! ! ! The Atlanta Film Festival: Considering the Power of Brand Management
! ! ! Megan Roy Kennesaw State University
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Introduction Stemming from an alternative way to exhibit and distribute films, the film festival circuit has garnered a great deal of success within the last fifty years culturally, economically, and politically, demonstrating an interconnection of technologies, arts, markets, governments, and institutions (De Valck, 2007). It presents a forum for filmmakers, producers, film lovers, and distributor, providing a lucrative opportunity in the tourism and cultural sector of any host city (Grunwell and Ha, 2008). Moreover, even with this interconnection of associations, the film festival is a unique convention that measures its success by familiarity, popularity, and interest in attracting audiences. The bottom line is the audience, and this can be gained through the power of brand management. This study’s aim is to measure the success of a film festival in terms of its brand management on digital media platforms. Brand management is important to the overall image and communication strategy of a film festival because it generates participation. Such audience participation helps to form a wider network of filmmakers, producers, film lovers, and distributors. For this study, one specific film festival will be analyzed in a case study of its brand management. Currently in its fourth decade, the Atlanta Film Festival is one of only two dozen Academy Award qualifying festivals in the United States, welcoming an audience of over 25,000 to the city of Atlanta each year (Atlanta Film Festival, 2014). Selected from over 3000 submissions, the programming at the festival includes screenings from a variety of film genres including, independent, animated, documentary, international, and short films. The film festival
!3 Film Festivals and Brand Management started as IMAGE Film and Video Center in 1976 and soon developed into the official Atlanta Film Festival (Atlanta Film Festival, 2014). The case study discussion seeks to provide the framework of planning a successful program of branding, such as the Atlanta Film Festival, for not only fiscal success but also social relevance. This research seeks to analyze the strategies of film festival professionals, regarding brand management within the cultural industry. The purpose of this study is threefold: 1. To demonstrate the importance of brand management in maintaining success of a film festival. 2. To propose strategies when promoting a film festival. 3. To develop a model for branding a film festival. The literature on the concept of film festival studies is quite limited, for research focusing solely on the film festival is a relatively new field. Several studies have focused on festivals as intersections of business, art, and audience traction, but none have looked individually into the cross-section of film festivals and brand management (de Valck, 2014; Ruling and Pedersen, 2010; Fischer, 2013). Additionally, the subsection of viewing the film festival as an economic entity has attracted even fewer pieces of research. This study will be an addition to the burgeoning field focusing on how to brand a film festival and how to engage audience participation. The structure of the article will begin with a review of important literature on film festivals, brand management, and presentation of research questions. After this review, the article will describe the performed methodology. For this study, a textual analysis of the Atlanta Film Festival’s presence on several digital media platforms will be conducted, including Facebook, the
!4 Film Festivals and Brand Management festival website, and email newsletters. It will conclude with a summary of findings, implications, and conclusion.
Literature Review Brand Management: An Overview Brand management is the practice of overseeing, regulating, and engineering all facets of a brand, including but not limited to its logo, design, customer experience, and product (“Brand Management, 2008). A brand, in this aspect, is the tool by which the organization is able to personalize itself and maintain an ability to involve and associate with consumers. According to Kapferer (2012), in order to gain a market or audience, a brand must be: 1. Able to conjure up a big idea, unique and attractive 2. Experienced by people at contact points 3. Activated by deeds and behaviors 4. Communicated 5. Distributed In other words, a brand exists when it has obtained the relevancy to influence the market (Kapferer, 2002). The fundamental purpose of brand management is the realization of programs and campaigns that build, improve, and manage the established and recognized brand of the organization. Keller (2005) confusing defined the process of strategic brand management into four major steps: 1. Identifying and establishing brand positioning and values
!5 Film Festivals and Brand Management 2. Planning and implementing brand marketing programs 3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance 4. Growing and sustaining brand equity
! Identity and Brand Equity To have a brand to manage, an organization must first develop an organizational identity (Aaker, 2002; Kapferer, 2003). An identity in the organizational sense means to have an awareness of its goals, missions, standards, and audience (Aaker, 2002). By realizing and categorizing elements of an identity, an organization can better resolve questions concerning its vision, strategies, and interaction. Identity of a brand is a sort of framework for how the organization and the brand want to be perceived by its target audiences (Farhana, 2014). Once this is developed, an organization can move forward in managing, adapting, and control the brand, including its image, positioning, and communication (Santos, 2012). Within the context of a film festival, this identity creation also determines audience, as vision and mission of the festival define which sector of the film community will be attracted to the festival. These communities within a film festival audience include LGBTQ, African American, Jewish, or international communities (Stringer, 2008). In other words, when a film festival identifies its purpose and thereby its identity, it creates not only an audience but also its brand. Thus, identity determines audiences, which, in turn, creates brand and strategy for the brand management. The film festival’s “brand,� is its programming, mission, and vision of the festival as an overall entity.
!6 Film Festivals and Brand Management By knowing the identity and audience of the brand or festival, the film festival is better able to coordinate, compose, and disseminate unique and strategized products and communicative processes. This correlation between brand, identity, and audience is a circle that is dependent of each other and is consequently very important to the overall strategies of the festival. Once completed, the brand has been determined and can now be maintained, managed, and adapted if need be.
