Effective advertising of films: Ten films and their official websites

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 1.6, Central Queensland University, course: Advertising Design Communication, language: English, abstract: As far as movie advertising goes, official web sites have become a crucial tool for advertising upcoming and existing films. Mabry & Porter (2010) reports a ‘relatively important and statistically significant relationship between web site traffic and box office revenue’. Movie trailers have been a vital part of the advertising process, appearing ‘very early on - around 1912 - although they did not become standard for several years’ (Film Reference, N/A). Of some 10-billion videos watched on line annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video. With such easy and instant access to them, these increasingly popular cinematic morsels are being devoured by moviegoers-and served up with serious consideration by the industry that sometimes spends sums equivalent to a third world country’s annual budget to concoct them (Merin, 2008). According to a study by Microsoft Advertising and 20th Century Fox, ‘[o]nline film advertising should play a growing role in the marketing of movie releases… Online film advertising [is] particularly effective at presenting film trailers in a positive environment and broadening [the advertiser’s] reach beyond the cinema environment. Trailers were confirmed as the single most influential element in consumers’ decision to view a film’ (Microsoft Advertising, 2009). Snell (2009) believes that movies are a large part of the entertainment industry and that ‘in recent years their websites have become increasingly critical to their overall success’.