Why are you creating an online presence? What are the advantages of promoting your product online vs TV or radio?
I am creating an online presence to advertise my short film to my target demographic and get the word out about it. This is due to social media and using the internet being a very useful tool in advertisement. There are many reasons for this, one being a social presence is free on many platforms and online websites, in comparison to TV promoting which can cost up to millions for thirty second advert in prime time, this means you can save money on promoting. Another advantage of promoting online is it can reach a larger audience this is due to when advertising on Television you are restricted to those people who watch that show, for example not everyone watches Hollyoaks so if you have your advert within their break its not reaching mass audience. By promoting it online a lot more people will see what you are advertising, even those who wouldn't necessarily look out for what you are promoting. Overall, this allows you to get a mass audience and raise more awareness. |
What are you trying to achieve?
Within this unit I am trying to promote my short film successfully, this comes down to branding, how I lay out website and the use of social media promoting. I want to create a good promotional campaign in order to present my work in an effective way and to show my target audience what my film is and get them interested in it. My campaign is going to clean and put together effectively in order to get mass approval of the target audience. |
What am I selling?
Initially I am trying to sell my short psychological thriller film to a mass audience. I will do this through the means of trailers, behind the scene footage and interviews which will be presented on my films website or its social media platforms. By selling my film to as many people as possible it will be seen and watched by more people overall. I am selling my film by mimicking similar promoting styles as mainstream media in order to get mass viewing. |
Facebook is an useful online marketing tool which is generally used by adults around the age of 40 upwards. Created in 2004 Facebook is a commonly used social media tool in interacting with friends, organising events and advertising to many in mass numbers. On Facebook you can create pages in which you promote your films or anything. A positive of Facebook is that it is set in a basic and understandable way in which allows anyone to use, this means it will encourage a mass audience to use and look at my page. More than one billion people are on Facebook and its a world wide platform which many people will be able to see my promotional campaign page. However, a negative to this is that not many young people use Facebook as frequently as the older generation meaning my films advertisement won't be accessed as much.
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Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, tweets, its is generally used by celebrities and people of importance. However, twitter can be accessed by the public as well. Twitter on average had 157 million general users daily, this means it is accessed by many. This will be very good when promoting my film. You can easily make a page or an account for the specific topic or person you wish to discuss. A positive of twitter is that people can re-tweet something you have tweeted, your message will be seen by that persons followers. This means your message could be spread around by others and seen a lot more. Another thing in which you can do on twitter is create a hashtag which can go on the trending list, is your hashtag ends on the trending list it is accessed a lot by others, you can create a hashtag for the promotional campaign. Messages and pictures generally go viral more often and are seen by a lot more people then any other social media site.
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YouTube |
Instagram is an internet based photo sharing application and service that allows users to share pictures and videos to their friends if they are private or anyone who follows them if they are public. Instagram has 800 million active users currently and is very engaging due to its visually appeal. An positive Instagram due to being only able to post pictures and videos you can promote things in a more visual way due to this most of Instagram's users appear to be in the younger generation. You can easily make a profile to promote things by just adding photos and videos. A negative of Instagram is because is mainly being popular by the younger generation it lacks in users of older generations, therefore you lose that mass appeal. On the positive side my genre of short film, Psychological thriller, generally is favoured by younger people.
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YouTube is a popular site to post and share videos amongst friends and the public on. YouTube has currently one billion active viewers monthly meaning many people use this site. YouTube would be the appropriate place in which I could post the behind the scenes video, cast interviews and the film trailer on. This is due to the site being able to be accessed easily and being the generic place in which videos are found on.
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Survey
This survey was used to find out data for different social media platforms. I wanted to know which platforms were used more frequently by specific age range, from these results I can decide how to promote effectively my short film. I will be able to decide what platform I should make a page on and advertise effectively.
