Episode 223: Making Movie Magic | A24 Studio's Merch

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Uncut Gems, Moonlight, Minari, Hereditary, Euphoria, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Green Knight, The Tragedy of Macbeth. A24 is the independent film studio that has made its name betting on the kind of quirky, artisanal movies that Hollywood generally ignores. And marketing them through unconventional means. That's a quote from Fast Company when it honored A24 as one of the most innovative companies in the world. And according to The Independent, A24 is not like other entertainment companies. For a start, it was founded on the wrong coast, New York, not Los Angeles, by three relatively young arthouse film executives, Daniel Katz, David Finkel, and John Hodges, who decided they wanted to do things differently, end quote. And speaking of doing things differently, have you seen what A24 is doing with branded merch lately? First, they have one of the coolest shops at a24films.com. They also released the book For Promotional Use Only, a catalog of Hollywood movie swag and promo merch that celebrates the boom era of movie merch from 1975 to 2005. You need that book, by the way. Then they created an online auction site for movie merch called A24 Auctions, which benefits the Vidiots Foundation, which is a one-of-a-kind hub for film lovers, filmmakers, and everyone curious about cinema, celebrating films that showcase the work of emerging masters and underrepresented artists, producing unique and affordable film events and vital education programs. GQ wrote that A24, the world's hottest film company, is making movie merch cool. And on top of all that, A24 has become a brand in and of itself, creating such highly coveted merch that Vanity Fair recently wrote an article titled True Colors: How an A24 T-Shirt Became an Essential Piece in the Downtown Wardrobe. Hi friends, I'm Bobby LeHew, Comiskey's Chief Content Officer, joined today by Mark Graham, Comiskey's President and Chief Brand Officer, Mark and I started a new series where we occasionally unpack the most innovative and creative uses of branded merch in the market. Now, I've mentioned before that merch is like the new press release. It's an instigator, a provocateur. Merch creates cult-like fervor and followers, and now branded merch is leading trends versus following trends. Last time we unpacked UPS's Be Unstoppable shop, and in today's episode, we're going to the movies. But before we get to that, today we launched a new product summit called Product Summit Creativity. Now, if you haven't attended one of our product summits before, I'll tell you what it's about. It's a concentrated 2.5 hours of both inspirational education as well as breakouts led by some of the most innovative suppliers showcasing trends and merch. Product Summit Creativity is all about ingenuity, turning ordinary products into extraordinary experiences for your clients. It will be held on May 19th from 2 to 5:30 PM and talk about a lineup. Check this out. Joining us on the main stage will be Shelley Williams, VP of Marketing at Sandmar, on the topic, The Business of Creative. Jeff Anderson, Director of Content with Snugs USA, will be talking about bringing product story to life. The amazing Renya Nelson, Founder at Brand Aid, on crafting merch for the most iconic brands today. And a panel on the topic, Secrets Behind Ingenious Merch: From Ordinary to Extraordinary, featuring Lindsay Reed, Owner at Emblem, Sean Mooney, Partner at Showpony, and Heather McLeod, Vice President of Sales at Elite Promotional Marketing, and of course, followed by breakout sessions led by suppliers. Now, I know I always say this, but this event is such a powerful experience in a very compact amount of time, and the ROI on that is insane. It's a great use of your team's time. So join us for Product Summit Creativity on May 19th from 2 to 5:30 PM ET. You can register at commonskew.com/productsummit. Today's episode is brought to you by Commenscue, the work-from-anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow, enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more, visit commenscue.com. And now on to our episode where in traditional Mark and Bobby style, we try to tackle everything everywhere all at once about A24. I want to start this conversation with The book that kind of started it all, and when I say all, I mean by our conversation here today and why we're talking about A24. First off, the first person that brought this to my attention was Danny Rosen. This book came to me courtesy of Dale Denham with PPAI, and it's because we were talking about this book, which came out and celebrates movie merchandise, and it's called For Promotional Use Only. There are two essays at the beginning of the book that are fantastic, but the book is full of movie merchandise, promotional products, branded merch that helped promote the movies. So it's everything from Jaws merchandise, Kill Bill merchandise. A couple of my favorites in here are the Being John Malkovich Russian dolls, nesting dolls. And of course, Mark, one of your favorites would be the cutout paper doll Eraserhead promotion that's in it as well.

Yeah, I'm sure that's worth a lot. Yeah.

