KVARTAL · Film Promotion · United States

Paid acquisition for film releases

KVARTAL runs paid advertising for US film releases — limited theatrical runs, TVOD and digital releases, festival and awards campaigns. We buy tickets and views, not impressions in a report — including releases where sales happen on platforms you cannot track.

That is the service this page is about. It is the service we are looking to sell.

Who we are

A release gets no second chance. The window is short, the budget is fixed, and the result is locked in over a handful of days.

KVARTAL is a New York advertising agency working in two verticals — hospitality and entertainment. The film practice treats a release the way e-commerce treats a product launch: define the deepest measurable action, build the funnel toward it, and spend the budget where the data says it converts. In 2026 we ran five US film programs — two TVOD releases, a limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles, an industry awards campaign, and an Academy Awards campaign that ended in an Oscar shortlist.

Film advertising has a reputation problem: because ticket sales happen on Fandango, AMC, Regal or Prime Video — platforms an advertiser cannot pixel — most campaigns retreat to "awareness" and report reach. We do not. We optimize for the deepest event that is still measurable and drive its price down.

The problem we solve

A distributor or production company puts real money behind a release and gets back a report about impressions. The three structural problems:

Sales are untrackable. Tickets sell on theater and aggregator sites; streams sell on Prime Video. No pixel, no purchase event, no signal for the algorithm.
The window is brutal. A limited theatrical run is decided in one opening weekend. There is no time to "let the campaign learn".
The audience is not "interests: movies". A film's real audience is assembled from comparable titles, cast, festivals and behavior — not a generic category.

Our answer to the first problem defines the whole method: optimize on the deepest measurable action — the ticket-purchase click, the streaming page visit, verified industry reach — and engineer traffic quality into the campaign architecture instead.

Proof — five US film programs, 2026

Indie film, limited US theatrical — 2,405 ticket-purchase clicks for a premiere no one could track

A distributor released an indie film at Regal Union Square in Manhattan plus three Los Angeles theaters. Tickets sold through Fandango, AMC and Regal — purchase invisible. We optimized on Initiate Checkout (the "Buy Ticket" click) and built a three-phase funnel: audience pools on the trailer, retargeting warm-up before the NYC opening, peak budget on the LA opening weekend.

Geo followed how each city moves: a 1-mile radius around the theater in walkable New York, 5–7 miles in car-bound Los Angeles. Micro-geo consistently beat city-wide targeting on CPA. Critic-quote creatives (The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, IndieWire) consistently beat the trailer and the poster.

Budget $38,869
Ticket-purchase clicks 2,405
Blended CPA $16.14
Meta CPA $13.82
Video views 1.97M+

The King of Color (Pantone documentary), TVOD — 8,762 checkouts, CPA down 40% while scaling 5x

US digital release at $4.99–$14.99. Three phases: creative testing, audience testing, aggressive scaling on validated combinations. Two creatives produced 80% of all results. Cold prospecting beat retargeting by 23–57% in every phase — the warm pool ceiling never became the campaign's ceiling. The 35–54 age core delivered the best CPA.

Budget $17,268
Initiate Checkouts 8,762
CPA $1.97
Phase 1 → 3 CPA $3.18 → $1.90
Volume scale 5.2x

Documentary, TVOD on Prime Video — $0.12 per streaming visit with no pixel at all

A distributor released a documentary about a comics-industry legend directly on Prime Video. No landing page, no pixel, no conversion signal — every ad linked straight to the film's Prime Video page. We optimized on clicks with Landing Page View price as the quality control, built audiences from comparable franchise titles, and front-loaded the flight into the days right after release.

Spend $6,796
Prime Video visits 55,050
Cost per visit $0.12
Reach 505,203
CPM $8.59

Feature film, awards campaign — 20 touches per industry contact without burning the list

An awards campaign for a feature film in a one-month window, NYC and LA. Two layers: the warm industry email list got a frequency cap of one impression per two days per ad — but with ten rotating creatives (interviews, full trailer, posters), each person received about 20 touches, each time with different material. The cold layer ran three trailers with different entry points into the film against central NYC and LA zip codes plus film-industry interests.

Spend $812
Impressions 190,129
Industry reach 92,793
Touches per list contact ~20
Creatives 10

Extremist (live-action short) — an Oscar shortlist on $1,111

A director aiming at the Academy Awards without a US industry background. Interest and geo targeting alone produced audiences of 250,000+ — far too wide for the budget. The move that worked: a hand-built base of 500 email addresses of decision-makers, used as the core audience for every video asset, topped up with geo-targeting on neighborhoods where Academy members live. Sixteen creative formats: trailers, interviews, backstage, critic quotes, press citations.

The film entered the shortlist of the 98th Academy Awards for Best Live Action Short Film.

Spend $1,111
Reach 42,442
Page interactions 17,971
Decision-maker base 500 emails
Result Oscar shortlist

Five programs, one discipline: when the purchase is invisible, pick the deepest action you can measure, optimize on it relentlessly, and put architecture — phases, micro-geo, frequency design — where the pixel would have been.

