Match Factory strikes groundbreaking distribution initiative

By Geoffrey Macnab2012-05-23T09:52:00+01:00

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€400,000 initiative is backed by the EU’s Media Mundus.

Germany sales outfit Match Factory has revealed details of its groundbreaking new marketing and distribution initiative, 2.0, on which it is working with five leading independent distributors worldwide: Strand Releasing in the US, Pandora in Germany, Canana Films in Mexico, Cinefil in Hungary and Joint Entertainment in Taiwan.

The idea behind the €400,000 initiative – backed by the EU’s Media Mundus – is for Match Factory to invest in the distributors’ online marketing and social networtking campaigns for specific films. Through 2.0, distributors stand to receive between €7500 and €20,000 toward their costs.

“From the sales agent perspective, we think that as communication is becoming more global, we can work with our directors to create concepts our distributors can use,” The Match Factory’s Jenny Walendy explained.

Through 2.0, it is envisaged that the distributors can co-ordinate release plans for films,pool resources and thereby reduce P&A costs.

The first film to be pushed through Match Factory’s 2.0 is Bence Filegauf’s Just The Wind [pictured]. Filegauf has been here in Cannes along with his producers, meeting with distributors and discussing how to launch his film in their respective territories.

Strand is currently using 2.0 to work on its release of Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31^st.

“They will use the money to add some online advertising which they usually wouldn’t do because the risk would be too high,” Walendy stated.

Meanwhile, through 2.0, Pandora is working on creating an app as part of its marketing campaigns for films that it has already distributed but hasn’t yet launched on VOD.

“The idea is to have transparent reporting,” Walendy said. Initial results of 2.0 will be presented at the Europa International conference in November.

2.0 is a pilot project. In the long run, The Match Factory hopes it will become permanent and that other sales agents might also emulate its example. “We want to share the results so that other companies can profit from it.”