MARKETING ET CINEMA – Approches du marketing des films à l’épreuve de la mondialisation 

 

FILM MARKETING – Approaches to film marketing in the age of globalisation 

 

 

Bits et pixels : nouvelles technologies et interactivité / BYtEs and pixels: new technologies and interactivity 

 

Alexis BLANCHET : « Des films pour faire des jeux, analyse d’une synergie commerciale et promotionnelle entre cinéma et jeu vidéo »

Si le cinéma a depuis toujours abondamment puisé dans la littérature en adaptant à l’écran des œuvres romanesques, le secteur du jeu vidéo s’est très tôt appuyé sur des films de cinéma pour créer des jeux. En « adaptant » dès les années 1970 des films de cinéma en jeu vidéo, l’industrie naissante du jeu vidéo se saisit à la fois de fictions populaires largement médiatisées par le cinéma mais s’empare également des codes et des imaginaires cinématographiques bien connus et appréciés de son public.

En plus de bénéficier des lourds investissements promotionnels consentis lors de l’exploitation en salle ou de jouir de la popularité d’un film et de ses personnages, l’adaptation est un produit dérivé qui permet aux créateurs de jeux d’obtenir « clef en main » une trame narrative, une galerie de personnages, des registres d’action, un contexte fictionnel, en somme tout un univers dans lequel penser des situations ludiques.

Observé dans la durée, le phénomène de l’« adaptation » se révèle être d’une certaine ampleur par la quantité d’objets concernés : depuis 1975 plus de 500 films ont donné lieu à quelques milliers d’éditions de jeux. Ce procédé de création est aujourd’hui une catégorie importante dans la production vidéoludique représentant environ 10% de l’édition de jeu vidéo, derrière les simulations sportives.

Cette communication a pour but de présenter, à partir des résultats de l’étude statistique menée sur l’ensemble des films ayant donné lieu à un ou plusieurs jeux, les pratiques mises en œuvre conjointement par les industries du cinéma et du jeu vidéo, et tout particulièrement celles liées à la simultanéité des exploitations d’un même univers de fiction développé par/au sein de chaque média. Nous montrerons ainsi comment ce corpus de productions cinématographiques nous renseigne sur les tendances actuelles des industries du divertissement sur des politiques promotionnelle et transmédia autour de récits de fiction.

 

Kira KITSOPANIDOU : « Le marketing de la “révolution Avatar” ou comment vendre le numérique aux salles du monde entier »

La sortie en décembre 2009 du film Avatar, réalisé par James Cameron, marque une nouvelle page dans l’histoire de l’industrie cinématographique mondiale. Ce ne sont pas simplement les multiples records établis par le film champion du marché mondial qui accordent à Avatar une place au panthéon des films qui ont transformé l’industrie du cinéma, ses pratiques et son offre de divertissement. Outre son budget pharaonique (500 millions de dollars, frais de sortie inclus), sa recette vertigineuse à l’international (1,9 milliard de dollars), son statut de phénomène générationnel mais aussi cinématographique, le film inaugure aussi une nouvelle ère du marketing cinématographique. Enfin, un nouveau chapitre est écrit dans l’histoire de la révolution 3D au cinéma, jusqu’alors cantonnée au statut d’attraction de foire contribuant, à l’aide d’un marketing habile, à la stratégie des différenciations fortes sur laquelle Hollywood (en particulier) et le spectacle cinématographique en salles ont fondé dès les origines leur avantage concurrentiel. Aujourd’hui, la 3D est aussi (et surtout) l’argument pilier de la stratégie commerciale des distributeurs hollywoodiens et des fabricants et fournisseurs d’équipement face aux exploitants de salles les plus réticents à la « révolution » numérique. Par conséquent, le marketing des films en 3D (et du film de Cameron en particulier) remplit une double fonction, celle de vendre la révolution numérique aux exploitants du monde entier (condition nécessaire pour la mise en place de stratégies de sortie de plus en plus mondialisées et instantanées des films hollywoodiens) et d’installer durablement la 3D dans l’univers des spectacles et du langage cinématographiques.

