How you can brand a fest

Robert RedfordAfter many years of representing a scrappy arts institute and it is film festival, the title "Sundance" is continuing to grow to face for any cable funnel, a movie distribution label, two online VOD rental shops, a series of theaters and film programs about the nation and world.Initially, it appears almost unfair to measure a nonprofit org devoted to finding and developing the very best youthful, cutting-edge films and filmmakers by the need for its title. However the question of Sundance's brand equity is sensible, thinking about its fast-growing expansion into new territory at any given time when brand identity appears much more essential to garnering consumer confidence for unknown, untested fare than ever before.InchAround we like and also have built the company IFC, Sundance is among the very couple of global film brands, and when it comes to independent film, it is the most widely known global brand on the planet. Everything pales in contrast,Inch states IFC Entertainment mind Jonathan Sehring, who runs Sundance Chooses among IFC's three film labels. Underneath the Sundance title (which IFC parent company Rainbow Media could use after obtaining the Sundance Funnel in 2008), IFC releases paperwork, foreign-language and prestige American fare that's performed a variety of festivals -- or none whatsoever.Prestige does not always equal box office success, even though Sundance is renowned for such breakout low-budget hits as "Little Miss Sunshine," it is also been noted for films that gain fanfare in the fest but very little else. The new sony PicturesClassics co-mind Tom Bernard sees its status for that latter shifting as popular culture catches as much as Sundance's edgier and more personal sensibility."Sundance is becoming kind of a normal word, like Coke for cola or Band-Aid for adhesive strip," Bernard states. "Previously, a 'Sundance-type movie' were built with a connotation which was 'not very good' or 'really esoteric,' and i believe that's transformed. The 'Sundance movie' brand presently has the design of something that's very independent, that will be new and different, like 'Martha Marcy May Marlene.' It changes monthly, and at this time I believe the heavens are aligned with (what Sundance means)."This season marks the 3rd edition under director John Cooper and programming mind Trevor Groth, and also the second for Sundance Institute professional director Keri Putnam.Commercial endeavors bearing the fest's title might have grown previously 3 years, but this trio -- who maintain obvious chapel-and-condition separation between individuals endeavors and also the nonprofits they oversee -- have perhaps fostered a fest as uncompromising to commercial interests as always: Once the competition selection was introduced in December, no films had marketers attached.If this involves outdoors endeavors and mix promotions, Cooper states the org is not marketing Sundance, by itself.InchWe are marketing the idea of independent film as viable entertainment," he states. "Whenever we curate a course, we are not thinking about attempting to change awareness people. I am interested in representing exactly what the filmmakers do this season.InchFor breaking company directors, producers and thesps, being selected to experience Sundance could make a big difference within the existence of the films, subjecting their try to receptive purchasers and press, and providing them with the perfect "Sundance film" cachet once the photos eventually achieve industry.Definitely, the brand's energy could be observed in the aspirant starlets wanting to pose while watching Sundance logo design on Primary Street, or even the numerous entrepreneurs searching to achieve the tastemakers attending the fest.While this past year saw an archive area of fest game titles obtain some type of distribution (thanks simply to an increasing number of VOD and ancillary release options), the Sundance Institute lately released initiatives to advertise a number of its most niche -- and perhaps least commercial -- choices.Around the front-end, Sundance's year-old partnership with Kickstarter assisted the crowdsourcing initiative fund 50 films towards the tune of $1.4 million, based on the Institute's digital initiatives director Frederick Beyer.Around the back finish, the Institute's Artists Services program forged a partnership with New Video that may potentially make any feature ever proven in the fest, introduced to the lab or given a grant open to the general public via iTunes, Amazon . com Instant Video, Hulu, Netflix, SundanceNow and YouTube. Filmmakers behind these unreleased or lengthy-lost game titles can retain all privileges for their work and employ Topspin Media marketing tools.Although this push brings increased awareness towards the "esoteric" side of Sundance's historic slate, around the switch side, programs like Sundance Film Festival USA will dispatch company directors from nine from the 2012 edition's most buzzed-about sales game titles -- including such potentially commercial photos as "Celeste and Jesse Forever," "Arbitrage" and "Bachelorette" -- to screen their films in metropolitan areas round the country throughout the festival.Although the public has formed its concept of the Sundance brand in the Institute's work across a variety of different platforms, associates observe that Robert Redford's founding vision started using the labs, in which the core idea, as Putnam summarizes it, happens to be "supporting independent new voices and honoring creativeness around the leading edge -- innovation within the ways tales are told and seen."Adds Groth: "So far as another organizations which have the term 'Sundance' inside them, Redford is definitely careful with how that word can be used. They know it started using the Institute, and anybody he gives that title needs to be in keeping with its values."Sundance Film Festival 2012How to brand a fest Tyro focus makes fest no country for old males Target game titles Thrills turn more extreme as indie genre photos evolve Newcomer 'dance Filmmakers liberated to experiment in labs Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com