A level Media Coursework

1. Cohesive Marketing
Campaigns

2. Cohesive marketing involves creating a campaign for a
product which links across different media platforms.
These links must have clear connections so that the
target audience can easily associate the individual
marketing techniques to the same thing; (e.g. a trailer,
poster, social media and merchandise).

3. A vital part in allowing the audience to familiarise
themselves with a product, is branding. With a
recognisable form of presentation, the audience will be
able to instantly recognise what they see. Here are some
prime examples from the media:

4. Other vital techniques:
360 Degree Marketing
Unique Strategies
Synergy Marketing

5. Before ‘Suicide Squad’ was released in 2016, there
was a massive build up, ensuring that the audience
was a large as possible before the release of the film
on the 5th August. There are many techniques which
we found from Warner Bros. cohesive marketing
campaign, which I will display and analyse, that we
can use and adjust for our short film.

6. First, a teaser poster was released
that simply showed the faces of the
main characters as skulls. The only
information that this poster provided
was the name of the film and a vague
idea of what the characters might look
like.

7. Shortly afterwards, a second
teaser poster was released
which revealed who the cast
were. This built on the
excitement that Warner Bros.
were creating for their audience
as it gave a slightly clearer idea
of what the film would be like.

8. After that, a collection of different posters were released with a tattoo
style print of something that represented each character. This was a
reference to ‘Harley’s Parlor’ (although the audience weren’t aware of
that by this point).

9. An IMAX poster was then
released, which took the
symbols representing the
different characters and had
them in a colourful cereal
bowl. This unique idea
helped to sell the craziness
of the film, and built on the
anticipation for the
audience as it still remained
unclear what the film was
really about.

10. Finally, the theatrical poster was
released. Warner Bros. ensured
that it stood out amongst other
theatrical posters through the use
of unconventional methods such
as having the credit block at the
top of the poster, below the cast
list. The poster was also extremely
colourful, making it easy to
recognise and very eye-catching.

11. At the San Diego Comic-con in 2015, a “first look” was
shown exclusively to those at the event. It was not
considered a trailer as it included almost no elements of
the film’s narrative. This clip was not meant to go public
but there were too many pirated versions, so eventually it
was released to the public.
Click on the video to watch the “first
look”

12. The first official trailer was released not long afterwards. This gave the
audience a better idea of who the characters were and a clearer insight
to the narrative. After the release of the “first look”, audiences were
waiting for the release of the official trailer to get a better understanding
of the film and it’s characters.
Click on the video to watch the official
trailer
Shortly after that, the second official trailer was
released at the MTV Movie Awards. This revealed
lots of new footage (including the reveal of an
appearance from Batman).
Click on the video to watch the second official
trailer

13. Finally, the last official trailer was debuted at the 2016
San Diego Comic-con. This trailer featured the movie
soundtrack and was released just one month before the
release of the film in August 2016. It gave a clearer idea
as to why the Squad was assembled and provided
some more detail on the story.
Click on the video the watch the final official
trailer

14. http://www.suicidesquad.co
m/
The website is original in many of its own ways as it includes various features
which are very specific to the film, therefore no other website could compete.
These features include:
• Cartoon key art
• “Squad yourself” – create your own avatar and share it on social media
• Download “special ops” mobile game
• Links to buy the soundtrack
• “Cast” option – a biography and individual posters for each character
• “Partners” option – logos and links for the companies who helped to produce
and promote the film.

15. Warner Bros. created a tie in
with Carl’s Jr. fast food chain.
This was an intelligent choice as
it attracted a large audience,
including the mass market of
younger people, as well as a
more casual audience.
Downloadable GIFs and images
became available with the Carl’s
Jr logo, as well as the fast food
chain selling cups which featured
Suicide Squad images.

16. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages were set up which
included pictures and videos of a variety of things including
promotions of cast appearances on TV.
Warner Bros. also organised
for a sponsored Snapchat
filter of Jared Leto’s
character, the Joker, and
Margot Robbie’s character,
Harley Quinn.