La difficulté d’établir pour l’expérience de la projection numérique en salles un caractère résolument « nouveau », immédiatement perceptible par les spectateurs (comme ce fut, par exemple, le cas avec le son numérique au début des années 90) , il a fallu trouver un créneau où la technologie pourrait montrer sa capacité de redéfinir la manière dont le public consomme et vit le spectacle cinématographique en salles. Condition nécessaire pour convaincre les exploitants de réaliser des investissements très coûteux pour s’équiper. Si les attractions stéréoscopiques (films réalisés en format traditionnel, puis convertis en 3D, séquences stéréoscopiques dans des films autrement réalisés en 2D) ont prouvé leur efficacité auprès d’un public féru de technologie (les 15-35 ans)  et encore néophyte, restait à construire pour la 3D numérique une différence, une identité en rupture avec l’image « gadget » et les performances commerciales, esthétiques et techniques mitigées des 3D des années 50. Avatar est devenu ce film qui en l’espace de quelques mois seulement, a fait basculer le monde cinématographique (et, plus généralement, audiovisuel) dans la révolution 3D accélérant le processus de numérisation des salles de cinéma au niveau mondial.

Notre contribution a pour objectif d’interroger les mécanismes du marketing de conversion à destination des exploitants de salles et du marketing de la valeur à destination des spectateurs mis en place par les studios américains et en particulier par la Fox dans le cas du film Avatar et visant à marquer cette rupture avec les 3D du passé. L’objectif de cette analyse étant de montrer la contribution du marketing aux enjeux multiples de ce que la presse, comme les professionnels, du cinéma ont qualifié de « révolution Avatar ».

 

Ela SIROMASCENKO : “The Role of Social Networks in International Film Marketing – Case study: the use of Facebook in promoting movie releases on a global scale”

The research “The Role of Social Networks in International Film Marketing”” is an analysis of the way in which social networking sites can be used in preparing and sustaining  movie releases from the marketing point of view. The analysis focuses on two aspects: social network activities conducted by the marketing teams within the studios or within the distributors and cinemas, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the way that social network users themselves contribute to the promotion of releases.

In a world increasingly dominated by online media, this new instrument had to be part of the media mix in film marketing, too. This involves a wide array of tools, and social networks are some of the most important. The analysis within this paper is placed in the context of the globalization of film marketing, and the use of social networks for this purpose is the living proof for this concept, as social networks themselves tend to erase borders between markets, nations and cultures.

In order to elaborate my analysis, I gave it the concrete form of a case study on the way that Facebook is used in film marketing.  As a consequence, I monitored Facebook ad campaigns, official movie pages, as well fan pages, fan groups, and other forms of connection between Facebook users and movies.

 Firstly, the analysis focuses on monitoring the features of Facebook ad campaigns and official movie pages. Secondly, we will take a close look at how Facebook users interact with movie related items (fan pages, groups, etc.) and how they contribute to message dissemination. This involves monitoring comments, posts, number of fans of various movie pages, tone of voice, and any other features that may be considered relevant for the research.

 

Manuel DUPUY-SALLE : « L’usage d’Internet et des réseaux sociaux comme support de valorisation des films : une approche critique des “campagnes interactives” »

A l’instar de certains médias, revues spécialisées, radio, voir affichage, l’usage de l’Internet comme support du marketing opérationnel est souvent mobilisé pour conduire les campagnes promotionnelles des films (Laurichesse, 2003). Certaines agences - entrantes pour la plupart - se spécialisent dans ce domaine et proposent aux distributeurs des campagnes de « marketing interactif », i.e. basées sur l’intégration du film au sein de « réseaux sociaux » (tel Facebook). L’objectif est de créer un "buzz" dans les discussions conduites par les internautes. Des bloggeurs cinéphiles variés sont également très sollicités.