This is a graph illustrating the results which I gathered from the survey, as you can seen from the pie chart the most favourite social media platform is Instagram. |
For question one in my survey I asked 'What is your favourite social media platform?' I gave four choices in which applicants could decide on, they were: Instagram, Facebook. Twitter and YouTube. The highest result was Instagram in which 83.3% of people asked said Instagram was their favourite. The second most popular result was Facebook in which 16.67% of people said this was their favourite platform. 0% of people asked said either Twitter or YouTube. From these results I can defer which are the more frequently used social media sites, Instagram and Facebook, and from this I can make pages on both of these sites rather then the others due to them having mass audience using them. Therefore, this will help to promote my film further. |
For question two it was the second part for question one, the question was 'Why is it your favourite?' this is basically a reason for why their favourite social media site is their favourite social media site. A number of responses held a similar answer around the lines of 'Easy to use'. From this I can defer people are interested in sites that are straight forward and not complicated to use, so when making my website I should keep in basic and simple. Another response which came up a lot was the pictures and videos in which you can upload to that specific site. This answers show to me that my audience are very visual people who want to see things rather then read about them. This means when making my site I should add in videos and pictures to keep it engaging and enjoyable for the audience using it. |
This graph shows the hours spent using social media. It ranges from 0 minutes up to five plus hours, this gives us an idea of how much time social media is used for.
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This is the third question within my survey, this question asks 'How long do you spend on it a day?'. From this question I got a varied result from the applicants. The most popular result was joint 1-2 hours and 3-4 hours which both 33.33% of people voted on. And second most popular was 0-30 minutes and 5+ hours. From these result I can defer that generally people spend a couple of hours on their social media sites, I can use these results to help in producing the perfect campaign for my short film. |
For question four I asked the question 'Do you think social media is effective in promoting a film?'. With this question 100% of people asked said yes social media was effective in promoting and 0% of people said no. From these results I can defer that social media is a very important tool in promoting films and getting the message across about them. This means when I come to make my profiles and pages I need to be careful of how I present my information as social media is a very effective tool. |
This is a pie chart illustrating the results from the survey question 'Do you think social media is effective in promoting a film?'. As you can see from the survey the complete response to the question is 'yes'.
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For question five it was a follow up question to the previous one, the question asked 'Why do you think this?'. The question was asking why people agreed that social media was an effective way of promoting a film. One of the main response was discussing the mass usages social media has, one person said 'because nearly everyone that has a phone has social media'. This is a good bit of information to obtain that social media is used by many, especially today in the technology generation, this means many people will have access to my film advertisement. Another response which came up a lot was discussing how engaging social media was as you post videos and photos, this can be more engaging then the general TV advert. Overall, is it more successful in promoting due to its mass usage and how engaging it is to make different target audiences and demographics. |
For question six I asked the question asking 'What age group are you in?' this was to get a general idea the ages of people who use social media and for however long. The most popular response was 11-20 with 83.3% of people asked saying they were in this age range. The second highest response was 41-50 with 16.67%of people saying this age range. 0% of people said any of the other ranges, form these results I can understand the results of the applicants demographic. |
This pie chart illustrates the information from the survey, it shows the percentage of people of specific age ranges who filled out my survey.
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This is the graph for question seven 'Do you use social media more then TV?', as you can see from the pie chart 100% of the results were yes.
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The last question in which I asked was 'Do you use social media more then TV?'. The results for this question were very one sided as 100% said yes they use social media more then TV. From these results I can defer its more important to promote via social media due to its popularity. It doesn't make sense to pay millions to advertise on TV when you could do it for free on social media and receive a better response. |
Researching Websites
SHUTTER
This the online website for the short film 'Stutterer' which is directed by Benjamin Clearly. The online website for this film is definitely the most basic out of the three websites in which I discovered. At the top of the page there is five tabs which have five different places you can find information about the film, from awards to the specific work the director does. This can be a positive as the website is easy to follow and is clear, however it can be on the boring side of the spectrum. For example, there is a lot of bulky text within the website which is less engaging for the audience to look at. In comparison to the other online websites in which I used I feel what was successful with this website is how it shows the grit and darkness of its film. This is done by the images presented on the web page and also the background information, summary of the film and the acting which is in it. This is different from the online website 'Reformation' which has many engaging behind the scene videos and interview which helped to build hype and excitement. |
LOU
From this online website I am going to take elements that worked well and apply it into my own short film online film. For example, I want to add the same number of pictures within my website.
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For this Pixar short film 'Lou' they promoted their film via an online website, this website involves different tabs surrounding different topics such as the awards the film has got or how to contact the production company, this allows the viewer gain an rounded idea of the film. As you can see from the screenshots of the website it presents itself with many pictures to engage the audience visually and allow them to understand the film better. This helps to promote their film as people become intrigued and interested in watching it after they see sneak peak trailer and pictures as well as an general idea of what the film consumes.
