Film Promotion: Has Social Media Changed How Films Are Marketed?

When motion picture cameras were invented in the 1890's film production companies started to become more established. Films were often around just a minute long and they were without sound. But fast forward to the 21st century and there have been 736 films released in US theatres in 2016 which is twice the number from 2000 (Follows, 2017) This just shows how the film industry has changed its marketing communications to tailor with its contemporary, high-demanding consumers. This blog post is going to focus on how film distributors and marketers have adapted to consumers heavy usage of social media and how this has provided a range of opportunities.

Before social media, word-of-mouth was the way to promote and share films (Kirby, 2016) But now that social media has become popular, film distributors can market films through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which allows consumers to share it publicly with their friends. The internet has become accessible across the world which means film marketers need to find creative ways to advertise their films without being lost amongst their competitors, but how would they accomplish this?

Before social media was popular, extensive market research would need to be undertaken to target a specific audience. But now it is easier to target audiences as social media groups and hashtags allow film marketers to target specific demographics (Kirby, 2016). Film marketers aim to make their trailers go viral which can provide them with a free source of publicity, most trailers will have a hashtag to encourage their target audiences to talk about it on Twitter and Facebook, an example of a film campaign that was highly successful due to its utilisation of social media and the internet was Prometheus (2012).

The marketing campaign involved a TED talk from the future (which was released before the film was distributed) where the short video showed Guy Pierce as the fictional Head of Weyland Industries, Peter Weyland, giving a TED talk in the future of 2023. The campaign was filmed at the real TED talk set and was organised with the help of TED organisers who envisioned the set to look like that in the future (Pomerantz, 2012). The blur of reality and fiction made the fictional characters seem real and this is what kept consumers engaged.

The film campaigners then released another short video where the audience could learn about the artificial human being called David, played by Michael Fassbender. Consumers said this was like ‘a short movie’ and that they already felt an emotional attachment to the characters before they’d even seen the movie. By releasing these short videos on social media it helped to create a large following before the movie was released as it slowly builds up audience expectation and anticipation.

The film campaigners also utilized a fictional website for Weyland Industries which was a key component in the film. The site was professionally designed and even provided statistics about the companies ‘employees’ and information about the ship which would be shown in trailers later on. By providing little snippets of plots and characters throughout the beginning of 2012 it made audiences highly engaged. The film used mystery to build a following on social media before the release date.

In addition to the viral videos, screenwriter Damon Lindeof encouraged Prometheus fans to chat over Twitter on May 16^th 2012. Lindelof said he would answer questions regarding the film from his Twitter account ‘@PrometheusMovie.’ Fans were also directed to use the #prometheus hashtag for submitting questions. This just shows how social media was utilized efficiently in this campaign to create and spread awareness of the movie. 

Before the release of the film, Fox said they would live-stream the red-carpet premier to fans online. Fans could submit questions during the live-stream, and talk with each other on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #prometheuslive. BumeBox took the best questions from Facebook and Twitter and delivered them to reporters on the red carpet. (Warren, 2012) This shows how the digital campaign was consistent in its usage of the internet and provided its audience with a sense of involvement in the campaign. 

Overall the film totalled a huge 403.4 million US dollars at the box office when its budget was 130 million US dollars. Its consistent viral and digital marketing campaign was definitely one of the reasons why this film was a massive success. For other film marketers the utilisation of this campaign should be a stepping stone in creating a diverse way of targeting audiences on social media. The opportunities for endless creativity is something which film campaigners have to develop now that social media has become globally used. 

References:

Follows, S. (2017). How many films are released each year? Available at: https://stephenfollows.com/how-many-films-are-released-each-year/ [Accessed 22 Dec. 2017]

Pomerantz, D. (2012). When movie marketing goes very right. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/04/18/prometheus-when-movie-marketing-goes-very-right/#21dff3522d9d [Accessed 14 Dec. 2018]

Warren, C. (2012) Prometheus: social media. Available at: http://mashable.com/2012/05/15/prometheus-social-media/#e.HX1gZH9iqE [Accessed 13 Jan. 2018]