Marketing is Hard

tygrus2000 wrote on 3/30/2006, 6:25 PM
Well after a couple of months of pounding the pavement, I think I have done all I can to get my DVD out there into the eyes of consumers. At least all the things that might pay off.

First of all, approaching the "brick and mortar" stores to carry it was a huge exercise in frustration. You either can't talk to the person doing the merchandise or they are so inundated with product that yours isn't even noticed. And trying to follow up dozens of times doesnt help either as I think they start to see you as an annoyance. I also tried to contact several actual film distributors but didn't get too far with that angle.

So that leaves really the online route is the remaining option. I did move some copies on ebay, about 10 in a month without too much effort so that is encouraging. How to get a few every day to move is the hard part and I don't know how to get there. There ar eother online sites similar to ebay like yahoo that might offer extra sales.

I was able to get one dedicated distribution deal with a florida company that specializes in my genre. So they do the replication, marketing and put it up on dozens of online shopping portals and I get a royalty. This seems like my most promising outlet.

After that, Customflix, Filmbaby and TotalVid will all gladly take the video as well. I think of these sites as more commission based and I don't know how aggressive they are in marketing their selections. Customflix's ties to Amazon make me think its the best of the bunch.

After that, I am out of ideas. Anyone have anything else to suggest, another company that can help or method I haven't been through yet? Your advice is much appreciated.
thx.

tygrus

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 3/30/2006, 7:56 PM
I spent the last fifteen years as a startup consultant. Marketing -- and more important -- distribution is the hardest part of becoming successful. There is no way in HEck you will ever get a deal with any kind of retail outlet. The dynamics there are frightening, even for the initiated. You need money, influence, contacts, money, jobbers, relationships, and more money.

Most distribution for DVDs like yours (I remember your earlier post), comes through ad hoc channels.

From that earlier post, you said your DVD was a travel/tourist product of western Canada. I live in Carmel, a major tourist destination. Ask yourself, if you were going to visit MY area, where would you go to get more information? Probably not to Blockbuster. You'd go to your local travel agent. You'd call the Carmel Chamber of Commerce, you'd call local (Carmel) hotels and attractions. You'd ask them to send you information about Carmel. Those are all potential distribution points for your product. To make it easy for them to sell, you could set up a storefront on eBay or Amazon. eBay makes it relatively easy to set up a merchant account. You then provide linking instructions to each of the entities I mentioned above and you give them a kickback for every product sold that comes from a clicktthrough from their site.

There are dozens of other ideas that may or may not be useful. For instance, you've got the Winter Olympics coming to Western Canada in four years. I would think that every person associated with the Olympics would be interested in your DVD. If you have any money, you can buy "Vancouver winter Olympics" on one of the search engines, although that can get pretty expensive. I'd certainly call up and find the rates.

I could go on, but then I'd have to start charging my old $250/hr rates. Sure paid better than video, and once in awhile I wish I were doing it again, but that's another story.
tygrus2000 wrote on 3/30/2006, 8:01 PM
John, surprisingly enough, most of the tourist type venues I could sell this product at are a closed shop as well. I had no luck breaking in that door.

As you mention, there are dozens of places that this product could go, but as I found out that is a far cry from being able to get it in those places.
tygrus2000 wrote on 3/30/2006, 8:13 PM
http://www.marketingyourdvd.com/

I keep seeing this site as a potential aid, just don't know if it is legit. $100/month. I think I see some sony forum users on it.
Coursedesign wrote on 3/30/2006, 9:42 PM
$9.95/month

+ an up-front $99 sales prevention/customer aggravation fee.

ArthurDent wrote on 3/30/2006, 10:24 PM

The MarketingyourDVD site was created by Bill Myers, a video/marketing/product development guru who's been around since the late 1980's.

His marketing advice/expertise has always sounded spot-on.

here's his main website

http://www.bmyers.com/
jkrepner wrote on 3/31/2006, 6:25 AM
I remember the post as well. It seems that marketing a tourism DVD would be hard. If I was visiting Canada (and I am in May) I wouldn't want to pay for a DVD that tells me about the town/city/state/whatever. I'd almost expect it to be free, or maybe a video on the city's tourism info website. Make sense? Now a book, say Frommer's travel guides are totally different and I did buy one of those for my trip up north. Why? Because you can take it on the plane, you can read reviews of restaurants, get directions, phones numbers to hotels, and look at pretty pictures of the town.

I think you have the right idea but you need to just figure out that missing step. Seems like you'd want to partner with the area's tourism office (and I don't mean selling your DVDs in the visitor center) but maybe producing video for the web, or having them pay you to produce a tourism piece.
tygrus2000 wrote on 3/31/2006, 6:51 AM
The product is less of a guide than a work of art in my mind. I guess it would be a better keepsake than a planning guide. Something you could show friends without boring them to death. Can't do that as easy as with a book.

There are also people who are just interested in other places but aren't going there. For me, I love shows about Egypt, but I have no plans to go there. I imaging somewhere in the world are people who think the same about Canada.
Serena wrote on 3/31/2006, 4:25 PM
Having a market clearly in view before production is always more comfortable. And then making sure people know about it and thinking they need it is where the marketing budget is spent. Is your DVD film festival material? What is your hook for capturing buyers? Also it might be the sort of thing people in Canada buy for Christmas presents for friends elsewhere (inexpensive and easily posted). But those Christmas campaigns usually involve TV and radio adds ("as advertised on TV"), obviously not in your budget at this time. Maybe you could hook into Christmas specials on Ebay or Amazon. Getting browsers to find your website for suitable-market keywords is likely to be worthwhile, but not easy to achieve.