Attaching an Activist Message to a Movie’s Marketing

The New York Times last week shared this story about movies that are designed to spur some sort of humanitarian action. The question being, to a great extent, how can you effectively market a movie that is designed to not just inform but also get people involved in the cause that the filmmakers are highlighting?

The story gets to one tactic, which is doubling-down on the audience that’s predisposed to be sympathetic to the issue in question and getting them to share word-of-mouth with their friends. That’s good advice, and some variation on it has been around for years now, especially since the advent of on-demand distribution that allowed filmmakers to target a specific advocacy or other small group, get them the film in some manner and then give them the tools with which to take action.

I’ll echo here what my colleague Tim Whitman wrote on the Porter Novelli blog today in a post about awareness not being enough unless it’s designed to actually spur action. So if you’re attaching some sort of call-to-action in your movie’s publicity and communications messaging, how are you also giving the audience the tools with which to easily take action? There are, of course, a variety of options available.  

Most simply – and you see this on any sort of advocacy-minded documentary on Netflix or elsewhere – is to include contact information for people to learn more. A URL is good here, as are phone numbers and email addresses people can use to ask questions and find out how they can get involved. All of that should, assuming it’s appropriate, also give people the option to donate or otherwise actively get involved because, as Whitman says, awareness without action is largely meaningless.

When you’re dealing with a specific group you’re trying to reach, though, make the call to action more clear. So if a local environmentally-minded group has bought the DVD of your documentary, is planning a trip to see it at a theater or is simply visiting the movie’s website make sure they have the option to get involved right then and there. Send them a packet of or allow them to download supporting materials. Get them to donate to the cause right then and there. And make sure those materials let them pass on that call to action to anyone else, so they can advocate for the movie and the cause on their own through word-of-mouth.

Other tactics are going to vary from one film to another because the goals are going to be different. So first, as with any campaign, identify the goals, come to agreement on strategies for meeting those goals, then adopt tactics that are in line with those strategies. Finally, measure against the goals and go back and make adjustments to the strategies and tactics as needed.