! Brand Equity and the Film Festival The holistic concept of a brand is quite hard to define as it is an intangible aspect of an organization’s foundation, but it still needs preservation and maintenance. This preservation and maintenance of the brand is the idea of brand equity (M’zungu, Merrilees, and Miller, 2010). Two perspectives of brand equity currently exist. These include the cognitive customer-based idea adopted by Aaker (2002), Keller (1993), and Berry (1995) and cognitive customer-based idea blended with financial equity supported by Kapferer (2003) and Feldwick (1996). Because of its relevance to this particular study, Aaker’s conceptualization of brand equity is of particular importance. Aaker categorizes brand equity into five principal components that are the determinants of brand equity. These include brand loyalty, brand name awareness, perceived brand quality, brand image, and perceived quality (Aaker, 1992). The interaction and importance of these determinants not only define the success of the overall brand management, but also the perceived relevance of the brand within the consumer setting. Developing brand equity means developing consumers and customers attracted to the organization.
!7 Film Festivals and Brand Management In terms of film festivals, brand equity means building an audience both by attracting new festival attendees and maintaining loyal customers. Brand equity, in the film festival, is its relevance in the circuit as well as its popularity among festival patrons, filmmakers, and distributors. For example, the Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival have good indicators of brand equity because of their importance, interest, familiarity, and popularity. Each festival has created an identity, branded that identity, and created a certain level of brand equity through the process of stable brand management. Research Questions Brand management is important to organizations in terms of marketing for success and popularity. But what does it mean to the film festival? This study seeks to acknowledge these research questions: RQ1: How does effective and consistent brand management affect the success of film festivals? RQ2: Can brand management influence festival success in terms of audience participation and brand loyalty? RQ3: In what specific ways can a film festival utilize brand management across several outlets to maintain and increase audiences?
! Methodology In order to observe a film festival from this brand management perspective, this study implemented a qualitative approach in the brand management of the Atlanta Film Festival. Textual analysis, in the form of a case study, was used to analyze and describe the festival’s
!8 Film Festivals and Brand Management branding presence on several platforms. These platforms include: its Facebook page, the Atlanta Film Festival website, and festival email newsletters. The interplay of these three outlets represents an organization’s identity on the multiple platforms of social media, website management, and email campaigns. While observing and describing the brand identity and management of the Atlanta Film Festival on these platforms, several key items were initially sought, including mission statements, consistent messaging, and audience appreciation. Site of Study The Atlanta Film Festival was chosen for this study because of its relevancy to the importance of brand management in the organization of a successful film festival. For over thirty years, the Atlanta Film Festival has been a cultural institution for the city of Atlanta, demonstrating its ability to cultivate success and preserve their brand as a festival of the moving image despite changing trends in the festival circuit and film industry. By using this method and gaining observations and data, a framework will be presented for successful brand management of film festivals. Results Facebook The Atlanta Film Festival is quite active on the social network of Facebook. Joining Facebook in 2007, the film festival has achieved over 27,000 Likes, maintaining audiences and creating brand loyalty (Facebook, 2014). According to its About page, the film festival prides itself on supporting independent voices and filmmakers through its programming, education, and seminars throughout the year.
!9 Film Festivals and Brand Management The mission statement of the Atlanta Film Festival is explicitly stated, overtly illustrating their brand identity to audiences. The statement, as read on the Facebook page, is “Leading the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image!” (Facebook, 2014). While this is a very brief and broad statement, it does adequately describe the ideologies of the Atlanta Film Festival as a cultural entity and educational channel. Furthermore, the Facebook ‘About’ page also describes the company’s overview and history. This section restates the mission statement, adding more context and explanation to the aforementioned single line statement. It reads, “Founded by independent media artists, the festival's primary mission from day one has been to support creators and to expose Atlanta and the Southeast to films they could never see elsewhere” (Facebook, 2014). By advertising the mission statement twice, the Atlanta Film Festival is concerned about and proud of the image and identity it has created and maintained. This also could suggest that the film festival would like to attract newer audiences with the same interests or appreciation for the mission, objectives, and goals. Another section of the ‘About’ page is dedicated to the description of programming, events, and seminars the film festival provides filmmakers and film enthusiasts throughout the year. Describing the Atlanta Film Festival, this section states: Atlanta Film Festival - The Atlanta Film Festival: Each Spring - The Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition: Each Summer/Fall (with a retreat for winning screenwriters) - Special Screenings: Regularly
!10 Film Festivals and Brand Management - Special Events: Regularly - Eat, Drink & B-Indie networking/educational program: Each Month - Workshops: Regularly - Engaged Social Media Platforms: Constantly (Facebook, 2014). The film festival is not just the ten-day event in the spring but a year-round organization that focuses on education and advancement of the business and art of film. Atlanta Film Festival does this through the screenplay competition, screenings, special events at various locations, and workshops. Moreover, it is important to notice that the film festival states “engaged� social media platforms, reminding audiences that these outlets are updated regularly and consistently for information. On Facebook, the Timeline is the area where users can post pictures, hyperlinks, videos, status updates, and events. The Atlanta Film Festival consistently post photographs, links to blogs or news articles concerning film festivals both locally and internationally, and engaging discussion questions. By doing this, the film festival is in touch with their audiences and actively maintaining their identity as a film festival dedicated to education and promotion of film. Overall, on the platform of Facebook, the Atlanta Film Festival is heavily involved in communicating directly to audiences and staying true to their mission. By candidly expressing their mission statement and consistently posting items that are relevant to the organization and the film festival, the Atlanta Film Festival is managing its brand. Website Cleanly designed and obviously informative, the Atlanta Film Festival website has a main page with a news feed, calendar, upcoming events list, and news section (Atlanta Film Festival,
