Marketing is crucial for an independent film. We don’t have the benefit of a multi million dollar ad campaign to get people interested in our movie- we have to rely on grassroots methods to build a fan base and generate interest.  Our plan is to develop a cult following for Cherry Bomb because that is how the small guys like us can compete with what Hollywood cranks out every year.  Basically, if an indie film has a loyal following, then that makes it easier to get it in theatres, on DVD, etc. Most indie films begin their marketing approach once the film is complete but we tried a different approach. Last February, about a month after the first version of the script was written, we created a website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account so that people could follow the ups and downs in our production on a daily basis. Our rationale was that making a feature film is incredibly hard work and we wanted our fans to be there right beside us from the very beginning as we achieved certain milestones, etc. We wanted to start building a foundation immediately so that by the time the movie is complete and ready to hit the market, people know all about it and are excited to see the finished product.

From a strategic perspective, all of our marketing is based upon two primary criteria:

• Cost- All of our marketing needs to be free or pretty damn close to it.  This is why we have focused on an online strategy- it costs next to nothing to advertise through various channels online and the content can be updated fairly easily.  This is crucial for an indie film because things are changing for us on a weekly basis and we need a marketing outlet that is able to keep up.  Facebook and Twitter are ideal for this.  To a lesser extent, we have also utilized message boards and banner ads to build a general awareness.
• Demographics- All of our marketing needs to resonate with our two core demographics: males age 16-35 and any female who likes to see a bad-ass woman hell-bent on revenge.  Our goal from the very beginning was to create the kind of movie that we would want to watch when we were teenagers and now as adults.  Thus, all of our marketing focuses on the elements that get us excited.  A man and woman embracing in the rain and kissing?  No.  We like seeing sexy women, guns, blood, and cars… so that’s the stuff we’re going to use in our marketing.

For now we have focused on the internet and social media as our primary form of marketing, but as we get closer to production, we will rely on more strategic forms of PR.  These include building strategic relationship with local businesses in Austin, creating press releases for local newspapers, and leveraging the resources that some of our cast/crew have at their disposal.  Bear in mind, this is all meant as preproduction marketing, the stuff that we will do before we have even shot a single scene!  Once the movie is actually finished, things we’ll take on a much more traditional structure- we’ll cut trailers and spread them throughout the internet, we’ll submit to film festivals, etc.

Stylistically speaking, the website and other miscellaneous materials tend to skew darker and grittier in tone because they are meant to emulate the advertising that accompanied the movies in the late 70s and early 80s that Cherry Bomb pays homage to. That being said, I don’t know if our most popular image (the cherry with the hole in it) is consistent with the 70s/80s vibe, but oh well, we think it looks cool.

Our online domains:

• http://www.cherrybombfilm.com/home.php
• http://www.facebook.com/cherrybombfilm?ref=ts
• http://twitter.com/CherryBombFilm