In this essay I will be comparing the effectiveness of both the poster and trailer of the 2009 star trek movie. Paramount wanted to re-brand the star trek franchise and I will be talking about how well the poster and trailer promoted the re-branding. I will also look at how successful the new star trek movie is and if they advertised the selling point well.

Star trek originally began as a TV series that aired on Thursday the 8th September 1966. The genre of star trek was sci-fi. The series ran from 1966-1969 with 3 seasons the TV show had to be put off air due to very low ratings. In the whole space of time 10 movies had been created but had lost a large amount of profit due to poor ratings. Then in 2008 they made a new series to try re-booting the franchise, the series ran for 5 seasons but like the first seasons back in 1966 the TV show was put off air. Looking at how well the Transformers and iron man had done ion comparison the production team had decided to bring JJ Abrams because of his fresh ideas to change the concept of star trek. JJ Abrams had directed Mission Impossible three, Super 8 and produced Cloverfield and Morning Glory. Chris Pine main star of the film had been in movies such as The Princess Diaries two, Just My Luck, as well as the action films Smokin' Aces and Unstoppable. Zachary Quinto was in sci-fi TV show Heroes. Zoe Saldana acted in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Avatar. She also acted in Colombiana.

The Campaign aims for the new star trek film was to make it one of the best sci-fi films and make it a box office hit. They wanted to make it better than the old films by bringing in a new concept. The new concept was to have less of the old star trek meaning everything that surrounded the Star Trek Legacy; including having less sci-fi scenes and the retro feel of the franchise. They did this by replacing the Legacy, sci-fi and retro feel with more action visual effects and not forgetting the cutting edge scenes. This was done so not only geeks would watch it but a wider range of people and different target audiences would watch the movie. JJ Abrams wanted to remove the idea of trikkies and bring the idea of ubiquity to the franchise. The target audience was males of all ages (15-34), this was a wider age range than the old movies because of its new concept. The first teaser trailer was leaked out on January the 8th the teaser poster then appeared on November the 8th; the regular trailer was then released that same day. The regular trailer first appeared a year after on the April the 09th. The regular was brought out months after the teaser trailer to make film fanatics interested so word of mouth would spread about the new Star Trek movie. The target audience for the Star Trek film is the same as the target audience used for the transformers and iron man films, with a 15-34 skew because they want a wider target audience so more people would watch the film making more money than the old Star Trek films. The core audience is 12-34 because they wanted a younger and wider audience to be interested in the movie and that’s why special effects were added to the new film.

The genre of the poster is best described as action and sci-fi. The title indicates it’s a sci-fi because of the use of the noun star which has connotations of space indicating it’s a sci-fi film. The title is somewhat small, the enigma created by the title is to minimise the legacy of ‘trekkies’ which what is what JJ Abrams set out to do. The slogan ‘the future begins’ indicates that they want to leave behind the stereotypes the old star trek movies created and how the new movie is moving on to a new and better future of star trek- leaving behind the legacy. The font used advocates the movie is relatively futuristic. The colour used for the title is a silvery gold which signifies that there will be a vast amount action, which is the new direction JJ Abrams intended to direct the saga. Highlighting the characters blue makes the characters seem pure because blue has connotations purity and calm, which indicates the characters are ‘good guys’ and not the rogue. At the back of the main characters is a white background which also has connotations of purity which assists in the creation of the persona of the characters being ‘good guys’. The use of black creates an ambiguous feeling denotation that there will be some kind of enigma on the film itself. The plan of the poster is that there are three characters but having the main character in the middle almost blocking the other two characters makes it more obvious who the main character is. The woman to the left is most likely to be the main characters mistress because of her seductive facial expression which would attract a male audience. The other character on the right of the main character is more or less likely to be a friend or an allies. There is a small image of a spaceship revealing the film is sci-fi but having the main character on a futuristic motor cycle helps create the new persona of a better and ‘cooler’ Star Trek.

The beginning of the trailer is eye catching as it’s a boy driving a vintage car irresponsibly in a desert alone. Star Trek is well known to be a futuristic sci-fi saga whereas here it shows the film to be action packed because the scenes change rapidly particularly towards the end promoting the film being action packed and exciting which the ‘trekies’ would not be expecting also because the trailer is fast paced. We are told the title of the film at the closing stages of the trailer for the reason that it minimises the legacy and possibly because if the audience knew it was Star Trek they perhaps wouldn’t find the reason to carry on watching. The voice of the speaker is deep and burly; this voice was selected because it captures the viewers’ attention and is dramatic. The names of the actors aren’t given suggesting they aren’t well known. The middle of the trailer consists of frames that show romantic scenes suggesting that the film would appeal to a female audience implying that there is a wider range audience meaning an increase in income.

To conclude the advertisement that I believe was the most successful was the trailer because of it highlighting the selling points and diminishing the legacy of the old Star Trek’s ways, with the fast pace and the more attractive cast members they are leaving behind the genre of sci-fi and targeting at a new mainstream audience.