Research - Methods of Promotion

What is film distribution?
There are three key stages of film distribution; the promotion and marketing of a product, film sales during cinema release, as well as being responsible for the production of film copies available to the public (after the films theatrical release). Distribution refers to everything that happens in between the production and exhibition stages of a film.
This involves;

• acquiring the legal rights to a film
• negotiating timing of the films release and the number of prints/files required for production
• the production and distribution of prints/files to cinemas
• the marketing and promotion of a film, this includes promotional partnerships (also known as tie-ins), for example McDonald's Happy Meals
• the exhibition of films in foreign (non-native speaking) countries - subtitled and dubbed
• arranging and payment for a films age certificate
• acquiring the DVD and Blu-Ray distribution rights
• the production and distribution of DVDs and Blu-Rays to stores

An example of a diagram showing how film distribution works

Why do film distributors promote their products?

The promotion of a film is a critical part of ensuring a substantial financial gain in comparison to the initial budget used in order to create it. Marketing and promotion allows distribution companies to reach out to their main target audience (consumers), therefore guaranteeing that they gain as much profit as possible for their films; the intention of film production and distribution companies is to create hype around their products on the run up to the films theatrical release. By creating hype around their films, distribution companies will increase the overall revenue income that the product makes during its exhibition stage significantly, which will in turn create a larger profit in which they can invest into future feature length projects. Furthermore, this will cause the distribution companies to grow financially as well as in popularity which is its ultimate goal.

Film promotion is particularly important in low budget independent films in comparison to products produced by big Hollywood conglomerate companies such as Disney who are often guaranteed significant financial gain due to its popularity, regardless to the amount of marketing strategies they use in order to promote their films. The expenditures of marketing and promotion in the majority of Hollywood films often equals or even exceeds the initial costs of production. On the other hand, independent film companies may spend less on the marketing and promotion of their products due to having much smaller budgets to cover production costs, and therefore generally struggle to create a large overall revenue for their films. Consequently, independent film companies are compelled to target a much smaller local audience compared to that of a conglomerate who constantly targets a worldwide, tent pole audience.

How do distributors promote their products? 
Film distributors can promote their products in a variety of different ways in order to ensure a build up of anticipation within potential consumers for its theatrical release. These methods of promotion fall under two categories; digital and heritage marketing.

Heritage Marketing: This refers to the traditional methods of marketing film, for example through billboards, posters, trailers and premiers. These methods were popular before significant developments in technology occurred and digital marketing became increasingly available and fairly cheap for distributors to use, however these heritage methods of marketing are still popular and used to promote a vast majority of films. Methods of heritage marketing also include teaser trailers which act as a pre-launch campaign for a film; they are typically released six months before the initial release of the full trailer (which are generally released two months before the films initial theatrical release) and consist of small cryptic and challenging advertisements which anticipate a larger full-blown crusade for the film's launch. The fact that they are released long in advance of the films theatrical release "teases" the audience and in turn builds up anticipation for when the film comes out.
Heritage marketing is also referred to as 'push marketing' as it pushes the promotion onto the audience in order to attract attention to their film, consequently causing anticipation towards the lead to a release of a film.

Examples of Heritage Marketing for James Wan's 'INSIDIOUS':

2010's 'INSIDIOUS' trailer

An example of a teaser trailer for James Wan's 2010 film 'INSIDIOUS'
As you can see, a teaser trailer is a condensed version of the main theatrical trailer, consisting of enigmatic short clips designed to cause anticipation within the audience for the upcoming release of the film

Digital Marketing: Digital marketing refers to the promotion of a film online and digitally, often through social media. Examples of popular social networking sites commonly used during the promotion and distribution stage are Twitter, Facebook. YouTube and Instagram. Digital methods of marketing are currently the most popular and effective ways for film distributors to promote their films due to the recent rise in technological development and advances, as well as it offering a logistics-light, efficient dynamic and cost effective promotion strategy for distributors to promote their films. Digital marketing methods allow distributors to reach a global audience due to the low initial budget required to do this, and as well as through social media, distributors are able to create websites and post trailers online in order to attract international audiences.
There are two promotional strategies to digital marketing;
Push Marketing: this refers to the idea that distributors can "push" their products onto consumers. For example, distributors can create their methods of digital marketing specifically with the intention for it to come into contact with consumers.
Pull Marketing: on the other hand, the "pull" marketing strategy is where the audience engages themselves with the promotion. Pull marketing refers to the audience locating and seeking out the marketing themselves. For example, through sourcing websites and searching on YouTube independently for trailers or cast interviews.

An example of a digital marketing method through the social networking site Twitter in order to promote 'INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 3'

What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing refers to marketing solely through social media; it is the slow releasing of information about the film on the internet. There are many advantages to distributors using viral marketing in order to promote their films, including its low costs, higher credibility and its higher efficiency. Viral marketing allows distributors to promote their films to a worldwide international audience at a low cost. Its purpose is to build hype around their films, keeping fans interested in its upcoming release. For independent films particularly, viral marketing is the most cost effective way of promoting their films due to low budgets and therefore high production costs.

Distributors use viral marketing primarily to keep audiences interested in watching the film, although they also make the audience feel as though they have to 'earn' more information about it, sometimes creating interactive movie campaigns where people have to get involved. An example of how the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises encouraged potential consumers to gain extra film information/content was by creating a fictional file for a criminal investigation which was posted online onto the films promotional website; www.thedarkknightrises.com.
Considered one of the most extensive, complex interactive film campaigns yet, Warner Brothers created a fictional

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