I think past a certain point most additional marketing spend is probably sort of "adversarial." Which is basically like, trying to break through amidst the noise of all the other marketing people...
I think past a certain point most additional marketing spend is probably sort of "adversarial." Which is basically like, trying to break through amidst the noise of all the other marketing people are exposed to and flood the zone with your own messaging so upstart competitors and substitute services have a harder time reaching your customer base.
So it may not be that big of a deal for box office results, though it will be hard to disentangle the effects from general economic forces. (i.e. Are people seeing fewer movies because they're exposed to less marketing for movies or are they seeing fewer because it's a recession and they don't have the money?)
You’re completely right. If you look at the marketing spend vs budget of movies since the 1980s, it has stayed relatively consistent as a portion of the budget as the cost of blockbusters has...
You’re completely right. If you look at the marketing spend vs budget of movies since the 1980s, it has stayed relatively consistent as a portion of the budget as the cost of blockbusters has ballooned. A $25 million movie in 1980 got $25 million in marketing spend. In 2019, a $500 million movie gets $500 million of marketing.
Since then, movie marketing has become about saturation. That’s why there are literally dozens of trailers for blockbusters now, compared to maybe one or two in the olden times. Make it appear everywhere. It’s unavoidable, so it must be popular, right?
So the question for studios then becomes how do we rise above the noise?
For a while studios tried things like alternate reality games like *Cloverfield. Or even the tantalizing mystery box approach of…Cloverfield. I’m sure there are other examples of both, but those are the ones that popped out in my memory.
But the answer they seem to have settled on is, as you pointed out, to just outspend your rivals and buy up all the ads at a higher price than they’re willing to pay. Obviously that isn’t tenable long term. At some point they’ll decide that it’s just too expensive and not worth outspending competitors.
I think past a certain point most additional marketing spend is probably sort of "adversarial." Which is basically like, trying to break through amidst the noise of all the other marketing people are exposed to and flood the zone with your own messaging so upstart competitors and substitute services have a harder time reaching your customer base.
So it may not be that big of a deal for box office results, though it will be hard to disentangle the effects from general economic forces. (i.e. Are people seeing fewer movies because they're exposed to less marketing for movies or are they seeing fewer because it's a recession and they don't have the money?)
You’re completely right. If you look at the marketing spend vs budget of movies since the 1980s, it has stayed relatively consistent as a portion of the budget as the cost of blockbusters has ballooned. A $25 million movie in 1980 got $25 million in marketing spend. In 2019, a $500 million movie gets $500 million of marketing.
Since then, movie marketing has become about saturation. That’s why there are literally dozens of trailers for blockbusters now, compared to maybe one or two in the olden times. Make it appear everywhere. It’s unavoidable, so it must be popular, right?
So the question for studios then becomes how do we rise above the noise?
For a while studios tried things like alternate reality games like *Cloverfield. Or even the tantalizing mystery box approach of…Cloverfield. I’m sure there are other examples of both, but those are the ones that popped out in my memory.
But the answer they seem to have settled on is, as you pointed out, to just outspend your rivals and buy up all the ads at a higher price than they’re willing to pay. Obviously that isn’t tenable long term. At some point they’ll decide that it’s just too expensive and not worth outspending competitors.