Projects

DC Shorts Film Festival

The annual DC Shorts Film Festival celebrates the art of filmmaking by highlighting films less than 20 minutes long. But the festival was tired of getting only its 15 minutes of fame. That’s where Scott Circle stepped in.

Scott Circle Communications (SCC) designed a publicity initiative to boost the festival’s notoriety, increase its audience, and most importantly, attract more filmmakers to submit their work and engage in collaborative events. This past year, the festival was covered by dozens of local media outlets, attracted 600 entries, featured 150 filmmakers, and was attended by over 2,500 people.

Strategy

Scott Circle Communications sought to increase the festival’s importance within the Washington, DC arts scene as well as among mainstream moviegoers. The intent was to increase the festival’s overall importance nationally in order to attract more entries, filmmakers, and national attention. To do so, SCC implemented a two-pronged approach by targeting arts and culture writers, as well as nightlife critics.

Results/Summary of Successes

The film festival was written up in dozens of local publications including the Washington Post, Washington Times, Washingtonian, and in the Boston Globe. It was discussed in dozens of blog sites, including TMZ.com and MetroMix, and festival founder Jon Gann was profiled in The Washington Post Express, USA Today, Roll Call and WUSA.

The number of films shown doubled, ticket sales increased 40 percent, and more than 800 entries were submitted. Additionally, close to $200,000 was spent in that area of DC. In addition to the numbers, the following quotes illustrate that each target audience was successfully reached. MovieMaker Magazine called the DC Shorts Film Festival “one of the nation’s leading short film festivals.” And Washington City Paper readers voted it the “best festival in DC.” That’s a wrap.