Marketing: The Movie by Alara Schroeder

It slowly takes over— it was only a few months ago when one could’ve sworn they had only seen it once. Now it is everywhere— at every street corner, every swipe online, every high-way billboard, every single place. It cannot be stopped, it can only be released. That ‘it’ of course is a film, its promotional material seeping into every nook of advertising space to try and influence the masses. It is often the most in-your-face part of a new movie being released, but much of the actual strategy and methods go undiscussed. It is a vast road of twisty techniques and contains a hefty amount of profits for those who strike box-office gold. But how is it done?

To start, film marketing is the business— some would call it an art— of advertising and promoting a film to bring in audiences. It can be broadly separated into two categories: the marketing done utilizing the film’s resources and the marketing done by the people.

The former category can be further split into two more: the owned media and the paid media. Owned media refers to anything that is made during the production of the film or any resources the producing company already has. Behind-the-scenes footage, on-set interviews, and if the corporation producing the film is large— for example, Disney or Sony— then the other media outlets of said corporation can be used to plug the new film.

Paid media is the more obvious category: all of the ad spots on television and on the internet, trailers, teasers, posters, billboards, and anything else that needs to be paid for out of the marketing budget. Often, this side of the marketing is done by another agency or separate entity. Trailers are the most notable of all, usually being the first hint into what the film will actually be about, and tend to walk a very fine line between giving just enough of the film to feel curious or excited, but not too much so that the film doesn’t feel spoiled.

The previous examples have all been used for over the past one hundred years. Fun fact: The first trailer was made in 1913 to promote the musical “The Pleasure Seekers.” But as technology has changed, so has marketing to match it. And it is quite common now to see promos for upcoming movies on social media, as well as behind-the-scenes footage.

All of the paid and owned media is used to generate earned media, or the marketing that the audiences do through excitement, which is much harder to achieve. This is where the actors’— and potentially the director if they are also famous— influence, fame, and star power are often used in a press tour to generate buzz around the film. This side is also where social media is a very key player. Fans have the potential to generate a lot of excitement, so many influencers or content creators are invited to screenings and given press kits to help promote the film to their fans.

Many recent successes depended quite heavily on the frenzy of people wanting to be a part of the trend of the movie. But there is very little rhyme or reason as to why it happened. A recent example of this is the viral summer 2023 phenomenon ‘Barbenheimer.’ These involved two contrasting films, Barbie having a very bubbly, pink, and campy aura, and Oppenheimer drawing on the drama and moral conflict of a pivotal, no-point-of-return event in human history. Both had a fair amount of interest with audiences and reached an insurmountable amount of buzz because of the fact that these two very different films were released on the same day. This phenomenon has been chased and chased ever since it happened last summer with recent marketing grasping at all different methods. Though it is difficult, there are some general strategies that marketers use to hopefully strike gold in this way.

Strong color schemes or themes are used to promote films, helping to tie the film to those colors to invoke a certain feeling or act as a subconscious reminder of the film whenever one sees those colors and themes. Recent movies like Barbie, IF, Deadpool & Wolverine, It Ends With Us, and others all have a strong color or theme associated with them. IF used purple very strongly, Deadpool & Wolverine used red and yellow, and It Ends With Us used florals.

Other films capitalize on the genre of the film, horror films being the most notable with all of the marketing geared towards provoking a sense of fear and burning dread to know what happens or what monsters lurk in the dark— especially in the trailers. The 2009 film Paranormal Activity used trailers of audiences’ fear-filled reactions to show the scariness of the film and claim it too scary for a horror film. More recently, to promote Smile, there were planted actors in sports game crowds to generate online suspicion on why those people were acting so creepily.

It is becoming increasingly common for films to be a part of a franchise, a sequel, or an adaptation, in some way, so a fair amount of the marketing banks on that as well as making it stand out among the rest. This can involve assimilating the film with the source material and with the company producing it, or promoting a new twist on a classic, well-known story.

Some movies are guaranteed to make a good amount of box-office money just because of the company or genre they are in. Movies targeted towards kids and families, like Despicable Me 4, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Inside Out 2 often make a lot of profit because the marketing is already in place: they are fun, friendly movies that are great for family outings, they are backed by some of the most major media conglomerates to exist, and are sequels of already known movies. The overall quality of these movies can be debated and plots can be criticized, but it cannot be denied that these movies were successful at the box office. An example is Inside Out 2, which grossed over one billion dollars worldwide. Summer is often capitalized upon with the ‘Summer Blockbuster,’ and these films are often big-budget, action or special effect-filled, and purposely released during the time of year when many have more free time and are likely to spend more money.

There is also the more general tactic of finding a specific audience to target, called the primary audience, that is very likely to see the film. Then there is the audience that is potentially interested in the film, but marketers are less certain about them, called the secondary audience. Lastly, the tertiary audience consists of people who aren’t likely to see the film, but may if it is a hit. If the marketing is particularly successful, a film could grasp the attention of all three of these audiences.

Strategy is also involved in how the promotional material is rolled out and in what quantities. The most common and seemingly effective way is that some behind-the-scenes photos will be leaked— on purpose or by accident— then an official trailer or teaser will be dropped online, then some shorter clips, other trailers, then come the posters and interviews, and finally, right around the film’s release, adverts involving other companies or small, teaser-like ad-spots will start appearing. All of these build upon each other, and as a result, build the buzz of a movie.

If one feels a little exploited by all this, that is fair— but it is also just the nature of capitalism to market a product to make maximum profit. There are quite a few more techniques and innovative strategies being used to make new movies appeal to the masses. Marketing can often be loud, obnoxious, and emphatic— and it still works, after all, it is everywhere.