The document discusses key aspects of successful film marketing campaigns. It notes that advertising is crucial to raise public awareness of a film and shape its perception. Today, the movie itself is just one part of a wider narrative that extends across media platforms. Successful campaigns use multiple cross-media platforms like print, radio, TV, and the web to reach mass audiences. They maintain continuity across marketing products in areas like layout, fonts, colors and imagery to create a cohesive brand identity and user experience. The document examines Christopher Nolan's highly successful Inception campaign as an example, highlighting its cryptic trailers, extensive poster campaign, comic book prequels, and use of online and social media to build anticipation among consumers.

1. Marketing
a Film

2. Why Advertise?
Advertising is crucial to bring a film to public awareness
The promotional campaign will have a profound
impact on how a film is perceived
“We no longer simply consume marketing campaigns; we’ve
become active participants in them, as can be seen in the
recent trend in transmedia storytelling. Today, the movie
released in cinemas is just one part of a wider narrative
jigsaw that stretches beyond the confines of the theatre and
across other forms of media.”

3. Producing a campaign that works.
The products that you create are going to be part of
a larger campaign and it’s worth bearing that in
mind as you progress through the coursework,
especially as there’s an evaluation question about
how your trailer and ancillary products work
together as a package.
Remember that a successful marketing campaign
uses cross media platforms in order to reach a mass
audience (Print, Radio, TV, Trailer, Web)
Campaigns will have continuity between products
and will develop a USP.
They’ll clearly signify the genre, provide some
information about narrative.
They’ll entice the audience and leave them asking
questions.

4. Indie Vs
Mainstream
Indie and Mainstream advertising
is going to be slightly different as
they appeal to different audiences.
For instance if you’re creating an
Indie film or British film you’ll
probably not be creating a front
cover for Empire magazine but
more like a free film magazine.
This is where your research will
play a very important role.

5. Why was the Inception Campaign so successful?
Director Christopher Nolan’s film Inception grossed $143.6 million in just 10 days, and
while the film was being deemed a masterpiece by critics, its success must also
partially be attributed to Nolan and Warner Bros.’ marketing strategy, which is truly a
multichannel work of art. The campaign, which hinged on building anticipation among
consumers through myriad mediums, is an inspiration.

6. A huge poster campaign. New posters released up until the theatrical release of
the film. All with the headline “the dream is real” and a very similar layout –
creating continuity between products. Moreover, a character based poster
campaign was circulating in order to utilise star persona and use the stars as
vehicles to sell the film (appealing to different audience segments).

8. Trailers were posted initially on YouTube and were designed to be cryptic, linking
into the films genre. Slowly the trailers revealed plot points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5VDKVqvo8M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyQ3K0xnYg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziixLbLKBXU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPH2T9o_Dz8&feature=related

9. Your trailer doesn’t have to be overly long 1-2 minutes is enough as long as it has all of
the ingredients to hook the audience, signify the genre and give enough narrative
information to make them want more. In an evaluation you could then discuss how, like
Christopher Nolan, you’d release further teaser trailers.
Moreover, like Inception, you can allude to how you’d use social networking sites in
order to do this.

11. Inception featured on the font cover of many film
magazines, appealing to film fanatics and people
interested in the academic study of film. This ensured a
widen target market as well as making the film appear
more credible.
The cover image tends to make use of the star,
exploiting their star persona whilst clearly signifying
the genre through costume and props.
In order to maintain continuity with other promotional
tools the cover tends to maintain the USP of the poster
and use the same font and colour for the film title.

12. Nolan launched a comic book prequel on Yahoo – Inception: The Cobol Job. The comic book
introduced consumers to the characters without revealing the storyline.
The comic book has garnered more than 40,000 “likes” on Facebook
The movie’s Facebook Page has more than half of a million fans. In addition to links to the online
comic posts, clues about the movie were published on Facebook prior to its release with occasional
updates to the “plot outline” on the site.
The Facebook page also links to an interactive, mobile game that engages on-the-go consumers.
Warner Bros. teamed up with Verizon to create the Mind Crime Prevention App. for the Android. The
3D maze game gives sneak peeks at the film for those who have not seen it, and it offers loyal fans
the chance to participate in the dreamscapes of the movie.
This multichannel marketing approach helped pique interest in the film before its release, and it
continues to bring the world of the movie alive for fans who have seen it. More than a week after its
theatrical release, the Inception page is generating thousands of “likes” on Facebook. Fans continue
to request game tips to keep them engaged with the film.
Other Marketing techniques that were used (and what you could discuss in your
evaluation )

13. TASK
Create a blog post titled marketing campaigns.
Define the purpose of a campaign then research
and create your own case study into one of the
following;
• Man of Steel
• Epic
• Hangover 3
• Star Trek into darkness

14. TASK 2
Create a Post titled reflection and make notes on the following:
•Your products are part of a larger marketing package – this will
need to be acknowledged and discussed in your evaluation question.
•How will you hook an audience in.
•How will you ensure that your 3 products work together to provide
narrative information.
•How will you create a brand identity.
•Will you exploit star persona.
•Will you use the director as a selling point if they’re an auteur.
•Most importantly how will you ensure continuity between all of
your products– costume, props, fonts, colours etc.