It’s 2024, entertainment marketers, and your industry is evolving faster than ever!
With streamlining platforms, AR, social media, mobile apps, and more channels than ever before, delivering information to your audience at record speed, 2024 (and beyond!) is looking primed to bring new challenges for getting your content out there — and exciting opportunities too.
To keep your entertainment brand ahead of the game and ahead of your competitors, it’s time to rethink your strategies and find innovative new ways to grab attention in this crowded and fast-paced landscape we’re in.
So, whether you’re promoting your latest blockbuster flick, a heart-pumping concert, or a gut-busting comedy show, understanding and adapting to 2024’s entertainment marketing trends is key to staying relevant. And to get started, today’s blog is exploring the best practices for entertainment marketing in 2024 to help you break through the noise, engage your audience, and future-proof your marketing efforts.
The Challenges of Marketing for Entertainment Brands
So, what makes marketing for entertainment brands such a tricky landscape to navigate?
From popular entertainment marketing strategies like social media campaigns to innovative ventures into AR and NFTs, here are some challenges that marketers have to face:
- Fragmented Audiences — With more platforms and content channels than ever before, audiences are scattered across streaming services, social media, mobile apps, and traditional media. This makes it more difficult for marketers to reach everyone at once, requiring a more multi-channel approach.
- Content Saturation — The entertainment industry is highly competitive, with constant releases of movies, TV shows, music, and live events. Breaking through the noise in such a crowded space can be difficult, especially when every brand is competing for the same audience’s attention.
- Short Attention Spans — Audiences, especially younger demographics, have shorter attention spans and are constantly switching between platforms. Marketers need to create eye-catching, bite-sized content that grabs interest quickly and keeps it.
- Rapidly Changing Technology — The entertainment industry is constantly adopting new technologies like AR, VR, and NFTs. Keeping up with all of the new tech and finding ways to integrate them effectively into marketing strategies can be a challenge for brands that want to stay competitive.
- Building Authentic Engagement — Consumers are growing increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising, forcing entertainment marketers to focus on creating innovative yet authentic campaigns.
- Monetizing Digital Content — With the rise of streaming and digital content, many entertainment brands struggle with how to monetize their offerings. Ad-supported models and subscription fatigue are ongoing challenges that make it difficult to generate consistent revenue.
- Evolving Consumer Expectations — Audiences expect high-quality, interactive, and immersive experiences, whether it’s through social media, mobile apps, or live events.
- Data Privacy and Compliance — As data becomes a critical tool for personalizing marketing efforts, entertainment brands must keep up with strict data privacy laws and compliance issues, like GDPR and CCPA.
- Budget Constraints — Producing high-quality entertainment content and promotional campaigns is expensive and balancing creativity with tight marketing budgets is a challenge, especially for smaller entertainment brands.
- Unpredictable Trends and Audience Shifts — Popular culture and entertainment trends can shift practically overnight, thanks to viral social media moments or changes in consumer behavior. Marketers must remain flexible and ready to pivot strategies quickly.
Best Practices for Your Next Entertainment Marketing Campaign
The following are 8 entertainment marketing best practices to help you get your content noticed, connect with your audience, and grow your entertainment brand!
Have a look and see which you can start implementing into your next exciting campaign!
1. Use Data-Driven Insights
The data you extract from your campaign performance is crucial!
It not only lets you know how your campaigns are performing but lets you know where to fine-tune your strategy to better meet your consumer’s needs.
By analyzing data from streaming platforms, social media engagement, and ticket sales, you can gain a better understanding into how your audience consumes content, what genres or formats are working best, and which demographics are more likely to engage with your brand.
Use data analytics tools to track crucial KPIs like view engagement, watch time, fan interactions, and social media buzz. This can give you valuable insight into your audience’s tastes to help you create more personalized content that resonates with them and better allocate your resources to your most effective content and strategies.
You can also use AI and machine learning to help you analyze your audience’s behavior patterns, predict trends, and better optimize your strategy.
All of this works to reduce the guesswork in your marketing efforts, making your campaigns overall more effective, efficient, and cost-effective.
2. Embrace Social Media
Social media is a huge part of the media and entertainment industry!
It gives you access to an audience of millions and provides a platform for you to present your content in engaging and visual ways that grab your audience’s attention. Platforms like TikTok, Meta, and YouTube are great places to start if your brand doesn’t already have a presence there.
Use these platforms to build hype for your upcoming events or releases by sharing attention-grabbing content like teasers, behind-the-scenes, graphics, offers, and exclusive previews. Creating short and shareable pieces of video content or even user-generated content challenges is the perfect way to drive massive engagement, build hype, and keep your audience updated on your events in real time.
And in addition to organic social media marketing strategies, these platforms also offer targeted ads that let you reach specific demographics at just the right time. Run campaigns tailored to different regions, age groups, or interests of your audience to make sure that your content is being seen by the consumers who are most likely to enjoy and engage with your content and upcoming events.
3. Build Communities with Interactive Content
If you want to really connect with your audience and build a loyal community around your brand, then having interactive and dynamic content is essential!
Whether your brand is in the music industry and you’ve got an album, concert tour, or live event to promote, or you’re a sports brand looking to sell merchandise and build hype for your upcoming games, interactive content engages your fans and builds deeper connections.
Eye-catching visuals are a great place to start. Hire designers to create eye-catching digital posters or album art, release polls, quizzes or challenges, or even release behind-the-scenes content to provide exclusive insight that connects with your audience and humanizes your brand.
