It’s all good and well making a great movie, but if no one goes to see it, then the film will be a failure, at least in the eyes of the studio. Making the movie is only half the job; the other half is to promote it and get people to stump up the cash to watch it. As you might expect, Hollywood has gotten pretty good at promoting their cinematic creations. You’ll see the actors on television shows, or you might see a movie-themed spins game when you use a slot game offer. If you live in a big city, you might even see a hyped-up, glamorous premiere.
In this blog, we’ll run through the various ways that studios promote their movies. If you have something to promote yourself, you could even try out these approaches (if your budget stretches that far!).
The Perfect Trailer
It all begins with the teaser trailer, which is the perfect way to get people interested in a movie before it comes out. How many times have you seen a trailer and made a mental note to watch the film when it finally hits theaters? We all do it.
There’s an art to making a brilliant trailer, which should convey the general energy of the movie without giving any key storyline details. A strong trailer can be great for studios but not so great for cinema-goers — we’ve all seen movies that just didn’t live up to the awesomeness of the trailer!
Press Junkets
The media machine would struggle without Hollywood. Why? Because they provide an endless stream of movie stars for interviews on television, online, and in print. A movie of any note will send its main actors on the media circuit to discuss the work.
A few actors have refused to promote their own movies, mostly because they didn’t like the final product, but by and large, actors recognize that press junkets are a necessary evil.
Expanded Universe
There’s more than one way to promote a movie. Having the stars sit down with Jimmy Fallon is one, but another method is to expand the universe and produce other types of content. This approach isn’t just about promoting the movie but about developing the movie’s revenue streams.
A popular method is to release a game based on the film. This could be a premium title for video game consoles, a short and sweet mobile game, or a slot game based on the movie. You can also sometimes find movie-based arcade games, though they’re increasingly rare.
In any case, the larger you can make the movie universe, the more people you will reach, and that can only be good news from a promotional perspective.
Special Screenings
Hollywood can be innovative when it comes to promoting its movies. But it can also draw on the classic approaches that other industries use. Sometimes, it’s all about getting your product in front of the public in any way you can. Selling merchandise is especially effective in this regard.
It’s not even important whether people actually buy the merchandise; if they’re exposed to enough Star Wars or Despicable Me products as they walk around the mall, they will eventually pay attention to those movies.
Word of Mouth
Sometimes, the most powerful way to promote a movie is to let other people do the promotion for you. We’ve all seen films based on a recommendation from a friend, and studios use reviews from professional critics to their advantage, too. You’ll have seen movie posters that include quotes from esteemed publications about how brilliant the movie is. Studios do this because they know that the general public listens to and respects the views of the experts (rightly so, we should add). And if a movie has received an award from a leading film festival, such as Cannes, then you can be sure that it’ll appear on any and all promotional materials.