Depuis les sciences de l’information et de la communication, nous proposons une approche socio-historique critique des pratiques et discours marketing, afin de mettre en perspective leur portée idéologique, en référence aux mutations contemporaines des formes de valorisation des contenus dans les industries de la culture, de l’information et de la communication (Bouquillion et Combès, 2007).

A ce titre, nous regardons d’abord les spécificités de cinefriends en nous référant à son histoire et aux différentes campagnes promotionnelles conduites lors de l’année 2009. Enfin, en nous appuyant sur des entretiens semi-directifs, nous analysons les discours portés par les professionnels sur leurs pratiques.

Fort de cette analyse, nous engageons une réflexion théorique sur les différentes formes de légitimation du marketing, ses formes « artistiques » (Creton,1997), voir sa « culturisation » (Lash & Lury, 2007), en écho du capitalisme avancé, de l’innovation technique, et des mutations de la filière cinématographique et audiovisuelle.

 

 

Blockbusters et indépendants / Blockbusters and independents

 

Yannis TZIOUMAKIS : “Marketing Contemporary American Independent Film: United Artists Classics and the first wave of classics divisions in the 1980s”

For a number of film scholars and critics (Tzioumakis, 2006; King, 2005; Pierson 1996; Rosen and Hamilton, 1990), the beginnings of contemporary American independent cinema as a sustainable and alternative mode of filmmaking to Hollywood started in 1979-1980 with the release of a number of feature length documentaries, including Joe and Maxi (M. Cohen and J. Gold, 1979);  The War At Home (G. Silber and G.A Brown, 1979) and The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (C. Field, 1980) and fiction films such as Return of the Secaucus Seven (j. Sayles, 1980); Northern Lights (J. Hanson, R. Nilsson, 1979), Heartland (R. Pierce, 1980) and Gal Young ’Un (V. Nunez, 1979). With an institutional infrastructure that could (and later would) support this kind of cinema at an inception phase, the distribution of these films was undertaken by marginal distributing organisations such as Levitt-Pickman and Libra or by co-operatives organised by filmmakers themselves such as First Run Features. It was at this time when a division of United Artists, under the name United Artists Classics, also entered the market of independent film distribution. With years of expertise in booking “classic” studio films to college towns for student audiences and in “reviving” such films in summer film festivals in metropolitan areas, United Artists Classics entered the distribution arena of contemporary film with a different expertise. Starting with the distribution of non-US art house films such as Diva (Beinex, 1981) and Le Beau mariage (Rohmer, 1982), the company quickly started also releasing home-grown independent films, including the documentary film The Weavers: Wasn’t that A Time (J. Brown, 1982) and Lianna (J. Sayles, 1983).

Given its ties to a major, which were often translated into association with United Artists’ prestige and access to its resources United Artists Classics brought to the US independent sector new distribution and marketing practices that helped shape it in a substantial manner. These include: a creative approach to marketing campaign designing that was entrusted  to young college graduates (rather than expensive ad agencies); a focus on a particular, upmarket segment of the baby boom generation; an emphasis on distributing films in more than just the main metropolitan cities of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco; the use of print advertising than television advertising; the exploitation of the huge demand for product by pay-cable TV channels at a time when the penetration of cable television was increasing exponentially and many others. Through a discussion of these practices I will argue that United Artists Classics took an existing distribution and marketing model primarily associated with the release of non-US art house films and by applying it to low-budget films American independent film it helped make American independent cinema both a “serious art” (via its association to art house cinema distribution models) and, equally importantly, a commercial enterprise. This contributed greatly to the continuation of filmmaking activity in the sector, which eventually led to the popularisation of independent cinema and the emergence of more waves of classics divisions and specialty labels in the 1990s and 2000s.

