How Hollywood Will Promote Films and TV Shows Without Stars (or Major Influencers)
Hollywood studios eager to market big-budget releases are searching for ways to fill the publicity gap left by striking actors, who are barred by their union from promoting projects through red carpets and press tours during the work stoppage. Film and TV studios typically rely on actors to help market their products by walking the red carpet at premieres, showing up for talk show interviews and sitting down for magazine profiles.
With actors walking picket lines instead after the sides failed to reach a new labor contract, studios will have no choice but to focus more heavily on paid advertising, influencer marketing, attention-grabbing stunts and cross-promotions with consumer brands, according to industry experts. Major studios “are just going to have to come up with creative ways to learn how to market, because they’re so used to marketing as a machine and using people, and they can’t anymore," said Danielle Garnier, who founded a Chicago-based film publicity and marketing agency called Garnier Public Relations.
“I think it’s going to hurt." Conflictsare already emerging around influencers and other kinds of talent. In a preview of things to come, the cast of Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer" walked out of the film’s London premierejust after the union voted to strike.
Then the stars of Walt Disney Co.’s “Haunted Mansion" stayed away from its Disneyland premiere on Saturday, leaving several executives, theme park performers and nonunion YouTube creators as the biggest names on the red carpet. In the absence of actors’ ability to make emotional connections with audiences, studios will be forced to try to market more from the fans’ perspective, said Rick Eiserman, chief executive of entertainment marketing agency
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