Interesting Marketing for Theater Goers written by 10121 Lee Nahyeon

Marketing is an important part of society. Every day, people are subject to many different ads and media promoting something whether it is on Instagram, television, Internet, etc. As people are constantly faced with marketing, it becomes important to develop newer and more special methods to attract consumers. No longer can actors and actress just walk around or give simple press interviews about the movie. Instead they are going on variety shows, like Running Man or doing conventions.

By clearly understanding the customer's aspirations and drawing them into the story, or into the products studios want to promote, viewers will become interested in the brand of the movie and its products and services.

There are various kinds of promotions such as talk show appearances, street promotion, meet and greet the stars, and promotion through posters. Further, in movie fliers and posters, the elements that make the main characters stand out and exciting movie trailers can have a big impact on movie popularity. Marketing for a movie is important since there are several new movies released each weekend. A foreign movie has to successful by selling out every seat the first weekend or they fail. 

No longer are foreign movies out for weeks at a time in South Korea. It needs to be newer and more special when competing with these other movies. If the movie fails to draw in the numbers during opening weekend, then it is considered a failure. However, if a movie is sold out constantly during the first weekend, it is considered a success and will perhaps stay longer in theaters.

There are a lot of successful films that have found innovative ways to market themselves, while there are a lot of failed films that don't take these factors into account.

 

Failed Movie Marketing

 

Open Water, which was released in 2003, failed to market well in South Korea. The poster and trailer of this movie seem to be a pleasant and exciting love story if you only saw the top of the poster and only watched the first couple of seconds of the trailer. But this is horror movie if you look towards the bottom of the poster or continued to watch the movie trailer.

The movie trailer showed the two main characters accidentally falling into the sea and are being threatened by sharks. The marketing promotion was like a blockbuster movie, however the audience in Korea wanted their money and time back. The directing power to promote may have been good in America, since most Americans are obsessed with shark movies or dramas. But in Korea there isn’t a lot of interest in storylines or obsession with sharks, and this was distributor's fault. Since they tried to re-release the movie back into the theaters a couple months ago in Korea.

 

Successful Movie Marketing

 

Blair Witch is still considered one of the best movie marketing cases not only in South Korea but in the world. For publicity, the movie used it storyline and marketed it as if the fictional case was real. The movie was also produced like a documentary, making the audiences feel as if they were witnessing a real event, and it is a record in the Guinness Book of World Records for best sales compared to production costs.

The movie is about three film scientists who go missing while filming a documentary in Burkittsville, Maryland, to dig up the legend of Blair's location. For marketing purposes, they uploaded missing fliers of the main characters as well as fake police reports, interviews and news footage on the film's official website.

The next best movie marketing worldwide was The Dark Knight through the release of an alternate reality game attracted people to real-time Gotham city. Marketers created the movie characters, like the Joker and Harvey Dent, as if they were real people.

People all over the world saw a city where the Joker left his mark on posters, money, newspapers, websites, and movie trailer while building an army of henchman.

At San Diego Comic-Con, people who had been involved with this game gathered together to listen to the Joker’s orders. They cooperated not only in person but also online, they searched for clues and called phone number that they had seen where they received a message from the villain. 

Through this marketing strategy The Dark Knight turned regular people on the street into Gotham citizens by having them paint their faces like the Joker. These people took pictures around the world at landmarks, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, and many more. It also fascinated citizens when the events that give them hints of locations or movie trailers the Joker gave them orders, puzzles, or tasks that they had to accomplished.

The marketing strategy also had it as if the world was in danger with newspaper showing nothing was secure from the Joker.

In today's media-developed society, people prefer and easily access various media from Facebook to Twitter, television to radio, so it would be effective if studios market movies in a way that are unique and interesting.

In order to do that, it is important to understand what movie goers want to. If producers do what the consumers want and not just market the movie for only profit, then they will be successful. If directors promote the films globally and not just for a certain country, then they will be successful.