Making Money Marketing

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?

For Colored Girls Trailer

By show of hands, how many movies by Tyler Perry have you looked forward to in your lifetime?

Yeah, just about that many.

What makes this trailer so compelling is that this doesn’t look like the obnoxious, tired retread of material he’s done again and again. I don’t blame the guy, though, as he’s kind of the Kevin Smith of black film: he knows his audience, he makes movies for that audience, and these productions make money because he’s smart about how much to spend making them. Perry, as well, is an affable guy who you kind of root for when you realize what he’s done to get where he is and so going into watching this trailer I was wholly expecting to just observe what he’s put on display and move on. What’s here, though, has attached itself to me.

What this trailer manages to do, and is no less a miracle in my book, is to make me interested in what he has to say. I’ll go further and say that this looks like the kind of film that I want to be first in line to see after understanding that this is a movie that will strip away the artifice of farce and satire and lay bare the contemporary issues that women, notably women of color, have to contend with in modern social circles. I don’t know how this trailer is able to get this across but it does while, additionally, making me believe that seeing a movie with Whoopi Goldberg and Janet Jackson (who I last saw in the theater for Poetic Justice) would be a good thing.

The trailer is a slow burn in the best way possible. The music and pacing here work in tandem to establish a mood and it is unlike anything I’ve seen this year for a piece of marketing looking for your cash. It’s a risky thing, to show the plight of women who all seem to be done wrong in some kind of fashion or who are struggling to overcome some bad situation, because at the basic level why would I want to pay to be bummed out? That’s because, like the hope you have with any book you open, that you’ll be better at the end than you were at the beginning.

There are some dramatic performances here and, bless Perry in this department, it doesn’t look shot like a sitcom. There seems to be a real mutability with how we transition from one moment of sadness to another with varying intensity. All the while, however, you can’t help but think that here is the movie I hope can make me see what millions already have. There’s promise here and that’s the best thing you can come away with when you see this trailer.

Sint Trailer

“Getting presents can be fun. But you always end up getting crap you don’t need.”

Who will fly me out and open their home to me in the Netherlands, opening weekend, to see this movie? I cannot wait to see how absurd this film turns out. I mean, how can you not be amped after seeing this and hearing the above line being delivered by a guy who crystallizes the entire charade of Christmas in one fell swoop?

Thanks to the power of modern translation this movie looks like it’s a mix of the genuine fear of Halloween, the absurd horror of Gremlins, automatic weaponry, and lots of a’splosions. Almost taking a page out of the B movie playbook of features like Leprechaun or Jack Frost this movie looks like it’s just going to up the body count with a movie that does a lot more than have a clever premise. It looks like it’s going to take over an entire city with old Saint Nick looking to quench his thirst for a high body count.

The trailer is expertly paced with just enough front-loaded information, all of it heavy handed of course, that as soon as the idea of the movie is established we just get right down to it. From the woman home alone with a kid, to the couple looking to get freaky when they’re all alone, the setup is just too irresistible to pass up.

When the real terror starts coming in this trailer it rains down hard with the hard-nosed cop looking to end this once and for all, with Nick getting in some quality kills, with the po-po getting off spectacular shots as Nick tries to flee across a series of rooftops, this thing just looks like insane fun from beginning to end.

And how can you not want to see a movie directed by a guy with the name of Dick Maas? I know I do.

Today’s Special Trailer

To begin, I will pay a bounty on any person within the sound of my written voice who can silence the cheeky voiceover guy in this trailer.

The annoyingly pitched vox takes away from what looks like a very enjoyable film about a guy who needs to come to terms with his own cultural past. Instead, what I get that this is an independent film that’s fun for the entire family and that wackiness will ensure as soon as I start watching it. Truth of the matter is, however, it stars Dean Winters, who always looks like he could fight anyone at anytime, and Aasif Mandvi, who many people will recognize from Spider-Man 2 as the guy who fired Peter Parker from his delivery gig, and who really needs a better picture on IMDB (seriously, can’t anyone upload a high quality glossy for the guy?).

