Leanne George

The Influence Of Film Trailers On

Consumers Expectations

“Film trailers”, also known as “coming attractions” or

“previews”, are generally considered as advertisements

that provide viewers with a glimpse into what the

promotional movie entails.

My research topic is going to discuss and explore how film trailers have an affect on consumer expectations

and what are the reasons for this.

The film industry has become extremely competitive. It is becoming much more important that a film is successful at attracting a large audience through a successful marketing campaign.

Hollywood now spends an average of $32 million dollars per movie to advertise. But trailers have changed dramatically over the years - and now many give away the entire storyline. How much is enough? Do you tease with plot points, or do you give away the ending to attract more moviegoers? Do audiences today now want to know the ending before seeing the movie? 

These are sub questions which I will explore around my main question.

This research project aims to discover why some film trailers are more effective at encouraging consumers to want to see the film by determining consumers’ immediate expectations after viewing a film trailer. 

Research Methodology The methodology for this research is

qualitative and quantitive.Qualitative: interviews/focus groups with

filmgoers from the ages of 10-55. My research focuses on film audiences in the US and UK but my interviewees will be from a UK audience only.

Quantitive: questionnaires.

Film TrailersFirst used nearly 100 years ago, when they were shown after the

main feature, trailers long consisted of several scenes from a film combined with text or narration. Eventually they evolved, and now they are made of super-fast cuts, flashy graphics and original soundtracks.

Studios typically spend between $100,000 and $200,000 to make each one, though the costs can rise as high as $1 million.

The marketing campaigns of films have also become a lot more important for a film. There's a growing scrutiny of the campaigns themselves. Fans are aware of the huge amounts of content being thrown at them and are becoming increasingly cynical.

Film Industry StatisticsGlobal box office for all films released in each country around the

world1reached $34.7 billion in 2012. Movie theatres still continue to draw more people. In the US/Canada more than two thirds of the population (aged 2+)

went to the cinema to watch a movie at least once.The UK’s film industry is also taking $5.6 billion at the global box office (a 17% market share). British audiences embraced cinema-going and film-watching across a variety of platforms. The UK is the third largest consumer of film by value in the world. 

558 films released in the UK during 2011 sold over 172 million cinema tickets, 

Watching movie content online

From this research I made my search more specific – looking at statistics for online video watching. We’re obsessed with movie trailers. This year fans watched more than a billion on YouTube and searched for trailers three times more than in 2008.

This year fans watched more than a billion on YouTube and searched for trailers three times more than in 2008. These numbers continue to grow as studios focus their film-advertising online.

"Our work used to be looked at as pieces of advertising that quickly comes and goes, but now it's a key piece of content that people are going to analyze and judge," said Michael McIntyre, president of West L.A. entertainment marketing firm Mocean, which has made trailers for films including "The Avengers," "Project X" and "The Grey."

Consumer expectation

Film trailer

Film marketing

Audience perception

Target audience

Artefact 1.Testing the audience with a focus group.

For my first artefact I am going to be conducting a series of interviews with a focus group. I am going to interview 20 people from the ages of 10-55.

I am going to name them a number of films from different genres giving them a short description of each. From this I am going to ask them several questions:

What do you think? Would you watch this film? Why? What do you think it’s about?

They will then be shown the actual trailer where I will ask the same questions again. I want to see how their perceptions and expectations change after watching the trailer.

I will display my results in a collection of tables, charts to demonstrate the results.

Artefact 2.Testing what in a Re-editing film trailers

For my second artefact I am going to explore what exactly is it in film trailers which affect the audience’s expectation.

I am going to re-edit previously existing successful and unsuccessful film trailers myself.

I am going to note what it was about that trailer which made it

effective and what didn’t. I am then going to take these elements – either removing/changing parts of it or adding something different in i.e music, particular scenes, order of shots e.t.c.

I am then going to survey my audience and get them to compare the original trailer to the one I re-edited.

Time managementShow how you intend to use digital technologies to manage yourself

during this projectThis research project is going to run over a course of To help me allocate tasks and time to carrying out researching and

writing my research document I have produced a gantt chart.

Quotes• “Although film trailers displayed in movie theatres have the least

potential to reach a large audience efficiently, when compared with online trailers and television trailers, movie marketers using this medium can feel more comfortable with their ability to capture the attention of those present in the theatre”.

Marich, Robert. (2005). Marketing to Moviegoers: a Handbook of Strategies Used by Major Studios and Independents. Burlington: Focal Press.

• “Movie trailers have become an art form and source of

entertainment unto themselves”. (Exhibit A: 2013′s Golden Trailer Awards). 

• “Movie production (can) be seen as the creation of entertainment software that can be viewed through several different windows and transported to several different platforms maintained by other divisions of tightly diversified media corporations. Less than 20 per cent of total film revenues come from the domestic box office”.

Richard Maltby's 'Nobody Knows Everything' which is included in 'Conttemporary Hollywod' [Chapter 2, page 24], edited by Murray Smith and Steve Neale [London Routledge, 1998]