Ryan Tarran A2 Media Blog: 2017

How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts?

A film distributor is responsible for the marketing, advertising and distribution of a film from its digital format to the public for viewing. To do this, the film distributor has the task of figuring out and working with the film creators to know who the target audience is, what rough demographic size they range and how the best method of media would suit the film for advertising and marketing.

There are many different methods of marketing that film distributors might use. The purpose for these methods is to create 'hype' or awareness of the product that is going to be released, to attract a particular target audience. Some examples of ways film distributors might advertise a product includes outdoor advertising, which includes billboards, bus posters, bus stop posters or building canvas'. Digital advertising can include sponsored website ads like on YouTube or on a news site, radio adverts, TV trailers or adverts in the cinema itself before a featured film. However, depending on a particular demographic or target audience determines on what type of advertising the film distributor might invest more time into. For example, if the demographic is for a younger target audience in their teens, they would be more likely to do web and TV adverts due to younger people using the internet more than their older demographic counterparts.

Another example is if there is a new action film coming out like James bond that can apply to a large demographic and as mass audience then a film distributor might equally invest in bus posters, billboards, TV adverts and radio plays.

This is why it is extremely valuable for film distributors to know their target audience and can invest a lot of money in understanding how and what they want to see from a film, this means that they can then appeal to the target audience and gratify their needs through the advertising and sell them the product they have been assigned to market and distribute. This is why there is a lot of money in the film distribution business because essentially if a film is not marketed properly and does not hype the target audience enough then the product is not going to reach the audience it needed to.

Skyfall is a 2012 Action thriller part of the 007 franchise starring Daniel craig and was distributed and marketed by Media and Film distribution company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film distribution MGM has distributed most of the 007 franchise in the past and the intro logo of the lion roaring has become almost a iconic part of James Bond films as you expect to see it at the start of each film. So to see the roar at the start of a trailer or within the trailer, the target audience almost immediately jumps to the conclusion it is an advert or a trailer for a james bond film. Skyfall doesn't have a slogan as such but does have its brand of '007' on every single poster and piece of advertising whether its been overlayed by the main protagonist or is the centre of attention. This is most notable on the teaser trailer for Skyfall on the left, where it just says '007' and the date around time of release. In the tease poster it has been advertised to not give much away. However, it is dark and mysterious and has iconic landmarks which represent London in the background which allows the target audience to assume the film will be set in London or have important plot points relating to London. The overall house style is black and white with a greyscale city behind the protagonist. Compared to the final trailer that was released where Daniel Craig (james bond) is in the foreground whilst the 007 branding is in the background. Although you can't see the '007' image that clear, as a target audience member you would already know what this meant just by looking at it due to the 007 logo becoming such an iconic one.

For the overall final poster and outdoor advertisements the marketing was used uniformly to represent the film using 4 main colours, black, white, blue and gold which was then used across all advertising and let the target audience know that they were advertising the same product. This shows how important a viral campaign becomes because the target audience will then become gratified and instantly recognise the house style, colour scheme and fonts and know what is being advertised, allowing the product to become more effective in reaching its target audience. The poster itself doesn't give much away about the narrative. This is because modern James Bond films usually have a complicated yet exciting narrative with plot twists so they reserve this for when the audience actually buys into the product. However, the iconography of the suit with a bowtie whilst holding a gun conforms to the conventions of a spy film which is typically represented by the association of James Bond, the most famous spy film franchise in the world, therefore the marketing company had to do little to give this implication but just play on the strengths and iconography the film already carried with it.
This is also uniform with the trailer for Skyfall. The opening shots contain action, car chases, fighting and quick cuts that last a couple seconds in between cutes. These connotations give the audience the feeling it is an action film and when the iconic music plays with the MGM lion roar the audience should already know by this point it is a James Bond film, just through the use of actors, sound and iconography. Below is an embedded link which has the trailer for Skyfall. Since Skyfall's release in November 2012 it has made $1.1 Billion making it the most successful James Bond film of all time. critics say this was put down to its strong marketing campaign, incredible narrative and professional actors that brought everything together.

Below is an example of my products I produced for our production and how I tried to create a uniform sense of marketing that related to the trailer throughout. However I tried to challenge some conventions so that it was not stereotypical and another boring horror. Please ensure annotations are turned on before watching the video as they occur throughout, feel free to pause when necessary to read the annotations.