RESEARCH ON METHODS OF PROMOTION

Film promotion is the practice of promotion specifically in the film industry, and usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution. 

 Film promotion generally includes press releases, advertising campaigns, merchandising, franchising and media, and interviews with the key people involved with the making of the film, like actors and directors.

Trailers are a mainstay of film promotion, because they are delivered directly to movie-goers. They screen in theatres before movie showings. Generally they tell the story of the movie in a highly condensed fashion compressing maximum appeal into two and half minutes.

Product placement: paid active or passive insertion of film brand in drama or sitcom shows, or as passing mentions in dialogue.

For example, 20th Century Fox commissioned an I, Robot-themed motorcycle, featured on two episodes (2:17, 2:18) of American Chopper.

Extended placement: full episodes of television talkshows, entertainment news programs, or network news programs, devoted to compensated exposure of the film, stars, clips, director, etc.

Virtual relationship hyperlink marketing, wherein a major search engine (like Yahoo's main page) offers articles seemingly presenting interesting news related items, but which are actually back-end loaded with a links page containing multiple "mental references" to film characters, storylines or products.

Example: Bond, Transformers, etc..., are connected to scientific invention news stories about advanced weaponry or robotics discoveries.

Viral marketing: Free distribution of trailers on movie-oriented websites and video user-generated-content websites and rapid dissemination of links to this content by email and blogs.

The Muppets which was preceded by several original film shorts on YouTube over a number of years while the film was in production.

Paid advertisement in newspapers, magazines, and inserts in books.

Cross-promotion of original book or novelization, including special printings, or new cover jackets.

Comic special editions or special episodes.

A teaser campaign, also known as a pre-launch campaign, is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event.

 A teaser trailer for an upcoming film, television program, video game or similar, is usually released long in advance of the product, so as to "tease" the audience.

An early example of the teaser trailer was the one for the 1978 Superman film by Richard Donner. The film was already nearly a year late; it was designed to re-invigorate interest in the release.

Full trailer is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, the result of creative and technical work.

Movie trailers have now become popular on DVDs and Blu-rays, as well as on the Internet and mobile devices. Of some 10 billion videos watched online annually, film trailers rank third, after news and user-created video.

Merchandising: Many major studio blockbusters, such as the "Star Wars" series and the Marvel superhero films, make their presence felt on store shelves as much as in movie theaters. Studios will license the characters to manufacturers in exchange for up-front fees and a percentage of sales to retailers. In most instances, as much as 40 percent of movie merchandise is sold before the film is released.

The advertising of a film is known as film promotion or film marketing and the people who are responsible for this are the distribution company, so–called because they distribute the films to the cinemas and distribute the promotional material around the country.

The way in which a film is promoted can have a huge effect on whether or not it is successful. Films are expensive to make and if the public do not buy tickets at the box office to see the film, a lot of money will be lost.