About the different ways films are promoted not just trailers

1. There are many
different methods to
promote films a few
examples are:
• Trailers
• Film Posters
• Film Festivals
• Interviews
• Bus Adverts
• Tube Adverts
• Television
• Radio
• Tours
• Merchandise

2. The Dark Knight, 2008
• When it comes to films with amazing marketing
campaigns, comic book movies are like the ultimate
Mafia bosses. ForThe Dark Knight, Warner Bros began
with vandalised joker cards popping up in comic book
shops.The cards led curious people to a site,
IBelieveInHarveyDent.com, where visitors could get
their very first glimpse of Heath Ledger as the Joker.
• At San Diego’sComic Con 2007, fans were handed
dollar bills with the Joker’s face scribbled on; these bills
were breadcrumb clues that led to an aeroplane
outside the convention, sky-writing even more cryptic
clues in the air.
• A year-long campaign of Easter eggs, hidden clues,
puzzles, and code-cracking in treasure hunts put the
film into fans’ minds a whole 12 months in advance,
and helped make that version of the Joker an
unforgettable force to be reckoned with.

3. The Blair Witch Project, 1999
• Thought to be the first movie marketed mainly by and
through the internet,The BlairWitch Project used
‘creepy uncertainty’ to its advantage.An official trailer
would’ve taken away some of the terror, but a website
full of fake police reports and newsreel-style interviews
was enough to sow the seeds of doubt; suddenly, no
one was quite sure whether this was a real life
documentary or a fictitious film.
• The film makers handed out posters at the
film’s screenings, asking people to come forward with
any information about the ‘missing students’.The
IMDB page listed the actors as ‘missing, presumed
dead’ for the first year after release, and the
production company hired actors to film clips as police
officers and investigators involved in the case. Cheap
to pull off, and terrifyingly convincing.

4. Deadpool, 2016
• Deadpool was a film with amazing marketing
campaigns.Creative billboards marketing the film as
different genres (a ‘good way to trick your girlfriend
into seeing it’) or as Emojis, while the Deadpool
character could be found promoting testicular cancer
awareness advert, trawling for love onTinder, posing
with guns in risqué film posters, and massaging
AmericanTV talk show host Conan O’Brien.
• It’s interesting to note that while Deadpool (Wade
Wilson) is a Marvel character, Deadpool was a 20th
Century Fox film. It might explain the unbelievable
marketing ideas.

5. Pitch Perfect 2, 2015
• The musical sequel to the box-office smash Pitch
Perfect turned its marketing level all the way up to aca-
awesome. It was the first movie ever to use Snapchat in
its marketing strategy, a move that earned them
300,000 followers on the platform.At their LA
premiere, there was aTwitter Mirror, an Instagram
Instastop, aTumblr GIF booth and a Snapchat stop
where the stars could literally create marketing
content just by pulling a face.
• Exploring new social media channels for a multi-
million-dollar film is a bold idea that
worked brilliantly. Their target audience of women
aged 16-30, with a strong fanbase of teenagers, lines
up perfectly with the kind of marketing tools and ideas
they used.

6. Websites
• Almost all new films being released have websites to help
promote their product, a good example as mentioned earlier is
the BlairWitch Project 1999 because there marketing campaign
using the their website is very interesting, on the website, which
still exists today, there’s a detailed section on the filmmakers,
with photos of them preparing for their filming expedition, and
individual biographies with photos dating back to their
childhood. In addition, there are pictures of the aftermath
including their abandoned car and tapes, photos of the police
search, a number of interviews with family members and people
who worked on the case, and footage from the news coverage
from the time and there are snippets of film from the recovered
tapes and Heather’s journal.
• When the film was being released audiences were unsure on
whether it was a fictional film or based on true events from all
the marketing that the company did. It was very effective as it
grossed around $250 million worldwide on a modest budget of
$60,000

7. • Another film that used a website in an interesting was
as part of its marketing campaign isThe Hunger
Games.The website is still up for use at the moment is
particularly interesting for audiences. On the website
there are many ways for audiences to interact.There
are a range of ‘games’ where people can create witness
the characters journey through an animation, they can
look at CapitalCouture which is the magazine inThe
Hunger Games, and they have a tribute page which is
dedicated to the audience and the shots from global
fan appreciations.
• The website is fairly simple and easy to navigate as
they have made sure to keep their target audience in
mind by making it easy and accessible to use.

8. Posters
• Posters are used by all film companies to promote their
movie.
• A good example of good film posters is from againThe
Hunger Games.The poster to the left doesn’t even
have the title of the movie written on it but because of
the symbol displayed in red at the back, the
Mockingjay, all audiences know immediately which
movie it is.
• The contrast of the red and white shows the audience
that there will be danger as many connotations of the
colour red are blood, and danger.Therefore when it
juxtaposes with the innocent angelic white it is
immediately thought that the film will have dark
aspects and will seem to kill the light.

9. • Another film with an interesting poster is Spectre.This
is again a very simplistic and minimalist poster and
works very effectively.
• The audience immediately knows that the film is a
Bond Film from the iconic symbol shown at the centre
bottom of 007.This is effective as it allows the
audience to understand the genre of the film and the
sort of ideas that will be portrayed in it.
• The black background gives the audience a sense of
impending doom and darkness.This means that it is
clear what the film will be like.
• The shot in the glass immediately means the audience
thinks of a gun shot from the connotations that are
created with a hole in a cracked piece of glass.This
means that the audience knows that somewhere in the
film guns will play an important role.

10. PromotionTours
• Promotional tours are becoming more popular and
successful.The actors and directors will go around the
world to promote their movie through the use of
interviews, photo calls and then premieres.
• Suicide Squad had a promo tour where Cara Delavigne,
Margot Robbie and more had been going to a range of
interviews about the new movie.
• Some of the interviews have the whole cast and
directors whereas others only have a few people.
• The point of these interviews to get the audience to
become more interested and excited about the movie.
The interviews allow the audience to get a better
understanding of the movie and what it will be like and
the will find out more about the characters in the
movie from the actors and actresses.

11. • Another movie which did a promotional tour wasThe
Avengers.
• On the tour the cast went to a range of different
interviews about the film about to be released.The
cast talked about a range of things from their personal
experiences on set and also about the movie itself.
• Where the cast did not reveal a whole lot about the
movie it allowed the audiences to get a better
understanding of what the movie will be like.
• On the promo tour, more magazines were released
with information about the movie, which in turn
reaches a wider audience which meant that more
people knew about its release and so there was a
higher gross of $1 billion in ticket sales alone.