Lately, advertisers are finding a lot of success advertising in independent films and short films. Recently, a product placement advertiser advertised in an independent film for less than $10,000 and the film went on to screen in theaters nationwide and was sold in stores all over the country. That product was seen in the movie by over 30 million people.

Some of the typical type of movie advertisers are:

• Clothing brands
• Automobiles
• TVs
• Beverages, Supplements
• Fast Food

And a whole lot more. Anything and everything you can think of. If you see a brand or product in a movie, a deal was made to place that.

Why do companies place their products or brands in movies?

They do it for the same reason that they sponsor sports arenas (TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Staples Center in L.A., etc.) That reason is that they want to make their brand to remain relevant and stay in peoples minds.

People buy things like cars because of what the cool car is in the movies. They eat what their favorite stars are eating. The list goes on and on.

How do you get your product placed in a movie?

Typically you are going to spend a lot of money $100,000 – $1,000,000 + to get placed in a big studio produced feature film. That’s out of budget for most mid level entreprenuers or small busines owners. How do you solve this problem?

Short or independent films are you answer.

The average independent or studio produced short film will have a much smaller need for funding and should be able to place you in the film for under $10,000.

The reason short and independent films usually need less is because they are passion projects for the filmmakers. They motivate their entire production team to work for as little as possible and don’t use expensive locations.

They also typically are VERY motivated to make the film very successful in film festivals and are eager to land distribution deals. You often won’t find a more motivated person to help you get your product (and their movie) out there than a filmmaker.

A good copywriter is hard to find, a great copywriter is almost impossible to find, and usually extremely expensive too. I know copywriters who charge a minimum of $10,000 plus commission to write a sales page or a direct mail letter, and they’re not even the top ones in the country. I think copywriting is the language every marketer should learn, preferably master, but at least learn the very basics of.

I mean, haven’t you visited that sales page online that just, for some reason, sucks you in, and either you bought the product or service, or you had to actually make an effort to come to your senses to not pull out your credit card? Hell, I’m what most people would call a very experienced marketer, and I still fall for some of the stuff out there. It’s just how we work as humans. If I’m interested in something, and the text speaks to me in the right way, I’ll pull out my credit card faster than you can say “give me the money.”

A good headline and some convincing bullet points can increase conversion rates with several hundred percent. Sometimes when I split test different headlines and bullet points, it can differ from 10-20%. Learn how to make those modifications yourself, and you’ll both save money and make lots more.

Since this is pointed towards people who are new at this, or even if you’ve been around for a while, there are some great resources out there if you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars learning how to write copy. Here are a few:

1. Know you business/niche! Check magazines, yes, the PRINTED ones. Why? Ok, let me tell you this… Every marketer I know who sells something to women, has a subscription to Vogue, Vanity Fair and all those other magazines. Why? Because they’ve been around FOREVER…. And why is that? Because they know how to sell! Learn from the headlines of the things that sell! This goes for other niches as well, if you’re selling golf stuff, get some golf magazines, car stuff, get car magazines, etc.

2. Start looking at things from a copywriter’s/marketer’s point of view. When you get direct mail in your snail mail box, don’t throw it away immediately! Study it, look at the headlines, the graphics, what they are doing. Trust me, they wouldn’t be sending out that same crap month after month if it wasn’t making a profit!

3. Google some really competitive keywords and read the Adwords ads. Don’t be mean and click them, because they’re probably paying tons per click, but check out how the ads speak to people and what they’re saying. Copy and paste the URL and see how the landing page is designed. Why the competitive one’s? Because they pay lots per click, and they wouldn’t be doing that unless they were making money.

Also, create an alternate email address and sign up for all kinds of newsletters. See how other marketers are doing.

4. Start creating what’s called a “swipe file,” meaning a file/folder with all the great headlines and sections that you can find or that you have written yourself. When you are working on a new project, get inspiration or “borrow” from that swipe file and make it even better!

5. Read some of the blogs on copywriting. There are several ones, but look up CopyBlogger (http://www.copyblogger.com), or John Carlton – a living legend (http://www.john-carlton.com).

6. Get some great books on copywriting! This is a must if you really want to learn more. I can definitely recommend:

The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy
No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-direct Marketing Businesses by Dan Kennedy
Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joseph Sugarman

There are of course many, many more… And remember, study them, and then take what you feel is great and use it to create your own style.

A tactic to get people to take action on their Birthdays.

It’s no great discovery to realize that they are using two tactics here. 1) They are offering the free $350 worth of gift cards in order to make you take action on purchasing an airline ticket. And, 2) They are targeting people on their birthdays making it much more likely that they will open this postcard that otherwise may seem like nonsense.

What I want you to take from this is the point of the birthday targeting.

When you are targeting online campaigns, such as a Facebook campaign, birthday targeting can make something all the more relevent.

Simply introducing an ad on someones birthday makes it seem unique and highly tailored to them, in other words, they are more likely to at least take a 2nd look at it since it is relevant.

The other cool thing in this postcard is that they listed a “offer number” code on the bottom corner. This makes it seem even more exclusive. Some of you may have experience promoting products as affiliates that have “coupon codes” this is a similar line of thinking, to make you think you are getting something exclusive that is not just available for everyone.

Next time you have tapped all the demographic data that you can think of and split tested everything under the sun, I challenge you to try one more thing. I challenge you to create a “birthday targeted” campaign, using your same offer or sell point from your previous ads, however this time offer it to them as a birthday special, like we see in this postcard.