How to Promote your Independent Film - Marketing Strategy with Rosa Camero

#filmpodcast #marketingstrategy #indiefilm 

This week I spoke to Rosa Camero. Rosa has been a film publicist for over 15 years and has worked on massive productions like the Twighlight Saga, Warm Bodies and Divergent. 

Rosa talked about how she got into the industry and she gave me her tips on how to market your own film, how to find out who your audience is and where to find them.

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Transcript

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[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I spoke to Rosa Camaro Rosa has been a publicist for over 15 years and worked on massive Productions like the Twilight Saga Warm Bodies and Divergent I had a great chat with Rosa she talked about how she got into the industry and she also gave me some great tips on how to Market your own film how to find out who your audience is and where to find them enjoy so first off uh could you explain to me what a publicist does a publicist ER this is a good question because people think that a publist is also marketing but a publist is only PR so it's a difference between the marketing there's is some yeah probably there's not like one marketing person but it's like different parts of the marketing and the publicist is in charge of the pr part so this means media ER Talent interviews mentions in media breed carpets and all the noise that you can see on media traditional media and also online like blogs podcasts even influencers they can come into that part of the that that part of the the marketing the the the marketing part so when you have influencers you sometimes you do collaborations and when it's collaboration it's it's a PR gotcha okay and how did you uh could you tell me your career path into being a publicist okay so I started in 2008 I am I am originally from Mexico and I started working in the film industry in 2008 in Mexico Mexico City so I start as a marketing assistant and then from there I jump into promotion coordinator this is promotion marketing coordinator and I was in charge of all the third party promotions with Brands and companies and then I jump into PR manager and then from there ER I moved to Spain in 2014 and I started my own business 2016 where I become I became film distributor film distributor but I did I had someone book the film theaters and I was in charge of all the marketing so I was like one woman show doing fil promotion marketing ads um PR a you know junkets and um media tours with Talent so I was doing everything myself the the films that I that I distributed that were small as well but anyway it's a lot of work that I did there and then from there I decided that actually I didn't decide it but I noticed the one thing that is missing for filmmakers is the marketing part they don't know how important it is to have a cool marketing campaign have a marketing plan it's not only the pr it's like the whole marketing the whole Marketing System that you need to have for your film so I decided to focus in training and showing and teaching the process of film distribution and marketing because also among filmmakers the film distribution they're scammers they want to they want to take our film for 20 years and then in the other side as a disto is the film makers they don't know all the work that we need to do to make the to make the their film work and to make money yeah so it's like both parties they are against against each other but in the end they need uh each other so what I do now it's I teach the process of PR and the marketing in general also with the part of fin distribution so you've you've been on the side uh you've gone through marketing you've learned the publicist stuff you've learned the distribution stuff and now you're putting that together to sort of teach filmmakers to promote their movies uh and get them distributed successfully yes so what I do I I teach the process if they want to learn I think it's a good thing that you want to learn those that that the process because that's where you make the money but also I I have a service where I help ER film producers H yeah it's the the film straty implementation execution I do everything so I work for them but this is a long-term H period of time working with me it's not like three months and we are ready right it's like one month I I I released my mon my film in one month so it's like I'm I'm looking for for someone who helped me to promote my film it's like you're already late and then if it's if and then if the marketing campaign fails of course it's the pr person uh of course it's the marketing person who who didn't do H their job yeah so that's why I had said okay long time long term we know each other we know how to work together so I have both so I execute but I also teach filmmakers how to do it sure and I've been fascinated because obviously I'm a filmmaker myself and you you write your script you get your film made which is a really hard process then you come to the sort of sales and marketing end of it which you know nothing about um and sometimes you might feel as a filmmaker that you're just shouting into the void of social media about your project so I've been really fascinated to look at your 10-step marketing plan film challenge you've been doing at the moment really interesting what are your is there any way and there's a lot a lot in there so I'm not expecting you to tell me the lot but what are the most important parts of that do you think of that 10-step promotion plan for your film I think the most and most important is knowing your target who is who who are you selling to when you know who are you're selling to you can go to those places where he or she hang hangs out hangs out and have a good time and then you promote them you promote the film there so but if you don't know who you're selling to you probably you're going to feel like that you're going to feel