Imagenation: Hybrid Marketing & Distribution

These players certainly don’t need “help” in the global economic sense. Imagenation out of Abu Dhabi – with $1B in film capital – continues to create ties in the world of cross-culture film financing. In a recent expansion with early partner Hyde Park Entertainment ($250M in Imagenation funding) into Singapore with $75M towards four films, Imagenation looks keen to transition its financing into Asia, which many say is the next big Hollywood donor after the Middle East and India (Reliance and Dreamworks).

It’s an intelligent play to bridge capital between markets, i.e., share risk globally. Per Imagenation CEO: “It give us a focus east – Singapore, China, India – which is something that we want to do. And as Abu Dhabi and Singapore have a very close relationship, as city states, this strengthens our bonds with Singapore.” It also opens up their early production resources to digital effects, animation and gaming, including EA and Ubisoft.

Following the money, Imagenation also put $10M into a revolving fund with producer-exec team Walter Parks and Laurie MacDonald, providing a small first-look deal that can be wielded through the pair’s Dreamworks deal.

Known for their high-concept films distributed through Spielberg’s Dreamworks, their securing of outside money is consistent with other top producers. From Jerry Bruckheimer’s $20M from Barclays Bank to Reliance Big Entertainment’s $20M script investment with CAA talent such as Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Brett Ratner, the above-the-line crowd is quickly and individually following the bigger studios and production companies into foreign fund soil.

Current Imagenation film funding tally:

• Warner Bros’ “Shorts” directed by Robert Rodriguez
• National Geographic’s “The Way Back” by Peter Weir
• Participant Media’s “The Crazies” by Breck Eisner
• Participant’s “Furry Vengeance” by Roger Kumble
• Participant’s “Fair Game” by Doug Liman

Participant Media, more unique in its pro-social messaging, is also trying to create more value given the surplus of funding. With its TakePart.com, my alma mater digital site, Participant and Imagenation are looking at expanding digital distribution and marketing to the Middle East.

Expanding the footprint of the co-funded films has always been a dilemma, will the US-concepted films play in that market; and will Middle Eastern films, conversely play in the States? Can the two sides benefit each other’s marketing and distribution, outside of the obvious financing?

Per Participant’s CEO Jim Berk via Variety:

You’ve got more than 300 million people in this region, with 60% under the age of 26. That’s a lot of people who are online, on Facebook, twittering and on MySpace. We want to engage them and activate them and get them to respond to our films.

With the goal to create more viral or social media to aid film awareness as a new tenet of business, Imagenation needs to protect its investment. A safe and cost effective bet would be to create a shared marketing and distribution platform that provides a handshake to traditional film production and distribution while integrating in the digital marketing and distribution.

At New Medici, our media strategy advisory team working on these type of “handshake” platforms spanning traditional and digital; whereby films find audiences  via specialty or limited releases, including college campuses and cultural centers.

These films receive specialized viral/social publicity and marketing, while redrafting or re-windowing distribution deals with set-top, mobile and other digital platforms.

File this strategy and implementation under “hybrid or symbiotic marketing and distribution,” where the marketing in effect acts as distribution.

With companies like Imagenation and its partners breaking global ground in financing, it will be interesting to watch how they protect their filmed bets in a growing age of digital initiative.

With no scarcity in digital distribution agents, we believe that digital companies have to secure a hybrid media and digital background to create a real handshake with audiences, where the quality of the film matches the quality (and quantity of viewings) of the digital experience. One doesn’t outweigh the other as they’re mutually invested in the films’ success and growth of the digital engagement with users.

This open-handed approach to releasing also increases audience retention which is insurance for future genre franchising.