Our Ad Campaign--Phase Two

[sadaka2006]

Lots of great ideas here already. Thanks to all of you.

Later tonight, we will post the tasks we need to complete for this phase and ask for your help. Please continue to kick around your ideas.

Like all of you, I am very excited by this (after feeling a bit ho hum about a small ad in USA Today). But, the idea came from you folks here (as all of the ideas do). Dave and the team are just smart enough to pay attention to the consensus around the ideas and pick up on what all of you are thinking and saying. Great synergy you all got going on here!

Well, back to work for me. I will visit with you all this evening after work.

Thanks again for everything!

Pete, I am ready to help in any way I can. I know my brother will be willing to help, he is heading to the Middle East on Wed But I can reach him via email and phone and he will be working while he is there, so no problem with his accessibility and assistance.
You can reach me anytime via email or phone, I can PM my number to you if you would like

gary

[BillN]

I think we need to focus on our target audience - what are the sites that they would be going to that will give us the best chance to get them interested in BBM? The movie sites and gay sites are fine, but I think we need to go to a broader site, movie buffs and gays already know about BBM. And I echo those who have said that it has to be clear this is not an ad from Focus, it is from fans.

This is beginning to feel more like the first ad campaign, lots of great suggestions, dialogue, and enthusiasm.

[aperture]

I tried to create flash banner...but I don't know how to attach flash file here... please go to the link bellow.

...I tried to gatter ideas from you...surely you can change the text...and for Brokeback font, I don't have the typeface previously used...tell my what you think...

http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test4vu.swf

[karind1]

I think we need to focus on our target audience - what are the sites that they would be going to that will give us the best chance to get them interested in BBM? The movie sites and gay sites are fine, but I think we need to go to a broader site, movie buffs and gays already know about BBM. And I echo those who have said that it has to be clear this is not an ad from Focus, it is from fans.

This is beginning to feel more like the first ad campaign, lots of great suggestions, dialogue, and enthusiasm.

i agree feels more like the first ad campaign-with the energy and the ideas and the cohesiveness. 
site to target  :  msnbc (has the MOST internet traffic as a source of news --believe it or not)
cnn and cnn international
ny times
washington post (?)?
usa today
hehehehehe  washington times  (that would be a kicker)  and fox news website!!!!!!!
nbc.com (site where they advertise desperate housewives--is that nbc or abc?
netflix
amazon.com
barnes and noble.com
www.people.com  or people magazine website 
FOR WOMEN
martha stewart website www.marthastewart.com  (where women are)
the oprah website
redbook
family circle, mcalls or mccalls, house beautiful, good housekeeping (middle or road women)
and some great midwest papers---the star (is it in minneapolis), the st. louis paper, the kansas city paper owned by knight ridder,
there are some really great progressive newspapers in the midwest--ALSO all the papers like in utah and iowa who gave their critical aclaim to bbm, there is a list of all the critics who made BBM best pic-there are lots of heartland papers.  p.s. putting it on teen website is asking for trouble.

[Zuraffo]

Yup, I agree to keep the 'Best Picture' phrase in the Ad. If anything else, it is the phrase that started all these movement, and it gives us our position.

I will also suggest that if we are going flash that the AD leads in with a short testimony from our members. Something like:

First frame, dark background, light text,

"This movie has forever changed me. Because of it, I am a better person" -- XXX, Melaka, M'sia

Fade into second frame, with Dozy embrace:

"Best Picture. Brokeback Mountain"

BBM won about 2 dozen 'Best Picture' awards. Oscar ain't the only game in town. We can use the phrase.

[karind1]

Yup, I agree to keep the 'Best Picture' phrase in the Ad. If anything else, it is the phrase that started all these movement, and it gives us our position.

I will also suggest that if we are going flash that the AD leads in with a short testimony from our members. Something like:

First frame, dark background, light text,

"This movie has forever changed me. Because of it, I am a better person" -- XXX, Melaka, M'sia

Fade into second frame, with Dozy embrace:

"Best Picture. Brokeback Mountain"

BBM won about 2 dozen 'Best Picture' awards. Oscar ain't the only game in town. We can use the phrase.

that is a good suggestion in my opinion

[Jack_ME]

The plan is to have the ad link to our webpage right?

In terms of the ad: I think it should say in a big, obvious way that it's "from the fans of Brokeback Mountain." That's what makes the ad intriguing, I think.

Something like (and this is not literal)

Find out how Brokeback Mountain affected Us
paid for by 600 fans of the movie [/color]

Brendisch makes a great point here!

There is a lot to keeping and using this theme.

The fact that the movie moved (sic) so many of us to seek out others to share, to analyze, to interpret, to motivate and to raise money, to design and place a national ad, and now to continue, is a very important thread in the story of what's happening.

As others have mentioned, it is Focus Features' responsibility to promote their product, ie, advertising for the film in theater showings and now DVD sales, and they will do that.

We don't really care (directly) whether BBM as a product makes millions for those involved in creating it.
(I say directly, because of course we do want that financial success to reward those folks who made the film, and hopefully encourage them to again take similar risks.) And we expressed our thanks in the many private campaigns still going on, and in the big public Variety Ad campaign.

What it seems many want is for other folks to discover the movie, and feel the impact  -get the message-  of the movie!
Keeping a thread to this aspect in the upcoming  promotion connected to what a powerful effect this film has already had on 600, 1000, 10000 internet fans is, I feel, important, and moreover, is valuable in achieving our goal of promoting the film and spreading its message.


Jack in Maine

[No more beans!]

I'm not a frequent poster here (never enough time, never enough), but I've been reading this forum since December and my partner and I contributed funding to the ad campaign.