 

Claire MOLLOY : “Marketing and the ‘indie auteur’”

Despite finding European distribution at the script stage, Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan, was unable to secure a US distribution deal. The US distributors’ response to Memento centred on concerns that the film would be too difficult to market and therefore had little commercial potential in Northern America. It was further suggested that whilst European audiences were culturally disposed to ‘art-house’ independent films Memento’s complex narrative would be too challenging for American audiences. With no US distribution deal forthcoming Newmarket, the company that produced Memento, responded by setting up a distribution arm and brought in Bob Berney to design the marketing strategy for the film. Memento finished 2001 as the US ‘indie’ hit of the year.

Using Memento as an entry point this paper will begin by outlining why marketability was at the core of problems facing the US independent film sector at the end of the twentieth century and will examine, in the case of Memento, the distributors’ claims that American audiences were distinct from European audiences. This case study is then situated within a discussion of how the US independent sector harnessed the narrative of the ‘indie’ director working on the margins of the industry as a vital aspect of the North American marketing of the independent film product. This paper argues that whilst the ‘indie auteur’ strategy was quickly exhausted by the independent sector, the ‘indie sensibility’ and a revitalised discourse of the ‘independent director’ has been lately appropriated by mainstream Hollywood to market blockbuster franchise films such as Dark Knight, X-Men and Spiderman.

 

Nolwenn MINGANT : “A new influence on production : Hollywood’s foreign marketers”

 

Patrick VONDERAU : “Blondes Love Movies, Too: Market Research and the Promotion of Hollywood Entertainment”

My talk deals with the longstanding Hollywood practice of previewing feature films prior to theatrical release. Apart from the box office, previews (also known as: studio previews, research screenings) since about 1914 have become the key device in market research and a pre-condition for developing targeted marketing campaigns. Marking the first encounter between producers and audiences, previews function as an important interface between marketing and production by making spontaneous audience responses to a just recently or almost finished film observable. Previews thus form the beginning of a semi-public search process which aims at measuring the econometrically intangible 'experience’ to be had with film as an 'experience good’ in order to complement box office data. Although previews occasionally have been organized in Europe in the postwar era, this industrial practice in many ways stands out as distinctively 'Hollywood’: preview encounters between producers and audiences are as much part of the myth as of the 'seconde machine’. As an industrial practice, then, previewing is bound to Los Angeles production culture: servicing companies, experts, methods, devices, local (suburban) audiences, and the like. As I am going to argue, however, previews have also gained importance beyond the local by working towards an "arrangement“ (M. Callon) through which audiences have emerged in the first place. That is, previews have across cultures become part and parcel of a psycho-economical (self-) conception of the spectator, as much as of forms and formats of cinema entertainment. In order to substantialize this claim, I will present findings from extensive archival research, field work and practitioner interviews in Los Angeles.

 

 

Le facteur local / Marketing foreignness

 

Daniel STEINHART : “Paris… As You’ve Never Seen It Before!!!”: The U.S. Marketing of Hollywood Foreign Productions in the Postwar Era”

In the late 1940s, film production in the United States began to move away from the Hollywood studio and Hollywood, the place. Film companies started shooting not only throughout the U.S., but also around the world, capturing locations that previously had been recreated on Hollywood soundstages and backlots. While the reasons for shooting abroad were due principally to industry reorganization and economic incentives, these productions’ filming locations became salient elements in the films’ story and style and in their marketing.

In this paper, I will examine how Hollywood studios and independent production companies promoted films that were shot overseas in the post World War II era (roughly 1948 to 1962) by highlighting the foreign locations where they were made. Much like new color and widescreen technologies, foreign locations emphasized both realism and spectacle as a way to attract a diminishing domestic audience that was gravitating to television and new leisure-time activities, while also appealing to increasingly important foreign markets. Furthermore, promoting the authenticity of foreign locations in marketing materials and industry rhetoric also became a way for Hollywood producers to forestall protests from U.S. labor groups, who condemned foreign-shot films as “runaway” productions.

