Introduction
On this page, we have included examples of many ways we could promote and merchandise the 'Fifteen' brand, and our many inspirations from existing film marketing campaigns. by evaluating the consistent elements of our three media products, we were able to establish a brand which we have applied to the following examples, in order to keep a solid consistency throughout our venture into cross media convergence.
We looked at the continuity, synergy and identity of all 3 of our products and ensured we gained a confident understanding before exploring paths of cross media convergence. Convergence includes new technologies, along with software's such as the internet, digital film, animation, smartphone technology, music, DVD (Digital Video Disk), video game consoles, along with high definition television. Media convergence is when combining different media platforms to create new forms of media expression. It is vital to have a strong brand for a horror film for many reasons for example, brand identity, franchise etc. In this page we will show brand identity for our film "FIFTEEN", compared to existing media products.
We looked at the continuity, synergy and identity of all 3 of our products and ensured we gained a confident understanding before exploring paths of cross media convergence. Convergence includes new technologies, along with software's such as the internet, digital film, animation, smartphone technology, music, DVD (Digital Video Disk), video game consoles, along with high definition television. Media convergence is when combining different media platforms to create new forms of media expression. It is vital to have a strong brand for a horror film for many reasons for example, brand identity, franchise etc. In this page we will show brand identity for our film "FIFTEEN", compared to existing media products.
Types of Synergy/cross-media convergence
Existing Horror film Campaign: Chucky
By Grace Payne
The beginning of the Chucky (Child's Play) franchise started up in 1988 when the first movie was released onto screens worldwide. In total there were several films made, with the most recent movie being published in cinemas in 2017 with all films directed by Don Mancini. Overall, with multiple sequels to the first film, Child's Play has been extremely successful and the franchise is clearly popular. The ways in which audiences can also deduce that these posters are the professional final copies themselves is from the typography, the repetition of the use of the main antagonist Chucky himself and the traditional red white and black colour scheme that each have their own connotations which have meaning to the story of the movie.
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From reviewing all of the trailers and official posters of the child's play franchise it is clear that has technology has developed a long with each movie and the quality has become much better. Something successful about the franchise is that the story is kept and progresses throughout each movie with clips from the first ever Child's Play repeated again in the most up to date sequel; which can be seen below. What's more in each trailer the first image seen always contains Chucky as the main character to represent the movie and is consistent throughout. Therefore, audiences and fans of the film can instantly recognise the brand identity and that these elements included are unique to the franchise.
Child's Play (window scene) |
Cult of Chucky (window scene) |
Movie Successes
Merchandise
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In the slideshow to the left multiple different ways of synergy and cross media convergence has been used which products all the way from box set blu-ray dvds, clothing, key-rings, life size dolls, homeware items and even "Seed of Chucky" condoms. It can clearly be seen that the franchise has a huge target demographic and to generate even more money for each of the films the franchise has tried to market its movies and the brand by working with other companies such as "POP!' for the miniature action figures. However, the brand identity itself has still continued to stay the same on all products, withe the blanket typography reflecting the two most recent films in the franchise, the "Curse of Chucky" and the "Cult of Chucky" and the Blu-ray box set using a colour scheme and also font that reflects the "Good Guys" doll box which originally contains Chucky himself.
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Synergy
To help promote the set of movies even more an android and iPhone game was created by partnering with Slimstown Studios and allowing fans across the world to actually be their favourite horror film antagonist or in fact Tiffany his wife. The game is almost a spin off of the one of the most successful apps on the game store "Temple Run", but this Chucky inspired version involves the player executing security guards of the "Good Guys" factory on the way. However, the game mostly received negative reviews and there was also not a lot of media coverage on the game; which ultimately defeats the purpose of what the franchise intended to do.
Our own marketing
In order to begin our brand identity and market our film in various ways I started by making an IMDB page for our horror film, "Fifteen". The website shows audiences a summary of the plot of our film but also the main poster and title slate of our official teaser trailer. As seen on both, is the main white blood splatter typography which we aim to use through all of our products in some kind of way. This is so that we are recognisable to our target demographic, but also other people who may have come across our film on billboards, buses, the internet, social media and so on. What's more, the page also gives people a sight into the reviews of the film as well with the awards and nominations shown at the bottom. Viewers can additionally go to purchase the film to watch on Amazon prime video, which highlights we have tried to market it everywhere possible to the public.
Album Cover
For the main soundtrack of the film with "LORDE" as our chosen artist, who is signed with our record label, (Sinister Records) we also decided to make the cover similar to our poster to again reinforce the identity of our brand and we have done this in a few ways.
