UIP's film campaigns to mix conventional, new media
To more directly engage movie-goers and give greater impact to its promotional campaigns, United International Pictures (UIP), a global film distributor, has adopted a strategy for this year of mixing traditional and social media, as well as satellite tel
Thailand general manager Pannatat Phromsupa said the company was trying to decide what proportion of its marketing budget to allocate to traditional media such as television, radio, printed media and billboards, and how much to splash on new media, namely Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and satellite TV. The firm believes that using new media could help reduce costs.
“GMM Tai Hub, or GTH, a local film production house, is among the most successful companies using social media to create effective marketing campaigns for its movies, particularly via its Facebook fanpage,” Pannatat said.
GTH’s fan page is ranked No 1 in Thailand with 735,189 fans.
Nonetheless, marketing via conventional media remains a key part of UIP’s year-round communications strategy. Pannatat said the company would likely spend about Bt17 million-Bt20 million per blockbuster movie, with an expected return on each of at least Bt100 million. On smaller films, the firm expects to lay out Bt7 million-Bt10 million on movies that are projected to yield Bt30 million in revenue, and Bt2 million-Bt3 million on movies expected to return Bt10 million.
The company is also working on marketing campaigns with business partners including Coca-Cola, Double A, Kasikornbank and 7-Eleven.
His company distributes Hollywood films from major American production houses DreamWorks Animation SKG, Paramount Pictures Corporation and Universal Pictures.
This year, UIP plans to screen 19 movies in cinemas, including four blockbusters: “Battleship”, “GI Joe 2”, “Snow White and the Huntsman” and “47 Ronin”.
He said the company targeted Bt700 million revenue this year. Bt200 million is expected to come from “Battleship” and Bt100 million from “Snow White and the Huntsman”.
Though many businesses experienced losses due to the floods last year, UIP recorded Bt1 billion revenue on 20 imported movies. It has also benefited from the expansion of cinema chains in the country, the development of new cinema technologies such as 3-D, and an improvement in the quality of movies.