The thing I love about— the thing I love about this is that in many cases, these are ordinary products that are tied to an extraordinary movie, but it's an emotional connection. So it's like a perfect example of taking an ordinary product that anyone can get and creating a unique experience that no one else can emulate. I want to start this conversation with a quote from Roger Corman, who said this, and it's in the book: Promotion is an important part of a movie's success. Making a picture is always a creative endeavor, and sometimes so is marketing one. One more quote from Lindsay Zoladz, who has a great essay at the beginning. She quoted a fan who said this, and she could have spoken for any of the pros in the brand and merch business. She said, to own promotional merch is one way to feel like you're stepping into the universe of that movie, inhabiting it, questioning it, and ultimately reclaiming it as your own. What are your thoughts on when you see something like the movies that we love and cherish being celebrated through the vehicle of branded merchandise?

Well, I think you nailed it, Bobby, when you said the term emotional connection. So, right, What's fascinating about the movie business is that movies in and of themselves create this incredible emotional connection and emotional relationship with its audience. I mean, that's the movie business 101, right? And layering on top of that another piece, another vehicle, another way to instill emotional connection by adding promotional merch on top of it is kind of like an emotional connection sundae, so to speak. I just made that up, by the way. And so I think it's, you know, maybe a little bit meta, but I think that some of the best marketers on the planet are those that produce movies. I mean, this is Hollywood. These are master storytellers. And then, so it's incredible for me, and I think for you, being in the promotional products industry to see master storytellers and how it is that they tell stories through merchandise. And some of that merchandise can be crazy custom. I mean, there's a I think an example of a Kill Bill sword that has been custom produced and is clearly something that is totally custom and you can't find out of a catalog. So you get that kind of stuff, and then you have basic items like t-shirts that just have these beautiful graphics on them. And of course, you can get a t-shirt from anyone. So I just think that this is another great example of how merchandise has completely ascended to the absolute front row of the marketing and storytelling experience, whereas a few years ago we were the stepchild. And I love the fact that Hollywood, and specifically A24, is putting such an investment in telling these stories. And this book is so inspiring. It's just a latest example of how it is that our industry has really stepped into the limelight.

Right.

Or the spotlight, so to speak.

Yeah, there you go. I was fortunate to get to talk with Zoe Beyr, the creative director at A24, who is actually responsible for all of these things. They kind of have these three main categories. They have the shop that they sell their merchandise on, they have their auction, auction, which I'll touch on in a minute. And they have this book, book here that I love, as well as many other books. But Zoe said this, and I thought this was fascinating, because they'll have folks approach them about where to get— where they get their merchandise, how they develop their gear. And just because you know where to source something does not mean that you can recreate the magic. And so you get somebody like Zoe, who's a professional at what she does, who loves the craft itself and loves creating these experiences, whether she's creating a podcast episode or whether she's creating auction merchandise. She takes this really seriously. And she said this: you can find the But you can't duplicate the experience. She said, you have to love making these kinds of projects. And she could have said what many of us that are, that work with some of the best brands in the world think about too when we create these experiences. 'Cause we've always said that ingenuity is taking a product that anyone can get and then creating unique, a unique experience that no one else can emulate. And that's what A24 has done. Now they're releasing with new films that come out, they're releasing a little nuance or a little touch on every film or pretty much every film that comes out. And there's lots of things happening with their shop and their auction, but I'll just cite a few examples. They're working with Online Ceramics, which is the hippie streetwear titans that made apparel on A24 films from The Lighthouse, Uncut Gems, Midsommar. Grailed ranked Online Ceramics as one of the best streetwear brands to know. They're on the same list as Supreme and Aimé Leon Dore. It's really cool how A24 has embraced a couple of worlds, movie merchandise or movies and the emotional connection we have, the streetwear brands and movements that are really shaking things up culturally, and then their own taste or their own spin on the merchandise, putting their own creative thought, their own creative opinion behind these. What are your thoughts?

