ROSKINO TO BECOME THE INTEGRATED AGENCY TO PROMOTE THE RUSSIAN CONTENT ABROAD

ROSKINO TO BECOME THE INTEGRATED AGENCY TO PROMOTE THE RUSSIAN CONTENT ABROAD

 - the announcement made by Olga Lubimova, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, during the visit she paid to the company. As it was noticed, in 2020 ROSKINO has already de facto acted as the integrated representation of the Russian film industry in all the market segments abroad.
         “ROSKINO is going to become the unified agency to promote the Russian cinema around the globe. We are going to use various forms of support and activities in order to do so. We plan to monitor the economic situation in the developed countries, and chose a suitable event format, based on this data” – said the head of the Ministry of Culture.
        Earlier in Aug, 2019 this was the initiative a group of filmmakers approached the Ministry with. According to the initiative group it was necessary to organize a centralized representation for the Russian content in the international arena and establish a nationwide agency to promote the brand of the Russian content industry.
       During her visit, the Minister was introduced to the most efficient content marketing strategies the company has implemented abroad so far, as well shown the premises ROSKINO has been accommodated in since 1964 and demonstrated a part of the “Soviet Export Film” archives exhibition, the organization ROSKINO is the subsequent successor to.
       At the moment ROSKINO is working on a permanent exhibition of the “Soviet Export Film” archives, which is going to include unique materials on the soviet cinema for export, such as international awards, excerpts from the press, advertising materials, promo-equipment of the time, and much more.
       Despite all the obstacles caused by the pandemic, in 2020 ROSKINO managed to establish an effective collaboration with the international content community (content buyers and distributors). At the same time, at the local level the company initiated the unification of different content and production entities under one brand, depending on the content category involved, like cinema, series, animation, documentary, coproduction.
        The first milestone in this unification process was the Key Buyers Event: Digital Edition, an online forum, which aimed at increasing the transparency of the Russian market to international partners. The digital event attracted more than 600 representatives of international companies from 70 countries, while the overall accreditation number exceeded 1400 participants. The multifunctional platform allowed for over 150 hours of content, which represented more than 300 Russian projects, as well screening the main projects in stream mode and online meetings arrangement.
          “Starting from the spring 2020 Key Buyers Event, despite all the circumstances, we managed to start functioning as the company, representing the Russian content industry and its brand over the globe. Our work involved dealing with the international press and the B2B audience of different countries, B2C promotion through the online Russian Film Weeks in various locations and marketplaces, where we did our best to put Russia and the Russian Film Industry in focus (for example, at the Industry@Tallinn&BalticEvent or Content London). We also find it extremely important to contribute to the talent development and training”,-  said Evgenia Markova, the CEO of ROSKINO.
The company developed and implemented numerous educational initiatives, in order to improve the quality of the Russian content and its competitive power in the international arena. In particular, ROSKINO was the one to organize the EAVE ON DEMAND IN RUSSIA, a joint program by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Organization, which aims at educating Russian producers on co-production techniques and strategies. The company is currently working on the further expansion of this initiative, which final goal is the establishment of a professional network of film producers between Russia, the CIS and the EU.
        In addition to the above, Olga Lubimova and Evgenia Markova discussed the first results of the Russian Film Festival, launched by ROSKINO this year. The mission of the Festival is to introduce the international audience to various segments of the Russian content. This is a very important step in B2C promotion, which helps to attract end-users from different countries to the Russian cinema, and so far, this initiative has been a real success. From Nov, 9 to Dec, 30 the online Festivals have been taking place on VOD-platforms in Australia, Mexico, Spain and Brazil. In Australia, where the Festival is already over, the Russian movies were watched by more than 100 hundred viewers.
       Next year the company plans to increase the number of the countries hosting such online (and off-line) Festivals up to 20.
       ROSKINO also seeks to improve the image of the Russian filmmakers as high potential co-production partners, as co-production is one of the best international marketing solutions. This is why in 2020 the company arranged for the Russian content to be represented at the big international venues, like Industry@Tallinn&BalticEvent and Content London, the forum for television professionals, specializing in co-production and TV content. Besides Russian projects’ presentations, there also took place numerous panel discussions with over 150 key Russian speakers and experts involved.