like like H it's like who like who I'm I'm talking to and then you see likes of your family members and your friends is like it's like I know you're gonna watch the film I need more than this right so I think knowing your target audience knowing where they hang out you build your marketing your marketing plan around it you can use uh it's just everything it's interwine right so it's like we talk about social media but then when oh a lot of thing a lot of times filmmakers think that having a pay campaign you need to pay for ads on Facebook Instagram but then it's this is interwin to the social media so you need to make sure all the social media it's it's presentable I mean they you have the photo you have the logo you have the good pictures you have uh the links that are not broken so it's that implementation and then from there you think about the marketing the marketing campaign or the marketing ad campaign so everything is is interwin but definitely I believe knowing who is your target that's the most important yeah and how would you figure that out is it as simple as looking at similar films to yours and who watches those or do is there any other is there anything else to it than that yeah I mean I have done it I have done it so many times that for me it's very easy to know just from a synopsis what kind of people might see your film but it is true for a filmmaker who hasn't done it before looking at other films and looking at the Target or looking at at the at the people who watch those films or maybe it's not very it's not as clear as they think it is so one thing that you need to focus is like what kind of what what kind of film is it what gender um is it horror okay horror is for young people no not about 35 maybe and they like to hang out on the internet they like maybe they are on Reddit they have a Tik Tok account so you already have two places there where you can start creating a noise around your film so you have Reddit you have uh you have Tik Tok it's a romantic comedy normally is women so you target to women women depending of the main characters it might be older people it might be younger depends on also the culture um who goes to the film theaters where is the release ER like which place is the release that you're having so if it's film theaters for example in Spain that I was a film distributor there older people is the people who goes to the film theaters younger people they they consume a lot more content on the B on demand platforms so it depends where you're releasing what kind of platform but the most important is to know okay men or woman how old they are how how old they are and what they like to do like what are the places they fre they frequent what what are the places they like to hang out and why do they like to do I mean are the introverts the extroverts H do they like to travel do like do they like food like foodie they they like to go out and eat in restaurants what kind of restaurants that do they like the luxury um a luxury restaurant do they like a fast food and I'm doing I'm saying all these little details because when you come to the marketing plan if they like fast food then you look for a fast food restaurant that can be McDonald's that can be um Burger King that can be I don't know Taco Bell or all this fast food change that they do they they they do Partnerships with films so one a bigger budget production and maybe even filmmakers should do this now is should you be thinking about this stuff before you even start filming or or do you normally get presented with a project and say right how are you going to promote that Rosa or is it best to start thinking about that when you're writing script even I mean I like to start if they work with me I like to start working with the filmmaker if I'm doing the old execution from preproduction production like when they are in that in that stage so I have the idea where who I need to contact who I need to work with and especially I think when you're doing all these collaborations and negotiations sometimes it takes months so if it's a big brand or a big company they need they need months to get approved because they need to do this and that so they need like two three four business meetings for you to get what you want so yes as soon as you can start with marketing the better it's not impossible I mean I have done marketing campaigns in one month two months and the they work of okay so it is possible but the sooner you think about marketing the better sure and what advice would you give so if you're Micro Bud Indie filmmaker especially if you're British actually we get uh embarrassed easily and don't like to go out there and you know spam everyone with uh things about our film look at me look at me look at me any advice for getting over these sort of embarrassment of constantly talking about your own project that's a a very interesting question because I live in Denmark and danish people I they are the same they're not like oh I have this film but it's like it's not not well seen that you go out there and you talk about the film and you talk about yourself all the time right and Americans are more like yes look at me this is my film and they feel but even though they still they still have that problem with showing their film and for me what I believe that's related to mindset that's related to how good you think your film is oh how good like how you believe it if it's like it's a low budget it's not good enough like I could have have done it better so instead of saying that to yourself H saying yourself you know this is great if I don't show myself I if I don't do the marketing that it needs it won't be seen so it's like I'm gonna do my best so it's also like working with your mindset working working with yourself and uh nobody's gonna do it for you unless that you pay someone and when you hire someone you need to know what you want so it's again it's like I think it's all around marketing it's very it's very