Larry Namer: movie trailers, audience research and advertising
Larry Namer described an early network model built around movie trailers. In his exchange with Richard, he explained how free programming material and an audience for films connected to advertising sales.
Trailers provided the programming
Namer recalled obtaining trailers from studios and guaranteeing they would play. He said the trailers were longer than ordinary television advertisements. The material helped the network build an audience interested in going to movies.
Research connected the audience to a buyer
He then described taking audience research to studio marketing departments and asking whether they wanted to reach those viewers. In his account, studios supplied content and later bought advertising around that content. These were separate relationships with the same organizations, connected by the audience the network had assembled.
In Larry Namer's words
"I started building an audience and did a lot of audience research" (Larry Namer, Larry Namer's Family Office Club fireside chat with Richard C. Wilson)
How to use this
- Identify who supplies the content and who buys access to its audience.
- Document the audience before presenting its relevance to an advertiser.
Questions and answers
What connected trailers to advertising sales?
An audience interested in movies, supported by audience research.
Was the advertising relationship identical to supplying trailers?
Namer described them as separate parts of the model involving the studios.