Milan Stevanovich of Detroit, Michigan writes:
“Michigan just passed a 40 percent rebate to companies filming movies and TV programs in the state. If you use Michigan companies and labor, you get a 40 percent instant rebate after production—big savings for number-crunching entertainment financiers.
“For the last three weeks, my associates and I have schmoozed a dozen Hollywood actors, producers, and those in charge of locating properties for shoots.
“My client owns 100 buildings in Detroit and eventually will have the lion’s share of any studios built on his properties. Recently, production companies have been coming to us looking for investors for productions. The laws here make it incredibly competitive because of the rebates.
“How do we take advantage of this window of opportunity to be the epicenter of everything Hollywood in Michigan? How do we best get the word out that my associates are one degree of separation from the best locations, investors, suppliers and vendors at the epicenter of this new burgeoning industry in our great state?”
I just put “movies filmed in Michigan” into Google and came up with a huge list of well-known films shot in the Great Lakes State, including “Dreamgirls.” I would think that “showing” the great locations your client has is an excellent way to entice filmmakers. Therefore, I would recommend doing walk-through filming–and the posting that video online–of the various buildings he owns. If any of them appeared in well-known movies like “Dreamgirls,” all the better.
First thing I’d do is put together a really spiffy website that addresses any questions and concerns, shows (as Leah recommends) clips form movies shot in Michigan as well as locations where shooting could take place, stresses the economics no only of the rebate but that other than winter energy costs, *everything* is going to be much cheaper in Michigan than Hollywood, with none of the hassles of shooting abroad. Design the site to fill the needs of a Hollywood mogul who’s never thought about Michigan at all. Might be able to get some state Tourism Department dollars to help on this. Have sections on investors, on the skilled labor pool, the works.
Then drive traffic to the site with postcards, social networking campaigns, emails, phone calls, blog, media publicity, and a six-degrees campaign aimed at producers.
There’s a lot of information on how in my fifth book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World.
If you aren’t blogging about your topic, Milan, start now.
It’s a fabulous way to pull traffic to your website.
In a market as niched as yours, you might run out of things to write about. If so, you’d be a perfect candidate for The Blog Squad’s “Better Business Blog Writing”: teleseminars next week at http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=2401308
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