Further Research Into Promotional Campaigns - Oliver

Ted Promotional Campaign

Although this film is not in our genre, I think it had an intersting promotional campaign that could be useful to us.

Posters

The movie Ted had a large amount of both teaser and full movie posters. The teaser posters came out first as they are simply trying to get the attention of the audience and to let them know that the movie is coming out and giving them slight hints to what it is about. It also establishes a humorous mood.

One of the first teaser posters to be released had the main image of Ted looking at you behind a computer screen. The background is just plain white and there is text above the main image in a large bold green font saying “Ted Is Coming.” This tells you that the movie is soon to be released however it is only getting the attention of the audience as it does not have any release dates, or names of the actors in the movie. It is also a clever marketing ploy as it makes the bear seem almost threatening. There is a hint of parody, which will amuse the audience and make them realise that this is going to be a tongue-in-cheek film meant for an older audience than it at first appears.

The next poster I looked at was another teaser poster. It is clear it is a teaser poster as there is still no release date however it says “this summer” underneath the title of the film. The title of the film is in a green bold font at the bottom of the poster however it is the largest text on the poster. The main image is taken from behind the characters as they are standing against the urinals in the toilet. This poster is comical as ted is using a baby urinal whilst holding a bottle of beer in his left hand.  There isn’t a background image as the main image covers the whole poster except for the white space. To the left of the main image is the names of the actors and voices of the characters in the film. They are in a smaller black font which makes the text stand out from the largely white poster. Again, this poster works on the level of comedy – a children’s toy is associated with more adult humour.

 

The final poster I looked at was a full movie poster. This is clear to see as it includes names of actors, the release date and it shows an image with human actors in it. It also has text at the top of it saying “The first motion picture from the creator of Family Guy”. This relies a lot of previous audience experience. Family Guy is a very well known cartoon series and this will also help draw in an audience, and is another hint that the film is satirical and not for children.  The main image on this poster is of the main character and Ted sitting on a sofa smiling having fun. This tells the audience that in the movie, these two characters will be connected and have a good relationship. Again, the irony is that the bear is behaving lke a ‘lad’, and this is clearly going to be the premise of the film. The background image is a grey wall and two white windows implying that they are in their own house/apartment. The release date “July 13” is clearly shown as it is in the middle of the poster in a black font making it stand out. The colour scheme is clear to see as green is used a lot on all of the posters. Both the name of the film and “Family Guy” at the top of the poster are in green writing, this shows that they are connected.

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vl5q06UElM

The trailer for the movie is long compared to an average trailer. The official trailer for ted is 2 minutes 31 seconds and contains over 50 different shots. It also contains different title slides saying “this summer” and the ratings card at the start saying “The following preview has been approved for appropriate audiences”. The trailer gives an overall view of the film and outlines a basic story line to the film. This is good as it does not give away too much about the film and continues to draw in the audience. It begins in the style of a children’s film with a warm sounding voiceover and an emphasis on Christmas-style lighting and magic. There is then a sudden switch in tone to adult comedy as the boy and Ted grow up and Ted becomes a teenager as much as his human friend does. The music changes and becomes a comic song to reflect the change in tone. This trailer has a very clear structure and is divided into distinct sections, which is unusual for a trailer. It also does not really end on a cliffhanger, so the appeal is in the comedy, not the plot. The trailer also has a lot of comedy in it therefore showing the genre of the film and further drawing in an audience. At the end of the trailer, it has a plain white slide with a green font text saying the name of the official Ted website.

Website

http://www.tedisreal.com/

When first going onto the official ted website, you see a short clip of ted spray painting his name on the screen. This makes it comical and there is also a skip button so you do not have to watch it if you do not want to. Again, you can clearly see that white and green is the colour scheme as the background colour of the website is green and the main image is mostly white with the characters of the film on it. The website has many links to social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. It also shows you how you can get apps onto your iPhone such as the one where you can take a photo and Ted will appear in it and it offers you deals such as Amazon discounts and getting money off when you pre-order the Blu-ray copy.

 

Overall

The whole campaign works on the idea that they are trying to persuade you that Ted is real without ever really thinking you will believe this. It is like an in joke between people who like this kind of humour, which the makers can afford to do because they have such an established fan base through their previous work.

For us, the relevance of this is that we are also a film company introducing a new product. This campaign shows that as Silverstone suggests, audiences like to 'play' - making believe the product is real. This is something we need to consider in our campaign - we need to make it work around the assumption that our characters are real and that the audience will play along with this.