Monday, 28 February 2011

Marketing for Avatar
US conglomerates can use their size and reach to create massives synergies to awaken desire in audiences to see their films.

With all the talk of the "Twitter effect" and social media making or breaking Hollywood releases, Fox took a decidedly big-picture approach to go to market with the most expensive film ever made.

The studio teamed with Coke Zero and McDonald's for extensive promotions that gave fans access to the virtual augmented-reality world of Pandora. Consumers could download an AR application from AVTR.com and scan their Coke Zero can or 12-pack to take a virtual ride in the Samson helicopter featured in the film. McDonald's took a similar approach with its Happy Meal and Big Mac tie-ins, creating a virtual "Avatar" space called McWorld, where fans could interact with other aspects of the Pandora environment. Both marketers had large-scale media buys to promote the tie-ins, including general-market TV buys from Coke and multicultural TV, print and radio ads from McDonald's. LG and Panasonic pitched in for global tie-ins to cross-promote products with similar 3-D innovations, while Mattel partnered on the toy merchandising front.

In early November on Fox's World Series and National Football League coverage, with multiple 30-second spots in the same commercial break, followed by the full trailer airing during pod breaks for "Glee" and "House."

Just how mass was the marketing? Fox didn't even have a sponsored Twitter account to speak of, so the studio can't even take credit for the film's daily appearance as a trending topic on the microblogging site after its theatrical debut -- a surge of organic word-of-mouth that certainly didn't hurt.

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Working Title Films


Who set it up and when?


Bevan had founded Working Title in 1984 with Sarah Radclyffe,


What were they first successful with? How much money did they make? 


Working Title's breakthrough hit was 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral, a romantic comedy which made the term British blockbuster seem less of an oxymoron. It was made on a pauper's budget but eventually made £3,500,000 (estimated).


Filmography, critical and financial success?


Films:


Critical and financial success films:
Notting HillBridget Jones’s Diary
 and Love Actually.

Notting Hill made around 
$116,006,080
Bridget Jones's Diary made around 
$71,500,556
Love Actually made around 
$59,365,105

How did they effect the reputation of the UK Film Industry?

In all, the company has produced more than 70 films since its launch in 1983, with a combined gross in excess of $2.5 billion worldwide; its films have won four Oscars and 20 Baftas. This year, the company was awarded the prestigious Michael Balcon Bafta Award for its contribution to the British film industry. 



NEWS STORY - BBC NEWS FEB 2004
"Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have been described as the "Brit flick's twin towers of power", Britain's "movie moguls" and "gamblers with excellent taste and instincts".
But whatever tag you want to apply to the two producers and founders of Working Title films, one thing is certain: the British film industry would be poorer without them.
They have been listed as the most powerful figures in the British industry and in 2002 Premiere magazine put them at 41st in the world-wide movie power list.
A roll call of their films is a virtual name check of all of the biggest British films of the last 10 years."


When and why