P1/M1- Unit 20 Advertising Campaign- LO1

 P1: Describe an existing media advertising campaign.

Assessment Criteria for P1:

Learners are required to describe an existing media advertising campaign. They should consider the advertisements used within existing advertising campaigns across a range of media products.

One example of an advertising campaign is the promotion It (2017) In most of the promotional material, the monster itself was hardly even visible and mostly obscured him in shadow, but left the focus on the iconic red balloon, creating iconography and a symbol that people can associate with the film, people all around the world even putting red balloons on sewers, encouraging people to watch the film by putting it so clearly in their mind with such simple, unforgettable imagery. This strategy clearly worked since the film made $292.9 billion from licensed merchandise sales and becoming the highest grossing horror movie of all time.

It also approached it's target audience incredibly well, making the advertising incredibly unsettling and eerie and clear that it was a horror film, but not overly explicit or violent in promotion, meaning that even if children see the poster, it won't scare them too much while still leaving older audiences fully aware of what they're seeing and make them feel unsettled going to watch the film and prepared to be scared.

The advertising online on social media was primarily carried via official and influential social media accounts, the official movie accounts appeared on every major social media network, making posts of eerie, unsettling images from the film alongside text encouraging the audience to overcome their fear, promoting positive, encouraging messages to be brave and see the film.

Influential social media accounts also had a massive impact, such as the Instagram of the films director, Andy Muschietti, in which he would post behind the scene images, storyboards, props, etc. Giving the audience a small look into the production process. Making fans feel included in how they made the film, aswell as making sure old fans were pleased by showing them that the film would be more similar to the book itself rather than the source material that strayed quite heavily.

M1: Evaluate different cross media advertising campaigns for consistency of message.

Assessment Criteria for M1:

This can be built on evidence of P1 with learners selecting campaigns that deliver/communicate across at least two media pathways.

Another famous advertising campaign for a horror film similar to It is 'The Blair Witch Project' A part of the advertising campaign for this film involved making people question what was and wasn't real, such as the missing person posters they placed around college campuses in America. The link to the website and the mystery that intrigued people managed to draw them to the film before it came out, creating both conversations about the films promotion to be common-place and make people feel tense and nervous about the mystery.

The vast majority of the promotion wasn't the print, but rather digital formats of advertisement and how this spread on the internet. A website that described the urban legend of an evil witch. This website ended up getting 20 million page views from people all over the world. They also posted interviews with the 'families' of the missing people from the print promotion missing posters, making them seem as real people with actual lives, confusing people as much as they can. The popular online forums had conversations on this also, with the film-makers feeding false information into the thread.

This promotion essentially became its own online phenomenon, creating mystery and unease for all the seemingly real victims and urban legends the film revolves around. While the film itself isn't held in high regard as an actually good film, its amazingly genius advertising cannot be ignored and the reason it gained $250 million in the box office, becoming one of the most successful independent films of all time and landing a spot on Esquire's Scariest Movies of All Time.

One of the small details this campaign did well was finding its target audience. The missing person posters with links to the websites were intentionally placed on college campuses, ensuring they reach young adults/teenagers who they wish to advertise to, and creating a mystery and starting the promotion right where they are.

This type of campaign is incredibly similar to the 'It' campaign previously mentioned, they both advertised films of the horror genre and used the world as a way of setting tone, bringing the fear out of the film and into reality to make people feel tense and uneasy, while also maintaining subtlety and ensuring the promotion material reached its target audience, both being teenagers and young adults, so even if young children saw the advertising they likely wouldn't understand it and not be worried or scared.