Avatar Promotional Campaign
Avatar had its London premier on December 10th 2009 and was released in the United States on December 18th 2009. Avatar had a large campaign because the director, James Cameron is very well known and all his previous films were big box office successes. Also, the technology used to make the film was new to the public and generated hype because Cameron developed it specifically for this film.
Posters
Avatar had a huge amount of posters released as throughout the campaign, however the first posters to be released are teaser posters. The teaser poster for Avatar has a large dark main image of one of the main characters. The name of the film is in the center at the bottom of the poster and is in a dark but luminous blue font. The main image is of half the woman’s face and on her face, there are blue dots to show that she is not a normal human but she is of another species. This is key as the colour of the font that the title is in matches the colour of the dots on the woman’s face. This tells us that the movie is going to be very different from what we would normally expect.
The second poster that I saw is a full movie poster. The poster is landscape leaving more room for two main images. The two main images are again, half the faces of the main characters, however one of them is human and the other is a man of the same species as the woman from the teaser poster. The background image on the poster is from the planet which the movie is set on. It is very different than earth as there are floating mounds of earth and flying animals, which are not real. Also, there are very futuristic looking helicopters which are clearly not real as they are very different to the normal helicopters that are used. You can clearly tell that this is a full movie poster as it had the name of the film, the release dates and teaser text describing how good the film is. It must come from a later stage in the campaign. It is obviously related to the first poster in the colour choices, fonts, images etc but adds a little more detail to the narrative.
The final poster I looked is a poster that came out after the film was released and was used to get people to see it again. This is because at the bottom of the poster, there is text saying “with never before seen footage”. This makes people want to go see it because they want to see all the add-ons. Also, it is advertising it to be seen in 3-D. The main image on this poster is the same woman from the original teaser poster however she has different make up on making it look as though she is hunting. However you can tell this image has been made especially for the poster as it is though she is looking right at you. The colour of the font that the title is written in is the same for all of the posters that I have looked at and this makes it seem as thought it is the “Avatar Font”.
Trailer
There are many different shots used in this trailer to show that it set in a different planet as it is key to give away the genre of the film. The use of quick cuts from different shots gives the sense of action in the film and promises action and excitement. Also, the use of sound and title slides e.g. coming soon, tells us that it is a teaser trailer as it is getting the audience excited and wanting more. The trailer includes many different characters and gives an overall view of the film and what it includes. It is a conventional teaser in many ways and operates in the ways that most trailers do – giving a glimpse into the best parts of the action / drama.
Website
The avatar website consists of a short video about the movie and the latest things to do with the movie. Also, you can change it into various different languages, which shows that the movie is universal as it can be viewed worldwide. The website also advertises itself by showing you how you can buy the DVD or Blu-Ray copy of the film. It advertises other merchandise, which is a key way in which films make money these days.
Overall
The key thing to take from this campaign is how important it is to develop a brand identity. The font and colour used for the title is important as this has to remain consistent and be easily recognisable.
I was also interested to see that there are relatively few changes made to products for the international market. Obviously text is translated but otherwise there are few changes made.
I was interested to note that the Avatar campaign also relies on close ups of the main character with a focus on facial expressions, as ours is. This appeald to me because despite the 'alien' features of the character, the posters still work in exactly the same way - instant identification and empathy from the audience.
Overall
The key thing to take from this campaign is how important it is to develop a brand identity. The font and colour used for the title is important as this has to remain consistent and be easily recognisable.
I was also interested to see that there are relatively few changes made to products for the international market. Obviously text is translated but otherwise there are few changes made.
I was interested to note that the Avatar campaign also relies on close ups of the main character with a focus on facial expressions, as ours is. This appeald to me because despite the 'alien' features of the character, the posters still work in exactly the same way - instant identification and empathy from the audience.
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