Btec media marketing campaign presentation hand sheet

Btec Media marketing campaign presentation hand sheet

-The task was to re-market an unsuccessful film’s poster, to see if it improves the public’s response.

-For our chosen unsuccessful film we had to give the poster a totally new look.

-As you can see the film that I remarketed was ‘Donnie Darko.’

-First I’ll show you my example of a successful marketing campaign for a different film. I chose the Lorax for my successful film because it’s a movie that did well at the box office this year. The Lorax grossed three hundred and thirty five million, four hundred and forty one thousand, one hundred and fifty eight dollars. $335,441,158 (Worldwide) (12 August 2012).

There’s the poster there as well.

- The Lorax’s success is partly thanks to it being a Dr. Seuss story adaptation. Dr. Seuss fans will be drawn in as they would know that the film is an adaptation, and people who enjoyed the previous Dr Seuss films such as The Grinch, and Horton hears a who , might be interested in watching this film.

Also the film has a clear target audience being ‘kids’. And the film was released at a good time- summer. So all the kids would have been off school and able to watch the film.

Example of an unsuccessful marketing campaign: Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko proved to be unsuccessful and only grossed (USA) (3 October 2004) seven hundred twenty seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty three dollars. There was very little Donnie

Darko merchandise mainly because it’s a more adult movie older people aren’t normally interested in buying merchandise.

Donnie Darko helped kick start the career of Jake Gyllenhaal who played the main role of Donnie Darko.

Analysis of the Donnie Darko poster.

Donnie Darko didn’t do well at the box office and lost money. But what was so bad about the Donnie Darko poster.

1) It’s hard to tell what genre of film Donnie Darko is. In my opinion I’d probably think that the film is a horror because of a shadow of Frank the daemonic rabbit in the centre. But it really is difficult to tell. The poster must have been misinterpreted by some people; this could have put off potential viewers.

2) Also I think that word of mouth could have put some people off watching Donnie Darko. People may have seen the poster and thought that they were going to watch a horror movie then could be disappointed when they realised that it wasn’t a horror film.

3) The fact that the film is a ‘hybrid’ (meaning mixed genre) means that it’s difficult to market.

The talents pictures on the poster seem unnecessary. Many of these characters are minor characters and don’t need to be at the forefront on the poster.

Analysis of The Lorax poster

The Lorax flourished because of a well thought out marketing plan.

1) At the top of the poster we can see it says ‘from the creators of Despicable me.’ Despicable me was a popular children’s movie,

audiences who enjoyed despicable me will be drawn in and will want to watch this film.

2) Also fans of Dr. Seuss will want to see this movie, because it’s a Dr Seuss storybook adaptation. Many fans of Dr Seuss will want to watch the film.

3) Furthermore the Lorax had a famous cast including, Taylor Swift, Zach Effron and Danny De Vito.

4) The movie was also released in the summer allowing children to watch the movie as they’re off school.

5) The poster has a clear target audience and genre. We can see the film is aimed at children because of the bright colours and the friendly looking lorax as the main focal point.

First original questionnaire results

4 key themes emergedPeople thought it seemed like a horror film . Most questionnaire respondents don’t like horror films.Respondents complained about the clarity of the film poster.Didn’t tell audiences what the film was going to be about.

Most questionnaire respondents were male.

New Campaign intentions

Aim of new poster: To advertise the film as a psychological horror movie. Similar to “The sixth sense poster.”Ideas: 1) To simplify original poster.2) Give more information about what the films about.3) To make clearer who main character is: “Donnie.”

4) To make main characters more prominent.

Those were main issues with original poster.

Result: 1) Made main characters bigger.2) Made font bolder, clearer. 3) Added a tagline.

In general aim was obviously to give poster fresh, new, look.

Second questionnaire results

People thought it was a horror that was what I aimed to advertise it as. Because of Frank. He looks evil.

People also complained that my film poster seemed vague.

Comparison of resultsWasn’t able to entice more potential viewers.

The film is difficult to advertise. It’s mixed genre.You’d have to be amazing to advertise this film well as a mixed genre and get all genres in it

The original poster and my poster were advertised in the same way. Advertised as a horror film.

First questionnaire: 40% of people said they’d watch the film.

60% said they wouldn’t watch the film. (9 people answered the questionnaire).

Second questionnaire: 50% said they would watch the film based on my poster.

50% said they wouldn’t. (6 people answered the questionnaire).

Summary of Findings

New poster did as well as the original.

Many people identified it as horror- which is what I tried to sell it as. That’s a good thing.

Think main reason why the film was a failure is: too niche a concept for mainstream audiences. The film has very positive reviews but for a non-mainstream film it is difficult to do well at the box office.

Such a mix of genres in Donnie Darko = Difficult to advertise well.

More people would watch the film based on my poster (less people questioned though)

People tend not to like horror films so the new poster wasn’t popular.

-Although many people feel Donnie Darko was contrived it still was was a critical success.

Presentation of new Distribution Plan and Marketing Plan

1) I considered releasing the film at summer time but imagine that it would be blown away by blockbuster films. I feel a good

time to release the film would be November. There would be less competition so the film wouldn’t be out done. November is normally a good time to release a film, because of the cold weather people go to the cinema more often.

2) Near the film’s release date I would try to publicise the film as much as possible. I would do this by placing the famous talent on TV shows for interviews. Most likely be Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, and Patrick Swayze who would appear. This would help sell the film.

3) The marketing budget is the amount that I feel would be required to market the film enough. As it is a low budget film realistically this amount of money wouldn’t be spent. They wouldn’t be able to afford it.

4) As much merchandise would be made available as the budget would allow. The main target audience for the film is teenagers. So things that teenagers want would be mainly produced. Things like phone cases, shirts, mugs etc.

5) Teaser posters will be distributed to cinemas and on billboards. A teaser trailer will be released in as many cinemas as possible.

The main aim is to advertise the film as much as possible. Because the film is such a different kind of movie then a conventional mainstream Hollywood film it needs to be advertised widely to attract all kinds of audiences.

THE END THANKS!