Film Marketing

Task 1

Films are marketed in plenty of ways. There are major elements behind a film marketing campaign. Some of these elements consist of:

o Trailers

o Word-of-mouth

o Competitions on websites

o Facebook/Twitter

o Talk shows

o Posters (on buses)

o Magazines/Newspapers

o Publicity Stunts

o Billboards

o Synergy

o Merchandise

Trailers are used to catch the audience’s attention to help engage them to want to research more about the movie, because once they see the trailer they are going to want to know more about the movie like who is staring in the movie, who are the main actors, what is this movie really about and most importantly when is it being released. After they have finally seen the trailer they are then going to be telling others like friends and family members about this particular movie and how exciting it really is therefore the word-of-mouth will continue to flow because their friends and other family members will be talking about the movie which others in the public will over hear and then they will want to research into the movie to see what the excitement is really all about.

When the excitement of the trailer is gaining more potential audiences of different ethnicity background and age group they all then start to visit the website that have been set up about the film to try and win the different competitions so that they are able to either meet the main characters, or even win merchandises for free as well as free tickets to the premier of the movie itself. All of these marketing campaign for the movie then becomes even bigger because they realise that the movie will become a huge success eventually therefor they start to advertise the movie onto the sides of buses because people who do not necessarily drive take the bus

therefore when they see this big poster of a new movie pass them on a different bus they are going to be so interested into finding out more about the film therefore they start to look for different talk shows about the film where the celebrities are promoting the film itself to help gain more audience to go and view the film.

Not only does the audience watch a film because of the excellent trailer that was put together but they also watch the movie because of the factors such as:

The ethnicity whether it is made of mostly black characters or a mixed range of characters coming together

The genre of the story because some people know what they are going to get from it because the genre is so precise

The cast because they have seen possibly the first part of that movie before for instance IRON MAN

The Special Effects(SFX) because of all of the different visual effects that make the movie even more so interesting to watch because all the effects look so realistic and make the movie stand out because you do not see as much in other films from this specific genre

The director, if it is the same director leading the movie they know what to expect because they know the hard work in which he had put in the first movie that is related to this second one. They know he will not disappoint because he did not disappoint them first time round.

In order to help understand the marketing campaign of films I did a film survey in my class to help understand the different reasons behind people choosing the film that they watch.These are the overall results that I received from my class that consist of 13 students:

1% of them watch films everyday 80% watch films once a week 0% of them visit the cinema once a week due to college 90% watch films online 50% watch films based on the trailer 70% watch the film because of the genre because it is reliable and

predictable 30% watch the film because of its narrative 40% only watch it because of the cast that is in the film 60% watch it because they like the work of the director that is directing

the film they know what to expect from him

20% watch the film because of the SFX that they are used to getting from the genre of the film

60% watch the movie because it is a sequel of the previous film 30% would the film because of the reviews that it has received 0.07% would watch the film because some of the actors/ actresses have

different roles as to which they are used to seeing them play a part of.

Masthead

When campaigning and marketing a movie on a website most companies choose to advertise their movie on the masthead because this is a desirable place in which people normally look when they are visiting different websites, therefore advertising at the masthead helps the movie to advertise effectively because once the audience sees this advert they are going to want to click on the link immediately to know more about what this specific movie is about.

Iron man 3 is a great example of a movie that had a huge masthead on the marvel website in order to help promote its marketing campaign of its released date as well

as what to expect from it overall. This gets the attention of the different audiences that visit this website because they will want to watch the trailer to overall see what the main focus and excitement of Iron Man 3 is all about, why is the poster so big, what is going on in the background. They will want to find out all the different answers to their questions therefore watching the actual film gives them permission of access into finding out more about the overall film itself.

This is another great example of masthead because it promoting a brand new film and it is also giving the idea of how to book your ticket so that you will be one of the first people to see it once it reaches cinema on Friday. Not only that but you get a chance to view videos of their apps and games to do with the overall film itself.

Mega-bus

This is an example of a double decker bus rather than a mega-bus which helps to promote the film around the city. Having a double decker bus as well as a mega-bus helps to show off the film very well because the poster on the bus is so massive it will catch the public’s attention no matter if they were trying to concentrate elsewhere. With such a big poster on the side of the bus people who do not drive but rather take public transport as well as those who drive get a chance to view this really great poster of the movie which will be hitting cinemas soon.

International Quad

An international quad helps to sell the movie to specific people/ target audience in different countries.

As you can see Iron man 3 is being campaigned in three different countries which speak languages. In order to help promote the film to help it gain more target audience as well as sales the posters were designed differently to help capture the target audience as well new target audience to wanting to go and experience iron man 3 and get an understanding of what it is really is about.

Another example of an international quad is the movie Snow White which is originally a name of a children’s story book.

