Marketing Indy DVDs

theceo wrote on 1/26/2005, 4:01 PM
Anyone having success marketing Indy DVDs? Know any good forums for this aspect of DVD production?

My company produced recently five in-house documentaries for my content sites (I run over 300 content sites and many are para related). My movies are doing well as downloads from my sites (I get 9.99 per movie on-line). I also sell DVDS of the documentaries for 35 or 40 bucks (includes shipping to either US or outside US).

Response from blockbuster buyer was we don't purchase documentaries anymore.

We emailed a ton of indy video stores and not much luck so far.

Anyone have ideas on how to get into indy or chain video stores?

These movies are great, one is on Nostradamus, another on UFOS and the others are major topics in the Para field.

Anyone ever work any of the major video expos?

I've been checking out UFO expos but the numbers are way too small. Such shows get a couple of hundred UFO fans and not video store owners.

If you've had luck getting Indy Video stores to carry what you've made how about giving us a few pointers.

Thanks


Comments

Steve Mann wrote on 1/26/2005, 11:46 PM
Check out netflix.com
Jay Gladwell wrote on 1/27/2005, 3:30 AM
This was discussed just a week or two ago. You should try to do a "search" to see what's available.

Look into CustomFlix.

Jay
theceo wrote on 1/27/2005, 8:27 AM
Don't need anyone to make our DVDs they exist and are being sold all over the world via my network of over 300 content sites.

I'm looking for people that have gotten their titles into either major chains (blockbuster, hollywood, etc) or major retailers (costco, samsclub, walmart, etc) or have gotten many indy video stores to carry their titles.

I don't see any threads really discussing how to get an indy work into major chains and or many indy video stores.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 1/27/2005, 9:00 AM
The path you've chosen still requires a distributor. Getting your film out to the problem retailers (distributing) is a full-time job in and of itself. Looks like you've got your work cut for you!

Jay
BrianStanding wrote on 1/27/2005, 10:11 AM
Not quite the Blockbusters of the world, but I've had some success getting videos into local Mom and Pop Video stores. But in those cases, I've developed a personal relationship with the owners, and I've proven a market for the films through successful local microcinema screenings. I've never tried getting in to out of town retail outlets directly.

I've sold as much directly from my own website (www.prolefeedstudios.com) as I have through any third parties. Not much, mind you, but some. Check out www.buyindies.com and www.facetsmedia.org for some alternative catalogs with whom I've had pretty good luck.

I have recently purchased 10 ISBN numbers (www.bowker.com), which I will use to reissue my back catalog on DVD. (As soon as I get all the "DVD Extras" edited!) This will get me into Books In Print, and supposedly makes it easier to sell stuff on places like Amazon. We'll see.
theceo wrote on 1/27/2005, 10:52 AM
I want to distribute my DVD's right to retailers and video stores. I have a sales force already from my software company. I have the largest market share in the market my software sells in, so my sales force is very talented. Before I turn them lose on mom and pop indy video stores, I was wondering if a forum exists where marketing stradegy is discussed by new indy companies. I know the model is you get one of the few distributors to carry your stuff, yada yada, but that seems old school for me. We made the films, we have them in stock now I need to get them on selves, it seems crazy to let some company take over now.

I was thinking of maybe doing a distributorship deal outside USA, but I don't know if I want to give rights away to my stuff.

I already have the president of a major film company outside the USA talking about an 'exclusive' distributorship deal for my films and his parent company owns a large chain of music and books stores too. So that might be good since we have a music and book catalog as well.

Anyway, it would seem that a few people might want to be discussing distribution for the material people are creating via products like vegas.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 1/27/2005, 12:20 PM
There are many, many books written on the subject that are readily available. Like I sai, distribution is a full-time job in and of itself.

Since you have the resources, just hand everything over to your "marketing" team and let them take care it. Just keep in mind there is a marked difference between software and motion pictures!

Jay
theceo wrote on 1/27/2005, 12:34 PM
There may be many books on 'marketing' but are there any good books on marketing to such a niche as video stores that you would recommend? I saw one forum a couple of months ago but it had no traffic and the operator of the site didn't seem to have any real success.

Before a marketing plan was developed by my software company years ago for sales reps to use in our market I sold direct to end users so I could learn what was the best way to sell our product. Once I closed 20 deals in a row for my 10K product I considered my methods 'refined'. That mark was never realized by any of my reps. I think the most deals in a row was maybe 5 or 6 after I left field sales. And some of my reps I would even consider better in sales than myself. I'm mostly a creator not a seller.

Right now I view these steps as ways to break into distributing DVDs to video stores.

1. Do main video expos.
2. Mail marketing
3. eMail marketing
4. Press releases to media about new titles
5. Web sites to distribute titles
6. Niche advertising on net and radio

I have done 3 through 6 and plan on doing number 1. I'm not big on mailers though, so I might not do number two.