A marketing hook is what makes an audience want to see your film. Mark Steven Bosko explains how to find your project’s hook and build marketing on it.
A good selling point for your film project – or any other product for that matter – is known as a marketing “hook.” This hook is what “catches” your intended audience and, taking the fishing allegory further, “reels” them into the theatre, video store or retail outlet to experience your project.
Hooks are exploitable elements, aspects associated with the production that will attract those people who comprise your audience profile. Hooks take many forms – a person, place, thing, action or idea. Many times, a film’s title alone will function as the marketing hook. Finding the right hook means a mediocre film can become wildly successful while a much more accomplished, yet hookless, project sits on a shelf.
The survival and success of most independent films are predominantly dependent upon realizing the proper hook to use in the promotional campaign. Unlike blockbuster movies, whose promotional plans may be changed weekly until they hit on the supposed-correct selling point, you’ll be dealing with a limited budget, and probably only have one chance of finding and promoting the proper hook. So you better be on target… or at least very close.
In discovering the appropriate hook for your project, you’ll need to answer the question, “What is the single most promotable element of your film or video that will attract its target audience?”
To begin with, realize that as a student filmmaker, unlike Hollywood films, big-budget instructional DVDs or National Foundation of the Arts-backed documentaries, you will not have the following possible hooks to exploit.
- Critically-acclaimed director
- State-of-the-art special effects
- Well-known celebrities
- Access to a national or world-wide current event
- Exotic locations
Any one of the above can and has been used on its own as a promotable element in drawing audiences to a project. Arnold Schwarzenegger movies appeal to a certain segment of the population based solely on his star appeal. Spielberg flicks do well because of his reputation as a great director. Titanic was sold on its amazing special effects. Get On the Bus found an audience because of the media exposure given to the Million Man March event on which it was based.
How do you find that element, the so-called high concept, that will make an audience want to see your film or purchase your DVD over other movies and programs? It comes down to analyzing what you have and distilling those promotional elements that touch upon an audience’s emotions into an attractive, cohesive and mostly sensible concept.
Analyzing the elements
Whether your film is still in the planning stages or already “in the can,” you can get a good start on this process by examining the following points.
1. Can the story of your film be the main attraction? Are there emotions present that “talk” to the potential viewer? Can audience members identify with the feelings expressed through the action of the story?
2. What is the source of the story? Is your project based on a famous novel or the work of a renowned author or journalist? Does it depict a current event, true-life drama or historical account?
3. Does the genre of the film or video contain its own hooks? Will audience members want to see your project just because it belongs in a category of movies they enjoy?
- Martial arts and action fans will want a basic good- versus-evil setup. Present the story with a different twist (familiar situation, different concept), and you’ll garner even more attention. Name stars usually provide the hook for many action-oriented flicks, but this segment of the market is full of independent success stories.
- Westerns need authentic locations, costumes and dialogue to draw loyal audiences.
- Horror movies rarely fall out of popularity. Slasher films dominated the early 80s, and the genre gained resurgence with the likes of Saw and Cabin Fever. On home video, horror movies continue to score as top renters.
- The audience is growing for science fiction, occult and unexplained phenomenon projects. Productions dealing with the subject matter do well in consumer direct sales and on cable television.
- Comedy is tough. If it is hilarious, or delivers a story in an offbeat manner ala There’s Something About Mary, audiences are guaranteed. Anything less usually falls short. Comedy is sold on its stars, though no-name laugh fests can find an audience via video and PPV.
- Documentaries attract audiences based on their subject matter. If you are a fan of the rock and roll scene, then chances are good you’ve watched Gimme Shelter.
However, that doesn’t mean you’ve also seen The War Room.
- The hook of an instructional video is that the audience member is seeking that kind of specific knowledge. From deck-building and house painting to public speaking and crocheting, if your projected viewer base is large enough and accessible, and your budget is appropriate, videos on these and hundreds of other topics can find success based solely on the instruction presented.
- Reality-themed projects are good low-budget sellers that usually find their audiences. Whether it’s Good Animals Gone Bad, The Girls of Spring Break Daytona, Survivor or The Blair Witch Project, viewers love to watch other people in embarrassing, fearful or difficult situations.
- Independent or “art” films have become their own genre. Beginning with the likes of Clerks and Slacker, a movie that fits this category is hard to promote, as often its only hook is that it was completed on a low-budget outside of the Hollywood system. Once upon a time this was a selling point. But the concept has been done to death. The proliferation of independent films is astounding. With digital video acquisition and editing equipment readily available, anyone can become a filmmaker – and has. Just ask any distributor whose desk
Workshops
is flooded with screeners from hopeful producers. Don’t make the mistake of hanging your promotional campaign on the fact that you and a bunch of film school pals wrote, directed and produced a film while waiting for the pizza delivery man every night. It’s not news, and it won’t work as a promotional hook.
4. Does your project feature a celebrity of some kind?
5. Are special effects the star of the movie or video?
6. Does the film or video feature unusual locations? Did you shoot in a volcano, cave, genuine haunted house or underwater?
7. Does the film feature something that is “one-of-a-kind?” Can you offer the audience a chance to see something that they can’t see anywhere else? Are there bizarre or unbelievable elements attached?
8. Is the film or video exploitative in nature? Similar to the above, in that the viewer is promised access to usually inaccessible subject matter, exploitation projects often take advantage of the audience through cheap thrills.
9. Can the title of your project work as your hook? The movie Pig started out as Small Town Cop.
10. Can the price of your project be used as a hook?
A hook must contain elements specifically attractive to your targeted viewing public while at the same time setting you apart from other similar product in the market. To get the proper perspective on this dilemma, put yourself in the shoes of someone in your target market. Let’s say you’ve made a horror film that is going direct-to-DVD. Ask yourself, “If I’m shopping for a Friday night rental, why would I pick my film over all the others around it?” Obviously, promotional art is a selling point, but what other values does the production possess that make it appeal to the intended viewer? What element can be promoted to make your film required viewing? Is it scarier, gorier, something that could happen to anyone, or does it just happen to have the best title on the shelf?
When developing a hook, consider all audiences buying the product. Remember, there are more folks in the sales pipeline than just the ultimate viewer. Retail stores, distributors, television, cable and pay-per-view stations, film festivals and others demand the same type of “courting” as your viewing audience. While a high concept hook is universally important, each of these groups have their own distinct set of buying characteristics, and you may have to devise a secondary hook for each market solicited. In this situation, the secondary hook is more of a sales technique, such as packaging, pricing and delivery terms, rather than an idea or concept that describes your film.
Mark Steven Bosko is the author of The Complete Independent Movie Marketing Handbook, DVD On-Demand, the upcoming Making Movies that Make Money and owner of FilmPush, an independent film marketing and distribution company that presents educational seminars on the same topics. Bosko is also a regular guest at film festivals around the country, speaking to filmmakers at shows that include SXSW, Rhode Island International Film Festival, VSDA, FilmExpo Texas, Reel Inspiration, the Indie Gathering and the Cleveland Entertainment Conference.
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