17. DC Comics made a special
edition of Suicide Squad #1
as part of their Free Comic
Book Day offerings.
DC and Warner Bros. helped to
promote the film by screening
the debut of the second trailer
straight after the series premiere
of ‘Legends of Tomorrow”.

18. DC Comics created new
Suicide Squad related
comics to be released.
The props and costumes used in
the film became a large part of the
Warner Bros. Studio Tour.

19. Partners on the movie examples:
• Carrera (bike company).
A tie-in with them involved Carrera offering a sweeps to send a winner to
the red
carpet premiere of the movie.
• Splat hair colour.
They ran a “Harley Quinn Inspired Colour Look” competition, and offered
co-
branded packaging with colours inspired by the characters of Harley
Quinn and
the Joker.

20. The cast had a coming out party at the
San Diego Comic Con and were part
of the Warner Bros. panel, answering
questions for the audience.
“Harley’s Tattoo Parlor” took
over a local tattoo place offering
real and fake tattoos, at SXSW
(an annual film, interactive
media and music festival) in
Texas.

21. The cast made appearances at the MTV
Movie Awards and CinemaCon to release
new footage from the film and build on the
publicity.
A study in the summer of
2016 showed Suicide
Squad to be the most
tweeted about summer
release, showing very
strong signs of success
before the release date.

22. Whilst at the San Diego Comic Con in 2016, they held an interactive
experience at a hotel nearby, including another recreation of Harley’s
Tattoo Parlor.
Entertainment Weekly did a big cover story about the films release,
one month before it came out in cinemas. The story included new
photos and interviews with the cast.

23. One year after the first big reveal of the films production, the
cast returned to San Diego Comic Con and were on the panel,
displaying costumes, answering questions and doing signings
for the fans. The cast were also guests on a collection of late
night and morning talk shows.
The New York
Times did a
feature on the
director, David
Ayer and the rest
of the production
team.

24. What we can learn from Suicide
Squad’s Cohesive Marketing
Campaign
The build up to the release of this film was on a large scale and
definitely helped with building publicity and increasing the size of the
audience. On a $175 million budget, the film made $325 million at box
office, proving that the techniques used to promote the film were
successful as many people saw the film and it was a huge success.
Things such as returning to the San Diego Comic Con seemed to prove
vital as it gave that specific audience a way of connecting to the film in a
way that those who did not attend the event, couldn’t. The staggered
poster and trailer campaigns built on anticipation so I think we should
bare this in mind for our production. Tie-ins with established successful
companies will also help us widen our audience, just as it helped
Warner Bros.

25. How we can translate these to the
marketing of a small independent
documentary on limited release
1. We can create a presence and gain a reputation at different events/
exhibitions such as The Clothes Show, Professional Beauty London,
Beauty UK Show and Olympia Beauty. These are all trade shows and
events that exhibit a variety of beauty products for all women. They each
host different competitions which we could participate in, with chances to
win things such as cinema tickets to see our production. Like Comic Con,
this will give this specific audience a connection to our product that other
people won’t get, and is a great opportunity to increase publicity for our
short film.

26. 2. Staggered campaigns will also be effective as it will build on
audiences anticipation, and tie in with the Attention and Desire aspects
of the AIDA model. We will leave a significant time gap between the
release of the poster and the first trailer, and have a small collection of
different trailers with each one revealing more about our documentary.
3. We will also work with different women’s magazines such as
Cosmopolitan and Glamour Magazine for synergy marketing as this will
attract the attention of our female audience.
How we can translate these to the
marketing of a small independent
documentary on limited release

27. How we can translate these to the
marketing of a small independent
documentary on limited release
4. We will also have tie-ins with different makeup and
beauty product companies, which again will attract our
female audience and draw their attention to what we are
advertising. We could work with companies such as Real
Techniques, NYX, No7, MAC Cosmetics and Rimmel
London.