MH 3378

On the Film Distributors' Association site, I watched a presentation by Kezia Williams, head of theatrical distribution at Pathe, on how distributors work to create a successful marketing campaign for each film. After watching the presentation I decided to investigate the different aspects of a marketing campaign for the recently released film, The Joker.

In Williams presentation she explained that in order to even begin marketing the film the key themes and the hooks of the film need to be identified so that the selling point of the film can be established. Once the distributors have identified what is going to excite and interest their target audience then marketing strategies can be decided, this may be by reading the script, or these factors may only be established once they have seen the finished film. The selling point of the film may be the cast of the film or the fact that it's going to be a blockbuster film with advanced visual effects.

The reason I chose to research further into The Joker's marketing strategies is because it is obvious that the distributors have gone through all the stages that Williams discussed in her presentation. For example the films distributor is Warner Bros, meaning the audience immediately knows that they are in for a quality blockbuster film, and this is made obvious. As well as this the film has a thought provoking element in it that may trigger an emotional feeling for the audience, and this aspect is a very good marketing strategy that the film has taken advantage of.

To display my research I decided to make a collage displaying the different elements of marketing such as the films website, poster and trailer. The film has managed to take on every method of marketing to make it impossible for the public to miss hearing about it. Their social media pages on Twitter and Instagram, for example, are very active with new posts everyday showing that the distributors want to be very interactive with their audience, and this ultimately does lead to the film getting more attention and more people wanting to go and see it.

There is an interview on YouTube of Joaquin Phoenix On Jimmy Kimmel Live, a very popular talk show. From this method of marketing the target audience can get to see the star of the film in a more informal and personal manner, if the audience grow to like the actor then they will want to see his work in the film.

One aspect of The Joker that drew a lot of attention from the media, was the link to mental illness that the film has. This aspect brought in both praise and controversy for the film, either way it got people talking about the film therefore making others want to watch the film so that they can join in on the discussions.