close to mindset and the fear of visibility so telling yourself a few affirmations about my my film is great it needs to be seen I mean that's this is the best uh film that has happened to the world um are there any genres you talked about horror maybe romantic comedy are there any genres that are easier to promote or is it all about audience and finding them I mean the gender that the yes the film that I found the most easy is horror because it has a very I don't know they're like the Fantom is really into the films like it's really supportive like it doesn't matter how bad your film is people that really like horror films they will watch it so I think Phantom of horror films or the horror yeah the the the the yeah the horror films it's easy for them to watch your film so you just need to find them and there's also a lot of good film festivals around the world that they have they support horror films and they're important they're big you can find the all kind of films there so I think horror it's one of the one of the the the yor I have a problem with that word it's in Spanish is um heno heno kind of similar but I think I think horror films ER might be the easiest because the Fantom it's uh easy to find easy to Target they're open already it's like yeah yes show me what you got but if they don't like something they're very honest as well yes yes they um okay so if you're what advice would you give to a filmmaker working with a publicist or a marketing person how can they get the most out of that marketing person I think getting the most of hiring someone to do your marketing is knowing what you want like what is your goal what do you want to achieve with your film like yes everyone said but I want more people to watch my film I want I want to make money I want to but not necessarily that need to be your main go go goal um I have clients that that have come to me and they said you know I just want to push this film because I have the that my next project coming up next year and I want this I want this audience to get to know me so that that can be that's very that's a very valid um goal so I think if you know what you want with your if you know what you want from your film it's easier to work with a marketing person also knowing more or less what they doing like sometimes like yes just put my sometimes it's uh C can we get the the first page of YouTube because everyone is there so we need to go we need to get there so it's like do you know how much it costs to be on the front page of YouTube it's really expensive so it's like getting H getting to know how much uh how much the things cost and the the job behind it is not only posting something on on social media but the craft behind it like you know grinding the post choosing the image having the right designs and also getting into the tool if you've been you have done the Facebook Instagram ads the tool is not easy I mean you need to learn and it's changing all the time as well the Google all Google ads uh platform it's also so it's just not getting to know the the the work of the marketing person I think that that that will make it easy easy for the marketing person and easy for you yeah okay good advice and the other thing I always tell filmmakers um when you're shooting is is get some good Stills get some good photography on set yes you know motto good Stills pay bills because when you come to sell your film you have to have those pictures and you can't just snap away on your phone just every now and again and hope you've got to get a green screen you've got to get POS stuff you've got to get some assets so I'm assuming you agree that those assets are super important both uh photography and digital Graphics oh my yeah you said something that is filmmakers forget and it is super important when you're selling your film especially for PR your SKS they might guarantee a space a a a a space in a magazine a space in a newspaper even in a billboard but if you don't have the high resolution images for that you might just lost the deal and I have EXP experiences where I have work with films that they forgot to to take pictures and we needed to re-shoot like we did we needed to like get the cast together because we didn't have good good uh images for the poster so we needed to runite the the the cast obviously that cost money because like I already move on like I need to go somewhere else and then also the shooting the studio H the photographer it I mean those if you don't have good steals from your production uh from the beginning then that's GNA be a cost afterwards and it's GNA be more difficult to get it to get it right so yes you have mentioned something vital when it comes to marketing and PR yeah I'm lucky because my wife and producing partner is a photographer so we always come away with good photos and I guarantee some of the early films I made would not have sold without those pictures the artwork just made them sing uh and gave people that instant vision of what that film was about um so I wanted to talk about so you worked on if you look at your IMDb it's about four miles long of all these different films you've worked on but the big the big one in there is the Twilight Saga now looking at those films I remember them being an absolute Juggernaut at the time really really popular did that make your job easier working on those movies because everybody wanted to speak to the people in the film and talk about film or did that make your job harder what what Memories have you got from working on the those features I think um it was easier to sell it because they wanted to work with the film but it was it was more complicated because the studio was behind you all the time everything needed to be approved everything needed to like if you're going to do an ad not an ad but like a promotion with someone like I did um h a promotion with bulbo because bulbo was a part of the part it was like a product placement right so I got buo to give away a