Pixar's promoting method is very successful, they engage their younger target audience through the use of bright images which are visually better to look at. This gives the website an overall cleaner and more straightforward way of understanding the information given. We can differentiate where the contact information is or where the summary information. However, in comparison to 'Shutters' short film website it can be seen as less gripping. This is because 'Shutter' actually has a clip of the short film where as 'Lou' does not. This can limit how effective the website is if we don't even get to see snippets of the film itself, trailers are there to encourage users to watch the film. Yet, unlike the website for the short film 'Reformation' Lou's website has many engaging photos of throughout the film, which makes the website look better and more professional. |
REFORMATION
Hoyon Jung short film 'Reformation' is a crime thriller film. The online website is presented in an easy and understandable format, there are tabs on the open page which take you to different parts of the website so therefore it is easy to follow. The open page shows a massive poster of the entire film which gives you an insight into what the film is about followed by a summary of the plot of the film. The use of the images allows the audience to engage visually and understand the context of the film better. Another thing which I thought was done successfully on the website was the use of videos, the website has behind the scenes videos and interviews amongst the cast and crew. I thought this made the website more interactive and more engaging to watch an use. This is because the audience can get to know the cast and crew better and this allows them to want to watch the film more. |
This film has a lighter colour scheme in comparison to other projects such as 'Shutter', this shows to the audience that the film may be more light hearted and less intense. However, in comparison to the Pixar short film 'Lou' its not as child like, 'Lou' has many bright colourful picture used through out the site. 'Reformation' has many video footage of behind the scenes and interviews in which both 'Shutter' and 'Lou' have a lack of. By adding in more video footage it makes the site more engaging to use. This is because the amount of text is reduced more then normal within this site so therefore appears less daunting to read and learn about and generally people learn better visually rather then reading long pieces of text. This makes the site more successful and better for usage. From looking at this website I can get ideas in which I want to add into my own online campaign/ website for my short film. I really like the idea of creating as many videos of behind the scenes and interviews as possible I believe this will give a better representation of my film as a whole and present my work in a more creative way. I found as whole researching into the specific film sites helpful in getting an idea of what I want in my film. |
Social Media of Creators
STUTTERER-SOCIAL MEDIA
For the short film 'Stutterer' directed by Benjamin Clearly they have a lot of promotion of their short film via social media. What sticks out to me as the most professional and updated platform is twitter and it also works out that this is where the film has the most following on a social media platform, 1,272 followers. They promote their film by sharing short snippets of the film and posting pictures and messages about it in order to hype the audience up to watching it. Essentially, they are showing how good the film is and how the audience should definitely go watch it. One comment was posted out via twitter by the page saying 'Very honoured to be on @New Yorker best video of 2016 list' this type of comment is used to promote the film and show to those looking that they should watch their film because its one of the best videos according to 'New Yorker's.
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'Shutterer' also has an Instagram page which has some posts promoting the film on it. However, the Instagram page doesn't appear as professional as the twitter page just due to it not having the same branding that the twitter profile has and the posts aren't very consistent and not very relevant to promoting the film. In order to make it better they should only post photos or videos that are actually within the film and go with the style of the entire Instagram. Moving on from that a positive to the Instagram page that the bio has a URL link to the short films website for those who may want to know more about the film can go. Therefore it is spreading the message effectively.
'Stutterer' and 'Lou' have similarities between how they promote their films via social media, they both post photos and videos of the short film giving teasers to the audience what it has in it, to encourage other to watch it. how this will affect my social media. When putting my social media profile together I want to add these elements in to be effective. |
LOU-SOCIAL MEDIA
This is the social media for the short film 'Lou' directed by Dave Mullins and produced by Pixar. Due to this film being produced by Pixar it hasn't got its own separate individual social media pages it just uses the generic Pixar one. One reason for this is that the Pixar social media will have more followers then if the short film tries to make its own social media account, therefore more people use it and look at it, promoting the film more. Another reason for this could be that because its more under the Pixar brand because of Pixar's good reputation it will be perceived better and therefore get more recognition. This film has advertise the trailer with even individual platform of social media, they write the exact same message out and images in order to fit amongst their branding. All the videos and pictures have links to the trailer alongside, always encouraging people to watch their short films and promoting it further. Unlike the other short films 'Stutterer' and 'Reformation' this Pixar film doesn't post about the awards they have won and the reviews they have received. Their whole social media account is based around getting more people to watch their trailer and therefore watch the film afterwards. They introduce the characters within the film and show snippets of the trailer through video clips in order to create hype of the audience to watch the film. |
I will definitely embody this tactic of using social media in order to make people watch the trailer of my film and then the actual film. I think what Pixar's social media account did effectively was the branding, by branding I mean how they organised all their platforms of social media to look similar and post the same photos in order for it to appear professional. This engages the audience more into watching the film. I think another thing they did successfully in which I want to use is the use of screenshots and clips from within the film to give a hint and taste of what the film has to offer. This can cause curiosity across the people using these specific online sights.