For example, the typography at the bottom of the cover where "RITUAL" is written matches the slasher style font to our "FIFTEEN" title. Even though it is not exact, it still replicates our poster and trailer fonts used and the red colour also continues the house style colours we decided to chose; which would also run through all of our marketing products. In addition, we also decided to add a texture to the background of our image with a faint blood splatter; which a similar type to the one we used for our title of our film. Therefore, instead of using it on the name of the album, we wanted to in cooperate into the background this time, to make the product more artistic and also a bit more unique since it is a music album and therefore can also be aimed at different audiences. Finally, the image layered over our iconic figure's face is the vein image we used in our trailer and on our poster. The whitening of her eyes also highlights a similarity between LORDE and our main character of the film on our official poster. By doing this, each element helps to emphasise that the album follows the same style as our magazine, poster and trailer; which helps our film to not only be an independent film, but we as a team and the product as a whole can become a brand in itself. |
Sequel Poster
Horror Movie Campaign - Friday the 13th
by Lewis Wilkinson
Since it's debut in 1980, Friday the 13th has grown to become one of the world's most iconic and profitable horror movie franchises, to the point where the day itself reminds people of the franchise. the brand's use of synergy and cross media convergence has undoubtedly allowed the series to reach this status.
The First entry in the Friday the 13th Franchise was released on the 5th august 1980. Since then, 12 films in the franchise have been released, with the most recent being the 2009 remake. This long history of releases in the franchise and numerous amounts of references in pop culture/other media) suggests the wide success and popularity of the franchise. For the most part, an established branding has been set throughout the majority of the posters, through the use of familiar imagery: The mask/knife and silhouettes of Jason (the series’ antagonist.), as well as the fonts and colour schemes used. However, to me this continuity is broken in the franchise’s later instalments (The most notable being Jason goes to hell and Jason X), most likely due to the franchise’s change of direction/formula.
Games
To correlate with the release of a film/a way of promoting the franchise is releasing a videogame tie-in or content for an existing game. The Friday the 13th franchise has delved into this multiple times, with the most recent example being 2017's 'Friday the 13th : the game' which has been released on Three major gaming platforms : Xbox one, PS4 and Steam. prior to this, Add-on-content for the popular 2015 fighting game 'Mortal Kombat X' allowed players to fight as the Friday the 13th series antagonist, Jason. this both encourages fans of the friday the 13th franchise to purchase the game, and acts as an advertisement to fans of the mortal kombat series.
The Franchise's latest video game release : 'Friday the 13th' : the game has relied on it's own promotion due to not being released alongside a film release. for example, the team have formed a synergetic partnership with Origin PC in the form of a competition to win a Friday the 13th themed PC and a copy of the game. As their target demographic are people who play video games, it makes sense to promote their product with a gaming PC brand.
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Comics
The Friday the 13th franchise has also had it's fair share of comic/graphic novel releases, typically focusing on crossovers between various horror franchises. the use of consistent iconography and colours helps to make the product recognisable to fans of the franchise, and acts as an advertisement to comic consumers who purchase these. This form of media allows the ability to market products towards a younger age demographic, allowing a higher level of recognisability to the public, further expanding the brand's public reach and profitability.
The above video is a promotional event for the franchise's 8th film : 'Friday the 13th : Jason takes Manhattan.' on the US talk show : the Arsenio Hall Show. this acts as an advertisement towards viewers of the show, and attracts fans of the franchise to tune in for the 'interview.'
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As seen in this slideshow, Multiple examples of synergy/cross-media convergence have been used to promote the franchise. partnership with Funko, to create a range of Funko Pop! figures allows a collectable for fans of the franchise and the series of figures in general. other merchandise includes replica masks, soft toys, clothing, cutlery and more.
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Franchise lifetime gross
The Friday the 13th series have always had low production costs with high box office counts. for example, the first entry in the series had a mere 700,000 USD budget, and made a gross of 39,754,601 USD. To date, the franchise's highest grossing release is Freddy vs Jason, a crossover featuring another horror franchise : 'A nightmare on elm street's antagonist : Freddy Kreuger. this makes sense due to the increased viewership from fans of the nightmare on elm street franchise on top of friday the 13th's already large audience. the least successful release in the franchise to date was Jason X, which overall made a loss of 1 million USD, which could be closely related to the fact that the film chose to go with a different name, a space theme, and different branding, alienating existing fans, and losing the brand recognisability to the general public.
