Film promotion is incredibly important and can make the difference (especially for an Independent film) between gaining any profit or not. Producers and distributors promote their films with the intention of reaching out to as much of the target audience as possible (creating hype) so that they get as much profit as possible. This is proved to be very easy for conglomerates like Disney however independent companies such as Vertigo Films often struggle and have to target a niche, possibly local audience instead of a tent pole one.
Promotion is one of the main parts of film distribution so before I research into promotion I will write a little about distribution so that I can understand everything more.
Below is a mind map I produced showing the possibilities of distribution across various mediums.
Stages of distribution:
- Promotion (marketing)
- Film Sales
- Copies of the film made
Distribution range from major distributors (e.g. Universal, Twentieth Century Fox) who are mostly in the USA and UK to independent distribution (e.g. Pathe) which is found a lot in the UK but also in other countries.
(Since my trailer will be made in the UK I when I refer to independent distribution I will be talking about ones in the UK).
What do distributors do?
- Acquire a film
- Negotiate timing of release and number of prints
- Arrange the prints to get to exhibitors (cinemas)
- Marketing (getting the publicity material) - this involves promotional partnerships (e.g. McDonald's Happy Meals)
- Foreign films - subtitled and dubbed
- A certificate will be arranged and paid for
- Finally, the DVD distribution rights will have to be acquired
After all of that generally distributors will get 40% of the box office revenues (although 30% of this is spent on what they have to in their job! (marketing, prints, etc.)
Now, time for promotion..
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| An example of a billboard |
There are many ways of promoting. These range from heritage methods to digital marketing.
Examples...
Heritage Methods: Billboards, posters, trailers and premiers.
(These methods were popular (and some still are) before digital marketing was available.))
Digital Marketing: Social media (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) For example on the homepage of YouTube sometimes they advertise upcoming films and they also sometimes show film trailers before playing the clip chosen by the viewer. Official film websites.
These methods of promotion have an advantage to institutions as most of the time they are examples of pull marketing.
Digital marketing is only possible because of Web 2.0 which is when the consumer can upload content as well as just look at it.
In addition to this another more recent method of promotion is viral marketing. This relies on 'word of mouth' across the internet and in person to raise hype about the film. For example, in 2012 when the Dark Knight Rises was released there was a large marketing campaign. The film had it's own official website (TheDarkKnightRises.com), and it got the target audience involved by releasing a fake press release that ordered them to find and take pictures of spray painted bats around the world, uploading them via Twitter or E-mail. This created a lot of hype as when bats were discovered some stills of the (3rd, yes there were 3!) trailer were released.
Promotion:
Profits vs Costs
For independent films promotion can be incredibly expensive and so cheaper promotion is often used such as viral marketing.
A good example of this is Shane Meadows who used mostly free viral marketing to promote the film This Is England in 2006. This resulted in incredibly high box office figures making the film very successful even though it had a 'no-star system' in place (none of the actors used were recognisable). Therefore, the profits easily out-weighed the costs, which were very low anyway.
Filmmakers will often use the web to promote themselves, for example Bertie Gilbert, a 17 year old filmmaker uses websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and releases his films on YouTube for anyone to see. His following, including his 179,000 twitter followers, can easily keep up to date with what he's working on and are eager to see his new films, therefore making his promotion incredibly cheap (and most of the time completely free!)
Another example of viral marketing:
Cloverfield (2008) -
American science fiction film
- They made a 'climatic event' which increased the anticipation for the films release including 8 false news clips with several subtle details letting fans of Cloverfield know that it is part of Cloverfield.
- These got 4.5 million views in 4 weeks and were featured on hundreds of blogs therefore created lots of new fans.
- The movie broke records and due to popularity various clips were included as bonus content on the DVD.
