RESEARCH : How The Campaign Works?

There are two primary types of costs : above the line and below the line. Above the line costs are the necessary costs to create an online presence for the film, primarily through posters, social media, trailers, etc. Below the line costs is more engaged in that the actors will do interviews, there will be a premiere, etc. It is common for these events to be opened to the press and to the audience to attend and interact with the actors, directors and all the other people that are involved with the film.

The amount spent on promotion is usually calculated by how much they assume they will earn throughout the film's run and then they will calculate how much they have to spend based on how much profit they predict to earn. They are able to do this as the distributors will look within the same genre's at similar film's earnings and see how profitable they were. Then they will calculate how well they think the film will do and use that value to calculate how much they have to spend on promotion.

The campaign works because the distributor will identify the target market and find a way to advertise and promote their film to best appeal to the audience they are trying to target.

Distributors spent around £350 million in advertisement for their films in 2014, with £160 million of that being spent on trailers, publicity events such as premieres and interviews, and production and the actual delivery to the cinemas and home screens.

One of the most influential parts of advertisement is the poster. It needs to show what the film is about, who is involved with the production of the film, and need to be engaging and catch the eye of the by-passers. Also if the poster is a sequel to another film it has to show that somewhere, usually with colouring, style and actors, and example of a series of posters that exist within a franchise is shown below with the Star Wars posters.

  

Trailers can be classified in four main ways:

Teaser – The teaser is usually shorter, with the Mr Holmes teaser lasting only fifty one seconds, it is usually only contains the most impactful, memorable lines and only showcases one or two major characters. The short runtime means that it is common for it to be designed for and to be posted on social media. It’s main purpose is to grab the audience’s attention and to

Main trailer – this kind of trailer showcases more elements of the story and cast, the main trailer is usually longer with the sherlock trailer lasting one minute fifty four seconds. It contains more information about the story and the characters. It is common for the main trailer to feature more scenes and to hold more information regarding the story.

TV spot – an advert which contains the actors, messages and aims to promote the film/show by showing a scene or a quick montage to promote the film and get people to watch it.