Yesterday brought us the news that the man, the legend, Bill Murray gatecrashed a stag do (or bachelor party if you prefer), luckily for y'all we are currently running a meme competition and on occasion the director, James DeMarco, chucks a meme online. So we have a tumblr, an instagram, a Facebook (obvs), a twitter, we're on IMBb and of course we have this website and blog as well as Youtube and Vimeo - that's a lot of social media. We've been on some of these sites since 2011 - but what I've learned is unless you have loads of money you're not going to top search. Any search.

Take IMDb, if you go to IMDb.com - the home page and key in the stagg do, like all predictive search it  starts searching for matches, naturally at t-h-e s-t-a-g - it thinks it has a match with "The Stag" - the Irish stag do film starring Moriarty from Sherlock - that's fair enough… But keep typing so you've typed in the stagg do - and it STILL fucking suggests The Stag, which incidentally will be called the Bachelor Party in the US.  That's just bullshit and shows categorically that new media is just like old media and money talks.

The good news is that I've been doing LOADS of search engine optimisation and so stag do (1 g) film premiere in Google brings up 3 entries for us on page one of Google!  People must also be clicking on IMDb and searching for us - because we have risen over 30,000 places in their rankings in the last month. The O2 Academy Newcastle listing is really helping with Google rank too - so it's cool.  This blog isn't really a whinge it's more a warning to other filmmakers and small business owners what you are up against when it comes to relying on the Internet for your marketing. You REALLY need some good old fashioned media behind you… Get into your local paper, get on the telly, bung up some posters - get out and meet your audience and customers… AND make it easy for them to buy from you.


PS  ★★ WORLD PREMIERE ★★ at O2 Academy Newcastle 26/06. Get your tickets NOW - 
Tel: 0844 4772000

Well the press releases have gone out, the cast and crew have been invited and the cat is pretty much out of the bag. So here goes *FANFARE* 

We are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting the WORLD PREMIERE of The Stagg Do at the o2 Academy on Westgate Road in Newcastle, on June 26th, 2014.  Doors open at 7pm

Tickets will go on pre-sale (to o2 customers) from the Academy itself at the end of this week. And they will go on general sale on May 19th 2014. Available from us or via the o2 Academy Box Office (Tel: 0844 477 2000).

As it's the World Premiere there will of course be an aftershow featuring live music.  So get your tickets early and join us for this exciting event. 


We'd love to see as many of you there as is possible - it'll be a fab night and we really can't wait to share this film with you all. 


Thanks


James and Zahra
xxx



PS:  MAKE SURE YOU TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TOO!

As I put on Facebook the other day, I'm soooo close to have some AMAZING news to share with y'all, it makes me want to wee with excitement!  But at the same time - this cursed film of ours has a funny way of biting you in the arse when you least expect it… so I'll stay schtum until the paperwork is signed!

In the meantime, as Steve Miller (and Seal) would say, time keeps on slipping/ into the future and the day of our release keeps getting closer and closer and closer.  We have a press release just about ready to go (we'll probably share it here first - coz we're like that) and everything will be revealed there (or should that be here?). 

Anyway - enough - I'm even confusing myself now.  Over the weekend, we were supposed to be having our cast and crew screening - but as ever - events conspired against us (I really must've been a git in my past life!) and so instead we decided to start some real world marketing and PR.  My mate Steve Wraith runs the Number 9 Bar at The Cosmic Ballroom (no not fake Shearers) every home match day and he kindly gave us the opportunity to leaflet the crowd before the Cardiff game.

He also said that rather than just leafleting we'd be better doing a wee talk on the microphone before the host, Joe Allon, interviewed the main attraction ex-Newcastle United striker Malcolm MacDonald! Pob and I nominated (ganged up on) James and made him do the little talk… You can see him in the photo above with Joe Allon and Supermac - he did okay, but he and I really need to work on our public speaking - lots of ums and erms - and let's face it, I bottled it!

As soon as James left the stage we had to jump in the car and fly up to The Parks Sports Centre in North Shields, where the 3rd Annual Screen-Con event was taking place.  We actually got there in time, but they were running late, which gave us the opportunity to have  a wander around the exhibition space and see what was going on. I got to meet David Warner (who is a completely legendary actor) and to say I was star-struck doesn't come close.

James got to have his photo taken outside the TARDIS from Doctor Who and with KITT from Knightrider. Meanwhile Pob got to fulfil a lifelong dream by punching a Dalek.

Anyway after surveying the room and handing out a few leaflets we decided to "pull" our scheduled Q and A - as the crowd was about as un-Stagg Do as you could imagine. Vicki, one of the organisers, had told me that it was a family event - but even so, I was unprepared for quite how many young children were there… And somehow promoting our tale of titties, beer and drugs felt horribly inappropriate. I mean a stag do is generally not exactly suitable content for a 10 year old. I'm many things but a corrupter of young children isn't one of them!

So all in all it was a mixed bag - we got to soft launch in front of some Newcastle United fans and legends and then we got to bottle doing a Q and A in front of some lovely sci-fi fans.  And Pob got to punch a Dalek. This promotional lark is hard work, man!