In the film
industry, marketing servers a huge role to boost the movie’s publicity. The
more people talk about a movie the more it’ll be seen and have higher
revenue. Using other platforms to promote a movie’s premiere is essential to having a big movie. Having merch, toys, games, etc. to promote a movie is how top
Box Office movies become big.
Black Panther was a Marvel movie
that became one of the company’s biggest films ever. Ever since the movie
released there were large amounts of publicity around it since it was the first
black superhero from Marvel. The publicity behind the movie grew since the
release due to all the marketing from special events and cross-promotions. The
lead actor for the movie participated in an event for Marvel’s mobile game
Contest of Champions to promote the
movie. There was another event hosted by Marvel that presented pieces of
clothing from the film that the movie’s marketers used to appeal the fashion
and different art that the movie contains. To tie it all in the company created a website selling tickets and merch with additional information on the cast. The
company’s marketing strategy was to give the movie large anticipation through
other means like these special events and cross-promotion. An entire album was
created solely based on the movie with Kendrick Lamar as the executive
producer. He performed a single off of the album at a college’s Football
Playoff National Championship Game. Similarly, the movie’s trailer was first
played at an NBA Finals game. Marketing anything in front of a large audience
will definitely boost the popularity. Marvel’s marketers continue to promote
the film in other ways such as the movie’s artwork, on the radio, a partnered
commercial and mentioned a previously made cartoon series. All the promotion
and anticipation was apart of what made the movie how big as it is.
Another Marvel movie that also did
really well was Spiderman Homecoming. The companies tactics are essentially the
same as what they did with Black Panther. Although the biggest difference that
was made was creating an entire video game partnering with Sony. As a
Playstation 4 exclusive, a Spiderman game was created before the movie was even
released to greatly promote even more. The video game itself did really well and
was even the game of the year. Toys were largely sold to aid to make kids want
to watch the film. There was a period of time when they partnered with Cinnamon
Toast Crunch, which was also promoting the movie. Spiderman is already a favored
superhero between all kids and has had multiple movies previously, so there
wasn’t much promotion needed to have a large revenue. With just this promotion, the
amount of money made off the movie worldwide was close to one billion dollars.
The Lego Movie 2 had a slightly
different approach but one that also worked well. The movie is a sequel although
it’s still originally based on a toy set. There was a videogame that was
created for the film before it was released with a similar play style to
previous Lego videogames. The movie also had cross-promotion with discovering as
one of the characters play as a bank teller. Along with that Legoland recently
opened up going perfectly with the movie. A specific Lego set was created with
characters and pieces from the movie-making kids wanting to play with these
toys. All these events happened as marketing for the release of the movie. The
first poster promoting the movie announced that the first trailer would be
released the following day. On Black Friday for only one day, the Warner Bros. Company released the first Lego Movie on YouTube for free. Other brands
partnered up with the company for cross-promotion leading to the success that
came after the release of the movie.
Jurassic World is another large movie
that has made a huge name for the trilogy. The official Jurassic World website
has tickets to go to their theme park based on the movie. This is a great
marketing strategy as the audience can visit the park and see things from the
movie and previous movies in the trilogy. Jurassic World had cross-promotion
with Lego releasing a Lego set and video game before the movie was ever
released. Another game was created for all mobile devices that users would be
able to make in-game purchases. Not only were their trailers posted online but
they also had reserved spots on TV. To really engage their fans before the
release of the movie, a Jurassic World egg hunt took place online where fans
could figure out and find Easter eggs about the movie. Close to the movie’s
release date, Universal Studios got Comcast to play old reruns of Jurassic Park
movies. Jurassic World had other cross-promotions done such as have a regular
toy set and being promoted on Mike and Ike’s candy and having a special flavor
at Dairy Queen. Jurassic World had a lot of marketing done to have such
excellent promotion.
The marketing for any movie largely
affects how much its seen when released. The popularity of a movie often
depends on all the publicity given to it. The tactics for marketing are also
similar to big movie companies like Marvel and the Jurassic trilogy. Often
times being promoted through a toy set, a video game, or more commonly a candy
or food. With months of anticipation, a movie can be more appreciated when
finally released with a great marketing scheme.
