FILM marketing research and presentation

TASK: Research the marketing of one contemporary (last 10 year) film, and present your findings. You are aiming to show the wide range of ways in which a film is marketed and promoted, and will move on to create a cross-media marketing campaign yourself.

This includes: trailers (including teasers: YouTube ads, TV spots, cinema ads, via social media, exclusives at fan conventions); appearances by stars/director (TV chat shows, fan conventions); film premiere (the red carpet); posters/billboards (in magazines, cinemas, sides of buses, telephone booths...); social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram especially); website (can include games, competitions, downloadable content, blog, behind-the-scenes production videos...); OST CD + music videos; tie-ins (where a company creates a promotion based around the movie, eg McDonalds' toys) and even product launches (LG launched a new mobile phone linked to the release of Avatar); DVD/Blu-Ray editions; video game ... You could also consider UGC (user-generated content) or fan-made videos and other content - not created by the film companies but mostly welcomed by them as helping to promote the film and make it better known (viral media).

I have blogged on many examples of film marketing on my film blog, for example on Avatar, Paul, Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee and more in this post. Retro website-based video games were used to film some of these...

I'll use the example of a Pirates of the Caribbean film, On Stranger Tides, from 2011. In the following searches I changed one keyword each time:

Posters search: there are lots of distinctive posters!

Red carpet search: lots of publicity from the premieres!

OST CD search meant I find this:

Multiple versions

Multiple editions: collector's, special, director's cut ... there's even a 6-disc 3D boxset, that got this fan very excited!

As you'd expect, there were many tie-ins.

Billboards galore too!

Merchandise raises money and promotes the film!

...