6. Trailers
The first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released in November 2014, 13 months
before the scheduled release date of the film. This was done in order to build hype very early on
and build upon it, with releases of new snippets of information throughout those 13 months. The
Trailers began to show more and more content and more characters were introduced/revealed to
be returning, with the second trailer receiving particular praise for the re-introduction of Han Solo
and Chewbacca with the phrase “Chewie, we’re home” becoming the most iconic line from the
entire film.
Disney also produced TV Spots for the film, including one that was screened at the 2015
Superbowl. These were shown at more and more frequent intervals as the release date of the
film grew nearer and began to contain such information as when tickets would be on sale.
8. Posters via impawards.com- Main Posters
The main Force Awakens posters were
released in November and October of
2015 and the design was used in similar
fashion internationally. The poster hints
to the roles of Rey and Finn (although
deceptively as Finn wields the lightsaber
in these posters), and establishes Kylo
Ren as the main antagonist, whilst also
hinting at a war/conflict due to all of the
Stormtroopers being lined up at the
bottom. It is worth pointing out that the
Chinese poster was accused of Racism by
international audiences due to the
removal of main protagonist Finn, who
happens to be the only non-white
character present on the posters.
American/UK
Poster shown
above.
German Poster
shown to the
right
Chinese Poster
above.
Korean Poster to
the left.
9. Posters via impawards.com- Alternate Designs
This was the very first
poster introduced to
announce the film
before details began
to emerge.
This poster was
released to
advertise the film’s
IMAX 3D release
on December 16th
These three posters were released as callbacks to the posters of the
original trilogy of movies, with the retro/vintage theme of the posters
reminding audiences that whilst it was a new film, it was set to be the
same Star Wars that everybody knew and loved as a child/ in their
younger days, to entice an older audience to watch.
10. Posters via impawards.com- Alternate Designs
These posters are more artistic, however, they do allude to some of the more important points within the film,
including the arrival of the X-Wings on Takonada (Green), The Battle of Takonada (Red), Finn vs Kylo Ren in the forest
on Starkiller Base (Blue) and the Discovery of Rey on Jakku (Orange). These allowed audiences to speculate at the
type of classic Star Wars scenes that would be included in the film whilst still not giving away a great deal of plot
details.
11. Posters via impawards.com- Character Banners
These banner posters were released with a dual purpose. They
were released as a different form of advertising and were
plastered on billboards and buses internationally. They were also
part of the Social Media Campaign, encouraging Facebook users
to show their support for a character by making one of the
banners their “Cover Photo” on Facebook. Its also worth pointing
out that the creators of these banners have shown how each
character is aligned, with protagonists facing the left of the
banner and the main antagonist Kylo Ren facing the right, so if
either were placed next to the other, it would look like they were
fighting.
12. Other Advertising
The cast and crew of the film made numerous TV Show appearances including Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega
(Finn) and Carrie Fisher (General Leia) making an appearance on UK Chat Show “The Graham Norton Show”.
Star Wars had a strong presence on Social Media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+, as well as
their own website Starwars.com.
Magazines such as Vanity Fair, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and Empire ran features on Star Wars:
The Force Awakens, often with cast or characters making the front page of the magazine.
Disney also used events like Comic-con and Star Wars celebration to reach even more of the public promoting
the new film. They streamed live on Youtube, revealing cast members, characters, teasing future films. Disney
even launched merchandise prior to the film release, creating an event called ‘force Friday’ and bringing massive
retailers like amazon, target and toys’r’us together to release the merchandise.
