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¿.