Drawing on film trade journals, production files, and marketing materials, I aim to shed light on Hollywood’s move into foreign production and how this phenomenon was marketed during an era of growing internationalism. In addition, I will demonstrate how the marketing of foreign locations reflected changing conceptions of realism and spectacle amongst producers, critics and audiences. Finally, I would like to touch on some important new developments in postwar film marketing, such as beginning ad-promotion campaigns at the pre-production and production phases and using television and making-of documentaries to sell films.

 

Hélène LAURICHESSE : « La stratégie de marque dans l'industrie cinématographique »

Si le concept de marque est mis à mal par la crise économique avec la montée en puissance des offres “low-cost”, paradoxalement, la stratégie de marque ne n’est jamais aussi bien portée puisqu’elle concerne désormais tous les secteurs. Les pays, les villes, les universités et grandes écoles, les équipes de football, les musées, les émissions de télévision, tous ces domaines se gèrent désormais comme des marques. Dans le domaine cinématograhique, la stratégie de marque, au coeur de la stratégie marketing, fait partie des signaux de qualité qui vont permettre de rassurer les spectateurs et les investisseurs. Elle rend l’offre plus tangible,  crédibilise l’information, et guide le public dans son choix, au même titre que la publicité, la présence de stars, les critiques, le bouche à oreille, les nominations et récompenses. Parmi ces différents indicateurs, le rôle du marketing est essentiel puisque sa mission informative conditionne la visibilité du film dans un contexte d’offre saturée. La stratégie de marque devient une arme de différenciation concurrentielle fondamentale pour faciliter le repérage et l’identification du film pour le public et les professionnels. Elle repose sur une notoriété pré-existante, celle d’un acteur star ou celle d’un succès passé (film, livre, jeu vidéo, séries TV) à partir de l’hypothèse que la qualité future d’un film dépend de la qualité passée de ses composantes. La marque constitue alors un repère, une promesse, un contrat entre le spectateur et le film.

Cette communication examinera en premier lieu le concept de marque au cinéma sous ses différentes formes, pour ensuite observer la direction et les tendances actuelles en matière de stratégie de marque. Le premier constat est celui de la tendance à une dimension internationale et transmedia comme forme dominante de l’expression de la marque au cinéma. L’exemple de la Saga Twilight, série de livres (best sellers) déclinée en plusieurs épisodes filmiques nous servira de fil conducteur pour illustrer cette dimension. Le deuxième constat est celui d’alternatives possibles à cette tendance globalisante. L’exemple français d’une stratégie de marque axée sur la “french touch” et la production de films qui s’inspirent du patrimoine culturel français (La Môme, Coco avant Chanel, Coco Chanel et Igor Stravinsky, Gainsbourg vie héroïque, Sagan ou encore La Princesse de Montpensier) illustrent bien cette orientation.

 

Frédérique BRISSET : « Woody Allen à l’affiche en France : tout le monde dit We Love Him… »

Parmi les différentes phases du marketing cinématographique, la sélection de titres pour les marchés à l’exportation est une étape primordiale. Une analyse comparée des titres originaux et des versions françaises des films de Woody Allen est ainsi édifiante… à plus d’un titre ! Si le cinéaste ne participe pas du système des studios hollywoodiens, son succès souvent plus important en Europe qu’aux États-Unis induit une grande attention accordée à l’exportation de ses œuvres et, en conséquence, aux options retenues pour aboutir à une réception aussi efficace par les publics étrangers, notamment français.
Liées à la récurrence de ses productions et sa longévité en tant que cinéaste – sa carrière s’étend sur plus de 40 ans – de véritables stratégies sont en effet mises en œuvre. La singularité du réalisateur et l’avènement de sa renommée mondiale, les changements de studio qui jalonnent sa carrière sont autant de paramètres qui ont influé sur ses adaptations françaises. La comparaison des titres, et plus largement des pratiques traductives (transferts linguistique et iconographique, paratexte verbal et/ou visuel) dans les affiches originelles, puis françaises, avec quelques incursions dans d’autres aires linguistiques, nous montrent ainsi comment le marketing de la “marque” Woody Allen s’effectue à l’export, et quels présupposés culturels sur le spectateur francophone conditionnent les choix promotionnels.

