How A24 build a fan culture around indie films with a bullseye target, buzzy content, & non-cringe branded merch

A24 has built a consistent, repeatable formula for building buzz around indie films: offering a playbook for brands who want to build brands and make fans, not just sell products

Who will love this

• A24 stans

• People who read “Gen Z broke the marketing funnel” and want an alternative to the funnel

• Challenger brand managers

• Media brands (film, festivals, magazines) who’s brand equity comes and goes in each content new release

• Anyone who wondered why hotdog fingers were floating around the internet in 2022

Today

Good afternoon 👋

If you’re anything like me, a chunk of last week was spent decoding lyrics and listening to fan theories on TikTok about Taylor Swift’s new album and it got me thinking about fans, participation, and brands.

At its heart, brand building is just continuous storytelling. Fan centered brands let people participate in the story. And there’s no one better at it than A24.

A24 are an independent film studio who have built a repeatable formula for engaged, raving audiences who are ready to show up at the box office and also build accretive value in A24’s organic audiences over time (the definition of brand building).

How do they do it? A24’s marketing philosophy is just like their films: they’ll do things other studios would deem too risky or strange. Case in point: A24 have catfished people on Tinder, sent creepy dolls to audience members, and launched a website in partnership with a Satanic organization. And the fans show up! To buy $50 candles, shower curtains emblazoned with A24’s logo, paid memberships to get exclusive film access, and buy branded merch.

How do they do it?

Let’s roll the film and find out 🎞️

Deconstructing A24’s playbook for fan-centered marketing

1️⃣ Lead with a point of view: A24’s Cool Factor

The stronger your point of view on the world, the stronger your brand.

Most film studios produce the movies that will make the most money. A24’s strategy is to produce films with cool factor. 

If A24 were only chasing movies predicted to make a huge amount of money, they’d never have made films like Everything Everywhere, All at Once. They’d pick the biggest, most mass-appeals film (think: Marvel, LOTR, Harry Potter): a safe bet to win big at the box office.

A24 do the opposite. They move from funnel to bullseye: instead of targeting everyone, they focus on hyper niche audiences and left-of center films.

Being hyperspecific about their audiences give A24 an an outsized ability to market boldly, generate word of mouth and compete against bigger studios with bigger budgets. Case in point: Ten of the 20 top films from 2022 were trading on existing brand awareness from superheroes (Batman), previous hits (Top Gun) or well known historical figures (Elvis).

Then there’s Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a totally wacky film with a relatively small budget (Compare $14.3-$25M to Top Gun: Maverick’s $170-$177M). The film deals with existentialism, absurdism, nihilism, and surrealism. Definitely not the script that screams “mass appeal.” But: It became A24’s highest grossing film at $143M worldwide on a $14.3-25M production budget and has won:

• 7 out of 11 awards it was nominated for at the Academy Awards

• 2 Golden Globes

• 5 Critics’ Choice Awards

• 1 BAFTA

• 4 SAG Awards

A ringing endorsement for niching down and building buzz if I ever heard one.

2️⃣ Mine the content for marketable moments

Movie trailers mostly stink: they give away the entire story in 90 seconds.

A24 build buzz by mining their content for marketable moments in the content and and strategically placing them in front of their (niche) target audience.

For example: 

• For Ex Machina, a film about a robot romancing a human, A24 made a fake Tinder chat bot (this was before 2024’s hellscape of digital romantic companions) to plug the movie

• In 2015 for The Witch, a niche horror film, A24 created twitter accounts for the film’s characters, including Black Phillip (a goat) AND co-branded a microsite with the Satanic Temple. Ballsy.

• For Hereditary, a film about a cult, demonic influence and pagan rituals, A24 sent creepy looking dolls out to journalists and audience members

Brands can learn from this: instead of trying to appeal to everyone, niche down and grab the attention of the influencers in your audience.

A24 think in ideas that are designed to spread. This is a hallmark of a company that doesn’t have the comfort of big bad media budgets (A24 don’t do TV ads): they have to get creative.

3️⃣ Turning the audience into advocates

When was the last time you saw someone wearing a Paramount tee shirt or a Lions Gate trucker hat?

An audience that wants and wears your branded merch is a great heuristic for advocacy. A24 pass this test with flying colors.

How do they do it?

Bespoke merch for each film

A24 launches merch collections for each film they release. This builds ways for people to learn more, participate more, and share more about their films, with a mix of kitschy merch that play on the themes of the film.

Hot Dog fingers wouldn’t make sense to anyone who hasn’t seen Everything Everywhere All at Once. But if you’re a fan? You know. Fans take and make new meaning from the merch, remixing it and letting it take on a life of its own.

Membership programs for the most committed fans

A24 have turned film audiences into advocates of both their films AND their brand by launching a paid membership program for fans to get even closer to the brand. Any paid brand membership to me signal an extremely strong brand. (and I’d love to see their membership numbers!)

Three things to love and learn from A24

• Ditch the funnel, target the bullseye. A24 pull their product apart into hyper specific target audiences and then aim their marketing at those audiences. Think about your audience in hyperspecific terms: not “men 24-35 with an interest in horror films” but people who’ve gone deep on a Reddit thread about the Salem witch trials.

• Design marketing for moments that resonate with individuals, not the masses. A24’s formula = hyperspecific audience + core theme + shareable moment. You can imagine the way they came up with the Tinder bot for Ex-Machina by asking: who do we want talking about this movie? Tech journalists. How could we get a tech journo talking about Ex-Machina? What if he matched with the robot from Ex-Machina on Tinder?

• Build products for your most committed fans. When you have, or are building a strong brand, one of the easiest ways to win is to build a niche offering for your most committed customers. A24’s membership is a good example of this. It’s not for everyone, but building a way to give your superfans access to exclusives is a great way to build advocacy.

On my mind this week

I’ve gotten some questions recently about whether I work with clients. I do! You can book a discovery call to discuss your brand or growth goals, here.

That’s all!

Happy Friday,

Amanda

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