Media Credit: igoriss / iStock
At the core of any brand is storytelling. For a brand like A24, which initially dealt only with film distribution, this storytelling is double-layered: What story does each film tell, and what story does their complete syndication catalog tell about the brand?
A24, despite being started on the wrong coast (NYC instead of the typical LA), is responsible for producing box-office and critical hits, including “Moonlight,” “Lady Bird,” “Hereditary,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and “Past Lives.” A24’s filmography spans horror, sci-fi, drama, romance, animation, and comedy, yet it has spawned a fanbase devoted to the studio itself.
Sam Sanders of Vulture said, “When moviegoers gush over an ‘A24 film,’ it can be hard to tell whether they’re more excited about the ‘A24’ part or the ‘film’ part.” But how exactly did A24 build this cult of personality? They’ve fostered mass appeal by knowing their audience and thinking small before thinking big.
Credit: IMDb / A24
Mass Appeal vs. Finding a Niche
Credit: IMDb / A24
Rather than solely financing films and TV shows that would appeal to as many people as possible, A24 puts its quirky, millennial cinephile fanbase at the center of its strategy. The Independent said A24 “refuses to fit the Hollywood mold.” The studio doesn’t go for safe bets and blockbusters but rather indie productions with unique concepts and perspectives. In an entertainment landscape that’s increasingly declining “risky” productions, A24 regularly takes gambles that pay off.
Perhaps the most notable example is “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” an absurdist dramedy centered on a middle-aged Chinese American immigrant woman and her family. Lined up against a box office of superhero films, sequels, and existing IPs, it’s an unlikely script to see the light of day. However, it became A24’s highest-grossing film to date, earning $143 million worldwide on a $14-25 million production budget and sweeping awards.
As counterintuitive as it sounds, A24 managed to find mass audiences by way of targeting its millennial tastemaker niche. By trying to serve everyone, some studios end up serving no one, but A24 proudly and boldly invests in distributing content to niche audiences, which the company knows it can not only reach but also make consumers of its products.
Credit: IMDb / A24
Curated Creativity in Content
Mario Gabriele of The Generalist said A24’s films “possess some shared DNA, an A24 allele, difficult to articulate but there nonetheless.” With such a broad range of genres, what exactly defines an “A24 film” such that the brand resonates so deeply with moviegoers?
Although the major film studios regularly produce well-loved and critically acclaimed content, very few people would consider themselves Columbia Pictures fans or Searchlight Pictures heads in the way that A24 fans are proud to announce. Amanda K Gordon of The Case for Brand calls it their “cool factor.”
Director Ari Aster, who worked with A24 on “Hereditary,” “Midsommar,” and “Beau Is Afraid,” told the Independent that A24 looks for “people with a voice.” But instead of all these voices drowning each other out, they’ve created a unique brand identity for A24, one that consumers find easily identifiable and disruptive in the current media landscape. In other words, the brand shaped itself by the types of content A24 curated.
Inventive & Viral Marketing
Credit: The Verge / Adweek
Following its quirky attitude to film curation, A24 also takes an unorthodox marketing approach that best suits its chronically online, millennial, and Gen Z target demos.
For “Ex Machina,” A24 promoted the 2015 robot romance with a Tinder chatbot that linked matches to a promotional Instagram account. The release of cult horror “Hereditary” was coupled with creepy dolls sent to journalists and audience members. Arthurian drama “The Green Knight” was accompanied by a Dungeons & Dragons style board game.
In general, social media forms the backbone of A24’s campaigns, finding its young audiences where they hang out – online. Even more, the strength of A24’s brand identity allows it to host an online shop featuring merchandise and collectibles for their films and TV shows, both past and present. The shop even offers products designed with the A24 logo so fans can express their love for the studio. By leaning into the fan culture that thrives online among its target audiences, A24 distinguishes itself within the market and makes its content more straightforward to identify.
These social media platforms serve as a cheap but effective means of syndicating A24’s content to the right audience. It means the company gets to control its messaging, interact directly with its consumers and advertise its products – movies – essentially for free. This type of disruptive, audience-driven content distribution is why A24 is on its way to being a household name – if it isn’t already.
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