So, apart from the voiceover which really grates, we get a picture of Aasif in his current life as a brilliant sous chef along with lots of kudos from the many festivals where the film has played. It’s vital to keep these kinds of things to keep viewers hooked and it hits the post perfectly.

What else it does, as the damn voiceover  literally gets in the way of me trying to appreciate the subtlety about what’s happening within the family dynamics, is to paint a portrait of a man who needs to be taken down a peg. Yes, we’ve seen this kind of movie before where a few coats of paint magically transform a rundown, ramshackle of a business into a thriving enterprise and where that same guy, unbelievably, finds the love of his life but I see the sincerity here.

It’s not Todd Solondz newest epic masterpiece about incestuous grandmothers and it’s not some independent film about the hardships of midwives living in Vermont but it is the kind of film that just seems like it would be a pleasure to watch. The editing of this trailer is tight and the fact that it’s being co-written, along with Mandvi, by Jonathan Bines, writer on The Man Show, The Daily Show, and now Jimmy Kimmel, give me hope that it could be slightly funnier than any of its budgetary equals.

Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.

Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.

In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.

But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.

1. Create a Video, Start a Movement

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.

The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.

According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”

It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:

They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.

2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers

Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.

It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.

Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.

Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.

3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”

Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.

Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.

The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.

Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.

So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson

For more Social Good coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

HMV: We&#39;re &quot;very excited&quot; about 3DS launch | <b>News</b>

HMV UK & Ireland CEO and MD, Simon Fox, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the retailer is.

Medical Nobel Goes To Developer Of IVF - Science <b>News</b>

Robert Edwards receives prize for work that led to 4 million births.

IMPORTANT: Bing <b>News</b> RSS feed has moved! (France National Soccer <b>...</b>

... FIFA World Cup™ problems which followed the sending home of Nicolas Anelka after his clash with Blanc's predecessor Raymond Domenech. Blanc banned the entire 23-man FIFA World Cup squad from his first More FIFA World Cup News ...

eric seiger eric seiger

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers?

For Colored Girls Trailer

By show of hands, how many movies by Tyler Perry have you looked forward to in your lifetime?

Yeah, just about that many.

What makes this trailer so compelling is that this doesn’t look like the obnoxious, tired retread of material he’s done again and again. I don’t blame the guy, though, as he’s kind of the Kevin Smith of black film: he knows his audience, he makes movies for that audience, and these productions make money because he’s smart about how much to spend making them. Perry, as well, is an affable guy who you kind of root for when you realize what he’s done to get where he is and so going into watching this trailer I was wholly expecting to just observe what he’s put on display and move on. What’s here, though, has attached itself to me.

What this trailer manages to do, and is no less a miracle in my book, is to make me interested in what he has to say. I’ll go further and say that this looks like the kind of film that I want to be first in line to see after understanding that this is a movie that will strip away the artifice of farce and satire and lay bare the contemporary issues that women, notably women of color, have to contend with in modern social circles. I don’t know how this trailer is able to get this across but it does while, additionally, making me believe that seeing a movie with Whoopi Goldberg and Janet Jackson (who I last saw in the theater for Poetic Justice) would be a good thing.

The trailer is a slow burn in the best way possible. The music and pacing here work in tandem to establish a mood and it is unlike anything I’ve seen this year for a piece of marketing looking for your cash. It’s a risky thing, to show the plight of women who all seem to be done wrong in some kind of fashion or who are struggling to overcome some bad situation, because at the basic level why would I want to pay to be bummed out? That’s because, like the hope you have with any book you open, that you’ll be better at the end than you were at the beginning.

There are some dramatic performances here and, bless Perry in this department, it doesn’t look shot like a sitcom. There seems to be a real mutability with how we transition from one moment of sadness to another with varying intensity. All the while, however, you can’t help but think that here is the movie I hope can make me see what millions already have. There’s promise here and that’s the best thing you can come away with when you see this trailer.

Sint Trailer

“Getting presents can be fun. But you always end up getting crap you don’t need.”

Who will fly me out and open their home to me in the Netherlands, opening weekend, to see this movie? I cannot wait to see how absurd this film turns out. I mean, how can you not be amped after seeing this and hearing the above line being delivered by a guy who crystallizes the entire charade of Christmas in one fell swoop?

