Friday, November 30, 2018
How A24 Became the Coolest Brand in Hollywood
www.highsnobiety.com: Today, indie film house A24 announced a selection of scented candles inspired by different movie genres. Created in collaboration with Joya Studio, the genre candles forgo theater smells like popcorn and worn velour seats in favor of aromatic alternatives named horror, western, thriller, noir, adventure, and musical after the movie genres.
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5 comments:
I think that this is a really interesting idea. For many in the creative field making a profit on your work is hard, so turning towards selling merchandise or expanding what you create is one way to help. I think making candles for different movie genres is a very interesting idea, but could be lucrative. I love candles and always have them lit at home, I don't know if I would like to have a certain candle smell based on a movie a watch but it would be interesting to see what kind of scents people think should accompany movies. Selling apparel is very common for any studio or theater, or really just any organization in general. It helps create a brand and promotes itself, so I am not surprised but that, and do think it looks fashionable as well. I don't know if every indie movie production company will do this but it seems to be working well for A24.
I’ve been seeing more and more of A24 over the last few years. Their movies are usually quite good, and though I haven’t yet seen much of their merch, from the pictures in the article that also looks pretty cool. I think A24 is really getting is right in a lot of ways. They are aiming at a millennial audience, one who is known for preferring to buy experiences compared to more tangible objects. And they are leaning into that in a lot of ways. Strong branding from a company is important, but also how you get there. I would argue that other distributers have rather strong branding (Century Fox, Pixar, etc) but no young person in their right mind would walk around in a Century Fox t-shirt. It’s too commercial, too capitalist, and too mainstream. But A24 fits into a niche market of small enough to be independent but big enough to be a known name.
This is a very interesting trend we have been seeing in the world of modern movies, and I, for one, am very happy to see it happen. The old bigwigs of Hollywood have been scratching their heads for years, asking themselves "What do the people want?" and they all get together in their oak paneled boardrooms and muse over their limited worldview. "Let's give them another remake of a classic movie!" they say, "only this time, let's cast Johnny Depp and hire a lunatic to do the production design." All this uttered from behind a cloud of cigar smoke and brandy vapor. "The public doesn't know what they want, but goddamn if we won't give it to them." The thing is, imaginary studio exec that I made up in my mind, the general public pretty much knows what it wants. It wants to be thrilled and surprised and brought to tears by new, creative, and original movies. We don't want to be bored by endless rehashes. We want our generation of creative people to exercise their creative minds! Take that, studio execs, and go A24!
I had never heard of A24 before this article but from reading it I can understand why their ‘brand’ is spreading and becoming popular. Word of mouth is still the best marketing strategy, especially for forms of media, although that definition has changed over time to accomodate for new technology. Seeing a friend or even just a random internet person rave about a new TV show or movie, or posting quote gifsets or meta analysis, is more likely to make someone want to watch it than a random ad or promo. It seems like A24 is embracing modern internet culture in its marketing rather than stick to the traditional mold of purchasing advertisements on webpages. Combining these strategies with new and comparatively innovative films (as opposed to Disney’s current strategy of live-action remakes that they know will make money) allows a small studio to end up with a comparatively large fanbase.
This is the millennial creative age at it's peak. Driven focus, market strategy and research on what the public actually will buy is the key to success here. Embracing the what others may view as nonsense and whimsy has made such a difference for A24. They let the market and the consumer drive their process in a kind of unconventional way. This approach has always been sort of the indie way, but is becoming so much more mainstream as people are tired of the same old same old and are looking for new approaches, products and creativity. I hope that they continue to find success as culture is always changing as things that are popular don't always stay such for very long.
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