Product placement

In our group we decided to focus on the genre of action. Further into our research we decided to look into the sub genres of thriller/adventure. We found that this had the largest audience that we could cater for. Going into research for product placement we decided to individually look into different advertising methods that companies may use to draw the maximum attention to the film, some of the categories would be:

Advertising using still image
Advertising using moving image
E-commerce (The Internet)

The use of e-commerce in promoting films has proven to be very effective. Film companies have access to an audience of billions and can often be done for free.

Part of our research showed that a lot of companies promoted their new film using free third party websites such as YouTube and social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter. These methods are effective because they are free and have millions of people who log in to them every day. So there is a potential of having millions of people view adverts for their film. So if we were to use the internet to promote our video we would decide to create groups on social networking sites and promote our film that way. Also we would create a film trailer and upload it to video hosting sites such as YouTube. From our research this has proven to be the most effective way of advertising films.

Advertising films on TV and in cinemas has proven to be quite effective as well. When broadcasting film trailers onto TV channels, the advert has potential access to billions of people. A larger audience usually means larger responses and therefore a larger profit margin. Also, using a film trailer makes it more exiting for the target audience. A trailer gives the audience a taste of the action, and what they could experience if they went to see it. We would decide to feature our film trailer before another action film viewing in cinemas. Our research has shown that this is effective because the target audience is all grouped together in one room so we can project our trailer straight to them and get results.

The use of still image advertising we found to be the least effective however can help compliment moving image trailers. For example a billboard displaying a still image of our film can help remind passersby of the advert they have seen in the cinema or TV. This method we have thought to be effective because it enforces an already effective method of advertising to get maximum audience and maximum profit. Also we found that many millions of people in the UK purchase newspapers. This offers a large audience that we can advertise for also. So we might decide to post adverts in the newspapers so we can maximise our potential audience. This will maximise profits.

As a group we have decided to incorporate a lot of the ideas above. We have decided to advertise on channels such as ‘Dave’, ‘channel 4’ and ‘ITV2’. Our research shows that these channels play a lot of similar genre films so we can advertise to our target market. Our film is aimed more at males, so advertising on this channel we found will be effective, but with advertisement it can effect everyone such as the internet, everyone uses it therefor everyone will have the chance to watch the film.

For product placement we all did seperate sections, I did moving image, Calum did E-commerce and Lewis did still image. I altered my partners paragraphs to turn them into my own.