This is a screenshot of our film : 'Fifteen included the popular Subscription based TV/Film streaming service Netflix's Horror category. In a similar vein to the service's included thumbnails, we have gone for the simple imagery of our victim's face and logo, which we used on our poster. This helps to be easily recognisable as the same film included in the promotional material. Other digital methods of consuming films include Youtube's film service, which allows consumers to have a one-off viewing of the film for a lower price than you would expect from a Blu-ray/DVD. However, we have also provided a DVD/Blu-ray release for those who prefer to own a physical copy of the film. physical releases can be distributed with a physical bonus collector's item to appeal to fans of the film.
To tie in with the release of a film, albums containing the film's soundtrack and/or an album containing a song by an established pop artist/group made to promote the film's release. (Suicide squad for example released both a soundtrack album and an album for Twenty one pilot's 'Heathens' track made to tie in with the release. A number of options are available to host and sell music both digitally and physically, the most popular of these being apple's Itunes service, and the google play store. It also makes sense to release the album on vinyl due to the medium gaining back popularity in recent years.
Many films delve into other media formats in order to promote their film towards different audiences. a common medium of these being comics/graphic novels, which many horror franchises such as Friday the 13th use to both directly promote a correlating cinematic release as well as seperate stories, as well as many franchises which began in the medium of graphic novels being adapted into cinematic releases : e.g. Marvel and DC movies. our cover suggests that it is directly promoting and telling a variant of the story of our film through the illustrated variant of our film's poster image.
Another form of merchandising are collectable figurines, which appeal to both a younger demographic, as well as avid collectors. Brands such as Funko pop have become highly popular with fans through their stylised pop culture vinyl figures for a wide range of franchises, including many horror properties such as friday the 13th.
Clothing
A typical form of merchandise used to promote films geared towards an older demographic are items of clothing, as it has a more practical/casual appeal than merchandise such as action figures/comics as everyone requires clothing, and this is a simple way to present your interest in the film/franchise. the imagery included on these items of clothing closely depict the imagery and logo used to promote the film, allowing consumers to establish a connection towards the brand.
This is a promotional advertisement promoting the release of a theme park ride which is designed to promote the release of our film. This rollercoaster is located in 'Sinister world' a theme park subsidiary of the Sinister company. Many conglomerate film companies own theme parks which tie in with their properties e.g. disney/universal etc. Horror properties such as the saw franchise have been adapted into rollercoasters before, typically containing sound, iconography and references to the film to allow consumers to identify the franchise the ride was based upon. this both creates appeal to existing fans, and acts as an advertisement for those who have not yet seen the film.
Hamidat - Harry Potter
Harry Potter is an 8 part film based off of the books written by J.K Rowling. The genre of the film is Fantasy Fiction, although some people have considered it to also be in the horror genre aswell. The first film was created in 2001, and the last film is yet to be determined, has J.K Rowling has written more books related to the Harry Potter plot, even though the final part of the Deathly Hallows came out in 2011. The film franchise has collected approximately $8 billion in worldwide box office sales, and as a whole brand, are worth $25 billion.The franchise continues to make money due to use of synergy, and cross media convergence over the years.
The most popular film is the last film which is Deathly Hallows, earning almost $400 million just for box office sales alone. The fact that the final film is the most seen shows how successful the branding of the film has been from start to end, due to the factors of cross media convergence, synergy, and having the production company being a huge conglomerate.
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Throughout all of the films, we can see that continuity is present, with the logo, making it recognisable that this is the same movie. Things that have changed is that for the first 2 films, the photos looked quite child-like, and had quite 'bright' imagery, and throughout the years that started to change, becoming darker, moving toward more of a horror type feel. Another thing that stayed consistent is the use of the three main characters on the poster, showing that the purpose of the film has not diverted to something/someone else, until the final film which is Deathly Hallows Pt. 2, where the focus is on the main character itself, which is Harry Potter.
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There have been sight seeing places set up in places such as the UK, and the USA, giving Harry Potter fans a chance to have a first hand experience in what it's like to be in the film. This is an important marketing tool, as it is bringing in more revenue for the film, equating over £40 million.
After the success of the films and books, Universal and Warner Brothers announced that they were creating The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new Harry Potter-themed expansion to the Islands of Adventure theme park at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. The continuity is still apparent even in the theme park, using the same typography and colour scheme used throughout all of the films. This is an excellent example of media convergence, due to fact that the theme park will promote the film, which acts as a form of marketing for the films and the theme park.
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There has been a variety of different videos games released for the films, ranging from PC games, PlayStation, Xbox 360, Nintendo and Wii. All of these games use continuity with the logo, and the main character, linking the film to the game so people can attach themselves to the franchise, which is an example of cross media convergence, as Warner Bros, a film company are working with gaming companies to bring in more revenue for the franchise as a whole. This helps with the success of the film, because they are trying to reach all ages, children, teenagers and adults.