As an international quad “Snow White’s” unique selling points for their poster were choosing to wear costumes having different weapons as props with a them that had big special effects and magical birds flying around in the background of the witches head to help show that she has power and she is very dominant. They also made the choice of using big movie stars to be the main characters of the posters to help campaign the movie itself. Most importantly you are able to notice the main characters roles in the overall film because you have the very passive male who is always there to be a hero and protect Kirsten Stewart who is snow white from the evil woman. As always the most important role in the story gets to have their name written first on the poster because that person is playing the more relevant character.

Sales Display

These two different posters are of the same film; however they are used to sell the genre of the movie. The poster which contains the fly on the face represents that she is dead and flies are about to cover her face because that is something that usually happens. However the other poster is more of a mysterious poster because you can see that evil actions will be happening in the film however you are not aware of how all that you are aware of is the fact that the female in the poster might be involved or will be involved.

JUDGE DREDD (1995)

The Judge Dredd movie which was made in 1995 was distributed by Guild which distributes Hollywood films. In order for the company to decide whether or not they will distribute the film the producer of the film has to first send it to the company with the director’s name as well as some of the names of the characters who will be staring in the movie. The distribution company then decides whether or not the movie is a Hollywood Blockbuster film or not.

The budget of a film marketing campaign is divided into ‘above-the-line’ and ‘below the-line’ costs.

MARKETING

When promoting JUDGE DREDD they did telephone surveys in order to find out more information about their target audience. After completing their survey they found out that

Only 55% of people aged 12-24 went cinemas quite oftenOnly 24% of people aged 25-34 really went cinemas oftenOnly 21% of people aged 35+ went cinemas often

Doing this survey helped with the marketing of the film and finding out different ways as to which to promote the film and find the correct target audience.

The advertising budget is an ‘above-the-line’ cost, in which the distributor pays a certain amount of money to buy advertising space whether it is on television, radio, or in magazines and newspapers. They pay for a space and by doing this they know what they are getting for their money because of the space they have chosen.

They know the size of the advert, when and where it will be placed and roughly how many people are expected to see it.

ADVERTISINGAs we all know advertising costs a lot of money especially when advertising a film and trying to do it perfect so that people go out and watch the movie. When advertising a film you are able to choose where you would like for it to be in the newspapers or even in the magazines. Most companies normally choose the front page as well as the back page because that is the way in which people read their

PUBLICITY & PROMOTION

Below the cost

ADVERTISING

Above the cost

magazines or newspapers, but most importantly those who are not purchasing the magazine or newspaper see the cover and it catches their attention to wanting to go and find out more about the film and watching the trailer. This helps to create the awareness of the film.

Most films use special effects to gain the audiences full attention in most parts of the film however they cannot always just rely on special effects because the audience will that, this films only selling point to us is the fact that they use a lot of SFX. Therefore a trailer include SFX but most importantly avoid using too much as it can make the film seem useless to its audience.

A teaser campaign is when the company is giving hints to a movie, basically manipulating the public to what the new movie is about to release. In this teaser they do not always name the characters that are going to be in the film, normally they do it before the advert is released a year before. A teaser poster is used to intrigue the audience to wanting to know more.

AS you can see with a teaser from Iron Man 3 and Judge Dredd they do not reveal much about the film they leave the audience in suspense to wanting to figure out what this poster is really about, what is it trying to tell us, will there be more posters to give us more information. Teaser posters are there to let you think and try to figure out what the poster is really trying to say to you.

The 1995 Judge Dredd compared to one in 2012 are completely different because of the idea of revealing too much once more. Therefore the 2012 poster is quite darker with only a spot of red to his mask because his mask is known of having that bright red flair to it at the sides. Not only have the shots of Judge Dredd changed but also the words on the poster have completely changed because on the 1995 teaser poster it claims “I AM THE LAW” whereas for the 2012 teaser poster it says “JUDGEMENT IS COMING”.

Publicity and promotion are ‘below-the-line’ costs

PUBLICITY & PROMOTION

They have to give journalists stories about the movie so that they can send out press kits (outline of the plot) synopsis in order to help make people aware of the new movie and when it will be released. These press kits usually contain a set of authorised stills, cast and crew credits, production notes, biographies and filmographies of the cast, director and producer. They also do a set piece in which they let the journalists know about the making of the movie and the different kinds of props etc.

Most importantly giving the talk shows a trailer of the movie helps them to promote the films and keeps the buzz going on with the movie; however they mostly use important celebrities that people look up to on talk shows and radio shows. On the other hand cinemas also help to promote films so that they can help to keep the buzz as well as going on about the films in schools and colleges. In addition to materials sent to print journalists, journalists working in television or radio also receive electronic press kits (EPKs) containing selected video clips and interviews for television, or audio clips for radio.

These are just three screenshots of when Iron Man 3 was being promoted during half time of the Superbowl in order to help promote the fact that the new sequel will be in cinemas fairly soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI4jgOmVetY

TASK 3 FANS & AUDIENCES