Marketing a film

There are three distinct area's of marketing a film: advertising; publicity and promotional deals. When making a film, producers put aside an overall marketing budget, which is considered in terms of return on ticket sales weighed against the costs.


A trailer is a short advert for a film put together by the distributors. It will usually comprise extracts from the movie in question with an added voice-over designed to sell the film. A shorter version of the trailer is released sometime before the film is due out is known as a 'teaser trailer'.


Trailers are a  significant marketing tool in the release of a film which are often released several weeks before the actual film release date to raise awareness of the film in question and get the films target audience interested in watching the film. They are normally previewed at cinemas first before a few are released for television viewing. For franchise films, like Harry Potter, a series of trailers are released towards the release date to gain huge interest in their already developed fan base and build anticipation. 


Posters are a primary medium for advertising a film comprising the central image that will also feature heavily in the publicity campaign. The main poster for a film concides with the release date, but there are often 'teaser' posters released with the trailers to further build the anticipation. Often, distributors release a third poster with comments from critics added, again to further their ticket sales. All of the posters released have a unifying features to make them instantly recognizable as part of the same campaign, but the posters style often varies according to where they are placed, for example a poster placed on a motorway will be much more simplified and eye catching than a poster in a a magazine, where people viewing the poster have much more time to read information about the film itself.