Loading

7 Best Must-Watch Movies About Advertising and Marketing

The movie industry came a long way from a groundbreaking novelty to a multimillion idol-making machine. And with the rise of streaming platforms, it became easier than ever to pick and watch a movie. 

While thousands of marketers are tirelessly trying to find new ways of engaging with the broad audience, gathering insights, movie producers found the ideal formula years before. To be consumed, the media product should be:

  • Attention-grabbing;
  • Relatable;
  • Not too straightforward.

These principals are often to be ignored by advertising makers, who want to sell their products to virtually anybody, saying as much, and as fast as possible about their brand. This never worked. And never will. 

So to study the techniques of making a good video product, marketers should turn their attention to the movie industry more, since there’s not just plenty of good films in general, but actually quite a few great films about advertising and marketing specifically. 

In this article, we will cover some of the most worthy of them. Grab your snacks and hop in!

Seven Movies Which Will Teach You More Than Any Ad School 

  1. 99 francs 

Let’s get this one over with as quickly as possible. You all knew it would be somewhere on the list, so why wasting time? A legendary book that brought many people into advertising in the 90s made it into a film in 2007. This is a bizarre peek into the life of the old-time advertisers with their crazy ideas, tons of cocaine, and overall creative chaos. A large number of farce and lies are revealed here, which they use resorting to the retouching services, digital video processing services.This film establishes and closely digs into many concepts and tricks that modern advertising professionals utilize to this day. Not a very family-friendly movie but a fun one for sure. 

  1. Moneyball 

This movie is based on a real-life Oakland Athletics baseball coach’s story. At first, it might be a bit unclear how sports drama can be related to marketing but after a while into watching, it becomes pretty obvious. For any startup owners and agencies working with fresh businesses, having a knowledge of how the smart strategy can produce great results given a tight budget is just a priceless thing to learn.

  1. Catch Me if You Can 

Let’s be honest, have you ever seen a bad movie with Brad Pitt and Tom Hanks in it? Yep, we also haven’t. To completely understand the value it has, you should familiarize yourself with a Book of Influence written by Robert Caldini. It explains six main psychological principles of influence, such as consistency, social proof, authority, and others. And Leo’s character masterfully executed all of them in order to make people around him believe in what he wants them to. At the same time, being able to fool one of the best detectives out there for years, always being one step ahead.  If you are one of the lucky movie enthusiasts who have yet to watch that masterpiece, don’t waste any more time! 

  1. What Women Want 

You can have different opinions about Mel Gibson but denying that he has a great talent for acting is just wrong. His main comedy hit may have turned 20 years old this year but it’s still both funny and smart. It’s a very literate metaphor on what you’ve got to go through in studying your target audience to really understand what it wants. Because often marketers assume that audience groups that are different from one they are in think and act the same as they do. It leads to poor marketing decisions, and eventually, failed business. 

With that being said, understanding your audience and engaging with it in the right way is the best method for keeping your brand on-point and healthy. “One of the best ways of engagement always was and will be through the content. That’s why Adsy provides top-notch services of producing and publishing the best SEO-proven content for thousands of brands from all over the world,” says Alice Harshman, Head of Content at Adsy.

  1. Jobs 

Critics may not like it but the 2013 biopic movie depicts the early-day stage of any startups in a very accurate way. Starting your own business is never easy. You will face problems you never even thought about and to stay alive you must act fast. And while people had different opinions about Steve Jobs as a person, nobody can deny that he had a great entrepreneurship mind, making a small garage company one of the world’s biggest technological monsters.  

  1. Steve Jobs

And another one. This movie, unlike the previous apple-themed contestant, was very popular among critics and the general public as it shifted its focus from the man itself to his empire. It showed us a great picture of how marketing and business thinking can coexist to solve hard problems and to answer any challenge of the times. It also will give you a different perspective on the man, which is a great quality to have if you want to succeed in marketing. Always looking at the full spectrum of opinions, without taking someone’s side.

  1. The Joneses

While that one wasn’t a success in any way, this movie has some truly priceless insights for every advertising professional to learn. A great take on the culture of influencers, word-to-mouth marketing, and the psychology of class affiliation. Despite having a clear comedic nature, it’s actually much darker and deeper as it may seem at first. 

These are just a drop in the sea of great examples of how movies can exploit marketing and advertising principles to make a compelling story for millions of people to watch. 

Of course, it’s always a good practice for every professional to constantly expand their pool of knowledge but no matter how many things you’ve read or learned, the only way of making them work is to try them out in the fields. So always rely on real experience, don’t be afraid to experiment, and to think outside the box! 

What are your favorite movies about marketing? Did we miss some? Share your list with us in the comment section! 

Marie Barnes is a writer for gearyoda. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs. Follow her on Medium.