Commentary
The Best KPI, Ever!
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, April 6, 2013
Bladimiar
Norman, SVP Marketing, The Weinstein Company just presented at the Video Insider Summit this morning up at the Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York. Yes, I just referenced his quip about how he
leveraged content about “Silver Linings Playbook” fans sharing their own heart-wrenching anecdotes about mental illness to, “sell tickets.” But there’s another indicator
that goes beyond that bottom line one: the way that marketing, and those movies, can be used to elicit uplifting social movements.You just heard the “Silver
Linings Playbook’s” playbook, but Norman said keep your eyes -- and hearts -- out for “Fruitvale,” a film about racial profiling that one the Sundance award, and which
Weinstein will be marketing nationwide over the next year. If Norman’s team does it right, you’ll be hearing about it next year during Oscar nomination and award-giving time, and
that’s the marketing benefit, but the indirect KPI is the potential the film and its marketing campaign can have on bringing awareness to a subject he says society has grown a little too
“jaded” about.
“We will spend a lot of time talking about humanity,” he said, conceding that there is “this slight issue when you talk
about making money and ticket sales [by] aligning yourself to bigger movements,” but that the indirect benefit of that is generating awareness for the movement the campaign is leveraging.
“It’s a film that talks about racial profiling and police brutality,” he said, adding that he has taken a personal interest in the film, much the way he did
when his team marketed independent film “Bully” last year.
It’s the same playbook, Weinstein used for “Silver Linings Playbook’s”
mental illness theme, “The King’s English’s” speech impediment theme, or “Bully’s” bullying theme, which is to market the films underlying message by helping
to make people aware of the social issues surrounding them.
Norman said he’s even discussed the issue with Vice President Joe Biden, to whom he made the case that,
“We have what is considered to be the sexiest business. We have an opportunity -- you have an opportunity... we all have an opportunity -- to bring this front and center.”
Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.
