What is a marketing campaign and why is it needed?
A film's marketing campaign is the different ways the film's 'message' is presented to potential audiences. Film making is very expensive and it is crucial that the film's taking at the box office cover the costs of production and pay investors. The marketing campaign lays a vital role to inform potential audiences and encourage them to see the film at the cinema. A film only has a short space of time to become a 'box-office hit' (for example, the first weekend of exhibition) so it is important that the marketing campaign makes audiences aware and intrigued so that they go and see the film. Distributors are keen for their films to be as successful as possible so they strive to create a marketing campaign that raises awareness of the film and arouses interest. This way those who invested in the film stand the best chance of making a profit on it.
Through my research, I found I really liked Cloverfield's trailer and continued to research the film's marketing campaign. They used FaceBook as part of their marketing campaign, part of the brief includes a homepage for a film and in my research I found that most
films not only has a homepage and website as part of a viral marketing campaign but a FaceBook page too; both of which are examples of above and below the line marketing technique.
What factors make you want to go and see a film? How do you decide which films to see?
Whether or not the trailer is intriguing enough and whether it has been marketing and advertised a lot. The genre and actors also help me decide whether to go and see a film or not. Genre is important in film marketing because the decision we make to see a film is partly dependent on whether we enjoyed other films of a similar genre. In terms of genre, we can see exactly what is meant by the posters below.
What do you think the major elements of a film marketing campaign - the different ways in which the film's 'message' is presented to potential audiences?Throughout all the major elements of marketing, the USP of a film will be clear and obvious in all forms. The major elements of a marketing campaign may be:
- Merchandise (T-Shirts, bags, McDonalds Happy Meal gifts)
- Website (including the trailer, game and links to social networking sites like FaceBook)
- Print (billboards, bus stops, buses, magazines, film magazine reviews)
- Trailers (full-length shown before feature films in the cinemas, teaser trailers on television)
Another element of a film's marketing campaign is interviews, these are similar to film magazine reviews. However, these will cost money to the distributor whilst reviews are free and give the film added publicity. To movie buffs, interviews with the directors and see clips of 'the making of' the film will be highly interesting and these will usually be the elements put into the special features on the DVD. However, for other audiences, interviews with famous film stars and celebrities will be much more appealing. Below is an interview for Cloverfield (with the director and 'the making of' shoots) as well as an interview with Julia Roberts publicising her new film 'Eat Pray Love'.
