Our experience hiring a film publicist for an indie feature
We hired PR Rep AJ Feuerman after she was recommended by our distributor, and unfortunately the experience was extremely disappointing.
From the beginning, there was very little engagement with us as filmmakers. AJ never made any real effort to meet with us to understand the film, our goals, or how we wanted the campaign positioned. She missed two scheduled meetings in a row, explaining that she had overslept for one and forgotten the other. That lack of attention became representative of the entire engagement.
The campaign itself produced very limited results. We saw minimal trailer views, very little meaningful placement, and only a small number of reviews. There was virtually no proactive communication, strategy discussion, or sense that the campaign was being actively managed. The only time she seemed consistently engaged was when it came to arranging payment.
For an independent film, every marketing dollar matters, and this was one of the poorest investments we made. Based on our experience, I would not hire her again and could not recommend her to other independent filmmakers. A terrible, terrible hire, it would have been more beneficial for me to just burn the cash we paid, at least, it would produce some fleeting heat.