Rebekah McKendry's Webpage

Marketing Projects


I am focusing my dissertation on cult films, specifically examining the way cult films are marketed. I find it interesting that current movie marketing campaigns often look to recreate the audience and reception of cult films like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Plan 9 from Outerspace. These movies (often which had minimal marketing campaigns to begin with) garnered an organic audience response to their marketing which lead to the eventual success of the movie. But what made their marketing successful? How is Hollywood emulating their low-budget cult focused campaigns with million dollar campaigns? Is it working?
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This spring, I will begin a case study project into cult audience marketing. I will be creating a short film over Winter Break, and then trying out different “cult” marketing campaigns with it through the internet, word-of-mouth, magazines, film festivals, and conventions. I will be researching and cataloging the different types of responses I get from each marketing style as well as noting the demographical differences within each medium.

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