The best way to brand a fest

Robert RedfordAfter years of representing a scrappy arts institute which is film festival, the title "Sundance" is ongoing to develop to manage for just about any cable funnel, a film distribution label, two online VOD rental shops, a number of theaters and film programs concerning the nation and world.Initially, it seems almost unfair to measure a nonprofit org dedicated to finding and developing the most effective youthful, cutting-edge films and filmmakers by the requirement for its title. Nevertheless the question of Sundance's brand equity is smart, considering its fast-growing expansion into new territory at any time when brand identity seems a lot more necessary to garnering consumer confidence for unknown, untested fare than in the past.InchAround we love to and possess built the organization IFC, Sundance is probably the very handful of global film brands, so when it involves independent film, it's the most broadly known global brand in the world. Everything pales in comparison,In . states IFC Entertainment mind Jonathan Sehring, who runs Sundance Selects among IFC's three film labels. Beneath the Sundance title (which IFC parent company Rainbow Media can use after acquiring the Sundance Funnel in 2008), IFC releases documents, foreign-language and prestige American fare that's carried out a number of festivals -- or none whatsoever.Prestige doesn't necessarily equal box office success, despite the fact that Sundance is famous for such breakout low-budget hits as "Little Miss Sunshine," it's also been recognized for films that gain fanfare within the fest but hardly anything else. The brand new the new sony PicturesClassics co-mind Tom Bernard sees its status for your latter shifting as popular culture catches around Sundance's edgier and more personal and much more personal sensibility."Sundance has become type of an ordinary word, like Coke for cola or Band-Aid for adhesive strip," Bernard states. "Formerly, a 'Sundance-type movie' stood a connotation that was 'not very good' or 'really esoteric,' but that's changed. The 'Sundance movie' brand is now offering the style of something that's very independent, that'll be new and various, like 'Martha Marcy May Marlene.' It changes monthly, and also at this time around In my opinion the celebs are aligned with (what Sundance means)."This year marks the next edition under director John Cooper and programming mind Trevor Groth, as well as the second for Sundance Institute professional director Keri Putnam.Commercial endeavors bearing the fest's title may have grown formerly three years, but this trio -- who maintain apparent chapel-and-condition separation between people endeavors as well as the nonprofits they oversee -- have possibly fostered a fest as uncompromising to commercial interests of course: When the competition selection has been around since December, no films had entrepreneurs attached.If the involves outdoors endeavors and mix promotions, Cooper states the org isn't marketing Sundance, alone.InchWe are marketing the thought of independent film as viable entertainment," according to him. "Once we curate a training course, we're not considering trying to alter awareness people. I'm thinking about representing just what the filmmakers do that season.InchFor breaking company company directors, producers and thesps, being selected to see Sundance might make a large difference within the presence of the flicks, submitting their attempt to receptive customers and press, and supplying all of them with an ideal "Sundance film" cachet when the photos eventually achieve industry.Certainly, the brand's energy might be noticed in the aspirant starlets attempting to pose as you're watching Sundance logo design design on Primary Street, or perhaps the numerous entrepreneurs searching to offer the tastemakers attending the fest.While a year ago saw accurate documentation section of fest game game titles obtain some form of distribution (thanks only to an growing quantity of VOD and ancillary release options), the Sundance Institute recently launched initiatives to market numerous its most niche -- and possibly least commercial -- options.Round the front-finish, Sundance's year-old partnership with Kickstarter aided the crowdsourcing initiative fund 50 films for the tune of $1.4 million, in line with the Institute's digital initiatives director Ernest Beyer.Round the back finish, the Institute's Artists Services program forged a partnership with New Video that could potentially make any feature ever proven within the fest, brought to the lab or given a grant available to everyone via iTunes, Amazon . com . com Instant Video, Hulu, Netflix, SundanceNow and YouTube. Filmmakers behind these unreleased or extended-lost game game titles can retain all rights for his or her work and rehearse Topspin Media marketing tools.Even though this push brings elevated awareness for the "esoteric" side of Sundance's historic slate, round the switch side, programs like Sundance Film Festival USA will dispatch company company directors from nine in the 2012 edition's most buzzed-about sales game game titles -- including such potentially commercial photos as "Celeste and Jesse Forever," "Arbitrage" and "Bachelorette" -- to screen their films in urban centers across the country through the festival.Even though public has created its idea of the Sundance brand within the Institute's work across a number of different platforms, affiliates realize that Robert Redford's founding vision began while using labs, where the core idea, as Putnam summarizes it, is actually "supporting independent new voices and praising creativity round the innovative -- innovation inside the ways tales are told and seen."Adds Groth: "To date as the second organizations that have the word 'Sundance' included, Redford is certainly careful with how that word may be used. They are fully aware it began while using Institute, and anybody he gives that title must be consistent with its values."Sundance Film Festival 2012How to brand a fest Tyro focus makes fest no country for old males Target game game titles Thrills turn more extreme as indie genre photos evolve Newcomer 'dance Filmmakers absolve to experiment in labs Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com