OT: DVD Marketing

ArmyVideo wrote on 1/7/2005, 2:13 PM

OK, so the production is done, the master is tweaked and scrubbed, the copyright issues are covered, and the graphics are done. I'm ready to ship my package to the duplicator- but once I get my DVD's back ($1.79/ea for 1000 from discmakers.com ((let me know if you have found a better price)) What's a cost effective way to market them? Amazon will sell it for me, but they take 55%. eBay can work, but then it's up to me to handle distribution.
There are other avenues such as FilmBaby.com, but as this is my first release, I'm really not sure what the "best" way is. Suggestions are not only welcome, but encouraged :)
About the DVD
It's a short doc covering the National WW II Memorial in DC. PBS has one out already, but there's is full lenghth and covers design, construction, legislation, etc. Mine is down and dirty beauty shots and descriptive narration. My demographic is the VFW / American Legion crowd- Unfortunately effectual advertising in their respective publications would run me about $30,000+. My tax return won't be that big. You can view clips of the DVD here PLEASE NOTE, THE POPS IN THE BED MUSIC ARE NOT PRESENT IN THE FINAL DVD. TC AND BAD AUDIO WILL BE REMOVED BEOFORE EXAMPLES ARE PUBLICLY ADVERTISED.

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 1/7/2005, 2:31 PM

You have any experience with direct marketing?

There are several good mailing list houses (not the fly by night get rich quick schemes you see adverting to earn a million in a week) from which you can obtain FRESH mailing lists. They can be very targeted and since you may want to test the waters on WWII verterans or maybe people in the 60-70+ age range or WWII buffs, etc.. for the cost of a couple hundred buck or less they'll send you the mailing labels of such people on stick and peel labels.

If you've never written a sales ptich and put together an ad, better to someone do it for you. All and all probably cost you at least a couple thousand just to sample the market, but it sure beats running a ad in some major pub and only selling a handful.

randy-stewart wrote on 1/7/2005, 2:54 PM

Army,
Nice work! Don't forget about schools and college. Great for classes to bring the past to life. Let me know when you are ready to sell, I'm buying.
Aloha,
Randy

Coursedesign wrote on 1/7/2005, 2:56 PM

BillyBoy is right on!

Let me just add that Amazon doesn't do any marketing per se. What their 55% cut gets you is credibility and fulfillment. To boost the sales on Amazon, you need to actively pursue online reviews there, and you can also buy e-mail shots fairly inexpensively from Amazon, to people who have bought related titles before.

If you don't care for the 55%, you can always open up an Amazon zShop. Not that expensive, and then they only take 20% if I remember correctly. In this case, you do the fulfillment to the end customer.

In actuality 55% is better than what you would get from most distributors...

Don't forget CustomFlix, they have DVD fulfillment of several kinds, and great information for you at http://www.customflix.com/Producer/HowTo/PromoteProduct.jsp .

OdieInAz wrote on 1/7/2005, 3:16 PM

You have to focus on your target market. Consider Goodle Ads. Perhaps websites with an obvious veteren theme, something like David Hackworth's
http://www.hackworth.com/

A 1000 discs may not be that bad for your own fulfillment -- unless all the orders come at once, in which case you hire friends and relatives. You may ship over several months.

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 1/7/2005, 3:48 PM

great stuff, BTW, did you have someone score it? or was that actually some music that you used and got permission or was it etc... I guess, where'd you get the music would have sufficed, and what was it shot on? just out of curiosity. (I would definately not rule out the school thing).

Dave

Jay Gladwell wrote on 1/7/2005, 4:28 PM

Army, check out Custom Flix and see if they would be better for you.

Jay

ArmyVideo wrote on 1/7/2005, 9:04 PM

Thanks for all the feedback folks.

To answer your question(s) OdieInAz, the music is from a blanket liscensed set from Network Music- I love their stuff. They don't have everything, but the majority of the stuff they do have is great quality. You'll hear it on Discovery, History Chan, etc all the time.
The footage was shot on an XL1s and the worlds crappiest tripod. It was an old bogen with a sloppy head and I about died when I realized this was what I had to shoot with! The camera was fine, but the sticks made some shots that could have been great pretty crappy. It was a spur of the moment shoot, with some pick-ups the next moringing. I didn't have a shot sheet, or plan, or any idea what I was going to do with the footage. All I knew was that it was the second day the memorial was open and if I didn't shoot quick, the crowds would be too big. I was actually able to get the park rangers or what ever let me shoot on sticks IN the memorial. Talk about lucky...

ken c wrote on 1/8/2005, 2:29 AM

I've sold nearly $97,000 worth of DVDs via customflix in the last 3 months.

Their service and fulfillment have been excellent, and I've been very satisfied.

http://www.tradingvideos.com

http://www.writingadwords.com

It's great only having to shoot/edit the video, not worrying about duplication/shipping etc.

I use google adwords to promote my dvd courses. Works great.

Ken

ArmyVideo wrote on 1/8/2005, 7:18 AM

Ken.. the numbers caught my attention! Will definitly be giving them a look... Thanks to everyone for the ifo and feedback!

Brian

ztalk112 wrote on 1/9/2005, 1:02 PM

Brian,

You may want to take a look at the last post in this thread in regards to your marketing options:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=325211

Hope it helps.

Gary