How to Use Print Promotions
Online marketing has become a key method for promoting Festival films. But traditional printed promotions (for example, flyers and posters) still serve a very important role.
By placing printed materials in shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and other areas of interest around a festival you can reach a demographic that may not be using the Internet. Even if your online promotions have reached your target audience, placing your printed materials in several locations increases the possibility for multiple impressions upon members of your film’s demographic.
Flyers (also known as handbills) can also be placed directly in the hands of festival attendees to create interest in your film. These face-to-face encounters that include a printed take-away have proven to be a very effective method for building an audience.
Designing Printed Promotions
In many cases a filmmaker will already have flyers and/or posters printed. When you contact your filmmaker, be sure to ask. If there are printed materials available, leave ample time to get them for distribution before the festival. This will be discussed further in this document.
In some instances a filmmaker will not have pre-printed materials, or even a design completed for them. This is where you will have an opportunity to contribute some creative and useful work to the promotion of your film.
Even if a filmmaker has flyer and poster designs already completed, it may be necessary to make slight alterations of the art for this Festival. For example, a filmmaker may have designed a single piece of art in a 4″x6″ format. This size is great for professionally printed glossy postcards. But if you need to quickly print off some cheap paper flyers, you might want to convert the 4″x6″ artwork so that a 8.5″x11″ page could reproduce that art four times. You can then cut four cheap flyers from one sheet.
When designing a flyer that is intended for high quality card stock (for example, the glossy postcard that will be used at numerous festivals), savvy filmmakers include only general information about the film. Typically a space is left blank on these glossy postcards where a sticker can be applied that contains information about specific screening times and theater locations for this festival. By leaving a space in the flyer design for festival specific information, mailing labels (that contain the screening times, locations, etc.) can be attached at the last minute. While it may take a little while to place individual labels on each flyer, the money and resources that can be saved will be appreciated by you and your filmmaker.
If your design is intended to be printed in a low quantity run on cheaper paper stock it will be okay to include the specific festival screening information in the design. In fact, it will save you time to do so.
Higher-end graphics programs like Photoshop are great for designing these sorts of materials, but free and open source solutions such as GIMP will provide an affordable solution.
Remember to design all printed promotions in 300 dpi.
Printing Promotions
Whether you have designed the materials yourself, or if they are already designed, there is still the possibility that you will be printing materials for your filmmaker. If the cost of shipping is too high, or the filmmaker’s busy schedule prevents them from tending to the issue, you may end up taking artwork to the copy shop or to the printing company.
Utilizing a Printing Company
If you are looking into printing a large quantity of flyers or posters, particularly on card stock or high quality paper, it will often be most economical to use a printing company that specializes in large quantity jobs. Several companies offer such a service and some even offer reduced rates or free materials in exchange for advertisement on the back of your flyers such as ClubFlyers.com.
When submitting your art to a printing company, make sure to meet their exact requirements for format and quality.
Printing Locally
For smaller quantity print jobs, most likely on regular paper stock, you can utilize chain store print centers such as Staples or Office Depot. University students can look into what economical printing options are available to them through student print centers.
For paper flyers it will be cheapest to print in black and white. To get the most out of one sheet of paper, you can place four copies of the flyer art on one sheet and then cut it. Most stores offer cutting services as well, but if time permits cutting them yourself could save some money.
Printing 11″x17″ posters in color can be considerably more expensive than smaller black and white flyers. To save money, you can print just a few large posters in color to be placed in key areas, with the rest being in black and white.
Shipping Promotions
Depending on the requirements of your festival, promotions being shipped to you may need to be routed through the festival first. Check with your instructor or the festival staff to see what procedure they favor. Some festivals prefer that all printed materials from the filmmakers be shipped to the festival. That way, the festival staff can take the materials they need and leave the rest for you and your team. Often times a central location such as the festival office will act as a repository for the materials, allowing course participants to check out materials as they need them.
Distributing Flyers and Posters
Before the Festival
Placing flyers and posters in various locations around the festival city will help make your film’s presence known. First identify all the locations you want to visit and make a list by distance to minimize your drive. Break up the distribution of materials between your group based on where they live.
Remember to respect the locations you are visiting and ask for permission first. Then only place promotional materials in approved areas. When placing posters, be sure not to tape on painted walls or surfaces that might cause damage.
Make a plan about the distribution of materials. Printed materials need to be distributed ahead of your screenings. Placing all your flyers in a few stores one day before the screening probably won’t have the desired effect.
During the Festival
To learn more about distributing promotions during the festival refer to the document How to Promote During the Festival.
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Licensed by Randy Finch and Nick Martinolich under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. This license allows you to copy, distribute, and transmit this work as well as create derivative works. Any copies or derivative works may not be used for commercial purposes, must be distributed under a same or similar license, and in addition must contain the following language: “The Film Fest Marketing Project was developed by Randy Finch, Nick Martinolich, Sam Torres, Alex Bowser, Morgan English, Masha Murakhovsky, Jeph Alexander, and the faculty and students of the University of Central Florida’s Film Department, working with the Florida Film Festival, and with the support of the Sarasota Film Institute.”
