Thread by @originalspin

“Demos are 46% white, **21% Asian**, 17% Hispanic/Latino, 12% Black.”

Case study for indies: @A24 did it right with a measured rollout and active engagement of Asian Americans. Over half of viewers of #EverythingEverywhere @allatoncemovie are nonwhite.

deadline.com/2022/04/everyt…

Get your core community to feel seen and actively targeted. Make your top line talent available for direct engagement with tastemakers.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS did it at the studio level.
SHANG CHI too.

But #EverythingEverywhere’s whole program has *leaned into* it.

Communities of color and other marginalized groups aren’t just sources of eyeballs and wallets. They’re critical amplifiers who can resonate with the message of a product, brand or media creation they love—memeing, remixing. echoing it—and they WILL get you your early momentum.

But it means showing respect. It means showing up. It means talking to folks on the inside—and listening. It means course correcting if necessary. And sometimes, apologizing.

It means engaging commentator voices early—in development if possible—because you WANT their insights.

I’ve done grassroots marketing to Asian Americans for 30 years, back to when people thought that meant translating an ad into Chinese and sending a press release to the World Journal.

I always pushed for a different approach—based on engagement with the community and cocreation.

For Fresh Off The Boat, with zero budget, I put a plan in action that involved doing viewing parties in a dozen cities across the entire first 13 episode season. Without being asked and without permission, I brought key influencers onto the set, shared with them inside details.

In New York, over 1300 people showed up to watch TV with us at a nightclub, based on nothing more than a Facebook friends-of-friends invite I put up! We turned away hundreds of people at the door because police said it was unsafe.

I told Warner Bros. to do the same for Crazy Rich Asians—to screen the film with as many Asian American influencers as possible early, because it was awesome, and because this was the group you needed as ambassadors to the world. They did a special AA premiere in May as a result.

I can’t say as much about Shang-Chi but let’s just say that I spent a lot of time talking with them about how to maximize the unique opportunity the movie represented. I think the film did pretty good!

All this isn’t about humblebragging. It’s to say this isn’t as hard as it looks. Learn the lessons of these examples—bring me in and I’ll happily walk you through them, with visuals—and you can do it too—if your product also kicks ass.

Which THANK GOD #EverythingEverywhere does.

One more thing: I’m not the guy to talk about them but anyone who has not learned the lessons of Black Panther and Tyler Perry (whatever you may think of his work) isn’t ready to hear about the above programs. So if you’re a marketer who hasn’t studied those examples—begin there.

Last last thing: Whenever I see marketers for films with strong people of color leads working with resources that are 1/10th of the “mainstream” (white) marketing budget I wanna scream. Why are you spending all your fuel to push the boat upstream?

Invest big in the affinity markets and get momentum and word of mouth and loyal repeat business. Then follow with outreach to the big middle if you’ve done your job right. White audiences are your big upside, not your primary focus. Let them join the party once it’s roaring.