cars so and three other films they gave away cars MH so but everything they did needed to be approved by Studio it's like yes we can do it and that's amazing but like you need to send every each like every post every copy every copy every design that they did H because it needed to be approved by studio and then sometimes um because the cast was important so some of the cast They even if you wanted to do like a very specific promotion and they needed to use a specific image of someone it needed to go to the public to their publicist right they needed to approve yeah because they they charge for those things and because this is a this is a promotional collaboration it's like okay it needs to be approved and yeah it's yeah sometimes it's very difficult and the copyright copyrights and then they cannot mix the the Arts and so it's like I it it was easy to sell it people wanted to work with you and they wanted to of course have a piece of pie but from the the other side there's a lot of um negotiation involved yeah yeah yeah definitely and uh when you think if I say publicist I always think of red carpet uh famous person the person next to them going but that's enough time or this is such and such from such and such did you have to is that was that part of your job did you have to do the red carpet what's that like yeah yeah I have to I have to do the the red carpets with them and it was um I mean it was it was nice I it was a great experience being with them um just sometimes it's very difficult to when is some someone famous then you need to control the Press yeah it's like you have someone that is not famous they don't want to take pictures it's like please like you are begging for two or three pictures of them and then you have someone famous is like they get crazy and then you have to you have to control them so in one of the I got to promote Divergent and I had a we had a red carpet with Chene Woodley and Tio James and the um her manager I was with Chen Woodley and they the her manager said okay so what you're gonna do is you're G to take her from the arm the arm or the the back or something and then say you have to move over to the next to the next press person and like this like poor poor Chene he was like like 10 seconds 10 seconds 10 seconds like 20 times or 30 times doing the red carpet so it's like you see and you see in the on on TV that ah yeah it's like one me one media here one media there but the actor needs to do it like 30 to 40 times so it's like I think at the end it's like a it's just I'm I'm tired yeah but um yeah it was a very great experience yeah and that dealing with the Press I imagine can be quite tough because they've all got their own agenda and they they've got to get their 10 seconds and they've got a push push push to get a extra special quote um one thing I was going to ask you about was the obviously things these days a film can um be ruined by bad press you know you know it used to be there's no such thing as bad press these days something an actor can do something something can go wrong and a film can actually tank because of it um have you ever had to deal with bad press and have you got any advice for dealing with bad press I mean yes I think the films in general they always have bad press it depending who is talking about the the this special film or um I think right now the difference between before and today is also influencers and people on social media because sometimes I spread uh false uh news or if a video gets viral then it's like how do you stop that right so I yeah I mean I think the best thing to handle those situations is don't you you don't answer I mean you you don't you don't have a um you don't comment on it that's that's what I that's what I have done H before and that's what also Studio tell you like if you work with a big uh with the big Blockbuster a studio movie They will also tell you that it's like how bad it is I mean it's like we cannot control what they say so that's why they say I mean there's not such thing as a bad press or bad public because it's like in the end they're talking about you yeah um and what am I looking at my list here just trying to make sure I haven't missed anything oh yeah so one of the other things you talked about is product placement is that attainable do you think for micro budget or is that just low budget you know where does that is it something that micr budget uh filmmakers should be looking into or do you think maybe um product placements only for uh sort of low to Mid budget movies um I mean I think you can you can get the product placement again how long you have to do all to have those conversations because it can it can take it can take weeks it can take months so I think it is it is possible but you need to be patient and you need to be I mean you you need to be there commit committed to a engaging with them and follow up and it's like hey what like what do you think about the film and you know like having the first Contact until they say yes especially if it's a big brand and you don't have the contact if you have the contact inside the company that you come well recommended then it's going to be easier but again it takes sometimes months so it is possible I completely I completely know that it that is possible that that can that can happen so maybe if it's not product placement they pay you money but they have other ways for them to support your film like if it's an airline and you need to fly somewhere so they might be able to give you accommodation and flights for the crew and that happens that I have I have closed that kind of uh that kind of deals for for films and also like equipment sometimes Canon and this Panasonic they are open to have these collaborations and they they borrow the the the equipment so it is possible yeah thanks for listening if you want all the behind the scenes information that's going to help you with a career in a creative industry then please do[Music] subscribe