Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts?

Film Distributors

The role of a film distributor is to market the film. they have overall say on when are were the film stands most chance of being successful, looking at the films target audience they ensure that they will become and remain interested in the film and pay to see the film upon its release. Many distributors will use different strategies when it comes to marketing and advertising, based off of their own personal experiences and research. Many opt for outdoor methods such  billboards on the side of busy roads or the side of buildings as well as bus shelters and posters as well as the use of advertising through other platforms such as television adverts, radio clips, websites, social media and chat shows as well as the most common trailers in cinema's.
This allows the film to be exposed to the public and it's target audience in such a way that is personal enough to them to get the message. This then allows the product to be shared on social media and through recommendations by people as word of mouth, and raise awareness of the film before it's even released. 

This period is crucial to conduct audience research as a film distributor, as the right methods much be conducted in order to come in on-budget and reach the target audience as effectively and efficiently as possible.
To reach out to a teenage audience for example, the advertisement would be heavily social media based for example, as this age group is shown to be the most educated in the software and have a deeper understanding of how it works than someone in their 60's would.

To attract elderly people to a film, radio and newspaper advertisements would be some of the most effective to use as they take little effort to use and they would have grown up with them and as a result use these products more.
We recognized that the marketing differed greatly from film to film, and this is due to the variation in its target demographic. For a film aimed at young women, having an ad in a motoring magazine would not be relevant as stereotypically, they are not likely to ever open such a product- the ad would be better suited in Heat or Grazia for example.
Our trailer would be widely published on social media to target the teenagers that use it frequently but also on late-night TV s
hows where the slightly older audience will be present- in between chat shows for example would work well- as would adverts on the side of buses as everyone sees them daily so there would be no escaping the campaign.

Some films take a completely different approach and fill up every possible platform to reach as many people as possible- over a variety of methods and means, regardless of their deceptive or tricking ways.
Deadpool was such a film and its advertisement campaign was one of the most diverse in history 2015. Below are some of the forms that their advertisement took:

Deadpool was a relatively recent and very successful film, with one of the most talked about advertisement campaigns of 2015-2016. The approach in terms of marketing was funny and smart which really reflected the film's sense of dark humor- relevant to the 15 age certificate.
The valentines conventions in its initial marketing was extremely clever as it opened up the film in terms of comedic value to the audience.
By targeting valentines day audiences, they have increased the likelihood of reaching people from outside of their original target audience and thus introducing a whole new category of people to the super-hero genre who may have been otherwise unaware.
Furthermore, the emoji billboard was an especially clever idea as it opened up the film to a younger generation that will understand the whole point of what the emoji's are trying to say. This also conjures up the idea that the film is going to be modern and make relative points and jokes- as the other ad campaigns portray just how humorous the film is despite its gore.
Whilst the emoji board will attract the attention of younger audiences, due to the certificate 15, the production and marketing company had to be caution as to what they put where. This was solved- in part- through the use of social media.
Social media adverts can be tailored to the kind of audience that they are shown to- as a result the distributors of Deadpool could reference the more sexually explicit content of the film through the use of posters- as can be seen in the above montage. By excluding anyone under 15 (according to Facebook settings) from their outreach, they had free range to post what they liked without the fear of being penalised for it.
One of the most acclaimed points of the Deadpool advertisement campaign was that it gave away almost nothing of the main plot of the film- instead having Wade, the main character 'talk' to the audience as well as having the trailer mainly focus on one fight scene so as to not give too much away in terms of overall plot and outcome.

The distribution plans for Deadpool was far from that of the conventional forms that companies undertake but it was because of this that it was a very successful- According to Box Office Mojo, Deadpool has earned $754.5 million globally. This is probably due to the outreach that the film had over a massive range of audience types; the valentines audience, younger audiences and the original Marvel fans.

As you can see from the variation in marketing techniques used in the Deadpool advertising- sometimes it is beneficial to strya from the usual conventions of the film industry. However, there is the constant concern that the 'new' methods will not be as successful as that shown by Deadpool and that is a very significant risk. As my Horror trailer is not as highly anticipated as the likes of Deadpool, I have chosen to conform to the more conventional strtegy of posters and magazines to publicate my work. Whilst I may have seen a success through more unconventional means, my research has shown that the more traditional routes can be just as effective with a good combination of the main product and strong ancillary texts to support it, and this is what I chose to do.

(Note: this video will not work unless annotations are turned on. If the allotted time is too short, please pause when necessary.)