Online marketing and promotion of Canadian films via social-media tools: Telefilm supports seven French-language projects through Web-Ciné 360, extends the pilot initiative for another year, and expands it to the English market

Montréal, July 19, 2010 – Telefilm Canada is today unveiling the seven French-language feature-film projects that have been selected to receive funding under the Web-Ciné 360 pilot initiative, which aims to encourage the incorporation of online marketing and use of social media tools in distribution business practices for Canadian films, well ahead of the films’ release. Telefilm launched the initiative in January of this year in order to accelerate the industry’s adoption of these new interactive tools intended to strengthen film promotion and marketing. In light of the initiative’s success to date, Telefilm is extending Web-Ciné 360 for a second year and is also announcing the launch of an identical initiative targeting the English market (see news release issued today).

“Web-Ciné 360 has elicited a lot of interest within the industry—from producers as well as distributors—and we’ve received high-quality proposals during this first round,” said Michel Pradier, Telefilm Canada’s Director of Project Financing. “The projects selected under the initiative will be the first to benefit from major online marketing campaigns involving French-language films in Canada. These campaigns should produce meaningful results at the box-office and will certainly inspire more and more producers and distributors to invest in these kinds of online strategies. In light of the success the initiative has had in its first few months, we are extending it so that a larger number of projects will have the opportunity to obtain the support and resources they need to develop and implement Web and social media campaigns for their projects.”

“When it comes to marketing home-grown films, online marketing is the way of the future,” said producer Denise Robert, one of whose projects was selected to receive funding under the Web-Ciné 360 initiative. “I think now is the time for the industry to have access to an initiative aimed at implementing effective online strategies that are integrated very early on in a film’s distribution cycle.”
 
“Online marketing holds a lot of potential for the distribution of feature films,” stated Victor Rego, Vice President, Marketing for Quebec at Seville Pictures. “The timing is good for Canadian distributors and producers to benefit from the positive impact of campaigns such as these. And Web-Ciné 360 is an excellent initiative in terms of raising awareness among the industry.”

The seven projects selected for 2009-2010

Telefilm’s initiative for the French-language market is aimed at distribution companies eligible for the organization’s Marketing Program for French-language productions, for projects having recently obtained production support. Distributors wishing to benefit from Telefilm support under the Web-Ciné 360 initiative must include online marketing in their promotional strategy by making use of search-engine optimization or Web technologies in general; by producing a content-rich website; by creating content for such social media tools as blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; or by using online advertising. In order to measure the strategies’ effectiveness, distributors will be invited to make use of recognized online marketing and Web audience analysis tools, and even to use companies with expertise in this area.

About Telefilm Canada
Telefilm Canada is a federal cultural agency dedicated to developing and promoting the Canadian audiovisual industry. Telefilm provides financial support to the private sector to create distinctively Canadian products that appeal to domestic and international audiences. Telefilm also administers the Canada Media Fund. Visit www.telefilm.ca.

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For more information: 
Eva Hartling 
Senior Advisor, External Communications 
Telefilm Canada
514-283-0838, ext. 2090
hartlie@telefilm.ca
www.twitter.com/telefilm_canada