Everything is set and falling into place perfectly. The PR staff, cameramen, associate producers, producers, executives, even modern day advertising.
Everyone is ready for this weekend. The work party is being held right outside of Kansas City at my personal vacation cabin. It’s a bit of a drive for some of the people attending the get-together, but the views are definitely worth it: rolling hills, spacious countryside, abundant wildlife, you name it and this cabin has it.
Everyone in the office is probably ready for a little change of scenery. Besides, there are more than enough guest rooms throughout the place to accommodate everyone for the night since it’s a bit of a hike from the city. The only thing I need to check before the group gets here is to make sure there are no unwanted guests, or mice as they are commonly known, residing in the cabin.
I haven’t used the place since the past summer so it’s been empty almost an entire year. The cabin is bound to have mice so to make sure nothing goes wrong, I’ll go ahead and find pest control near me. I know there are some good companies in Kansas City so it shouldn’t take long to have the problem resolved.
Once the cabin is mouse-free and ready to house some friendly faces, the party will begin! Everything is laid out and set up for the guests and I can’t wait to get the conversation going about promoting our next film. Research has been saying that maybe the old ways are best and everything new and digital isn’t guaranteed to mean it’s better.
The new marketing approach will be a great conversation starter for the party considering the last film we shot didn’t do as well in the box office as we had hoped. We had followed the lead from some of our fresh-out-of-college PAs that assisted on the set who claimed that their generation didn’t really respect tradition advertising (i.e. billboards, newspaper ads, subway ads, etc.) and instead looked for their news online and through social media platforms (sponsored posts, influencers, trailers through video streaming sites, etc.).
Some of the executives and myself took to the web and the old school library to research statistics on traditional advertising vs. non-traditional or modern advertising. We came out of our study sessions with a pretty good idea of what needed to be done and why we thought traditional advertising didn’t seem to work anymore.
After brainstorming with the younger members of the staff and playing around on various websites and social media sites, we created a whole marketing campaign directed right at the younger generations. We thought this movie would be an instant blockbuster hit with our new advertising strategy, but instead of blowing the minds of our audience and exploding through the top of the box office charts, the movie flopped.
The generation we had been hoping to reach through this new way of advertising instead passed over all of the ads and promotions without a second glance. The links we put out on some of the biggest websites like Facebook and Instagram were hardly clicked or shared when we went back to look at the stats.
It was obvious then that the approach didn’t work, but up until now, no one had any other grand ideas about how to be creative in our advertising approach.
This cabin party will be the game-changer for the company and for the way the team works and brainstorms together. The new project will have a whole new advertising campaign attached to it that will be developed at this get-together.
There is no better place to clear one’s head and gain a fresh outlook on life and a new perspective on one’s career than being in the countryside surrounded by like-minded individuals. If all goes well, the weekend will be repeated in the future for other projects that may need a little fun in the production!
Mice, failed advertising strategies, long-distance driving, nothing can stop this party from being a hit.