A promotional package includes various media products and contents created to attract audiences to a media product. Promotional packages for films typically include film posters, trailers, magazine reviews, premiers, and social media marketing. Trailers give audiences a glimpse of the plot without revealing too much and are intended to generate interest. Film posters provide key information visually and are an important way to make audiences aware of a film's existence. Premiers are large launch events that create significant buzz and media coverage. Promotional strategies can vary between major studio films, which typically have larger budgets for promotions like premiers, versus independent films.
2. Promotional Packages
■ A promotional package is a range of media products and contents that is
created to attract the target audience attention towards the media product.
■ There is a number of factors that are involved in a promotional package so that
what ever is being promoted could reach a wider range of audience, this way
the audience could see the product that is being promoted easily with no
problems, examples of these would be film posters, trailers and magazine
reviews.
■ Without the use of promo packages, the media product, for example movies will
not gain full recognition. The whole point is to get the movie out and have
people talk about it in order to create productivity which will eventually help
create sales.
3. Types of film promotion
■ TV Trailers
■ Film Posters
■ Premiers
■ Reviews of film in Magazines, blogs and film posters
■ Cinematic Trailers
■ Social Networking
■ Merchandises
■ Interviews from casts of the movie
4. TV Trailers
■ TV trailers is often the most common form of promotion when it comes to
movies. It has always been the determining factor on whether or not someone
would like to watch the movie. The reason why it is important is because, it
gives an insight of what the movie is about and its genre, but does not expose
the entirety of the plot line to the audience, otherwise they will not watch it. The
trailer must also be interesting and give enough information to make the
audience want to watch it.
■ Commonly, directors release 1-3 trailers which could include international
trailers, the scenes are often recycled but have some new scenes in order to not
make them identical.
■ Film trailers and film posters both have the same purpose, they are just a
different way of promoting a film. Some people would watch film trailers instead
of poster as it gives more detail and insight on the movie.
■ One example I have used for a major studio trailer is Disney’s Frozen movie.
The scene begins on the setting of the movie, it starts with a positive opening
but then introduces the tragic events, they have also added slides such as “Who
will save the day?” to make the younger audience curious, there are also
comedic scenes with Olaf to make the movie more kids like and light hearted.
5. Film Posters
■ As well as TV trailers, film posters are also a common form of advertising. It is
almost a requirement that all movies have a film poster. Without the use of posters,
many people would not be aware of that the movie existed, which means potential
audience members will be left in the dark.
■ Film posters are usually located on billboards and on bus and give brief, important
information's about the movie which draws the audience in. It must also provide the
release date and in many cases the actors names in a smaller font to the film title.
■ If a certain film poster peaks the interest of someone, they can further search into
the movie by watching the trailer and gaining more information on what the movie is
actually about. The genre of the movie is usually apparent on the poster by using
typical codes and conventions of the genre, for example bright colours and friendly
faces will usually insinuate that the movie is a ‘family’ genre or a dark theme with a
scary doll on it would be horror.
■ Taking a look at the second example I have used, it is apparent that ‘Get Out’ is a
thriller/ horror by looking at the facial expression of the character and the dark eerie
setting.
6. Premiers
■ A premiere is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or
musical composition. This is a big event which includes all the actors and
directors/producers, this is usually where the first showing occurs which creates
a big buzz. There are usually a lot of media companies there such as ‘E!
Entertainment’ which promote the movie on a global scale.
■ There are promotional opportunities for audience members, for example a
synergy with another business to win tickets to the movie premiere. They also
have the actors and guests dressed in formal outfits to have more people
speaking about it.
■ Premiers usually occur with larger major studios because they can afford it, as it
is quite expensive to hire out locations and catering companies etc. Usually
independent movie don’t have premiers, or if they do it is done on a much
smaller scale compared to the major studios due to the budgeting.
7. Frozen - Poster comparison
This is the main
poster of frozen
which was first
released, they
have added all
the main
characters from
Elsa, Olaf, Sven
and more. The
theme of the
poster is very
colourful and
mystical to
capture the
attention of kids.
The release date it at the
bottom and it mentions
that it is available in 3D
also to make sure they
are aware of the feature.
There is a large
difference
between this
poster and the
other, they both
have the same
ice theme but
this one
doesn't include
the characters,
this could be
due to the fact
that they don’t
want to reveal
too much
information.
Here they have not released the date, due to it being
the early stages of the distribution stage. It does
however mention the fact that it is in 3D just like the
other poster, especially since kids prefer 3D to normal
Having
them
mention
the
creators
of
Tangled
allows the
audience
to be
associate
the two
movies.
Meaning
they will
most
likely
watch
Frozen if
8. Premiere – Independent Vs Major studios
Harry Potter was a massive
success throughout the entirety of
the series, therefore the directors
wanted to create a big buzz for the
last movie of the series. Having a
large premiere allowed them to
promote the movie on an
international scale and invite
important public figure. This was an
iconic premiere because the main
casts were compared from the first
premiere to the last which showed
the journey of the series.
For an independent movie ‘Get
out’ was a large success in the
box office. The premiere was in
the UK and it was shown during
Sundance Film Festival on
January 24, 2017. Comparing the
two premieres, harry Potter was
obviously a large success
especially due to tem already
having a loyal fan base from the
other movies. However it is
expected that a major studio would
have more budgeting compared to
