Research task - Methods of promotion

Research task - Methods of promotion

There are multiple types of promoting media as it could be by audio or visual, however visual is the most common style of promotion as it allows you to actually see what is being promoted rather than just listening to what is being promoted. films need to be promoted in order to gain an audience because if the movie is not well promoted then it will not be as successful, for example the Marvel films such as Captain America: Civil War was very well marketed which allowed it to gain a large audience, whereas Dredd (2012) was not successful at gaining a large audience and this was put down to the film not being promoted on a large enough scale and it was also said that nobody really knew about the movie until it was being sold on DVD,  this shows just how crucial marketing and promoting a film is to gaining a large enough audience.

Types of promotion
Trailers are the most common as they allow the audience to get a sort of small 'sneak peek' of the media product, trailers are also short and usually last between 1-3 minutes, the shorter the trailer, the less it gives away to the audience - for example the Dunkirk movie trailer which does not reveal much at all, whereas if the trailer is longer it usually reveals more of the plot and the characters - for example the Wonder Woman trailer reveals more about the character and the narrative of the film.

Posters are also widely used as they can be put up all over the place which increases the amount of people who will see it, whereas trailers can only be seen via the Internet or television which can restrict the amount of people who will be able to see it. Posters do not reveal much about the film as they usually only show the main character(s) with some sort of backdrop, the backdrop may reveal some things about the film but not much.

products such as toys and other merchandise is a good way of promotion as they are more interactive than posters or trailers, they also allow a wider audience as if they are sold in shops that means that a lot of people will see the merchandise and possibly get interested in the film.

innovative marketing technique
when promoting The Dark Knight Rises, an unusual form of marketing took place as there was 'bat graffiti' in numerous countries in cities and the Warner Bros. marketing team would give the location of the 'graffiti' which would in turn reveal a frame from a new trailer of The Dark Knight Rises. The people would then have to submit what they found to a website which would then start to piece together the next trailer frame-by-frame, this allowed audiences worldwide to participate in this activity, and also by doing this it encouraged more people to go out and find this, which would have allowed them to see more marketing of the film instead of having just one form of marketing.

Proliferation of hardware and synergy's affect on marketing
The promotion of films has been forced to change over the recent years to keep up with ever-changing society. Now there is more technology a large amount of companies have made the change from traditional forms of marketing to more Internet and web based forms of marketing. The proliferation of hardware has lead to a higher demand for this, as there is an ever-growing amount of devices that you can watch films on, for example a laptop, as many films are marketed online which allows a wider audience to view it and for less cost than going to the cinema. Google is a search engine and Internet giant that has formed synergistic links with conglomerates to promote films. An example of synergy is Fury (2014) who teamed up with the game, World of Tanks who released an in-game version of the 'fury' tank from the film that you were able to purchase, it also featured a specialised crew to go with the tank which mirrored the cast in the film.