How important is film marketing in attracting an audience
How important is film marketing in attracting an audience?
The importance of marketing and promotion of films is clear in one very simple way: an entire sector of the film industry – film distribution depends for its profits and survival upon the successful marketing and promotion of films. Organisations such as Icon and Artificial Eye as well as the more mainstream distributors for Hollywood studio pictures exist to get films from production to the market and exhibition. As well as these organizations state organizations also promote films e.g. UK Film Council, recently disbanded in the current coalition government’s bonfire of quangos but still crucial to the success of many films including the incredible recent success of King’s Speech (Hooper, 2011) which has made more money at the American box office then any other British film. One of the Film Council’s avowed aims is to help British movies to market and promote themselves given the domination of the market by Hollywood movies.
The type of marketing and promotion employed varies considerably from film to film. For a film such as Lost World, the sequel to the phenomenally successful Jurassic Park saturation marketing was used. This involved everything from the use of conventional media: billboards, magazine and newspaper ads in a range of newspapers from The Daily Mail to The Times and Daily Record to reach different demographics and regions; through to a range of merchandise toys available in Burger King and promotion on a range of food products. The success of the campaign can be seen in the fact that 6 weeks before the release 100% of 15-19 year old film goers was aware of the release of the film. A campaign that begin six months before the film’s release has succeeded in reaching the mass mainstream audience that the distributors sought. Such a blanket campaign depends upon a serious outlay of cash, which the distributors (United Pictures) believed they would recoup for the film.
Other films however
The importance of marketing and promotion of films is clear in one very simple way: an entire sector of the film industry – film distribution depends for its profits and survival upon the successful marketing and promotion of films. Organisations such as Icon and Artificial Eye as well as the more mainstream distributors for Hollywood studio pictures exist to get films from production to the market and exhibition. As well as these organizations state organizations also promote films e.g. UK Film Council, recently disbanded in the current coalition government’s bonfire of quangos but still crucial to the success of many films including the incredible recent success of King’s Speech (Hooper, 2011) which has made more money at the American box office then any other British film. One of the Film Council’s avowed aims is to help British movies to market and promote themselves given the domination of the market by Hollywood movies.
The type of marketing and promotion employed varies considerably from film to film. For a film such as Lost World, the sequel to the phenomenally successful Jurassic Park saturation marketing was used. This involved everything from the use of conventional media: billboards, magazine and newspaper ads in a range of newspapers from The Daily Mail to The Times and Daily Record to reach different demographics and regions; through to a range of merchandise toys available in Burger King and promotion on a range of food products. The success of the campaign can be seen in the fact that 6 weeks before the release 100% of 15-19 year old film goers was aware of the release of the film. A campaign that begin six months before the film’s release has succeeded in reaching the mass mainstream audience that the distributors sought. Such a blanket campaign depends upon a serious outlay of cash, which the distributors (United Pictures) believed they would recoup for the film.
Other films however