News
Outsider Makes Film Research Foray
By Robert Marich
May 25, 2009 – A New York Times article says that an Indiana-based firm with credentials in consumer goods market research is making headway signing up film clients, in what provides a glimpse of an outsider pursuing a long-shot attempt to crack Hollywood. The major studios already spend over $1 million per film to test marketing materials, so audience research for theatrical distribution already is sizeable.
“It’s definitely not as easy as predicting sales for toothpaste or shampoo or toilet paper,” says ARSgroup exec Jeff Cox in the NY Times article. The article includes a Cox boast that “none of the other research companies have the predictive ability that we have”—which isn’t explained and on face value doesn’t seem true.
The big three in film research are Nielsen’s National Research Group, OTX Research and Reed Elsevier’s MarketCast—which have reams of data about audience attitudes before, during and after theatrical release of individual movies going back years. Others already conducting research for film distributors are IAG Research and Frank N. Magid Associates—the latter is a big player assisting broadcast TV stations in sizing up consumers.
The NY Times article by Brooks Barnes adds interesting context noting: “Few people in the industry can forget Tremor, the research firm that was owned by Procter & Gamble. It came to Hollywood in 2002, signed up with Creative Artists Agency and roped clients like DreamWorks — though its ideas often proved prohibitively expensive.”
Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition finds that consumer research films expert in packaged goods find Hollywood’s rapid pace, intense studio politics and time limits unsuitable for their services. Each film is essentially a new product launch, which are few in the consumer goods world. Further, movies – the “products” themselves – are typically not ready until a few months or even weeks before going to market, which leaves too short a window to collect data and react to it for most traditional consumer marketing researchers.
The New York Times article quotes ARSgroup executives saying that they offer a “holistic testing package” – which is mumbo-jumbo for analyzing all elements of the film (and which the incumbent movie industry research films do routinely).
Global media buys for top major studio releases surpassing $100 million worldwide and additional millions is spent on creating ads, trailers and audience testing of ad materials, so studios are looking for areas to economize. Any new entrant market research firms will have to convince studios that spending millions of dollars for their services will identify areas to make cost cutting that won’t hurt box office prospects and those savings will more than offset their fees.
For full text, click link below:
www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/business/media/24steal.html
www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-2-research-audiences-ads/