-By Andreas Fuchs

“Everything that takes place in the theatres pertaining to one of our films” is the domain of Branden Miller, VP of 20th Century Fox In-Theatre Marketing, and his team. “I think we were the ones who started the whole move towards in-theatre marketing,” he elaborates. “When I first started in the business, it was still called ‘exhibitor relations,’ which was always one of those hard-to-explain things: We are ‘relating’ with the exhibitors?” he muses. “Nobody was quite sure where that term originally came from.”

When Miller came to Fox, “we changed ourselves to Exhibitor Services, because we all believed that we are here to serve exhibitors as the primary function of what we are doing. From there on, things have constantly evolved and we are doing a lot more in line with what is marketing.”

This also explains why “Fox is a little different than the other studios” in terms of where in-theatre fits in as part of the overall campaign. Miller reports to both marketing and distribution, whereas “most of the other in-theatre marketing departments fit under domestic distribution. We are very integrated into both at Fox, which is a great position to be in. After all, it is hybrid… We are dealing with theatres and play dates, exhibition, but are also doing things that are a function of marketing. As they come up with the concepts for a film’s campaign and are building the plan, we are one of those elements in the overall package.”

Again, in a not-so-typical move compared to others in the industry, Miller also handles the more specialized pictures from Fox Searchlight. While it might be challenging to keep both divisions happy at all times, he certainly enjoys the diversity. “We treat them all like our babies,” he insists. “We work with everything from a Hindi-language film like Slumdog Millionaire or a really small indie like Adam to blockbusters like Wolverine and Avatar, all within the same time period. The diversity is so much fun. No two days are ever the same.”

Going back 12 or so years, “many theatre managers were uncomfortable calling a studio to ask for help,” Miller recalls. “It’s a little ominous to call someone at the movie studio, so we tried to humanize ourselves.” With the branding of Team Fox, “we created a cohesive team of players, which you can go to for help.” The idea behind the now iconic baseball cards “was to have photos and stats for each one of us,” he says. “So, instead of just being a name on the other side of the phone, you actually have a face to relate to.” Additional facts “like favorite movie, where we went to college and such” help open up the conversation. “People call and say how we both like the same movie… It helps to break the ice.”

On the flip side, the friendly faces became such a hit that mystery-shopper type visits to theatres are no longer possible for Miller and the team. “It has been very successful to the point where now I go into a theatre in the middle of nowhere and somebody will shout, ‘Hey, Branden…I got your baseball card.’ It has done a terrific job in branding our group and also to increase recognition. For the most part, our group is known more than at some of the other studios, just because it has given faces to all of us.”

Once contact has been made, Team Fox relies on a variety of tools to communicate further, including 1-800-FOX-0010 to call. “We really want to make it as easy as possible to get materials to help you with your promotions,” Miller promises. “We want to be there to support people.” In addition to “talking to anyone on our staff,” he says, “everybody can go to our website www.foxintheatre.com, which was one of the first and one of the most comprehensive to begin with. We really put a lot of effort into the site, including having ad slicks and artwork that theatres can download. We also post photos and other materials when we have a coloring contest, for instance, along with promotional ideas and news items about things that are happening—when our films go into production, awards we’re winning and so on. You can also order all your advertising materials there, trailers and standees and such.”

Of all the available options, for Miller, “trailers are the most successful way to market a film. One of the reasons is that it is a longer audiovisual form to sell a movie as opposed to a television spot where you have to tell the story in 30 or 60 seconds. The other advantage is that trailers are very targeted towards actual moviegoers,” he elaborates. “When you program similar genres and demographics, you are also able to go down even deeper. If you buy a spot on ‘American Idol,’ you know you may be reaching 30 to 40 million people, but how many of them are moviegoers? And how many are actually interested in seeing a horror film or romantic comedy? With trailers you can be targeted and program one romantic comedy with another. That’s just a great way to sell movies.”

Anything “that you can do that kind of stands out against the clutter” is another key element, Miller continues. One such “great promotional tool” debuted at ShoWest 2007 with a “life-sized Simpsons family made of resin sitting on a couch in their living room, with a spot where you could take your photo with them,” as many attendees will fondly remember. “That was something that became so viral and everybody was talking about it. I was visiting a theatre in Michigan or somewhere,” he recalls, “and overheard someone enthusing about it and showing off the picture he took. Those kinds of things, I think, are really good because they break through the clutter. One of the challenges we run into in theatres is that there is so much stuff in the lobby that you really have to work it to bust through…”

Fox “did about a thousand of the Simpsons standees, which is a large number,” Miller feels. While “the bulk of them” were deployed in North America, some were shipped overseas as well. “After we were done, we found deserving causes in each market—both local and industry-related—so that they could auction them off for charity.” These standees were “one of those really cool ideas that everybody internally bought into the concept right away and realized how fun and viral it would be. When we had the full-size mock-up made…it wouldn’t fit inside the Executive Building, so it was outside on the sidewalk. Even on the studio lot, where people are jaded and generally wouldn’t do those kinds of things, they were randomly stopping and wanted to take their picture.”

