Quick Takes: 10/15/09

Universal marketing executive Doug Neil is interviewed by Nick Mendoza at PBS Mediashift on some of the studio’s recent online marketing efforts, from Fast and Furious to Funny People to Bruno. It’s an interesting, if short, interview that took place after Neil’s appearance on a panel of digital entertainment marketers that was held recently.

Theater chains are up in arms (Hollywood Reporter, 10/15/09) over Paramount’s decision to release both G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard on home video just 88 days after their theatrical release, an incredibly tight window. There’s probably something longer and more in-depth to be written about release windows and such, but it’s pretty clear in this instance that Paramount simply wants to get Joe onto retail shelves before Thanksgiving. They need it to sell some Christmas present units in order to salvage some financial numbers. That’s the long and short of it and no amount of exhibitor complaining to the press is going to impact it one way or the other in this case.

Alan Wolk’s first contribution to AdAge, about how niche content marketing can stand out by embracing what it is that makes it niche, contains a lot of thinking that can be of use to the marketers of independent movies.

Reuters (10/14/09) gets around to writing a piece about movie marketing and Twitter. It’s not bad as such pieces go. But again it lets marketers off the hook by praising them for listening and not asking them what, then, they do with the information they’ve been listening to.

By Chris Thilk

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist with over 15 years of experience in online strategy and content marketing. He lives in the Chicago suburbs.