The marketing campaign I am going to focus on is Red Riding Hood as it is a classic fairytale with a horror/thriller twist which is the same genre to my film trailer. The teaser trailer and the poster were released in November 2010, featuring "The Wolf". The second trailer was released in January 2011. The film had actors like Amanda Seyfriend, Gary Oldman and Shiloh Fernandez that sold the film due to their successful acting careers. It was also directed by Catherine Hardwicke who has been directing The Twilight Saga and this is recognisable in Red Riding Hood.
Red Riding Hood trailer
Red Riding Hood Posters
Magazine scan
Amanda Seyfriend interview
Max Irons and Shiloh Fernandez interview
 |
| Red Riding Hood website |
From the synergy of the marketing campaign for the film, it is clear how it is consistent throughout by the same image of Amanda Seyfried in the Red Riding Hood costume which seems iconic to the film. The red costume keeps the classic fairy-tale intact with the modern horror twist. Throughout the different subsidiaries, the colour scheme has been the same which I think makes it recognisable to the audience. The marketing campaign was thorough and from my experience I definitely was aware about it through the TV, magazines and posters. I think what attracts the audience to it was that it’s a story that everyone knows and since supernatural creatures are becoming a trend lately with Harry Potter, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and True Blood, then it’s evident that people are going to be attracted to it. There have been a lot of interviews with Amanda Seyfried and the rest of the cast to try and promote it, different companies such as Clevver TV, Tribute movies, Love film, Empire, Sugarscaper and many more have had interviews off them. If different companies like Sugarscaper who are aimed at a female teenage audience watch it then they will be reaching that target audience and same for Empire who are probably for the older audience who are interested in films. Catherine Hardwicke, the director of Twilight, has become more known since the worldwide popularity of Twilight in which her name is now popular. Now on the posters and DVD covers, it would normally say 'FROM THE DIRECTOR OF TWILIGHT', this may help with persuading Twilight fans to watch it as they know from that, that Red Riding Hood may have a similar atmosphere or the way it has been shot. Throughout the campaign, people have always known the fairy-tale version to be less horrific, but people have probably wondered where the story would go in a modern, more 'grown-up' take on it. A fairy tale with dark undertones: surely that can find an audience? These stories have been around for hundreds of years and have in-built branding. Therefore slogans such as 'WHO'S AFRAID?' and 'BELIEVE THE LEGEND. BEWARE THE WOLF.' sets a tone and lets the audience know that this film is different and therefore create hype and interest around it. Another feature that has been brought to the film is that there is a love triangle which may attract females or people who are after romance in general. The fact that there is a mixture of genres like horror, thriller and romance makes it seem more appealing and has given the original tale loads of dimensions to make it seem more realistic and riveting. The film itself raked in $14.1 million, compared to Twilight it was inevitable that the film wasn't going to do better than it because there has been a craze around vampires at the moment. But there had been a lot of modern twisted films such as Alice in Wonderland. The marketing campaign for Red Riding Hood concentrated on a barrage of different tag lines ("It wants her" "The truth will tear her apart" etc.) and the mystery of who the wolf was, yet it didn't show the wolf nor provide the context for why people should care. Distributor Warner Brothers' research showed that 64% of Red Riding Hood's audience was female and 56% were under 25 years old. The website is another way for the audience to interact with the film and get involved like prosumers. Normally the website would be open to use before the film has been released which means that it can become known and tease the audience into trailers and play games to interact with characters and take a liking to them. Once the audience gets attached to characters and they start getting fans, its how the film starts getting a fan base and therefore becomes popular.
No comments:
Post a Comment