Hoping that lightning would strike more than once, most recently Team Fox launched 15-foot-tall Lightning Thief standees (4.6 m.) for Percy Jackson & The Olympians. “It was really the equivalent of four standees, two high and two wide,” Miller states. “We were trying to communicate the event character of the movie and part of that was having a huge presence in theatres. For smaller lobbies, we had a version with lights so that the lightning bolt actually lit up. We also did floor decals, mobiles and a whole bunch of stuff to complement that.” Other creative standouts offered Alvin and the Chipmunks squeak(quel)ing for the holidays, as well as—a personal favorite of this author—hauling a nine-foot (2.7 m.) fire hydrant for Marmaduke into theatre lobbies.

“We try to extend our promotions beyond just the theatres as well.” Miller has hopes of “making them bigger and tie in with national promotions and our Internet group.” He calls the fan contest to win the world premiere of Wolverine for your local theatre one of such “really cool opportunities” that had Team Fox “reach out to all of our partners in exhibition. We had a lot of circuits really put a huge effort behind encouraging their theatre patrons to vote for their city to host the premiere.” For those who don’t remember, Tempe, Arizona was the winner. “Harkins Theatres did so much on YouTube, on TV… They were passing out flyers to vote” and much more, Miller acknowledges.

Team Fox is “constantly experimenting with new ways of doing those kinds of things,” he continues. “The challenge that we are running into a bit with some of the promotions is that theatre circuits have moved their focus off doing in-theatre promotions. They are looking more at the operations of a theatre and less at promotions.” To Miller, that means “some of the great showmanship that we have all grown up knowing as part of the entertainment business has faded somewhat. There are still circuits that are really good at it, we try to support those, but there are not as many doing promotions as there used to be.” (For exquisite examples, see our Showmanship Awards reporting in this issue.)

By mounting a crashed plane to promote the 1984 locally produced indie Solo in his then hometown, and convincing Charlton Heston to attend The Ten Commandments for a fundraiser there, Miller certainly started out as quite a showman himself. Working at the high school newspaper in Orem, Utah, one day Miller had gone to the SCERA Showhouse and offered help with their newspaper ads. “The gentleman who was running the organization said, ‘Sure, kid, here’s some stuff. See what you can do.’ I came up with a whole new campaign of how I thought they could do their advertising and outreach.” The SCERA Center for the Arts, as it is known today (www.scera.org), is a unique place to begin a career in entertainment, he explains. “The movie theatre is run by a nonprofit organization that was set up during the Depression to promote arts and recreation and entertainment when there wasn’t such.” SCERA liked Miller’s ideas and invited him to join as a volunteer. “I started part-time and, after eight years, ended up as director of marketing of promotions”

While the SCERA complex also includes a stage house, 5,000-seat outdoor amphitheatre and swimming pools, Miller explains how he connected to The Walt Disney Company for his move into the movie business. “The theatre itself—catering to a family audience—had only been playing Disney product for years. During Honey, I Shrunk the Kids [1989], we were celebrating our 50th anniversary with Disney and wanted to invite Dick Cook, who was president of distribution at Buena Vista at the time. He agreed to come out and present us with an award, as long as he was able to do some radio and television interviews as well while he was in town.”

Apparently, Miller so impressed the folks at Disney with his connections and ability to set up a day’s worth of publicity on short notice (“I said, sure, no problem”) that Cook “on the way back to the airport in a limo” offered him a job. “Of course, in a small town in Utah, the thought of working for Disney is amazing. I told him that would be awesome.” After resume delivery and subsequent follow-up (“He was always very polite”), Miller received a call from Nancy Klueter, who is now exhibitor-relations VP for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (see FJI's profile of her here). “Being flown to Burbank, California, for an interview at the time was like the coolest thing ever,” Miller says, relishing the memory. But it took several long months until that final call came in. “We want to hire you. Can you start next week? [That was for] the opening of Dick Tracy [June 15, 1990].” Miller remained at Disney for two years until moving over to Fox in 1992.

Whether he’s wearing mouse ears or drumming up business with much fanfare, Branden Miller enjoys his work. “Exhibitors, for the most part, are some of the nicest people to work with,” he has concluded. “One of the really fun parts of our job is getting to interact with theatre managers and people who own movie theatres. I feel like I have a lot of really good friends all over the country. I love my job.”

Team Fox
Branden Miller – Vice President
Susie Cotliar – Executive Director
Shannon Gorman – Executive Director
Pablo Rico – Trailer Director
Rebecca Jansson – Manager, In-Theatre Marketing, West
Susana Castellanos – Manager, In-Theatre Marketing, East
Akira Egawa – Coordinator
Leighton Roarke – Executive Assistant
Darlene Elson – Canadian In-theatre Marketing

20th Century Fox
In-Theatre Marketing
10201 West Pico Boulevard, 86/209
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(310) 369-1677