 

Katherine FELSBURG : “One-Sheet, One World?: Marketing Hollywood Films Across Borders”

While the ubiquitous nature of Hollywood films frames them as global products, a closer examination reveals the extent to which they are steeped in American values, cultural constructs and ideologies. In order to conceal this cultural specificity from the increasingly valued foreign consumer, Hollywood marketers have developed an informal and fluid handbook of strategies designed to conceal these elements and tailor marketing materials to create a veneer of locality within desirable target markets. This paper explores the role of the Hollywood marketer as a translator of the cinematic product and attempts to reveal some of strategies used to market an inherently American commodity across national and cultural borders. An array of clashes take place at the intersection points of the global and the local, and this paper seeks to illuminate but a few of these challenges and the strategies commonly undertaken to negotiate these fragile spaces. To reveal these obstacles and resulting practices, Hollywood’s international marketing mechanism is examined, and the domestic and Japanese one-sheets (posters) for Disney’s Pearl Harbor (2001) are analyzed as an illustrative case study.

 

Alessandro CATANIA : “Marketing television worldwide? ABC-Disney’s distributions between global and local availability”

Film marketing is becoming increasingly global. Worldwide releases of movies coupled with the proliferation of globally available tie-ins, promotional websites and viral marketing campaigns making the most of the web as a global instantaneous means of distribution are now becoming commonplace for much of the film industry. These successful marketing initiatives - such as the ‘Why So Serious?’ campaign anticipating The Dark Knight (C.Nolan, 2009) - not only provide us with stunning examples of the global reach of marketing today but also illustrate the increasingly complex and crucial relation between the distribution of content across multiple markets and these global promotional efforts. The viability of this model, in fact, is only ensured by the logics of worldwide releases that the Studios have embraced by collapsing different distribution windows to make the most of worldwide promotion while also reducing the incidence of piracy.

However, while contemporary television is ripe with similarly innovative and though-provoking marketing initiatives - e.g. True Blood’s Revelation campaign (Campfire for HBO, 2009) -, the complexity of international programme trade and the fragmentation of television markets result in the unsynchronized distribution across markets which thwarts the potentially global ambitions of their promotional surrounds. How can the Italian audience appreciate Heroes’ (NBC, 2006-2010) multiplatform tie-ins on the web when the series still has to appear on national screen? How can the French public participate to The Lost Experience when the show on TF1 lags several months behind the US TV schedule?

In this paper I compare the distribution and marketing of movies with the circulation television programmes to investigate these topics and understand the relation between the distribution of contemporary US TV drama in different European markets and the (potentially) global marketing campaigns set up to promote these show. In particular, I use statistical evidence, market reports and industry interviews to discuss the case of Flashforward (ABC, 2009-2010) and examine ABC’s synchronised distribution strategy for films and television culminated with the global simulcast of the Lost (2004-2010) finale. Do these examples represent a new distribution pattern for TV which makes the most of global marketing campaigns? Or is it a unique exception within a European landscape where windowing, albeit with reduced delays, will remain the dominant distribution logic for TV? What are the consequences of these different strategies on the marketing of television?

Finally, I will discuss many marketing campaigns for imported programs on European channels -Californication’s on Jimmy in Italy, Dexter’s on FX in the UK, and Flashforward’s on Prosieben in Germany to explore the fit between local and global television marketing and to ultimately argue that television marketing still remains largely confined within national boundaries.

 

Nolwenn MINGANT : Conclusions / Concluding remarks

Thank you all for making these two days thought-provoking. To conclude, I would like to try and open some perspectives inspired by your presentations.

