Unit 6LO4 Revision

The questionO Gemini Films are an independent film company based in the UK.

The company wants to promote the opening of its new film ‘In Static’. The genre of the film is a gritty thriller with a BBFC certification of 15. The film will be released in July 2017. The film is expected to generate interest from a variety of TV magazines and review websites because the lead actor is soap star ‘Harry Sparkie’. The narrative is centred on friendship and homelessness. Gemini Films wants to promote the film six months before the release. The trailer is complete.

O Q6* Develop a social media campaign for the opening of the film ‘In Static’.

O In your campaign you must include the following aspects:O Timescales, milestones and review datesO Channels used to reach the audienceO Content plans

The mark schemeO You are going to be assessed on four particular things here, and the

question tells you what they are…O Timescales, milestones and review datesO Channels used to reach the audienceO Content plansO the * by the question means you’re being assessed on spelling,

punctuation and grammar.

O Campaign plans will include an excellent understanding of the timescales, milestones and review dates of the social media campaign and target audience requirements.

O There is a comprehensive discussion of channels used to reach the audience.

O Content plans for the campaign are wholly appropriate and justified.O Sentences and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well

structured, using appropriate technical terminology. There may be few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

The top of the mark schemeO For a Level 5 answer (levels 5 and 6 means top marks)

the ideas will be justified with reference to the case study.

O Credit should be given for wider understanding of the use of social media to promote the campaign, which may include:

O How the campaign could be used in conjunction with other marketing techniques (trailers, posters, website).

O Legal and classification restrictions in terms of content and reach.

O How the campaign would be evaluated and how audience feedback might be gained.

Breaking down the question…

O Gemini Films are an independent film company based in the UK.

O So you are being told this isn’t a big blockbuster project with an unlimited budget – it’s a British movie with a smaller budget and your marketing is going to be focused in the UK in the first instance. But low budget British movies do take off in overseas markets, particularly in the big money market of the USA (Trainspotting, The Full Monty, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire) so you need to think about how to extend your campaign into those overseas markets.

Breaking down the task…

O The company wants to promote the opening of its new film ‘In Static’. The genre of the film is a gritty thriller with a BBFC certification of 15.

O So you’re marketing a film, it’s a thriller and it’s a 15. This gives you lots of information about who your target audience are (because you have an age range, and you have genre information, and the genre information gives you a reasonable generalisation about gender and lifestyle interests).

Break break breakdown

O The film will be released in July 2017.

O So you have a release date to build your campaign towards. Identifying and understanding key dates and so on is an important part of your answer.

Burning down the house

O The film is expected to generate interest from a variety of TV magazines and review websites because the lead actor is soap star ‘Harry Sparkie’.

O So you are being led towards some particular areas to use within your campaign – the ‘old media’ of magazines and the ‘new media’ of websites – as well as the need to focus on specific social media channels. You are also being given a lead on a particular focus for marketing – the ‘star’ image of the lead actor. This might suggest some specific ideas about the film’s target audience.

Breaking BadO The narrative is centred on friendship and

homelessness.

O So you have some more information which, this time, I think is perhaps a little less useful. It’s more important that this is ‘a gritty thriller’ – it’s not a different take on ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’. You just need to use this somewhere – perhaps part of your plan could be to script some questions based on the film’s content that you’d like to be asked for the magazine articles? (This absolutely happens – the film’s marketing people will take whatever control they can over what the magazines/websites/review shows actually report).

Breaking down the task…

O Gemini Films wants to promote the film six months before the release in July 2017. The trailer is complete.

O So you have a timescale – you need a six month campaign. You can plan for ‘timescales, milestones and review dates’ by blocking out a month-by-month plan.

Key assessment criteriaO Lets pay attention in detail to the

different things you are going to need to write about…

Channels – how to campaign in conjunction with other marketing

techniquesO You might decide that six months is a very long time

and that for the first few months of the campaign all you need is a ‘soft’ marketing approach. This is when you can do things like create character profiles in social media and post to them as though from the character – Instagram would be particularly good for this, and Twitter might be useful too, and would be a good way in to planning content for your social media channels – or suggest recutting a teaser trailer out of the finished trailer that has been made (which would be good for YouTube, and a good way in to planning content for another social media channel).

Legal and classification restrictions in terms of content and reach.

O You can show off an understanding of censorship and regulation issues by making sure that even though the film is a 15, you cut the trailer to a 12a/12 (12a is a cinema certificate, 12 is a home viewing certificate). That way you extend the number of films your trailer can be shown with – because if the trailer is a 15 it can’t be shown before a 12a/12 certificate film – this is quite a common tactic to ensure the trailer gets the widest possible distribution – and just like that you’ve ticked off one of the higher grade criteria – a wider understanding of legal and classification restrictions in terms of content and reach.