My .02 (for what it's worth)...

- Don't waste the money running ads on gay-oriented websites. You'll be preaching to the choir.

- Keep the "Best Picture" reference in the ads. No single entity (e.g., AMPAS, Golden Globes, etc.) owns the phrase, and the Oscar snub was, after all, the impetus for the ad campaign in the first place.

- Don't realign this to focus on the DVD release. While DVD sales are important, box office receipts are far more impressive in this game. I know the number of screens is dropping, but we're still at #15 on the chart, so it's not dead yet. The studio will promote the DVD release, and I suspect that it will be a somewhat easier sell, if for no other reason than the in-the-privacy-of-your-own-home factor (no "public statement" required).

- Which websites receive the highest traffic from women? I honestly don't know the answer to this, but perhaps some of our female members may. Lifetime Television? Oxygen Network? What about the websites of print magazines for women?

- This may sound odd, but how about websites aimed at senior citizens? I've seen BBM 14 times now, and I've observed senior heterosexual couples in every audience. In fact, it's been my experience that they comprise the majority of the couples at any given showing, much more so than 18-35 year old heterosexual couples (the viewers in this age range are usually single women and gay men). In general, I believe seniors are more likely to seek a serious cinematic experience like this over "Big Momma's House" or "Date Movie". They also seem to be considerably more "respectful" of the film than the younger audience members, who are more prone to laughter and derision. This civility suggests to me that they "get it".

[karind1]

as far as fan testimonials go- i went onto amazon.com site last night to see if they had any info on dvd (which they did not-except leave your email address and they will email me when it will be coming out--weird) anyway-
under brokeback mountain story and screenplay there were tons of testimonials
there is the imdb tons of testimonials
and the brokeback mountain site tons of testimonials
as the ennisjack website and our website-there are so many testimonials we will never run out

[cheer2jakenheath]

Ad Campaging is a GREAT idea!.  Advertise on Google web site might be one of the very good choices since it is widely and popularly used and known by people. 

[TexRob]

This thread is to talk about the second phase of our campaign! We appreciate all of your feedback and support and help on this.

Pete --

We're all thinking a little ethnocentrically, and the Internet may be a way to overcome that.

I think there should be a Spanish-language ad on the Univision site.  This site reaches Hispanics in the USA.  American Hispanics and immigrants, according to news reports I saw, were among the demographic least likely to have seen the film. 

The problem was partly language and partly cultural, but in the main this demographic was lost due to the focus on English here, which obscured to them how much a hit the movie has become in Spanish-speaking countries.  So there's a hole to be filled.

I think the movie will resonate because their largely rural, poor and western locations will give them a sense of familiar experience.   Caught between cultures, though, they may be missing the emotional impact the movie is having elsewhere.  So such an ad may give more bang for the buck.

[sadaka2006]

I tried to create flash banner...but I don't know how to attach flash file here... please go to the link bellow.

...I tried to gatter ideas from you...surely you can change the text...and for Brokeback font, I don't have the typeface previously used...tell my what you think...

http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test4vu.swf

well done, the flash looks good

g

[sacrdpath]

This is such a great idea.  As a poster noted above, the first ad was possible ONLY due to the internet.  There's no way this could have gotten done this quickly without the suggestions and expertise available instantly and globally.

I think it's great that we're using this medium to advance our message.

One thing that I thought of...there's a lot of latent demand out there from people that AREN'T big moviegoers for the DVD, who may not frequent IMDB, Fandango, etc.

Who is the target audience here?  I remember reading an interview with Shamus about Focus' marketing, which evolved even before the movie was filmed.  He said something about obviously this would appeal to gay men, and he laughed and said "Yes, but the biggest group is WOMEN.  A tragic romance?  It's women!"

What web sites target women specifically?  Maybe the fashion magazine websites?  Teen?  Jake is a huge teen idol (and to some extent, so is Heath).

1. Target audience - women
2. Mother's Day is May 14th

Hmmm ... maybe a lot of moms will get BBM for Mother's Day?

Ad slogan suggestions:

If love is a force of nature, let nature move you

or

Let Brokeback Mountain experience you

[le pendu]

Seems like everyone is thinking similarly, this feels wonderfully cohesive. All of the above suggestions, (and the Flash sample) seem to be on the right track to me.

I love the idea of using the website quotes, and many could be used alternating/simultaniously fading in at lower transparencies while the main points are being made with bolder 100% text.

I highly recommend that we spend time also on creating a "landing page". The landing page should be more "welcoming" than a forum, it should be connected by style and content to the ad campaign. It should "reward" the visitor who clicked on the ad with meaningful information. For instance, this is where we could have as many of the quotes as we wanted for people to read through, and really present our message, with an invitation to view/join the forum from there.

I'd like to help anyway possible.

robert

[brendisch]

nice animation!

I'm concerned tho that this looks pretty much identical to a corporate ad--no one would have any idea what's special about this ad, which is that it was paid for by a grassroots fan effort--which is, as far as I know, unprecendented.

We really need to make that clear in the ad, though our words and images--referencing something to the effect of, BBM was a once-in-a-lifetime movie experience for us

plus i think it should say this is paid for by fans--users would be more impressed i think by that level of love for a movie

with animation, keep in mind, we can fit in a bit more copy because we can have multiple frames (of course we shouldn't overdo it--3 frames would be the MAX)

I tried to create flash banner...but I don't know how to attach flash file here... please go to the link bellow.

...I tried to gatter ideas from you...surely you can change the text...and for Brokeback font, I don't have the typeface previously used...tell my what you think...

http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test4vu.swf

well done, the flash looks good

g