Initial Research - Promotional Methods:

How Are Short Films Promoted? 

Distribution promoters:

Larger distribution companies often spend very large amounts of money promoting their films and media products. This is very successful at getting the concept behind the film out to as many people as possible and securing their main target audience to watch the film when it is released. The different promotional methods used create a 'hype' behind the product, getting their target audience excited for its release. This in turn makes profit as they generate a larger amount of ticket sales during the exhibition process after its released as so many people have seen the advertisement, this is then reinvested into future projects. If a distribution company has a large number of successful releases in films then it will continue to make more revenue and in turn be able to fund larger projects, therefore growing in terms of finance and popularity. When one company distributes many of the same genre film they can secure the same target audience for each film they release, therefore generating a successful reputation. One example of this is Lucas Films, known for the release of Marvel Films such as The Dark Knight. People who have seen the adverts for past 'Superhero' films and then viewed them and enjoyed them are more likely to watch the same genre film distributed by the same company. This means most distributors then to stick to one genre of film to promote, securing their target audience for all the films they release, ensuring they understand their audience on a more in depth scale and creating new innovating methods of promotion which will appeal to them. 

Promotion and marketing are a very large component of Hollywood films that costs and exceed those for production. However smaller filmmakers who distribute independently would normally spend very little on the marketing of their films due to their smaller budget. 

How do they Promote their Media Products?

There are many different ways in which a distribution company can market their films to their target audience. These different techniques come under two different methods of marketing: Heritage and Digital marketing. 

Heritage Marketing: These are more traditional methods of marketing. One example of this is posters advertising your media product. These posters would be displayed in public locations such as shopping centres, buses or billboards. The trailer for their media product would also be played in theatres before films of similar genres who would be aiming at a similar target audience. This media is often referred to as 'push' media as the advertisement is 'pushed' onto the target audience in order to generate excitement for the release. 

Digital Marketing: Digital marketing is when advertisement is presented through new media technology, one new example of this is social network sites. This is becoming a very popular method of advertisement for distributors as it reaches a wider range of people, generating a larger network of people interested in your product. This is also becoming very popular as filters can be added to their advertisement making sure it hits a very particular target audience and they don't waste their money on people who won't be interested, something which wouldn't be possible with a poster. Another reason why it is becoming increasingly popular is because it is often cheaper to advertise this way rather than in a physical form as these would need to be printed. 

Short filmmakers tend to use a mix of both marketing techniques. As short films are generally promoted to a more localised audience, posters are used to advertise their products, this is due to their smaller budget. Although it would be more expensive to pay for posters for a larger scale distribution, on a smaller scale these are more effective for the price. The small budget means that is it rare to see a trailer for a short film before a film in cinemas. Social media has become a very popular way short filmmakers to promote their films as they can reach a wider range of people for free through websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Another platform independent filmmakers have used to post their short film on is YouTube. This can regenerate an amount of revenue directly correlated to the number of views your short film receives due to placing adverts at the beginning of the video. This revenue can then be used to fun future products or replace the money spent on distribution.