Event marketing, movie consumers' willingness and box office revenue

Abstract

PurposeThis research investigates the impacts of movie consumers' willingness, measured by the number of people who want to watch a movie, on the relationship between event marketing and box office revenue. This study aims to provide marketers with practical event marketing strategies and tactics to improve box office revenue.Design/methodology/approachPanel data was collected for 1,141 movies released in China from year 2014–2018 for a total of 12 weeks, spanning 4 weeks before and 8 weeks after release. The mediating effect of consumers' willingness on the relationship between event marketing and box office revenue was tested through a stepwise method and the generalized least squares method based on random effects.FindingsMovie consumers' willingness mediates the effect of event marketing and box office revenue. Both movie consumers' willingness and box office revenue follow an inverted U-shaped distribution against the intensity of event marketing. From the second week before release to the first week after release, intensified event marketing enhances box office revenue. Various types and intensities of event marketing should be employed in different periods of time to increase the total box office revenue.Research limitations/implicationsThis research ignores the costs of various types of event marketing for different movies. Future research could consider the cost-effectiveness of event marketing.Practical implicationsThe findings of this paper provide meaningful insights on event marketing strategies for practitioners.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the field by verifying movie consumers' willingness as a mediator between event marketing and box office revenue. The study also provides empirical evidences on effective types and reasonable intensities of event marketing over the whole lifecycle of movies.

Empirical Analysis on the Influential Factors of Business Strategy in the U.S. Movie Industry Based on Marketing Mix Models and SWOT Analysis of Data about Market Performance A case Study on DC Films

“…Gurdeep et al further develop this idea and find out in film study, marketing effort, iconic status, franchising/merchandising activities, and timelessness are highlighted as key moderators, resulting in positive brand engagement behaviour [18]. Lei et al argue that event marketing helps promote movies, as it includes both online and offline activities, with a time period covering the entire lifecycle of movie production, distribution, and screening [19].…”

Movie Box Office Prediction Based on Multi-Model Ensembles

“…The impact of blogs and YouTube varies little between the early and later stages. Lei Sun et al [23] investigated the impact of movie consumers' willingness on movie marketing and the box office, and the willingness was measured by the number of people who wanted to see a film. This impact is tested by the step-by-step method and generalized least square method based on random effects, and it is found that consumer willingness and box office revenue have an inverted U-shaped distribution with event marketing intensity.…”

Kustom Kulture Event Marketing as a Brand Community Creativity

“…Event marketing is used to determine the characters or events that are described to be known by the public, so that the ability to attract media coverage and engage consumers is needed by a company, in order to meet the needs of improving the company's image and promoting the products or services offered. The marketer conveys a special message [6], through event marketing both internally and externally to the audience, to stimulate consumer buying decisions and get potential consumers to increase sales and at the same time build a company image.…”

“…One indicator of customer willingness in maintaining the sustainability of the company-customer relationship is the behavioral intention of the customer [6]. The allocation of financial needs in an effort to retain customers is prioritized over finding new customers.…”