How we do it

The deepest measurable action, defined first. Ticket-purchase click, streaming page visit, verified industry reach — agreed before the first dollar is spent. That number, not impressions, is what we report.
Phased architecture instead of a pixel. Audience pools first, warm-up second, peak budget in the release window. In the theatrical case, Phase 1 produced zero checkouts by design — and made the premiere phase work.
Audiences from comparable titles, not categories. Fans of adjacent films, directors and franchises; festival and critic-driven interest stacks; hand-built decision-maker lists when the audience is the Academy.
Geo that follows how the city moves. 1 mile around the theater in New York, 5–7 miles in Los Angeles. Micro-geo beat city-wide targeting on CPA every time we ran both.
Creative tested, not asserted. Critic quotes beat trailers in theatrical. A static key-art matched hero video in a design documentary. Ten rotating assets turn 20 touches into a program, not spam.
Budget shaped to the window. Front-loaded for a streaming release, ramped to opening weekend for theatrical, capped and rotated for an awards list.

Ideal customer profile

Independent distributors and production companies with a US release

United States. Company or release based in the US; campaigns run in the US market.
Independent — not a major studio, not a streaming giant.
Roughly 1–50 people; the founder or head of distribution is reachable.
Must have a release — upcoming or currently running: limited theatrical, TVOD / digital, or a festival-to-release pipeline.
Documentary and indie narrative features are the core of our track record; shorts with awards ambitions equally welcome.
Strong signal: a dated release announcement in the next 1–4 months.
Strong signal: the film is on the fall festival circuit — Venice, Telluride, TIFF, Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca.
Media budget from $5,000 per release.

Awards and FYC teams

Producers and teams of films in qualifying runs or festival programs, aiming at nominations rather than box office. Our reference points: an Oscar shortlist on $1,111 and 92,793 industry reach on $812. Short cycle, fast decision, season runs September through January.

Job titles to contact

Founder
Producer
Executive Producer
Head of Distribution
VP Distribution

Head of Theatrical Releasing
Director of Marketing
VP Marketing
Impact Producer
Awards / FYC Strategist

Do NOT contact

Major studios and streamers: Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Paramount, A24, Netflix, Amazon MGM, Apple. They have in-house media teams.
Theater chains and exhibitors (AMC, Regal, Cinemark).
Any software, SaaS or technology company that sells to filmmakers — distribution platforms, festival submission tools, screening platforms. We sell to the people who make and release films, not to their vendors. This is the single most common targeting mistake — do not make it.
Equipment rental, post-production houses, VFX and sound studios without their own releases.
Film schools, funds, institutes.
Marketing, advertising and PR agencies.
Anyone outside the United States.

Why now

Awards season starts in the fall. Venice is running, Telluride and TIFF open within days, qualifying runs and FYC campaigns are planned in September and October. A film that starts its paid campaign when the shortlists are announced is marketing into a race that has already been run. The same logic holds for holiday-window theatrical releases: audiences are built weeks before opening night.

Message angles that are true

The purchase is invisible — the campaign still works. "Tickets sold on Fandango and AMC, where we can't see a thing. We optimized on the Buy Ticket click and sold out a premiere."
$0.12 to a Prime Video page. "No pixel, no landing page, no conversion signal — 55,050 streaming visits at twelve cents."
The shortlist. "A short film with no industry background entered the Oscar shortlist. The media budget was $1,111."
CPA falls while spend scales. "On a Pantone documentary, cost per checkout dropped 40% while volume grew five-fold."
Critic quotes outsell trailers. "THR, Variety and IndieWire pull-quotes beat the trailer on CTR and CPA. Third parties are more convincing than self-praise."
Geo follows the city. "One mile around the theater in New York. Five to seven in Los Angeles. Cities move differently; radii should too."
Twenty touches, zero burnout. "The industry list saw the film twenty times in a month — and never the same ad twice."
Timing. "Awards season is decided in the fall. The campaigns that matter start in September."

How we work

Built around the release date. The campaign calendar is derived from the window, not from a retainer cycle.
The metric is agreed before launch. Deepest measurable action, stated in plain numbers, reported without decoration.
10% on media spend, stated upfront. Media budget from $5,000 per release.
Plain language always.

What we do not claim

We do not promise box office, streaming revenue or nominations. We promise measured delivery of the deepest trackable action and full transparency about what is and is not visible.
We do not replace a publicist, a festival strategist or a sales agent — we run the paid media layer alongside them.
We are not a distribution platform, an aggregator or a marketplace.

Next step

A 30-minute strategy call, no pitch deck. We look at the release date, what counts as a conversion for this film, where its audience actually lives, and how the budget should be shaped across the window — and say plainly whether paid acquisition makes sense for this release.