Bobby, what I love about what Zoe says there is that she basically encapsulates the value of the promotional products distributor, right? Like, a promotional products distributor can source a t-shirt from a wide range of sources, could source a writing instrument, a piece of headwear, whatever the case may be, and thousands and thousands and thousands of other people in the promotional products industry have the equal access to that. And the thing that is unique between one distributor and another is the creative touch, the design touch, the emotional connection that they, that they bring forward. And so I love to hear that when it comes to an end client. I mean, at the end of the day, A24 is ostensibly an end client, and Zoe is their in-house creative person that is calling the shots. And, but the reality is, is that when they're producing merchandise merchandise, it's different than when another movie studio, another movie production house is producing the merchandise. And it's because of the opinion that she's bringing to the table. And I find that so inspiring because there are sometimes you can get down in this industry where people say, well, it's commoditized, or all the products are the same, or it doesn't matter who you buy it from. And that couldn't be further from the truth when you see people like Zoe operating in a completely different world. One other thing that I'll say, Bobby, is it reminds me of Aaron Draplin, Draplin Design Company, who of course spoke at SKUCon and showed everyone how it was that he was bringing the most basic products— like we're talking toothbrushes, we're talking letter openers, the most standard, and in some cases the most cheap commoditized products out there— but how he was elevating it to a high art because of design, because of storytelling, because of how he was sharing it or how he was selling it in terms of channels via his website, social selling through Instagram. And all of a sudden, a cheap letter opener that you could see any company ordering with its lame one-color logo on is this high art that Aaron can charge incredible premiums for and make great margins on. Because he's elevated the product through design and storytelling. And I think that's exactly what's happening here with A24. It's a great kudos to the whole team, and particularly Zoe, for just elevating this.

I agree.

Bringing our product into such a great spotlight.

I also feel like they crossed this span between this quirky, cool merchandise that we have fun with, and then they also have created their own experience with A24 merchandise. What I mean by that is they're creating some beautiful experiences with their gear. So the beanies, the jacket, the, the t-shirts, everything around found it as very intentional. And so they've gone from— it almost feels like— this may be wrong— almost feels like they've gone from looking at the promotional merch, movie merchandise, and then creating their own experience with the A24 brand. A24 is now one of the most coveted brands. There was an article by Vanity Fair, Mark, you forwarded me, and the title was True Colors: How an A24 T-Shirt Became an Essential Piece in the Downtown Wardrobe. And so A24 has elevated the game so much in terms of merchandise that they are now a brand that everyone wants to wear. And I think one of one of the reasons that they have done this is because when you look at some of the merchandise they're creating on their shop right now, and you take a film, take Euphoria, for example, Euphoria is this big smash hit. Folks that watch know that there are characters, um, actors in it like Angus Cloud, who were basically recruited off the street. There's a book in there called Can I Ask You a Question that was just released by Jennifer Vendetti, who was the casting director for Euphoria, has a real strange approach to casting and finding people. And it's that kind of— and the book is beautiful, just like the movie merch book is. The thing is, they take every product and treat it like its own experience, as opposed to we're just going to put everything up there that sells. You can tell they have a lot more creative discretion.

Absolutely. And one thing that I want to jump in and make a comment about is it's incredible to me how it is they've used the promotional products channel, marketing channel, marketing lever, so to speak, to create an exceptional brand. And when you contrast that to so many other companies, not even necessarily in the movie business, but Let's just focus on Hollywood here for a second. How many other movie production companies are you aware of? Well, I think there's a number of them that are obviously pretty successful, but how many of them have necessarily built an incredible brand through promotional products? And I can't think of any. Now, there may be folks that are listening to this that may be more specialized in the Hollywood and Cline ecosystem that may correct me, but What I find fascinating here is that A24 has used promotional merchandise as a core part of how it is that they've built their brand. Contrast that to all sorts of other players in Hollywood and outside of Hollywood that see promotional products as important, but it's sort of below the line. It's something that they just invest in, but it's not really the thing that creates their brand authority, so to speak. And here's a company that has invested in book all about movie promotional merchandise. How many other movie studios have done that? I can't think of any. Again, they may be out there, but I can't think of any that are as high profile as this. It's interesting to think of the conversation internally that where someone would have piped up, maybe it was Zoe in this particular case, and said, I think that we should invest our funds, hard-earned marketing funds, into a book. That's an interesting conversation as to like why that would have been approved or how it would have been approved versus spending on other marketing channels. And clearly it's paid off. Clearly they've been able to create this exceptional brand through promotional products. And I just think that's incredibly inspiring because it's evidence that this stuff works when it's done with intent and with design thinking.

