2. What is a film campaign?
• A film campaign is the practice
of promotion specifically in the film industry. It is an
important part of any film release because of the high
financial risk; film studios will invest in
expensive marketing campaigns to maximize revenue
early in the release cycle. Campaign budgets tend to
equal anywhere between half or three times the
production budget. Publicity is generally handled by
the distributor and exhibitors. The trailer is often the
first chance to promote a movie to its target audience.
Starting up to a year before the release of a major
studio movie, distributors run movie trailers that are
thoroughly edited and audience-tested.
3. Film Campaign techniques
• In Cinemas - Trailers, Film posters, Standees.
• Television/radio – Trailers, Product placement, Talk shows, Interviews,
Extended behind the scene documentaries.
• Internet – Websites, Advertisements, Social networks.
• Print – Adverts in newspapers/magazines, cross promotion or book-based
movies, posters, billboards.
• Viral Videos
• Merchandising — the list is endless books, t-shirts, food, soundtrack CDs,
computer games, toys, cars, mobile phones, anything that can be
associated with the brand of the movie.
• Word-of-mouth - People tweet, post status updates and blog reviews as
soon as they leave the theatre, and their reactions spread globally and
instantly. If the consensus spreads that a movie is bad, it can have an
immediate impact on ticket sales, even for screenings later that same day.
Equally, positive tweets and social network comments can promote a
movie - for free - by building up buzz.
4. The Dark Knight Film Campaign
Viral Marketing – In 2007 Warner Bros set up a
viral marketing campaign by setting up a fake
newspaper named ‘The Gotham Times’. An
interactive document online made to look real –
however in Chicago they actually gave out hard
copies to help promote the film.
This campaign used the films tag line ‘Why so
serious?’
The site aimed to interest fans by having them
earn what they see – where emails sent by fans
slowly removed pixels revealing the first official
image of the joker.
During the 2007 San Diego Comic-con international, 42 entertainment launched
Whysoserious.com, sending fans on a scavenger hunt to unlock a teaser trailer and a new
photo of the joker. On October 31, 2007, the films website morphed into another
scavenger hunt with hidden messages instructing fans to uncover clues at certain
locations in major cities throughout the US, and to take photos of what they found. The
clues combined to reveal a new photograph of the joker and a audio clip from the film
saying ‘And tonight, you're gonna break your one rule.’
5. Merchandise
Burger king – The fast food
franchise linked up with ‘The
Dark Knight’ to produce a
burger named ‘The Dark
Whopper’ – this followed with
a series of adverts with the
Burger King ‘customers’ doing
bad things branding the words
‘Bring out your dark side’ to
coincide with the films name.
They also designed a kids
menu which came with a free
toy of different characters
from the film.
6. The Film Premiere
At the world premiere of The
Dark Knight, instead of the
traditional red carpet it was
black in honour of the late
Heath Ledger. The cast also
dressed in dark coloured
outfits. Inside an orchestra
performed extracts from the
film score, complete with a
light show featuring a
Batman signal. Outside the
premiere iconic props from
the film were on show such
an the ‘batmobile’.
7. Teaser Trailer
A teaser was also released
with non-IMAX shows of I Am
Legend, and also on the
official website. The
sequence was released on
the Blu-Ray Disc edition of
Batman Begins on July 8th,
2008.
The teaser trailer was no
longer than a minute long
and consisted of the bat logo
in front of the bright light,
gradually breaking up,
revealing a – coming soon.
