywood is beginning to try all manner of new marketing strategies.
"They're starting to get a little bit smarter," said Deeks. "For so long, there was this talk of trying to re-create the Blair Witch success of a website, and I think they're no longer just throwing money in the dark like that. They're starting to do things that take advantage of what the Internet is good at."
For example, in many cases, studios are putting film clips online that go beyond the simple trailer. Hirsch said Yahoo Movies has had at least half a dozen films – such as Taking Lives, 28 Days Later and Barbershop – for which at least the first five minutes were available to view online.
He also said Hollywood is frequently giving online portals access to unique content such as production design materials, including storyboards and backstage interviews with directors and other insiders.
He also pointed to the campaign for The Day After Tomorrow, in which those who logged in from Los Angeles saw video of the city getting hit by a tornado, while those in New York saw their city in the throes of an ice age.
"There are more and more sophisticated ways," said Hirsch, "to motivate a user to buy a ticket."
The industry is experimenting in other ways. Deeks said film buffs are going to see more campaigns like the one for The Lord of the Rings. In that campaign, New Line Productions paid The New York Times' online arm to make many of the articles related to J.R.R. Tolkien available free (archive articles normally cost $3 each).