The two pictures below are a good representation of branding correctly, as the profile pictures remain the same, the same message and the same video clip. This makes the brand appear more established in spreading their message world wide. This method is effective as not everyone has twitter or Instagram or Facebook, so by posting it everywhere the message can be seen by as many people as possible. |
REFORMATION-SOCIAL MEDIA
In comparison to the other two films social media this film hasn't branched off into different platforms of social media. This may be due to their target audience being specifically on Facebook, yet by only making profiles on Facebook you are limiting yourself to people who are only on that specific site. However, their target audience may of been the same demographic in which were Facebook users.
What I will specifically bring to my individual social media sites is the way in which they promoted their film through reviews and awards. I could quote what some people have said about my film from a survey and make a poster of these comments to post. This way it will allow the viewers to see how successful the film was and others views on it. |
'Reformation' directed by Hoyon Jung has many limited social media in comparison to the other films which is weird because on its official website it had a lot of extras which the other two films didn't have, for example interviews with the cast and crew. However, I noticed from looking at 'Reformation' Facebook they promote their film by promoting their success of it. Due to short films after being made go through a series of short film festival and win awards along the way. These awards can be showcased on the social media sites of the short films in order t gain recognition and illustrate to those looking up their social media how good the film is. They do this by posting the photos of their winning film by the competition they competed within and writing a caption next to it celebrating their success. This will draw the audience more in as they know how successful the film is. |
Summarising Research
Secondary Research
For my secondary research I researched different short film website, they were made by the film maker or the production company who created the film. These film websites give out the important information about the film and also illustrate trailer and behind the scenes footage in order to get the audience interested in the film as a whole. From researching three different film websites, which were completely differentiating films, I have discovered what elements I should apply to my website and what are the typical things which should be inside the website. For example, I liked the format of the film 'Shutter' website, this is due to being laid out simply with five specific tabs which viewers can click on. I think the easier the website is to be used the more effective it will. Another thing I would like to add in my website is loads of videos from behind the scenes and interviews with cast and crew, this is because I think its a more engaging way to learn about my film. The film 'Reformation' used videos effectively as they had many behind the scene videos and interviews with the cast and crew. I thought it was more effective showing the information visually in video format rather then written down on the page, so when making my online website I was going to involve this in it. Another aspect of my secondary research was researching into the different social media platforms and how the films promote themselves on there. I have learnt from looking at the three different films examples and how they promote their films online. For example the film 'Stutterer' engaged their audience by posting their trailers and posters from the film online to get the followers interested in the film. Another thing I have learnt which is effective is the branding of my film on social media, for example having the same profile pictures and having my photos posted with the same text. This means my online presence appears more professional and looks cleaner and easier to follow and understand. |
Primary Research
The primary research in which I performed was making surveys on surveymonkey and asking questions to do with social media and everyone's preferred platform. I wanted to get this information so I could use it when making my website and social media accounts in order for them to relate to my specific target audience (15-20 year olds). From the survey I discovered that the most favoured social media site was Instagram followed by Facebook, this means I need to use both of these social media accounts rather then the least popular ones such as Twitter and YouTube. Everyone also agreed that they spend more time on social media rather then watching TV, this means using social media is a better way to promote my film then TV as its used more frequently. From this information I can defer how to set up my profiles, for example I want to post at least 3 times a day because people use social media for 2-4 hours a day for the average person. This means they will get new content daily and constantly be reminded about my film, this will help in encouraging people to watch the film. Overall, the research in which I have collected will help my website making and social media pages work more effectively as I understand my target audience better and know what to add in for the website t be successful. |