By: Grace Thompson
What makes you decide to go watch a new movie, either in theaters or on- demand in your own home? Was it the trailer you watched in the movie theater, or was it the teaser that showed up on your twitter feed? Sometimes a talented cast and crew are notisn’t enough to draw in an audience, so filmmakers rely on publicity to garner the attention their film deserves. Public Relations specialists employ strategy to generate buzz using the right medium for the film.
The role of public relations in promoting a movie is to maximize the coverage of the film to the target audience. For example, when trying to promote an animated movie to small children and their families, the team running the campaign often places characters from the movie on a Mcdonald’s Happy Meal or on a sugary cereal targeted toward families with young children. It is important for the upcoming film to be in the news as much as possible, from the time the movie is announced, to the day it leaves theaters.
Public relations plays a crucial role in the film industry. It’s important to generate buzz around a new movie to more than just moviegoers as it is important to gather interest from distributors (who are responsible for the marketing and deciding the media by which the film is to be viewed) and film festivals, bloggers and influencers. Essentially, the more interest you gather, the more your film is talked about, the more people go to see it, and the more money your film will make.
Like in almost all public relations campaigns, social media plays a huge role in spreading news about a film. Upcoming movies tend to have their own social media account, in which content about the upcoming film or information on how to view the film are easily available. These accounts are often where the casting announcements, teasers, and trailers are first shown to the public.
Publicists use many different methods to initiate interest in an upcoming film. It is the publicistslists job to negotiate with the press for any additional media and cross-promotion opportunities. They host press conferences to announce a new film. They release trailers, teasers and photo-ops. They are the ones who book actors to guest star on our favorite talk shows, radio shows and news programs.
As movies and their budgets keep getting bigger, the promotional budget is almost equal to the production budget. This makes, making the public relations campaigns more innovative with the intention of garnering a larger profit from the film. It is hard to go anywhere out in public without seeing a poster for the next big budget action movie. Other movies, such as small independent films , are often only shown to their target audience through social media, as they normally do not have the promotional budget to appeal to all movie goers.
Agencies that specialize in film and entertainment are normally located in larger cities where movie production takes place such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. These agencies are involved from the very beginning, often before production even begins on the film. The employees of these agencies work tirelessly to show as many people as they can the hard work that went into these films and so the film can make the profit that it deserves, and even introduce the audience to what may be their new favorite film.
Suggestions
Personally, I didn’t see too many grammatical errors. The ones I did see, Evan touched base on. AP style was on point, and the sources you provided were really helpful. I really enjoyed the topic you wrote about. I knew PR played a big role in the fim industry, but maybe you can go into detail more about the effects it makes on society and how it has changed society maybe. I really enjoyed how you provided many examples on promoting movies and cross-promotion opportunities. One thing I would change is to, like I said, include somewhere in the middle a paragraph on how the film industry affects society and how PR plays a role in that.
Works Cited
Camero, Rosa. “Public Relations in the Films Distribution Industry.” RosssCammm Films & Marketing, 15 May 2020, www.rossscammm.com/why-public-relations-is-important-when-it-comes-to-your-movie/ .
“Production Notes: Public Relations.” Nevada Film Office, 3 July 2017, nevadafilm.com/production-notes-public-relations/
Whitewaterpr. “Role of Public Relations in the Film Industry.” White Water PR, 18 June 2016, whitewaterpruae.wordpress.com/2016/05/09/role-of-public-relations-in-the-film-industry/.
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