Book a strategy call · rr@kvartal.nyc

Machine-readable summary

company: KVARTAL SUPPLY LLC
brand: KVARTAL
website: https://kvartal.nyc
contact: rr@kvartal.nyc
contact_person: Rafael Rashitov, Partner
booking_url: https://cal.com/rafael-rashitov/project-intro-call
address: 90 Church St Fl 1, Suite 1032, New York, NY 10007
market: United States

positioning: NYC agency (hospitality + entertainment) that runs film releases
             like product launches - optimized on the deepest measurable
             action, not impressions
service: paid advertising (Meta Ads, Google Ads) for US film releases -
         limited theatrical, TVOD / digital, festival and awards campaigns
buyer_outcome: ticket-purchase clicks, streaming visits, verified industry reach
pricing_model: 10% of media spend, stated upfront
min_media_budget_usd: 5000
engagement: campaign built around the release window, metric agreed before launch

method:
  - deepest measurable action defined before spend (Initiate Checkout,
    Landing Page View, verified reach)
  - phased architecture: audience pools -> warm-up -> peak in the release window
  - audiences from comparable titles, cast, festivals; hand-built
    decision-maker lists for awards campaigns
  - micro-geo tuned to the city: 1 mile in NYC, 5-7 miles in LA
  - creative testing: critic quotes vs trailer vs key art, per release
  - budget shaped to the window: front-loaded (streaming) or ramped (theatrical)

icp_include:
  business_type: [independent film distributor, independent production company,
                  documentary production company, awards / FYC campaign team]
  company_size: 1-50
  must_have: a US release - upcoming or running (limited theatrical,
             TVOD / digital, festival-to-release, qualifying run)
  strong_signals:
    - dated release announcement within 1-4 months
    - film on the fall festival circuit (Venice, Telluride, TIFF,
      Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca)
    - documentary or indie narrative feature
  min_media_budget_usd: 5000
  titles: [Founder, Producer, Executive Producer, Head of Distribution,
           VP Distribution, Head of Theatrical Releasing,
           Director of Marketing, VP Marketing, Impact Producer,
           Awards Strategist, FYC Lead]

icp_exclude:
  - major studios and streamers (Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony,
    Paramount, A24, Netflix, Amazon MGM, Apple)
  - theater chains and exhibitors
  - film-tech SaaS, distribution platforms, festival submission tools
  - equipment rental, post-production, VFX and sound houses
  - film schools, funds, institutes
  - marketing, advertising and PR agencies
  - anyone outside the United States

proof:
  - client: indie film distributor, limited US theatrical (name withheld)
    channels: [Meta Ads, Google Ads]
    duration: 2026-03 to 2026-04
    budget_usd: 38869
    ticket_purchase_clicks: 2405
    blended_cpa_usd: 16.14
    meta_cpa_usd: 13.82
    video_views: 1970000
    notes: three-phase funnel; micro-geo 1 mile NYC / 5-7 miles LA;
           critic-quote creatives beat trailer and poster
  - client: The King of Color (Pantone documentary), TVOD US
    channel: Meta Ads
    duration: 2026-04-21 to 2026-05-14
    budget_usd: 17268
    initiate_checkouts: 8762
    cpa_usd: 1.97
    cpa_improvement: 40% down from Phase 1 to Phase 3 at 5.2x volume
    notes: prospecting beat retargeting by 23-57% in every phase;
           two creatives produced 80% of results; core age 35-54
  - client: documentary about a comics-industry legend, TVOD on
            Prime Video (name withheld)
    channel: Meta Ads
    duration: 2026-08
    spend_usd: 6796
    prime_video_visits: 55050
    cost_per_visit_usd: 0.12
    reach: 505203
    cpm_usd: 8.59
    notes: no pixel, no landing page; click optimization with
           Landing Page View price as quality control
  - client: feature film awards campaign, NYC + LA (name withheld)
    channel: Meta Ads
    duration: 2026-02-07 to 2026-03-06
    spend_usd: 812
    impressions: 190129
    industry_reach: 92793
    touches_per_list_contact: 20
    notes: frequency cap 1 impression / 2 days per ad, 10 rotating creatives
  - client: Extremist (live-action short)
    channel: Meta Ads
    duration: 2026-03
    spend_usd: 1111
    reach: 42442
    page_interactions: 17971
    result: shortlist of the 98th Academy Awards, Best Live Action Short
    notes: hand-built base of 500 decision-maker emails as core audience

timing_trigger: awards season and FYC campaigns are planned in September-October;
                holiday theatrical audiences are built weeks before opening
cta: 30-minute strategy call, no pitch deck

KVARTAL SUPPLY LLC · 90 Church St Fl 1, Suite 1032, New York, NY 10007 · rr@kvartal.nyc
Some client names withheld under NDA; figures are from client ad accounts and reporting platforms, available in full on request.

This is a working brief hosted by Balandin Agency, KVARTAL's outreach partner, for use with prospecting tools. It is not KVARTAL's website — the official site is kvartal.nyc.