Some of the fundamentals of film marketing have been evoked. The centrality of the consumer, that is the film audience, has been put to the fore. Many presentations acknowledged the industrial logics in which marketing is embedded and especially the concomitant, although sometimes paradoxical, search for predictability and differentiation. However, the presentations showed that practices were not fixed in traditional representation any more. Whereas one could, for example, clearly differentiate auteur and blockbuster films from their marketing campaigns, it seems that the frontier between them has become porous. As the majors use ‘auteur’ campaigns and independents develop ‘blockbuster’-like advertising, the style of marketing is no longer an indication of the origin of a film. The presentations reasserted traditional mechanisms, but also showed evolutions between past and present practices, thus triggering reflection and discussion on the current challenges.

Marketing in itself is an activity difficult to categorize as it stand at a crossroads: it is the middleman between the film and the audience; it is both an economic and cultural practice. In recent years, industrial evolutions and the development of new technologies have accentuated the ambiguous nature of marketing by further blurring the lines between different spheres. There is first a blurring between economic and social activities: the experiences of video games and films are merged into one über-universe; the development of Facebook and other platforms has given birth to social network marketing; brands have become an experience shared by small groups and communities. This eventually leads to a most striking evolution: the blurring of lines between producers and consumers. As amateur bloggers become experts and opinion leaders, they gain influence. In the same way, the feedback from previews and the comments from foreign markets have come to increasingly influence film production itself. The relationship between the marketing team and the consumer is not unidirectional any more as the audience increasingly has a say in the marketing process, but also in the production process itself. The influence of bloggers and book fans is a case in point. Indeed, one of the concepts which have kept reappearing in the presentations was the idea of ‘interactivity.’ At the center of this issue is the current trend of creating ‘experiences.’ The experience can be technological, with the immersion in enclosed imaginary universes enabled by the development of videogames, 3D and augmented reality. The experience is also social, with the creation of networks over the Internet, such as Facebook, with the exchange over common experiences on blogs. As this experience is increasingly shared, it leads to the creation of communities, whose sheer size commands the film industry’s attention, not to mention the fact that the consumer themselves become more empowered. Thus, the exponential development of interactive practices seems to accentuate the blurring of the lines.

We started this project with the idea that film marketing, because it was focused on the audience, was a significant revealer of cultural diversity. The conference did highlight the importance, for marketers as well as for academics, of redefining who the consumer is. Identity can be defined along two lines. Several presentations reasserted the fact that the traditional definition based on national identity is still relevant today. The play on exoticism and realism, the insistence on the ‘made in’ effect (such as the ‘made in France’) and the localization of marketing campaigns are practices which are still very much alive today. People around the world still define themselves first as belonging to a specific cultural community, a specific nation. This entails the necessity for marketers to adapt their campaigns and for filmmakers to take the foreign audience into account. Past practices is this area, such as localizing the campaigns of 1950s foreign-shot movies, find their echo today, from the posters of Woody Allen films to Pearl Harbor. This reasserts the dynamism of local cultures even in an era of globalization. On the other hand, the conference also showed that a parallel notion of identity, based on communities sharing specific experiences, is also a relevant definition. Groups of people experience a feeling of belonging towards a game, a brand or a social group. This new notion of identity should also be taken into consideration.

Thus, for academics as well as for marketers, redefining issues such as identity, common culture and belonging should be a central preoccupation. How can one know about the audience? How well do market research and reception studies convey the identity and aspiration of the audience? Who should speak for the audience, the Internet opinion leaders or the marketers? But also, how should marketers adapt now that the audience is increasingly expressing itself? How can age-old practices (market research, localization) be adapted to the new conditions? The new technologies have enabled the audience to become more assertive, to have a say in the production of the films they will endorse. The issues of defining who the audience is and what it wants thus also leads to a potential redefinition of the balance of power between producers and consumers. As the middlemen, the marketing teams are at the heart of these new evolutions.

 

 

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