Yeah, with design thinking. I think that's the big key. Also something very similar when the last episode we unpacked the UPS shop and where they partnered with creative designers and went to the New York Fashion Week. This also, their auctions benefit Vidiots Foundation. Vidiots Foundation, just what it sounds like, video and idiots together. Vidiots Foundation is a one-of-a-kind hub for film lovers, filmmakers, and everyone curious about cinema. Vidiots is dedicated to inspiring human interaction and film, to preserving, growing, and providing access to its diverse DVD, Blu-ray, and rare VHS collection, showcasing the work of emerging, master, and underrepresented artists. And producing unique and affordable film events and vital education programs. They sort of own this fact when you go to the auction site about the novelty factor of some of this merchandise. In fact, the copy is so creative. Here's what, here's what the copy reads when you first go on to this auction site. For those who prefer their promo a little on the nose, enter the novelty factor auction. Snack like the crew of the Jailbird with peanuts from Con Air. Sing your Robbie Hart out with a toy microphone from The Wedding Singer, or wash up with a Paper Street Soap co-sanctioned Fight Club soap bar. I mean, sort of leaning into the campiness of all of of it. And of course, the tie, the beautiful tie is that they're really doing something to benefit, something that directly ties to the movie business. And you saw this with UPS, they were doing something that tied directly to small businesses, which is their market. So it's really cool to see this thread of intention and creative work, you know, woven all the way through it.

Right. And if you look at this, I'm just looking at an example that I cited before. So I'm on the A24 auction site right now, and there's that Kill Bill sword. That I'm talking about. Now, I clued in on it because I thought both those movies were fantastic. I don't know which one's better, 1 or 2, but amazing, amazing movies. I don't know much about this sword. I think it's pretty badass here, or even how big it is. The point is, this is a letter opener, and the last bid is— or sorry, the final bid is $470. So this is something going for a great cause.

That's really cool.

This thing probably cost no more than like a dollar or two to produce.

Yeah.

You know, they would have produced it in volume. And now it's become this incredible collector's item and is generating this massive amount of additional value and is going to go to someone who totally values this and, you know, creates this emotional connection with the movie Kill Bill Volume 1. And it raises money for a great cause. So, I mean, I think that it's just so incredible as to how all these things, you know, come together. Whereas in another narrative and another story that we're all too familiar with, is the, oh, well, I picked up a letter opener. Who cares if it was shaped like a sword? But I picked it up at someone's booth. I didn't really have any connection with that brand. They just shoved it into my bag. And you know what? I'm lucky. I'm lucky if this stays in my hotel room or the garbage can after the fact, right? So promotional products often have this sad end to them, right? And then now here you're seeing the exact opposite. And I think 824 has done such a great job of elevating the medium. And raising money for a good cause.

One more thing, a lesson I took from Zoe and her team that we can all apply no matter what brands we work with is that we talk about the, the, the unimaginative logo drops that just happen. Somebody calls you up, they want merchandise, they want a campaign, and you just, you just phone it in and drop your logo on some merchandise, sell it to them. Very consciousless selling. In this case, what they do with the pieces that they develop, there is an example a couple of my favorite films, Last Black Man in San Francisco, which I absolutely loved, Minara. Both of those films, Minara and Last Black Man in San Francisco, are filmed by the same— are composed by the same film composer. And what they created was a beautiful songbook on the shop that actually is, um, every song is in its own custom sleeve inside a box. And so it just shows you, I think, where they said, um, they didn't phone it in and say, let's just create a memorabilia book with a lot of photos from the movie. What they did was, how do we create an experience that fans of the book would connect with emotionally? And that's exactly what happened because both those film scores are absolutely stunning.

Yeah, they should do a skateboard for that movie too. I don't know if that exists.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, that'd be awesome.

You'd look good with that, Bobby. I think your skateboarding game is pretty strong, right? Right, pretty strong.

Well, Mark, it's been fun, my friend.

Yeah, thanks, Bobby. This is, I mean, I think a topic that we could probably spend a lot more time on, but you know, just highlight some phenomenal work that we're seeing in the end user community in terms of how they're elevating promotional merch to build their brand, build emotional connection, build a positioning strength in their business. I think it's incredibly inspiring. And I mean, I think we've always instinctively known this. I mean, think about how it is that we use promotional products at Commonsku to create and elevate our brand and utilize product to develop a strong emotional connection with people. So I think it's something we instinctively get. But when you see people that are playing a game that I think in many levels is way different than what we're doing, it's incredibly inspiring. So certainly hats off to A24, Zoe, and the whole team there.

Yep, absolutely. Thanks, my friend. Till next time.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of SkewCast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SKU Cast on iTunes or to our blog at community.comonsku.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much for listening.