Media Question 2

1. HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE
COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN
PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
QUESTION 2

2. BRAND IDENTITY
The visible elements of a brand such as colours, design, logotype,
name and symbol that identify and distinguish the brand in the
consumers' mind.
A company's brand identity is how that business wants to be perceived
by consumers. The components of the brand are created by the
business to reflect the value the company is trying to bring to the
market and to appeal to its customers.
Brand identity is essential during marketing campaigns of new films as
they would want their film to be recognised throughout the teaser
trailer, film poster and magazine front cover. If each one was different
then the audience would think they were different films and the
marketing wouldn’t be as effective.

3. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Having researched The Girl On The Train’s marketing campaign,
the brand identity is made clear through the use of colours, tiles
and design. Before the film was released, there was already a
novel of The Girl On The Train. Hawkins’ novel sold over 2 million
copies worldwide and was the #1 book on the New York
Times bestseller list for 19 weeks following its release. This
means that fans of the book would already be interested in
watching the film and so the marketing campaign would be
needed to confirm the release date and attract any new audience
members who maybe didn’t read the book. The text used on the
book cover is recognisable as it is used in two of the posters as
well so the audience would know the book was turning into a
film.

4. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
The poster used didn’t involve much which would have been
purposely done to intrigue the audience even more as they would
want to know what the film was about. The image used was also
intriguing as only half a face of the character shown which creates
mystery as to who the character is and why they are showing the lost
expression. A lot of facial expressions like this are used throughout
the teaser trailer which was released shortly after the film poster
which links them together and ensures brand identity. This is the
main character and is therefore identifying the brand as she is used
throughout the teaser trailer and posters in a similar way.

5. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
The posters for The Girl On The Train are all similar in colours, design and
images. They all use the motif of a train which is it’s unique selling point,
whether it’s through the use of a zip, train track or on an actual train. Also,
the title is always white however the font varies depending on the
background image. Dark colours are used in all 3 different posters, although
2of those are completely black backgrounds whereas one contains blue,
colder colours relating to a thriller genre. There are minimal colours used for
the text however red seems to be used when there needs to be a contrast.
The use of colours and font links to
the teaser trailer as they use the
same font for the titles during the
teaser trailer and also the title at
the end. This is recognisable to the
audience as they would relate the
poster and trailer together.

6. SKYLAR
We based our brand identity on The Girl On The Train as they had a similar
target audience and genre of the film. Throughout our 3 products we used
the same font for the title as it was simplistic and looked spaced out which
meant it would be recognisable when looking at the teaser trailer, poster and
magazine separately. The only thing we changed was the colour of the font
which we had to make more of a contrast on the poster and also the boldness
on the magazine as having looked at existing magazine covers, the title was
the next biggest text after the magazine name. Although they are all slightly
different, the font helps them to become recognisable and is also used for
titles throughout the teaser trailer and on the poster for the tag line. We felt
as though the font would appeal to the target audience as they were fairly
simplistic and mature which fits with the target audience of 15 – 40 year olds.

7. SKYLAR
We used the main character throughout
all 3 of our products to create brand
identity. A similar expression is used
throughout to show that her character is
distressed and doesn’t change her
appearance to the audience who would
then be confused as what the brand was
trying to convey. They all use similar dark
colours to make the character look pale,
and tired and keep her separate from the
background. The blue on the magazine
cover was used to create cold colours
which relates to a thriller genre and still
links it to the blue colours of the water in
the poster. Having the main character
being around the age of 17 meant that it
would appeal the target audience who
would mainly be of around this age.

8. SKYLAR The colours used in all 3 products consisted of blues,
blacks, greys and whites with the one off red colour in
the film poster which we took from The Girl On The
Train. These colours are common in teaser trailers,
posters and magazines as they contrast the
background without taking too much away from the
image. Through the use of colours in all 3 of our
products, it links them all together and makes them
look as though they are a package because of this. We
based our colour design on The Girl On The Train as
they used similar grey, blue, dull colours throughout
their teaser trailer.

9. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THE COMBINATION OF
YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?
Overall, we were extremely pleased with how our 3 products looked together as a
package. Our teaser trailer linked very well with the poster and magazine as they all
used similar fonts, images and also colours throughout. We were pleased with the
use of strong images in all 3 products as they conveyed the same character
throughout and would have intrigued the audience as they would want to know more
about the character. We were also pleased with the sophisticated font which was
used throughout as well to make each product recognisable with the title even
though we did vary it slightly in the different product. Having based our teaser
trailer and poster slightly on The Girl On The Train, we were confident that our
brand identity would be clearly shown as it is in their products.
One thing we were told we could have improved on to make their brand identity
stronger was the use of the blue background in the film magazine. However we have
reasons for why we did this which were, having looked at existing magazine covers,
they most commonly had more plain backgrounds so that the text didn’t interfere
with it. Also, we wanted to used the blue colour as thriller genres have connotations
with cold colours and mysterious smoky colours which is why we went for a smoky
blue background which is actually used in the poster background in the water.