How do film-marketing packages work together?

Bradley Moss

Inception

• Inception is a 2010 science fiction action heist film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The films cast features Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine.

Marketing Inception

• The producers of Inception did not want to give the audience too much information about the film, so they had to use very tactical marketing techniques to maintain the sense of mystery.

Inception’s early Marketing

• Inception had their own website, but it wasn’t just a normal website. The Inception movie website, ‘www.inceptionmovie.com’, had started to change. In August, there was a spinning top, similar to the shot from the first teaser trailer. Last week, the spinning top had begun slowing down. Each day, there was a drop in the speed of the spinning and it began wobbling more and more. On December 15th, it stopped. Inception’s viral marketing campaign had officially launched.

The Cobol Job

• This is a 'must read' online comic book prequel that was called The Cobol Job. This book introduces the audience to the characters and rules of Nolan's filmic world, and more importantly gives the readers something more to think about and a little extra.

• This leads to the major movie fans wanting to know more so they can be ahead of the majority of people.

Facebook page for the film

• Warner made a Facebook page for the film, this is a perfect move in getting fans approval and gaining more intense sense of mystery. But it was the interactive features that really engaged the fans.

• As we know, many people use Facebook for the gaming community, so the 'Mind Crime' game was a perfect tool for generating viral spread.

Mobile Apps

• But Warner knew that not everyone uses social networking sites so they done some changes with the main website too, including fun greenscreen apps that put you directly into the action via your mobile, and for those wanting something a little different, the “Mind Crime Prevention” app was created.

‘Briefcase Hunt’

• There was also a online-offline Briefcase Hunt around eight different cities in the UK. Clues were posted on Inception's UK Facebook page, and then participants had to work out where the location was, based on the clue.

• They then had to visit the location, where they met with a man with a briefcase called "The Extractor", who had premiere tickets, and in order to win, you had to be the first person at the location and utter the following words to The Extractor: "My mind is the scene of the crime..." 

• The competition prize include a pair of tickets to the premiere, attendance at a Meet the Cast event, and accommodation in a 3 star hotel in London.

What’s the outcome of this?

• The striking thing about all of these marketing techniques is that it makes the viewer feel part of the overall experience through an integrated, expanding augmented reality.

• The movie was working with a huge number of independent networks, so Warner's forethought is really paying off, building buzz and excitement before, during and after the release.

Continuity between products

• As you can see the continuity between these posters is that they all use the same colours; blue and red. There are lots of buildings and sci-fi looking images on every poster. The reason they use similar things on every poster is so that the audience recognise what movie the poster is for straight away.

Was Inception successful?

• Inception was budgeted at $160 million, this cost was split between Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures. With Nolan's reputation and success with The Dark Knight helped secure the film's $100 million in advertising expenditure, with most of the publicity involving viral marketing. Inception premiered in London on July 8, 2010, and then was released in both conventional and IMAX cinemas on July 16, 2010. This was a box office success, Inception has grossed over $800 million worldwide and is currently one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Also the home video market had great results, with $68 million in DVD sales.