Magic: The Secret to Marketing Indie Films Online

Advertising executive Adam Cahill says "ideas aren't driven by a media buy." In other words, it's not the math - it's the magic.

In a Dec. 16th, 2011 blogpost to adage.com, Adam Cahill, exec VP and co-media director at Hill Holliday, writes about the emerging world of digital marketing in which he sees "only two things people need to do: math and magic."

By "math" Adam Cahill is referring to what advertising agencies call "platform media: the ability to buy placements using technology platforms, usually in real-time, one impression at a time."

By "magic" Mr. Cahill means the creative approach to media that leads to messages "so fun and/or interesting that people are actually drawn to them" - messages that are so magical, users might even want to share them.

"The magic comes from people who are immersed in digital culture, and who see connections between trends and technologies that others don't, and then fuse those things together to create programs that otherwise wouldn't have existed."

Adam Cahill's message to New World filmmakers? We need to think of ourselves as magicians.

Remember, in using the new tools of the Internet, we are following in the footsteps of magicians like Georges Méliès - who took the new tools of motion picture storytelling and made cinematic magic.



Every piece of content that markets a film online should be a marvel. Your goal? Create pieces of marketing that are surprising and entertaining - so extraordinary that users want to talk about and share your messages. Magic!

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