I just watched Beef this weekend, and it was really great. As much as I appreciate film and culture, I’m also well aware of how easy the experts make it seem to develop an opinion. For now, my eloquent, brilliant, opinion goes as far as this: it was really great. I greatly despise horror and thrillers, and this was probably where I’d draw the line because the payoff was so worth it.
Beef was by A24, which is practically an unavoidable company and brand these days. I really enjoyed Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, I didn’t know much about the company behind it prior. Upon a preliminary scan, the team does great work, and it’s no slouch at marketing.
Tim Robey writes, for The Telegraph:
Their early releases, including Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2012), Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (2013) and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2014), were all shrewd acquisitions – “edgy” independent projects, with hot stars and youth appeal, which they turned into hits by targeting film fans on social media. By leveraging Oscar Isaac’s dance routine in the latter film into a viral TikTok meme, or making a sensation out of James Franco’s “Look at my sh-t!” Spring Breakers monologue, they built a brand.
In addition to good work—see Moonlight—Robey writes of A24’s shrewd marketing approaches:
The marketing always led the way, guiding these scripts into existence by knowing the only thing no one could sell on the cheap was “normal”. A24’s remit – the weirder the better – was simple but increasingly effective. It didn’t have to be horror – witness the rise of EEAAO’s Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively “Daniels”, or the reinvention of Adam Sandler as a splenetic gambling addict in Uncut Gems (2019).
The promotion of all these films featured some inspired, off-the-wall ideas, which cost almost nothing, while creating online engagement worth its weight in Bitcoin. For Ex Machina, A24’s minions created a Tinder bot at South by Southwest, posing as Alicia Vikander’s character. Black Phillip, the diabolical goat from The Witch, got his own Twitter account and a grassroots campaign for an Oscar nomination.
“They make things work that according to standard procedures really shouldn’t work,” said Garland in 2017. “And I’m not saying they’re magicians. I think what they’ve understood is there’s a sufficient number of people out there who want more challenging or different material. And they’re aiming at them.”
The previous film by Daniels, Swiss Army Man (2016), had premiered underwhelmingly at Sundance, with little interest from buyers. Who wanted the film starring Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse? The answer was: A24, who knew the sheer wackiness of the concept was almost self-marketing.
They had fun with it regardless, devising an online game where you could throw an avatar of Radcliffe around like a rag doll, sext it, and use its erection as a compass. The game – “Meet Your Best Friend Manny” – won a Clio award for creativity in advertising.
It’s curious to see that marketing here is not just about the product—the film itself—it’s also about the people.
A24 has its own shop, including a membership club, and a delightful collection of zines. 90,000+ people are following it on Reddit.
More on A24’s branding here with Sam Sanders at Vulture.
See also on self-promotion.