Film Advertising
The world of film has perfected the art of advertising. Each new film released is accompanied by a vast, far reaching advertising campaign. Every possible avenue is explored in order to ensure each film reaches maximum success. An average film will have around $40 million spent on marketing and advertising.
The advertising campaign for a new film begins with social media. There will be accounts made and teasers and dates revealed via sites like Twitter and Facebook. There will usually be a new website hosting updates about the movie. Here, movie posters and stills will appear.
Next, the trailer will be released on YouTube, placed on the website and pushed on social media platforms. The trailer and poster image will then be pushed out on a large scale – on banner ads, native ads and in app-advertising, on YouTube pre-rolls, and on television and perhaps even radio. There will also be billboards and ads in newspapers and magazines. Competitions and celebrity endorsements may also be included at this stage.
Nearer the release of the film, there will be posters and cardboard cut-outs in cinemas, as well as trailers before other films. Viral marketing campaigns may be attempted by the marketers to gain traction. There may be examples of product placements, and reviews of the film will be encouraged.
For the build-up to the release of the film, there may be a promo tour and will certainly be a series of interviews involving the director, the stars and anyone involved in the film. They will appear on chat shows, panel shows, on radio, and at press events.
In conjunction with the release of the film there will almost certainly be merchandise. T-shirts, toys (if it is a children’s film), phone cases, posters and so on. There may also be games (like the Harry Potter Games, and Lego Star Wars), and re-releases of the book the film is based on, but now showing the film poster as its cover.
All of these techniques ensure that film advertising is one of the most successful forms of advertising in existence. Perhaps other forms of advertising could learn a lot from the film advertising process and success.