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Merchandise from the franchiseThe fact that there is still a Harry Potter shop up and running even though the last film was almost a decade ago, shows how successful the film is, because they still have a huge audience that are buying these products, creating more revenue for the franchise, as there are hundreds of items dedicated to the eight films. On the website, there is something for everyone, helping with the marketing as it is all inclusive.
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The wands are the most popular merchandise, as is it an important part of the film. Every wizard/witch in the film has one, and each wand is different. It is a prop that is highly associated with this film, and it can be seen as a trademark.
Including all of these accessories, clothing items, and collectors is a great way of marketing, as people will see these things as 'collectors items', and dedicated fans will purchase what is being sold, as they love they love the film so much, that they are willing to support the brand as a whole.
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For our poster and magazine we have kept majority of the themes consistent, in order to identify with the brand of our movie. Between the two products, we have used red, black, white and some hints of green, mostly showing in the magazine, in order for our product to be easily noticed. In the poster we have used the protagonist, and in the magazine, we have used the antagonist.
The continuity of the themes regarding the FIFTEEN brand is apparent throughout all of our media productions, as it has carried from the poster and magazine, onto the trailer. This helps with the succession of the brand because people can link our movie to a particular theme, and it will become easier for people to start recognising it as a brand.
I have created two different types of billboards, one being advertised in a billboard in a shopping town outside and a billboard that moves allowing the audience to not only see the title but some of the producers and stars that are featured. Billboards are one of the best ways to advertise as film as there are lots of people that walk/ drive past them 24/7 therefore promoting our film on something like this attracts a major audience. The digital billboard is like the final film trailer, as this uses the same continuity through the colours, typography and the dominant image, giving the audience a sneak peak of what happens in the film, catching a passer-by's attention. This also uses the same colour scheme such as red, black and purple, which also links to branding our film.
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This is the official bus-stop billboard for FIFTEEN. This helps with our promotion because it means that people in cars, buses, bikes, or just people passing by/waiting at the bus stop can see this poster, and it may entice them to go and see the film in cinema, and because we live in the social media generation, people may take pictures of this billboard and share it with their friends and family, and they may share it with people they know, helping our film spread. We chose to advertise the poster in this way, because we thought that it was a nice clear way to advertise to the target audience our film coming out. We chose to have just the title on the side of a bus as we felt the graphics of the title was very gripping even at a quick glance, therefore we knew the audience would capture it as the bus was driving past them.
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FIFTEEN - Official Wikipedia Page for Xbox One.
The official FIFTEEN wiki page created for the XBOX ONE game. The product keeps the themes that provide familiarity with the brand for the audience, especially because the main image on the gaming front cover is the same as the one on the poster. The film is rated as a PEGI 16, stating that this film is not child friendly, but as horror films are aimed at teenagers and above, the game should also be able to reach the same type of audience.
The XBOX products are popular within 12-21 year olds, and so by releasing an xbox game, we are able to target the younger generation of our target audience. Teenagers living in the modern world spend the majority of their time playing on these games consoles, and so to address them we have created a game whereby they are put in the position of the protagonist, and in order to win the game, they have to escape the from the masked mans trap, and escape the house.
The following slides above shows our film on the number one telecommunications network, Sky. Sky UK is a telecommunications company which serves the United Kingdom. To have our film not only be in the Sky Store, but to have it as the 'Best Picks' of the week will gain our film a lot of attention, as everyone who has purchased Sky TV will be able to see our film, and watch it whenever they want to, as it is On Demand. This helps with building the FIFTEEN brand, because the picture used on the Sky store for our film is the same picture used for our poster, so the audience will be able to identify our film with this picture.
We also advertised our film on the Cineworld website as it consists of 81 cinemas, and because our audience feedback told us that they would like to go and watch this film in the cinema. We started by keeping the graphical title on the homepage as we knew it would be the first thing the target audience saw before they clicked to book or look into a film. We also provided our trailer to show it was ready for screenings and people could book to watch it, making our trailer easily accessible, as they can watch it straight from the Cineworld website, and if they want to, there is a SHARE option, allowing them to share this trailer with their friends.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in order for a film to be successful, the branding of the film must have a synergistic relationship with other companies, in order for the brand to be seen on a wider scale, and to allow easy cross media convergence. Without a synergistic relationship, the film will not get major exposure, and it will become harder for the film to become a success, and the brand will not be known as much.