Thanks to the power of modern translation this movie looks like it’s a mix of the genuine fear of Halloween, the absurd horror of Gremlins, automatic weaponry, and lots of a’splosions. Almost taking a page out of the B movie playbook of features like Leprechaun or Jack Frost this movie looks like it’s just going to up the body count with a movie that does a lot more than have a clever premise. It looks like it’s going to take over an entire city with old Saint Nick looking to quench his thirst for a high body count.

The trailer is expertly paced with just enough front-loaded information, all of it heavy handed of course, that as soon as the idea of the movie is established we just get right down to it. From the woman home alone with a kid, to the couple looking to get freaky when they’re all alone, the setup is just too irresistible to pass up.

When the real terror starts coming in this trailer it rains down hard with the hard-nosed cop looking to end this once and for all, with Nick getting in some quality kills, with the po-po getting off spectacular shots as Nick tries to flee across a series of rooftops, this thing just looks like insane fun from beginning to end.

And how can you not want to see a movie directed by a guy with the name of Dick Maas? I know I do.

Today’s Special Trailer

To begin, I will pay a bounty on any person within the sound of my written voice who can silence the cheeky voiceover guy in this trailer.

The annoyingly pitched vox takes away from what looks like a very enjoyable film about a guy who needs to come to terms with his own cultural past. Instead, what I get that this is an independent film that’s fun for the entire family and that wackiness will ensure as soon as I start watching it. Truth of the matter is, however, it stars Dean Winters, who always looks like he could fight anyone at anytime, and Aasif Mandvi, who many people will recognize from Spider-Man 2 as the guy who fired Peter Parker from his delivery gig, and who really needs a better picture on IMDB (seriously, can’t anyone upload a high quality glossy for the guy?).

So, apart from the voiceover which really grates, we get a picture of Aasif in his current life as a brilliant sous chef along with lots of kudos from the many festivals where the film has played. It’s vital to keep these kinds of things to keep viewers hooked and it hits the post perfectly.

What else it does, as the damn voiceover  literally gets in the way of me trying to appreciate the subtlety about what’s happening within the family dynamics, is to paint a portrait of a man who needs to be taken down a peg. Yes, we’ve seen this kind of movie before where a few coats of paint magically transform a rundown, ramshackle of a business into a thriving enterprise and where that same guy, unbelievably, finds the love of his life but I see the sincerity here.

It’s not Todd Solondz newest epic masterpiece about incestuous grandmothers and it’s not some independent film about the hardships of midwives living in Vermont but it is the kind of film that just seems like it would be a pleasure to watch. The editing of this trailer is tight and the fact that it’s being co-written, along with Mandvi, by Jonathan Bines, writer on The Man Show, The Daily Show, and now Jimmy Kimmel, give me hope that it could be slightly funnier than any of its budgetary equals.

Frank Barry, professional services manager at Blackbaud and blogger at NetWits ThinkTank, helps non-profits use the Internet for digital communication, social media, and fundraising so they can focus on making an impact and achieving their missions. Find Frank on Twitter @franswaa.

Non-profit organizations are leading the way when it comes to creatively harnessing the power of social media. A report by The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that the largest U.S. non-profit organizations continue to outpace Inc. 500 businesses and higher education institutions in their familiarity, use and monitoring of social media.

In fact, 93% of the top U.S. charities have a class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook page, 87% have a Twitter profile, and 65% have a blog. Why does this matter? Because the rapid growth and adoption of social media is helping non-profits in their quest for change — they truly are using social media for social good.

But what about the little guys? The social web can give smaller players a big voice if they know how to leverage it. Here are three inspiring success stories of small non-profits who met or exceeded their goals with the help of social media.

1. Create a Video, Start a Movement

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project will inspire you. Suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Darius and 11 of his best friends decided to head out on a cross country road trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles, where Darius hoped to have his wheelchair spiffed up by MTV’s Pimp my Ride. Though his wheelchair did not get pimped by MTV on that trip, there was a far better outcome that even Darius couldn’t have imagined.

