Star Wars: Star Wars has its own official website (www.starwars.com) where a lot of marketing took place for The Force Awakens. Having already secured a massive fan base, fans knew to check the website for updates and here learnt everything they needed to know for the new film from the release dates to fan exclusives. The trailers were also released onto this website and onto YouTube by the wireless communications company Version. These trailers smashed world records with their viewing figures in 24 hours by being released onto these websites.
Star Wars also used Google as another website to market allowing users to choose between the "Dark Side and the Light Side" on the search engine.
Force Friday was another marketing campaign which was shown to audiences via the website of YouTube. This 24 hour live streaming event of fans unboxing never before seen merchandise was not only to advertise the products available but to help advertise the film itself.
Ex-Machina: Ex-Machina also it own website (www.exmachina-movie.com) where again information about the film was released and marketed on here. The website is very simplistic with the trailer and link to buy the film.
Social Media:
Star Wars: Stars Wars massively used social media to market The Force Awakens. They had their own Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages which massively increased the hype and excitement for the film. Along with the official social media profiles for the film the actors and producing team also their own Instagrams ect.. that also massively promoted the film. Star Wars had interest from different media sites including Tumblr as show by this pie chart. Snapchat and Facebook filters were available for users to use and the Instagram account to date has an massive 5.9 million followers and Twitter with 2.47 million followers.Ex-Machina: Ex-Machina used the online dating social media app Tinder in a unique way that raised a few eyebrows to market and attract audiences. They created a fake Tinder profile of their main character Ava, who during a conversation with the audience then gave them a link to the official Instagram page. Many people fully believed Ava was real person and had a surprise when they followed the link to the Instagram page to see that is was in fact an marketing campaign for the film. This caused mixed reactions from critics, many phrased the personal technique used and believed it was innovative, different and a successful way to advertise and is acclaimed as one the best marketing campaigns for a film. This marketing was also praised for its incredible and effective links to the film; it really focused in and empathized all the issues the film raises. Other believed this was an deceitful advertising campaign that pushed the boundaries on consent and privacy issues and did not fully approve of this way of advertising. This direct advertising and the slight controversy surrounding it created a lot of interest and intrigue for the film as the debate about the techniques used were also featured in main stream media, allowing the film to marketed even more.
Trailers:
Star Wars: A lot of the advertising and hype for Star Wars was initiated and carried on by the trailers. As this was the first glimpse at the film many fans had been waiting for, for years this really built up excitement for the film. The first trailer was released on the 28th November 2016 in selected cinemas in the USA and Canada as well as being available on YouTube and the iTunes store. On YouTube this first trailer broke records for the amount of views in the first week of 58.2 million. Another teaser trailer was released at the Star Wars Celebration in California on the 16th April 2015 which received an amazing reaction from the crowd there before then being matched when this trailer broke the record for the most viewed film trailer in 24 hours on YouTube hitting 30.65 million views. The third trailer was released in October 2015 during the halftime break of the American show Monday Night Football and was then released online. Using the TV show Monday Night Football to release the trailer allowed Star Wars The Force Awakens to be marketed at many different types of audiences. This trailer also gained a lot of views within 24 hours and with fans loving it on social media. Star Wars The Force Awakens also released a Japanese trailer to ensure that all audience demographics were reached. Overall the trailers for this film were a massive part of the advertising campaign, creating quite possibly the biggest hype and interest as well as reaching the most audiences.
Ex-Machina: Ex-Machina also released a trailer on the 30th October 2014 by Universal Pictures onto YouTube. The trailer was also shown in cinema's.
Posters:
Star Wars: During Disney's D23 Expo in August 2015 (a fan convention) a commemorative poster was released exclusively to the fan attending which was designed by Drew Struzan who also designed the posters for the other Star Wars films that featured Luke Skywalker. In October 2015 another poster was also released, again this was a massive success on social media spreading it to even more audiences. 
Ex-Machina: Ex-Machina also released posters many featuring the tag line "There's nothing more human than the will to survive" on the 29th October 2015.
Chat Shows&TV Interviews:
Star Wars: Both the cast mainly Daisy Ridley and John Boyega with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Lupita Nyong'o, Billy Lourd and J.J. Abram's the director joining in or having solo spots appeared on many different American and British chat shows including: Good Morning America (2nd December 2015), Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon (3rd December 2015), Live With Kelly and Micheal (8th December 2015), The Ellen DeGeneres Show (7th December 2015) and the Daily Show with Trevor Noah (2nd December 2015) and the Graham Norton Show. This massive coverage over TV especially in America would really help to market the film to all audience demographics.
Ex-Machina: While Ex-Machina did not feature on any main stream TV chat shows they did plenty of online interviews with successful YouTube channels and media companies like Screenrant and Beyond The Trailer, successful online blogs like Redbrick Film and We Got This Covered as well as interviews with newspapers such as The Guardian and The Telegraph.
Product Tie Ins&Toys:
Star Wars: Star Wars had a mass amount of merchandise and toys available which majorly increased the interest in the film. The offical merchandise was available from the Disney Store both online and in store as well as from the offical Star Wars Website. Disney/Star Wars also teamed up with other toy company's like Build A Bear to market the film and sell products. This widely known retail and online store would have helped to market Star Wars The Force Awakens to a wider audience demo-graphic of younger viewers; this is the same idea used for when they teamed up with Lego to create more products aimed at younger audience.There were also other products other than toys such as the makeup range released by Cover Girl and Max Factor with the probable aim to market to female audiences, the range with Hot Wheels to attract American younger boys and the team up with Tesco to attract families as a whole. This very well recognized and popular brands meant that audiences saw the film being marketed a lot and everywhere. This blanket marketing ensured that audiences couldn't avoid seeing or knowing about the film.
Ex-Machina: Ex-Machina have no official merchandise out however they are some fan made products available. Ex-Machina also have no tie in products.
No comments:
Post a Comment