O (Just by showing you understand there is a difference between 12a and 12 you’ll get a big tick). By talking about the kind of detail from ‘a gritty thriller’ that you might need to cut to get the 12a/12a (bad language, violence, injury) you are justifying your ideas with reference to the case study which starts to tick off another higher grade criteria.

Timescales, milestones and review dates

O You need to plan out six months – from February to July.O Ask for extra paper and draw a grid table, like this

O You don’t have to use instagram/twitter/youtube – you can choose. This is just an example. You can use the grid for your outline planning for…

Timescales, milestones and review dates

O Deadlines – The final deadline in July (month 6) – deadlines for launching the trailer/website/poster, deadlines for launching the social media accounts

O Milestones – First x thousand followers/likes/views/downloads on different social media. First x hundred retweets. First x? comments.

O Review Dates – Following straight on from your milestone dates you schedule reviews – have we achieved this? What do we do if we haven’t?

O Content – You can use the grid to do the outline planning for the kind of content you are going to produce.

O You are going to give in the grid with the rest of your work at the end of the exam – it’s not just a planning tool for you, it’s part of your answer.

Writing your answerO Using the ideas in your grid (which,

you will recall, you are going to give in along with the rest of your answer) you can write the rest of your answer.

O Organise your written answer month-by-month. Use your planning grid as a starting point and write a section of planning for each month.

Writing your answer…O Within each month, write about the

different social media channels you will use and the links with traditional media.

O Keep looking back at the criteria in the question – what are you being asked to do? Plan content for a cross media campaign using social media. So identify different social media channels and explain, briefly, what you will do with them each month. Explain how the ‘new media’ you will be using will work alongside ‘old media’ like posters and trailers.

Questioning the answerO At the end of each month, explain why your plans for

that month will help to attract the target audience of the film. Always pay attention to the target audience, and always justify what your doing or planning to do by explaining how it will work for the target audience.

O At the end of each month, make a note of deadlines, milestones and review dates in the month and explain what they will mean. For example, during month 1 you will have deadlines to launch social media accounts for, say two main characters from the film. You could review them after seven days to see if they have ‘taken’ – if they are attracting following/contacts and if the content you post is attracting views/likes/and so on – and to make plans about what to do if they haven’t.

Questions and answersO Be active about seeking out audience

feedback on your marketing campaign. O Don’t just rely on the things people say on social

media. Organise a focus group and ‘talk to them’ (not necessarily in real life) at least monthly. Get their feedback on the different aspects of the social marketing campaign and get their feedback on what people say in their comments on your social media. Make plans about what to do with the focus group feedback. Remember, you are not taking feedback on the film you are marketing, you are taking feedback on the marketing campaign.

I’m reviewing the situation

O Have a plan about how to evaluate your campaign at the end. Use your focus group feedback and your analysis of your social media campaigns. Use a social media analytic tool like Keyhole…

Keyhole and other social media analytics

O http://www.keyhole.co

O Use Keyhole to measure, in precise detail, a brand or trend’s impact on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Giving you access to an intuitive and shareable dashboard, it tracks hashtag, keyword and campaign metrics in real-time. These include reach, impressions, periods of high activity and more.

O You can also leverage its data to lead your influencer outreach efforts. Clicking the dashboard’s Influencers tab will reveal information surrounding accounts that have the highest reach and interaction numbers. To boost your engagement, identify important accounts in your niche and re-share their most popular content.

What to check your answer for…

O Have you set out timescales, milestones and review dates? Have you been detailed about what will happen when and how you will respond to the reviews?

O Have you set out the different channels you will use to run the campaign?

O Have you given details of the content you will create and use?

O Have you linked your new media ideas with more traditional media?

O Have you discussed legal and classification issues?O Have you made detailed plans on how to collect, analyse

and evaluate and respond to feedback on your campaignO Have you kept referring back to the details of the case

study – this is for a gritty British thriller…?

Answer the questionO Gemini Films are an independent film company based in the UK. The

company wants to promote the opening of its new film ‘In Static’. The genre of the film is a gritty thriller with a BBFC certification of 15. The film will be released in July 2017. The film is expected to generate interest from a variety of TV magazines and review websites because the lead actor is soap star ‘Harry Sparkie’. The narrative is centred on friendship and homelessness. Gemini Films wants to promote the film six months before the release. The trailer is complete.

O Q6* Develop a social media campaign for the opening of the film ‘In Static’.

O In your campaign you must include the following aspects:O Timescales, milestones and review datesO Channels used to reach the audienceO Content plans

O 30 Marks