The 25-day trip resulted in memories, experiences and 300 hours of video which were turned into a documentary that has impacted thousands of people around the world. That very same documentary has now raised over $2 million for DMD research.

According to the Darius Goes West team, “We had offers from distributors, but, in the end, we decided to self-distribute our film. By opting to self-distribute, we bear the responsibility for marketing, but we also have the power to devote $8 of every DVD sale to promising DMD research.”

It’s apparent that social media has played and continues to play a significant roll in helping to raise both awareness and money for DMD research through Darius and his friends. Here’s a snap shot of their social media footprint:

They’ve accrued close to 700,000 views on YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube, collected more than 14,000 Facebook fans, obtained roughly 2,000 Twitter followers, and raised almost $45,000 through Facebook Causes and FirstGiving.

2. Empower Your Supporters to be Free Agent Fundraisers

Well known cycling blogger Elden Nelson did something incredible a few months ago — he raise more than $135,000 in less than 10 days for LIVESTRONG and World Bicycle Relief using his blog, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Friends Asking Friends.

It all started when Nelson sent Lance Armstrong’s racing team manager, Johan Bruyneel, an open cover letter as if he were applying for a job.

Nelson, who dreamed of becoming a pro cyclist, reached out to Bruyneel, with low expectations on its return. But through the power of social media, Bruyneel did see it, and he challenged Nelson via Twitter and his blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog to raise $50,000 for LIVESTRONG and $50,000 for World Bicycle Relief. Nelson took on that challenge and completed it in less than two days.

Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his network using social media, this wouldn’t have been possible in such a shot amount of time. Nelson tweeted numerous times as the story unfolded, as did Bruyneel, @livestrong, @livestrongceo and @lancearmstrong. Those three accounts combined have over 3.5 million Twitter followers. Add to that the numerous blog posts, Facebook status updates and YouTube videos, and you get a social media-fueled fundraising phenomenon like we’ve never seen.

3. Raise Funds by Creating a “Heartspace”

Mothers Day 2010 brought about quite a few online fundraising initiatives, but none were more impressive than the To Mama with Love campaign created by the passionate folks at Epic Change and a host of great volunteers. The goal was simple — raise money to support Mama Lucy in her efforts to educate children in Tanzania.

Mama Lucy is a change agent who saved her own income and used it to start a primary school in Tanzania, believing that education is the key to transforming a country gripped by poverty. Over the last six years, Mama Lucy has grown the school from one classroom with fewer than 10 students, to a school that now serves more than 300 children at eight grade levels.

The initiative was simple but powerful. Supporters were encouraged honor their own mothers by making a donation and then creating a virtual scrapbook or “heartspace” on the site, including photos, videos, notes, and artwork. They could then share their “heartspace” with their mother, friends and family via Twitter and Facebook, or via a customized e-card.

Using social media as the primary communication and engagement mechanism, Epic Change was able to raise close to $17,000 and provide a safe home for 17 children in Tanzania, while also encouraging more than 300 mothers along the way. They did all of this in about a week’s time with a staff of two.

So you see, social media has truly enabled non-profits both large and small to reach out and make some real change. Tell us about the social cause campaigns you’ve donated to in the past in the comments below.

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Easy Ways to Support a Cause Through Your Social Network/> - 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Social Good/> - 10 Ways to Start a Fund for Social Good Online/> - How Social Good Has Revolutionized Philanthropy/> - 5 iPhone Apps to Help Fight Poverty

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson

For more Social Good coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

HMV: We&#39;re &quot;very excited&quot; about 3DS launch | <b>News</b>

HMV UK & Ireland CEO and MD, Simon Fox, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the retailer is.

Medical Nobel Goes To Developer Of IVF - Science <b>News</b>

Robert Edwards receives prize for work that led to 4 million births.

IMPORTANT: Bing <b>News</b> RSS feed has moved! (France National Soccer <b>...</b>

... FIFA World Cup™ problems which followed the sending home of Nicolas Anelka after his clash with Blanc's predecessor Raymond Domenech. Blanc banned the entire 23-man FIFA World Cup squad from his first More FIFA World Cup News ...

eric seiger eric seiger