Essay.
Question: 1) Explore the key ways to advertise and promote a film. Refer to the film made in Hollywood you have studied to support your points. [10]
1) Explore the key ways to advertise and promote a film. Refer to the film made in
Hollywood you have studied to support your points. [10]
There are many methods of advertising and promoting a film. In this case, the film ‘Drag Me
To Hell’ utilizes online platforms such as websites and social apps, complimentary media
such as the collaboration with KERRANG! Radio, posters and trailers as well as the
premiere at Festival de Cannes in the advertising and promotion stages.
The use of online platforms helps promote ‘Drag Me To Hell’ massively as online platforms
are capable of reaching a global audience, due to the huge number of people who uses it
daily. It is also important to take in consideration the shareability of posts from one platform
to another, as well as the places online for discussion between people from different
countries. One concrete evidence of promotion for ‘Drag Me To Hell’ are the video interviews
on YouTube. In 2011, one channel, named movieweb, interviewed Alison Lohman
(Christine), Justin Long (Clay Dalton), Lorna Raver (Mrs. Ganush) and the director Sam
Raimi. Interviews like this would provide passing audiences an insight on the actors and
actresses, as well as the stages and processes of filming. This helps advertise the film as if
the audience decides that they like the actors and actresses, their personality for example,
then they will feel more of a desire to watch the film. Actors and actresses would also likely
be trained to promote the film by complimenting it, the directors, producers and everything
else in regards to the film. This is done so that audiences are impressed by the effort put into
the production, which will incline them to watch the film. This method can have a global
reach since YouTube is a wide streaming platform but the algorithm changes so it is difficult
to tell if it truly can reach a global audience.
Other examples of promotion includes websites, such as the official website at the time for
‘Drag Me To Hell’ and the review aggregators, for example, Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.
The official website had included the synopsis, cast, photography and trailers for the film.
This would have helped advertise the film as those who were interested in the premise of
‘Drag Me To Hell’ would have wanted to research it out of curiosity and interest. They are
then more likely to watch it if the synopsis sounds compelling or if they like the actors and
actresses. The multiple trailers for viewing would create anticipation in the audience as they
ponder what would then happen in the actual film. This may reach a global audience
although not everyone is aware that websites for certain films exist. Review aggregators may
help market a film as the positive ratings and positive reviews, as well as reviews from
professional reviewers, can persuade people to watch the film. In this case, Rotten
Tomatoes rated ‘Drag Me To Hell’ a 92% with the help of 270 votes whereas IMDB rated the
film a 6.6 out of 10.
Whilst it is not as popular of a promotion method as the previous methods, ‘Drag Me To Hell’
has also been mentioned repeatedly on social media apps. Evidence of this includes Twitter
threads, where @TheFilmVault asked people to respond with a movie that they think
overdelivered, and one had responded with ‘drag me to hell’; discussion forums on Reddit in
r/movies and r/horror where people, from around the world, engage in conversations relating
to ‘Drag Me To Hell’; as well as the variety of ‘dragmetohell’ hashtags on Instagram, some of
which included ‘movie’ and ‘2009’ with about a hundred posts. This word of mouth helps
advertise the film as social media apps are frequently used by hundreds of millions of people
at a time, from different countries, which may help a film reach a global audience.
‘Drag Me To Hell’ has also previously collaborated with Kerrang! Radio in its advertising and
promotion stage. Stretch developed an event where contestants competed ‘live’ for a £1,000
cash prize. The film had chosen Kerrang! Radio specifically as the two forms of media were
considered complimentary, since rock is stereotypically associated with horror. This helped
market the film as it is assumed that rock fans would also like horror films, and so would be
tempted to watch ‘Drag Me To Hell’ when released. The event also provided the potential
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