Eventful, the latest Go Local Awards finalist to be featured here, borrowed a technique often used for film trailers to promote a new TV show, Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow,” with tremendous results. The program used digital media to created a competition among cities for which would get to host a preview of the new show.

Eventful’s Holly Anderson shared some of the campaign’s results — 30,000 participants, 18 million social impressions, 1 million trailer views and 35 million digital media impressions.

“And 31 percent of the 30,000 participants shared their voting on Facebook and Twitter,” Anderson said.

Anderson said campaigns like this work well for higher-engagement type films and TV shows — think comedy, scifi and horror. One event derived from the campaign drew 4,000 people to view a screening in a cemetery. And yes, the Headless Horseman was in attendance.

The Go Local Awards winners will be announced next week at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: The National Impact conference in Atlanta.

Watch this video to learn more about Eventful’s finalist entry in the Go Local Awards.

The post Looking Ahead to Atlanta: Eventful Helps “Sleepy Hollow” Go Viral appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Eventful, the latest Go Local Awards finalist to be featured here, borrowed a technique often used for film trailers to promote a new TV show, Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow,” with tremendous results. The program used digital media to created a competition among cities for which would get to host a preview of the new show.

Eventful’s Holly Anderson shared some of the campaign’s results — 30,000 participants, 18 million social impressions, 1 million trailer views and 35 million digital media impressions.

“And 31 percent of the 30,000 participants shared their voting on Facebook and Twitter,” Anderson said.

Anderson said campaigns like this work well for higher-engagement type films and TV shows — think comedy, scifi and horror. One event derived from the campaign drew 4,000 people to view a screening in a cemetery. And yes, the Headless Horseman was in attendance.

The Go Local Awards winners will be announced next week at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: The National Impact conference in Atlanta.

Watch this video to learn more about Eventful’s finalist entry in the Go Local Awards.

The post Looking Ahead to Atlanta: Eventful Helps "Sleepy Hollow" Go Viral appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey Research Director Steve Marshall capped Day 2 with consecutive interviews with two Digital Hollywood insiders. Doug Neil, SVP digital marketing for Universal Pictures; and Jordan Glazer, CEO Eventful.

First up was Neil, who runs online and mobile strategies for the film studio. He has managed digital marketing for more than 120 films.

Here’s an excerpt from their discussion.

How are campaigns customized per film?

Every film is unique. We do 15 to 18 films a year, each has a distinct target audience. There is some overlap, but we have to have unique programs for what we do.

What are digital market budgets for the average film?

It depends on the film, and on the target audience. A movie release will have a $15 million to $40 million per film total market. Online averages 10 percent but is sometimes as much as 20 percent of the total marketing budget.

Is mobile’s share of the total increasing?

Absolutely. It was an afterthought seven years ago. Now there is a team that focuses on mobile marketing.

Looking at all the media at Universal’s disposal, how do you decide the mix?

Again, driven by the audience we are trying to reach. Les Miserable has a substantial local print buy, because the audience does skew a little older. Pitch Perfect had no print. The next Fast and Furious movie will be mostly online.

Do you monitor online commentary?

Absolutely. After the first screening of Les Miserable, were on twitter for 24 hours tracking reactions. As we do more screenings, we compare the response by market.

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Next up was Jordan Glazer, CEO of Eventful. Eventful is a global platform for local event content.

Where do local acts fit into your ecosystem?

When we embarked upon the challenge of aggregated the most comprehensive data set around events, the head of the tail was movie times, etc. But the majority of content is hyper local. Wine tastings and local performing arts.

How do you target?

We know not just zip code or gender or age, we have a lot of data on what they like. From what they tell us and from our own observation. And we have built technology to take advantage of all that data.

We worked with Universal on reaching a faith based audience for the film Charlie St. Cloud, for example. One thing we can look at is, “Who likes Christian rock?”

How does Eventful make money?

Our service is free to consumers. We license event content, but the bulk of our revenue comes from advertising among entertainment marketers.

What about personalization?

In our email marketing program, we send our weekly events guides. Over the last 12 months, we began to personalize each email to the recipient…”Segment of one” is a very 80’s as a term, but we are finally able to deliver a completely unique content experience. And that will continue.

The post At ILM West: Hollywood Shows the Way appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The events listings space has taken a number of twists and turns with Zvents trying to steer people to retail events as a business model, and also become a media driver in its own right; Eventful focusing more and more on Hollywood studios and TV shows to drive viral demand for their entertainment properties; GoldStar focusing on quiet, sophisticated events; and others focusing on social media and transaction hybrids.

Not everything has worked out as planned. Today, Zvents announced that it has been sold to eBay’s StubHub. For StubHub, which is a reseller/scalper of events, it will get a chance to work Zvents’ list of events from 140,000+ local marketers and promoters. Typically, 60,000 events are listed at any one time.

It — along with other eBay properties — may also seek to do more with Zvents’ large network of newspaper partners. But that would likely be a second phase, if ever.

The post Zvents Sold to eBay’s StubHub appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

ValPak now routinely features TV shows within its coupon offerings. This week, for instance, it has a Delta Airlines Sweepstakes associated with promotions for “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and “Mike & Molly.” In San Diego, the sweepstakes promotion is alongside more typical ValPak promotions for Sears Home Services, Alladin Parking and North County Pavers.

Eventful is going a step further and really pushing hard on the games mechanics for multiple social media promotions. The site has always had a “Demand It” feature for users to solicit events to their town. Now, Demand It has been expanded with eight weekly competitions. Each will enable users to “play” various contests, while being exposed to marketing for movies, TV shows, records, new books or even politicians, liquor and deal-a-day sites.

This week, for instance, the competitions include bringing author Ned Vizzini to a school; winning the premier showing of “Paranormal Activity 2,” a scary movie; being one of three schools to host Cox Cable and MTV’s “Challenge Day”; or five others (including Kiss).

CEO Jordan Glazier tells us “the local targeting capability of the Internet and direct e-mail marketing services like Eventful helps agencies appreciate the benefits of local focus. They are increasingly including local as a requirement within their buys.”

Using services like Eventful, Glazier says that “brand agencies have the opportunity to impact commerce for their clients across strategic segments and markets in ways that historically have been restricted to promotional agencies.” He adds that Eventful is capable of targeting by age, gender, presence of children, household income, city and neighborhood, and types of favored entertainment.

The post Movies, TV Shows, Concert Acts Using Local Online for Promos appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.