Audience and Institution Practice Essay

1. Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied. (film)

Marketing is one thing filmmakers don’t take into account when producing a film but it is the main factor in having a successful film. You will typically see producers in the film industry selling their films to agents and film distributors and they will be responsible for drawing up a marketing strategy for the film they've bought. Now if a film doesn’t get bought that usually means they will move on from the project. With no marketing, it is very difficult for your film to be noticed.

To start, a very common question would be how do you start a film marketing strategy? Well, there are many answers to this that include asking an expert, start putting together objectives and goals for your film, or figuring out how you’re going to get out there. Getting out there could mean placing ads, advertising on a website, or social media. The more platforms your film is on the more it’s going to get noticed. For example, on average these films “should spend at least 20-25% of their budget on marketing.” Big studios might even “spend up to 50% of the cost of the film for promotion and marketing”. This sounds like a lot but it is what attracts the viewers. All the publicity you can get makes a difference because it shows people how good your film is and that they should watch it.

Furthermore, a film needs to be marketed for potential viewers to even know it is coming out. If you had no prior information on a film how would that attract you to watch it? For example, the Show “Money Heist, also known as La Casa de Papel, is a Spanish series released in 2017”. It recently hit number 1 on Netflix, having everyone around the world going crazy over it. They worked on many unique ways to get their show out “Netflix did a very impressive job is at using non-traditional mediums to promote their show”. Another thing they were great at while filming season 3 was how well they knew their audience. According to the entertainment media Deadline, “the promotion had been the biggest in France and Italy” so they benefited from impressive wall-to-wall promotion, having the other countries wanting a piece of it as well. They continued to step out there comfort zone, making sure people all over the world would partake in watching the series. They even cobranded with “Domino’s Pizza, Spanish automobile manufacturer Seat, and Swiss chocolatier Lindt”. I was introduced to this television series because I had seen it all over Netflix and Instagram. Friends and family all over the internet were talking about how great it was so I took it upon myself to watch it as it caught my attention. Most of my movie streaming comes from Netflix, so usually if it is on the top 10 I am interested.

To conclude, film marketing uses the media to try to get people interested in a film enough to invest their money to go see it. Advertising platforms used in film marketing include trailers, posters, billboards, and contact with social media. Marking is essential in the film industry and no successful film is made without it.