2. Who do you think the primary and secondary target
audience is for the Woman in Black? Why?
The primary audience is the main target audience of which the film is primarily
aimed at, which in this case is the horror fan base. The certain elements in the film,
like the location, the lighting and the theme, make it evident that it is aimed at the
horror fan base, also the advertising techniques, such as the colour schemes they
use, and the taglines and quotes on the posters also conveys that it’s horror.
The secondary target audience, is the audience that they’re aiming for, but not in the
same way as the primary audience, in the case of The Woman in Black, it would be
Harry Potter fans, for the obvious reason that Daniel Radcliffe stars in this horror,
which will boost the target audience by a tremendous amount due to the success of
Harry Potter, because Potter fans, have grown up with the Harry Potter movies, they
will feel a connection with Daniel Radcliffe, and will follow him up by supporting
him with his new films today.
3. How was The Woman in Black marketed?
The Woman in Black was marketed on a vast number of platforms. The film was
released on the 10th of February in 2012, before the release, there was a market
plan in place, a campaign designed to get the target audience intrigued into the
film. Their campaign ‘objectives’ were to engage the fans of the book and play,
fans of Harry Potter/Daniel Radcliffe, they wanted to create supernatural chillers,
their intentions was to sell the spooks, scares and quality of the film. They had to
target a broad audience through advertising, publicity and promotions, in the
hope to position the film as a blockbuster. They would of began with social
media outreach, grabbing the attention of young adults through YouTube,
Twitter, Facebook and TV channels such as E4, Sky, MTV and T4. Daniel
Radcliffe also played a big part on behalf of his fan base, by attending interviews
and featuring in magazine articles, to embrace the fact that he is still in the
industry and his film needs to be seen. Given that the film had such a high
budget ( roughly $17,000,000) the campaign was able to be distributed
everywhere, on busses, billboards, adverts, online websites, posters around cities,
and this was all along side with the teaser trailers that were released.
4. Do you think the marketing materials for
the film were appropriate? Why?
The marketing materials for The Woman in Black covered every possible ground, it
would seem to be the way to promote every film that wanted success. With a budget
as big as the one for this film, I’m sure it’s been done this way. The internet is a very
broad way to advertise in todays time. The internet is everything. It is a modern and
quick way to advertise. The use of newspaper ads, and the re-releasing of the novel
along with advertising it through the theatre version would have attracted the
primary audience, which would be a more older age, with a sense of intelligence,
that would respect the derelict idea and outline to the film, although the way Daniel
Radcliffe was proposing the film, would of attracted many teens who would have
been disappointed with the way the film was, as they would have been thriving to
see Harry Potter on screen, when in fact, it was just Daniel Radcliffe. Although this
wouldn’t effect any of the figures, as the amount of advertising made it certain that
almost every person in the average community, will have heard of The Woman in
Black.
5. What kind of release did the film
have?
Due to the fact that the advertising and marketing campaign being so big, the
release was also up to standards. The film was released in 39 countries reaching
3000 screens worldwide, both the primary and secondary target audience was
reached. Worldwide the film made $127,730,736, and became the highest grossing
British film within the last 20 years.
6. How much did The Woman in Black cost
to make? What was the industry impact?
The box office trends states that The Woman in Black cost $35,000,000 to make,
however this also included the advertising campaign costs. The use of this campaign
most definitely brought in the success for the film. The first week after it hit the box
office showed that it was over the halfway point to break even, making it almost
blatant that the film was going to be a success after another week. The film also
helped to revive the Hammer Film Productions studio, and was the most successful
British film within the last 20 years. The worldwide gross grew to $128,956,290
proving the film to be a major success as it exceeded the production costs by a major
amount.
7. Why do you think the film was so
successful?
In my opinion, I would say all of the marketing techniques proved to be a very
useful technique into making the film successful, the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was
also starring in the film was a major help, and the fact that it was his first project
after the 10 previous years doing Harry Potter, made it a very big deal for all of his
fan base to follow and support him in his new projects. The use of him being posted
over the internet and on the front cover of several magazines made it useful for his
face to be noticed, allowing the audience to be widened, by the fact that people are
just seeing a familiar face. Another reason for the success could also be the lone
standing success of the novel that was written by Susan Hill, it was known for being
a chilling experience to watch in theatre live, which on it’s own grasped a decent
amount of target audience from the roots of the story.