You can also do live content as well. Events like Q&A sessions, fan interactions, or other live events allow real-time engagement that your audience will enjoy. Whether your fans are interacting with an actor, musician, athlete, or someone on your internal team, these live sessions will keep them feeling more connected and involved.
4. Team Up with Celebrities and Influencers
An effective way to quickly expand your reach is to team up with celebrities and influencers who vibe with your brand and will appeal to your audience.
Find personalities (whether they’re YouTube stars, social media influencers, athletes, performers, or even local celebrities) whose image and style vibes with your target audience and align with your brand values and form of entertainment.
By partnering up, you can not only tap into a pre-existing fan base, boost your visibility, and put your content in front of new eyes, but you also benefit from the credibility and relevance of the personality this audience already knows and trusts.
However you choose to collaborate is up to you! Whether it’s a social media takeover, co-creating content, product placement, or just a celebrity endorsement for your brand or upcoming release, the extra promotion can spark interest among their followers and help you build excitement around your brand!
5. Create Immersive AR/VR Experiences
AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) technologies offer cutting-edge opportunities for creating memorable marketing experiences for your audience; experiences that just weren’t possible a few short years ago!
Use AR/VR to create content like immersive mover trailers, virtual concert experiences, or even interactive video game environments for your fans. AR filters can also bring characters to life on social media and give your audience a way to get involved with user-generated photo and image contests!
These fun and immersive experiences will engage your viewers and offer a unique selling point that boosts your marketing campaign above your competitors!
6. Take Advantage of NFTs
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are huge in the entertainment business!
NFT marketing offers your brand a new and innovative way to promote your events, boost your brand’s visibility, and engage your fans.
By creating limited-edition NFTs that are tied to your movie, television, music, or live events, you give your audience exclusive digital collectibles like artwork, behind-the-scenes content, merchandise, or even access to virtual events, making your brand and the event you're hosting even more memorable for them!
In addition to providing your audience with exclusive content, NFTs are also a great way to build hype, as well as an additional stream of revenue for your brand.
7. Harness the Power of Live Streaming
Live streaming has become one of the biggest distribution and marketing channels for entertainment-related content.
Platforms like Twitch, YouTube Live, and Facebook Live offer your audience unique opportunities to engage in real-time, turning your audience from viewers into active participants. Use live streaming opportunities strategically and you can increase your visibility, build excitement for an upcoming event, and create a more interactive connection with your audience.
If you’re looking for some livestream strategies to promote your entertainment content and sell more tickets, we’ve outlined some below:
- In-Stream Ads — Take advantage of in-stream ads to promote your content on popular live-streaming platforms. These ads appear during live broadcasts, allowing you to target specific audiences based on the streamer’s demographics. This can be used to promote trailers, exclusive clips, or upcoming releases to a relevant audience in real time.
- Exclusive Previews — Offering exclusive previews or teasers through live streaming can build excitement around upcoming movies, TV shows, games, or concerts. For example, you could debut a special scene, behind-the-scenes footage, or a new music video during a live stream to create a buzz with your audience.
- Premieres and Watch Parties — Host live premieres or watch parties on platforms like YouTube or Twitch to give fans a shared, real-time experience of your latest release. This strategy allows you to engage directly with fans in the chat, answer questions, or provide commentary, making them feel more connected to your brand.
- Interactive Q&A Sessions — Utilize live streaming to host interactive Q&A sessions with your cast, crew, or musicians, allowing fans to ask questions in real time. These live sessions provide an intimate connection with the audience and can generate buzz around your latest project by giving fans direct access to their favorite stars.
- Live Events and Performances — Streaming live concerts, red-carpet events, or exclusive performances is an excellent way to engage a global audience who can’t attend in person. Platforms like Instagram Live or Twitch allow you to reach millions and give your audience a front-row seat to live entertainment.
- Collaborate with Streamers — Partnering with popular streamers to host live gameplay events, exclusive content reveals, or interactive chats is another effective way to harness live streaming’s power. Streamers have loyal followings and can help boost your brand’s visibility to an already engaged audience.
8. Use Omnichannel Marketing Strategies
To really maximize your entertainment brand’s reach, you need to make sure that your messaging is reaching your audience wherever they are.
Omni channel marketing strategies are the way to go — whether it’s social media channels, digital ads, billboards, or other physical channels. Just be sure that your efforts, messaging, and branding stay consistent so that your audience is getting the same experience from your brand no matter where they happen across you.
This will help to reinforce your message and keep your entertainment brand top-of-mind!
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Need Some Entertainment Industry Marketing Support?
If you’ve come away from this article planning on implementing one (or more than one) of the best practices we’ve outlined above, then that’s great!
But just know that marketing strategies take time, creative talent, strategy, and manpower. And if that’s what could be holding you back, then we have one more best practice to fill you in on.
Why not just outsource all of your creative and marketing needs?
No, really.
Designity is an innovative Creative as a Service platform made up of the best of the best in fields like social media marketing, NFT design, graphic design, digital marketing, copywriting, video production, motion graphic design, and more — all of the moving parts you need to put together a winning entertainment marketing campaign to promote your events and help you sell more tickets and fill your venues.
Each Designity account is led by a capable Creative Director — an entertainment marketing and design pro — who manages your timeline, sources your creative team, and makes sure that you have all of the assets you need right when you need them.
If this starting to sound like an ideal solution to you, then great! Why not check out our entertainment marketing services page and portfolio and see how Designity’s platform has been the answer for entertainment brands just like yours?
If our style vibes with your brand, then go ahead and take the next step. Book your demo call today so we can get you started with your two-week, no-obligation trial so you can see for yourself why Designity is the best way to future-proof your entertainment brand and get you the attention you deserve.
