"At the Film Market, Where Deals Are Made" was the headline of a Nov. 4, 2011 New York Times blog on the 32nd American Film Market (AFM) which wrapped up last week, with hundreds of millions of dollars of movie deals.
 
The global event for independent motion picture production and distribution attracted thousands of film industry professionals from more than 70 countries. They came to Santa Monica for eight days of deal making, networking and discovering the latest films and projects, and they came in bigger numbers this year. Buying executives, which are tracked as a separate visitor category, were up 7 percent over 2010, and industry attendees were up 21 percent—setting a new show record. Industry attendees, which include lawyers, financiers, agents, producers, and all others who are not buyers or sellers, register at rates from $250 to $1,395 and are now up almost 50 percent in just two years (2011 vs. 2009).
 
Several new marketing programs were rolled out this year to increase value for attendees and drive attendance. The biggest initiative was the launch of the new "AFM Conference Series", a five-day series of panel discussions. 
 
Another set of related initiatives for AFM 2011 included new registration packages/prices integrating the conference, and reconfiguration of the way packages are presented in order to best communicate options at different price points.
 
As a key initiative, the conference was promoted across all media channels, including direct mail, trade pub ads, email, show Web site, online display ads, social and PR. Up-sell messaging was prominently leveraged not just on the packages/prices page on the Web site but in creative as well to drive conference registration.
 
The response to the conference was much higher than expected. The program sold out, with 600-700 people attending each of the five half-day events.
 
Why was the AFM Conference Series launched? "We're doing it because we listen to our attendees and that's what they've wanted," said the show's organizer in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, which was printed in the Nov. 2, 2011 edition. 
 
The conference continued a target segmentation strategy that was initiated several years ago by AFM, and was designed to enhance the value proposition to the industry attendee segment. "That group represents a tremendous growth area for us and has for more than a decade," said the show organizer.
 
The conference was strategically integrated with the eight-day event to enable attendees to have an optimum balance between time in sessions and time on the floor. The conference started on the 3rd day of AFM, and ran from just 9 am to 1 pm each day.
 
Sponsorships were sold for each of the conferences, providing another incremental revenue stream for AFM.
 
"Selling out the new AFM Conference Series in its first year underscores the AFM's relevance to the production community," said the show organizer in an article in the Nov. 7, 2011 edition of The Hollywood Reporter.   
 
Due to the strong industry response, AFM is planning on making the conference an annual program, and expanding it for 2012.