Why Ghanaian Films Need a Marketing Strategy From the Start

Before we repeat that Ghana's film industry is dead, we should ask a more useful question: what did we do to help the intended audience discover the film and decide to watch it?

A release needs its own resources and people responsible for delivery, alongside the work of production.

My concern is the gap between the effort that goes into making a film and the planning that goes into finding its audience. When marketing begins with a last-minute flyer and ends with premiere photographs, we leave too much of the film's commercial life to chance.

Marketing belongs in the film plan

Film marketing connects an audience with a reason to watch and an accessible viewing opportunity. PR contributes media engagement and relationships with relevant communities and partners.

Starting early helps teams plan the release, capture promotional material during production, explore partnerships and reserve a marketing budget.

Ghana's challenges extend beyond marketing. In announcing its 2025 National Film Dialogue, the National Film Authority identified funding, infrastructure and global market access among the issues the industry needs to address. A marketing campaign cannot remove those constraints or guarantee a profitable release.

It can help a filmmaker make better choices within them. If a release has limited screens, the campaign must make the available screenings easy to find. If the budget is small, the audience and channel choices need to be focused. If the film is intended for viewers outside Ghana, the team needs a credible route to those viewers.

What other film campaigns can teach us

Other films offer useful lessons, provided we account for differences in budgets, audience relationships and distribution.

The Wedding Party offers a useful partnership example. In 2016, EbonyLife announced Dubai Tourism's sponsorship of its world premiere, alongside a promotion involving wedding-related businesses. The connection between the film's subject and the promotional partners gave the team a relevant proposition to work with.

Lexus's 2018 campaign with Marvel's Black Panther included Super Bowl advertising, digital material and activity around the film's world. At a scale appropriate to their own release, Ghanaian producers can ask which partners could introduce the film to suitable audiences through a relevant shared idea.

The Blair Witch Project took a different approach. Sundance describes its internet campaign as one that made viewers question the boundary between the film's fiction and reality. The campaign drew directly from the film's identity as found-footage horror. Its creative approach would not automatically suit a romantic comedy or a documentary.

Nigeria also offers evidence of commercial scale. FilmOne's 2024 Nigerian Box Office Yearbook records more than 1.4 billion naira for Funke Akindele's A Tribe Called Judah (2023), as of 31 December 2024. The total establishes the result, rather than the contribution of any particular marketing tactic.

For me, the useful lesson is to build the campaign around the film's identity, audience and available opportunities.

What Ghanaian filmmakers can do differently

Define the audience before designing the announcement

Who is most likely to care about this story, and why? Everyone who loves movies is too broad to guide a campaign.

A campus comedy, a family drama and a documentary about a particular community need different introductions. Describe the first audience you want to reach, where you can reach them and what might persuade them to watch. Expand from an audience you can meaningfully engage.

Budget for reaching the audience

Marketing needs an allocation in the release budget. It requires decisions about strategy, assets, publicity, placements and coordination. Leaving it to whatever remains after production limits the choices available.

There is no single percentage that makes sense for every film. Build the allocation around the intended release and the work required. A focused screening campaign and a multi-city theatrical release have different needs.

Build a reason to watch

A poster can announce a film. The wider campaign should help people understand the experience it offers.

Develop a clear synopsis, suitable trailer, approved photographs and a concise press kit. Use interviews, production material and selected scenes to introduce something meaningful about the story or the people behind it. Give each asset a purpose and connect it to the viewing opportunity.

Make the viewing route clear

Someone who becomes interested should be able to find out where the film is showing, when it is available, what access costs and how to book or watch.

Coordinate that information with exhibitors and distribution partners. Test the booking journey on a phone. If a screening changes or a new viewing opportunity opens, update the audience promptly. Generating interest is useful only if people can act on it.

Plan beyond the premiere

The premiere is one moment in the release. Build a sequence that introduces the film beforehand, supports the opening and gives later audiences useful reasons to consider it.

Where relevant, follow up with audience responses, cast conversations, community discussions or details of further screenings. Respond to what people actually find interesting about the work. Review bookings, attendance or available viewing data alongside reach and engagement so the team can distinguish attention from audience action.

Give the work a clear owner

Filmmakers do not have to carry every part of the release themselves. They do need to decide who is responsible for the campaign, how that person or team works with production and distribution, and who approves decisions.

Choose an internal lead, specialist collaborators or an agency, with a defined scope, realistic budget and enough time to deliver.

For a commercial film, audience planning belongs alongside production.

Work with PR369 Communications

At PR369 Communications, we help filmmakers and production houses develop entertainment marketing campaigns that bring together strategy, storytelling, publicity, partnerships and launch experiences.

Planning a release? Send your synopsis, production stage, intended release window, proposed viewing route and marketing budget to business@pr369.com. We will start with a strategy conversation about your audience and campaign objective.