A wise man once said that the only constant is change. When it comes to prints and advertising, most distributors agree, the only commonality is difference.

‘There’s no rule,’ says Seville Pictures’ Pierre Brousseau of his approach to p&a. ‘Each film is like a new baby: it has to make its own life. There are surprises in the marketplace all the time.’

Brousseau, senior vp distribution of the Montreal-based company, says the one sure thing is that distributors constantly have to fight the big Hollywood films and their equally big p&a budgets.

‘You have to work with word of mouth, reviewers and so on. You have to reach people with more than muscle. You have to use different tactics for each specific film. For example, you might aim at a specific audience and spread word of mouth through press screenings. You might hire a pr firm that knows how to get to these people, or you might platform in Toronto or Montreal to generate a buzz around the film and expand from there.’

Yves Dion of Blackwatch Releasing in Montreal says the right p&a is crucial for marketing smaller pictures: ‘If it is marketed well, there is still a niche for good quality films,’ says Dion. ‘You have to expand awareness – it’s natural for American films to attract audiences with [star] names and directors, while quality arty films have to create awareness in different ways.

‘If the critics enjoy it a lot, that might persuade people to see it. You need to have the press like it first,’ he continues. ‘To make people aware of a movie, I think that’s harder. The Blair Witch Project is a rare example.’

Dion cites American Movie, a Blackwatch-distributed theatrical-release documentary following a would-be filmmaker as he strives to fashion his own Blair Witch Project.

‘We sneak-previewed three weeks before release and we invited film students [to the free screenings]. There was no-one people know in this film, so we had to start from scratch and make the awareness. We invited teachers and students from Concordia and McGill to screenings to spread the word of mouth.’

This word of mouth campaign was complemented with teasers published over the three weeks before the release, directing readers to a website set up two months ahead of time that contained teasers of its own.

‘There are a lot of things you have to do with alternative films,’ says Dion. ‘You have to use very unusual marketing – it’s not like with the big films. But it’s a lot of fun, too.’

Jeff Sackman, president of Vancouver-based Lions Gate Films, focuses on p&a as a creative challenge.

‘Anyone can spend money – what’s skillful is how you create awareness without spending money,’ says Sackman. ‘It starts with the film: Does your film have something that cuts through the clutter? You can’t just spend the money, that’s not the way to do it. Our continuity depends on fiscal responsibility. It’s tough – a lot of films bomb notwithstanding how much money you spend on them. It’s not difficult to spend money; the skill comes in figuring out how to get attention focused on your film, how to cut through. There are too many films coming out every week for people to see them all.’

The consensus among distributors is that p&a handling is very dependent on the extent and nature of the audience and the film’s likely reach.

Dan Lyon, executive vp distribution and marketing at Motion International, forecasts his company’s biggest impending release, the summer-scheduled action-thriller Art of War, will set a new high for p&a for his company – ‘in the seven-figure neighborhood,’ he states.

Jim Sherry, senior vp and gm, Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution, says of the p&a strategies employed for his company’s variegated slate: ‘Clearly, for commercial films, tv is the most effective medium of advertising. It might not be the most effective approach for a subtitled French-language film that’s only on three screens across the country.’

Meanwhile, says Sherry, ‘the cost of advertising is increasing due to the larger number of films in the marketplace competing for the same consumers.’

Allan Locke, gm of Forefront Theatrical International, a Vancouver-based, family-oriented distributor, voices the frustration of many distributors at the uneven nature of the playing field.

‘Releasing a film is very expensive, and it’s not just the film but the market share – the share-of-voice in advertising,’ he says. ‘When we compete with u.s. distributors whose p&a budget is 10 to 20 times that of a Canadian film’s budget, it’s like competing in a tank battle with a popgun.’

To get people into theatres, Locke continues, distributors need enough advertising to generate top-of-mind awareness, to generate the want-to-see.

‘If you have a limited budget, it’s often the company with the most dollars in the marketplace that generates the want-to-see. For example, standees (life-size cardboard cut-outs designed for exhibition in theatre lobbies) can cost $100 each. A u.s. distributor’s standees budget might be greater than a Canadian distributors’ entire budget. The p&a element is critical.’

And what of the boom in Canadian cinema screens? Has it made the task of the Canadian distributor any easier?

Not necessarily, when the expansion in screens has been accompanied by a rise in the number of releases.

‘There are more and more screens and more and more films,’ says Dion. ‘Sometimes when business gets busier, it’s harder to get in, but we always find a way. Ten years ago, there weren’t enough screens.’

Brousseau concurs, saying, ‘There certainly are plenty of theatres, but so many screens are going to the same films. We still have to fight to get our own niche there. We’re going to the multiplexes as well. Just because they have a more independent vision doesn’t mean our releases are not commercial.’