!11 Film Festivals and Brand Management 2014). The film festival’s Tweets from Twitter and photographs from Instagram are also published on the main page. Scrolling down the page, the upcoming events list and news section are designed into two side by side columns, publicly stating information for website visitors. All of these visible items dictate the identity of the film festival, allowing audiences to observe and learn about the film festival and what it has to offer. Several web pages featuring more in-depth information exist on the film festival website located on tabs at the top of the website’s main page. The web pages include: the 2014 Festival, The Plaza Theatre where the festival is held annually, About, Year-Round, and Support. Each tab allows visitors to access information pertaining to the different subjects. For this study on brand management, the ‘About’ web page is of particular importance as it serves as the main area of disseminating information about the film festival brand. In this section, a brief history of the film festival is given, though with more information than the history section on the Facebook page. Tracing its history back to 1976, the Atlanta Film Festival prides itself as being at the intersection of culture, commerce, and art. Perhaps most important on this particular webpage is the thorough description of the mission: The Atlanta Film Festival is a membership-based 501(c)(3) arts non-profit with a mission to lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image. ATLFF presents a diverse slate of year-round offerings for film-lovers, filmmakers, and industry professionals. Year round programs —screenings, parties, panels, workshops, and other educational events –provide a forum for building the community of film lovers and film supporters. By bringing audiences and filmmakers together, the Festival has the
!12 Film Festivals and Brand Management opportunity to broaden the perspective of both artists and moviegoers (Atlanta Film Festival, 2014). This mission statement provides information about the film festival in terms of it being a business, a nonprofit organization, and an educational center. The mission statement is the identity of a brand; therefore, this statement is the identity of the Atlanta Film Festival. It is important for the film festival to define their mission not only for its communicative and marketing strategies but also for its audiences.
! ! Email Newsletters Email newsletters offer organizations an easy and affordable strategy to reaching interested audiences and delivering information and news. For the Atlanta Film Festival, people interested in joining the newsletter can subscribe on their main page of the website. The subscription process takes no more than five minutes. Once subscribed, the individual will receive the distributed newsletter to their Email account. The Atlanta Film Festival sends its subscribers weekly newsletters with several items of interest. Most of the newsletters have links and photographs to news articles about the business and art of film and film festivals. The newsletters also offer invites to screenings or festival announcements, allowing subscribers a better avenue of information and familiarity with the film festival. The content, while valuable, is usually quite brief with only two or three items within the newsletter. During the actual film festival, however, more items are presented in the newsletter to help subscribers stay up to date on the daily schedule of the festival.
!13 Film Festivals and Brand Management Additionally, the items that are published in the newsletter are also published on the Atlanta Film Festival blog. Therefore, subscribing to the newsletter also brings interest to the blog, another forum of film festival news. By maintaining contact with its audience and distributing news that is relevant to the mission of the film festival, the Email newsletter represents an attempt to maintain and increase audiences as well as manage the brand of the film festival.
! ! Discussion and Implications Through its Facebook page, website, and email newsletters, the Atlanta Film Festival is dedicated to the its brand management by actively publicizing its mission statement, engaging and involving audiences, and building brand equity and brand loyalty. Maintaining this brand equity and remaining devoted to brand management, the Atlanta Film Festival is able to both respect and preserve its history as well as build a future of dedicated audiences and heightened participation. According to Keller (2005), in order for an organization to have successful brand management, it needs to identify values and positions, plan marketing programs, interpret brand performance, and sustain brand equity. The Atlanta Film Festival has done each of these on various communicative platforms. Their mission statement broadcasted on the Facebook page and website dictated the organizations values and positions as a film festival dedicated to networking and educating filmmakers. The Email newsletters are a marketing scheme, aimed at updating subscribers through email marketing campaigns. Brand performance and equity can be
!14 Film Festivals and Brand Management observed simply through the longevity of the film festival. Lasting nearly forty years, the Atlanta Film Festival has appropriately managed its brand and identity, gained brand equity from audiences, and sustained this loyalty throughout its history. Conclusion In order for film festivals to gain and maintain success, successful brand management is key. Defining the identity in a mission statement and consistently upholding that identity across various platforms determines the economic success as well as audience participation. The bottom line for film festivals is an audience. Without effectively managing the brand and candidly advertising the goals, values, and mission, a film festival will possibly lack success, familiarity, and popularity. However, by implementing effective strategies of brand management, a film festival will not only be successful in the current year but also for many more.
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