Media Evaluation

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My group and I construct a marketing campaign for a new zombie horror film incorporating a film poster, a magazine front cover and a film trailer. We chose to base our ancillary texts on the genre of the zombie horror apocalypse as we as a group find that genre enjoyable and interesting, plus we know an abundance of codes and conventions of the zombie horror apocalypse.

I believe we have created a very strong brand identity, through the use of the same fonts for the title of the film “The Hunted” across all three texts, and the use of similar colour schemes including black, white, red and green. We have built a brand that clearly communicates the zombie horror genre, as the use of deep reds clearly signifies blood, while the green colours connote the zombie and sci-fi themes in the film. This has been emphasised by our use of make-up and mise-en-scene in the use of imagery of the character’s face on the magazine front cover, and the he film poster and the use of make-up in the film trailer. This creates hype and buzz, because the protagonist appears as a zombie on the two print ancillary texts, and this builds a reputation of mystery and a dialogue with the audience questioning if the protagonist will survive or not.

For all the texts combined (the magazine cover, film poster and film trailer) they contain media convergence and synergy as the brand is displayed across three platforms.

Also, our use of degrading and textures on Photoshop and iMovie in all three texts build a feeling of run-down and dystopian worlds conventional to the post-apocalyptic genre.

The title can be seen in each text which instantly tells the audience that each text is related and contains different forms of advertising and promoting the product by it being varied and giving little details that may not give any secrets and narratives away from the film but at the same time, this creates hype and buzz through word of mouth as the target audience may tell other who they may know even that they may not be part of the target audience may expand the target audience overall.

Synergy has also been used by having the main protagonist of Dorian being displayed on the Poster of the film and being displayed within the film trailer in numerous amounts of shots (shown the most within trailer).

Other products, such as the film magazine have used our film to advertise their product (the magazine itself), so both companies – ours and theirs – have a mutual benefit and the collection of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

To measure how effective our product was as a whole campaign, we exhibited all of our work to a group of 40 students in our target audience in an assembly. We constructed a questionnaire that was based on all three ancillary texts and gave them to an audience of 40.

Within the questionnaire responses one of the questions that was asked was “How well do you think the combination of all three texts is?” which all respondents of both male and female said that it was quite and very well. The majority of the males said it was quite well and the majority of the females said it was very well.

This tells me and my group that the synergy and media convergence across all three texts was very effective and has the same codes and conventions used within all texts. We were expecting to appeal more to a male audience base, so the greater positive response from the female demographics in the audience was surprising, however pleasing. This may be because they were also in our target age-group and life-matrix segment of ‘fun-atic’ and ‘tribe-wired’.

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The film trailer displays the date which is June 11th which is very good time to show the film as it is within the summer months and on a Saturday which is perfect for our target audience as they will be on the summer break and have plenty of time to view the film (more convenient for the target audience).

They would also have plenty of time to share information about the film with each other by word of mouth, and electronic word of mouth (EWOM), and provide free and useful marketing four our production company.

The film poster also displays the release date which reinforces synergy and media convergence even further and creates hype and excitement and also word of mouth as more of the target audience are informed of this product by the film being displayed on various platforms.

The film trailer is very effective as it creates hype, buzz and excitement as it displays conventions that a normal successful theatrical film trailer would display.

Our links to social media on the print texts show an understanding of media convergence, and encourages EWOM, which is proved to be a highly cost effective and viral marketing strategy, which would be necessary for promoting and marketing our film widely. This is a popular genre, and so there would be a wide fan-base for this.

Other codes and conventions that can be found on all three texts are the characters of the film being displayed. The main protagonist Dorian is displayed on the film poster with him holding his signature weapon (iconography) confronting zombies.

Dorian and the antagonists are also displayed within the trailer as Dorian and zombies (antagonists) are shown in multiple shots. The antagonists of the film trailer (Dorian’s strange doppelganger) are also shown on the magazine front cover which is shown across all platforms which is what the film is about.

The conventions of the magazine cover creates hype, excitement and uses intellectual puzzles (Rick Altman) as it gives the audience little information about the film which gives the audience more to think about the potential of the what the film could show and be about, therefore generating more buzz from the speculation of the fans. The use of the colours displayed informs the audience of what the genre is which creates more excitement and hype as the target audience enjoys films of this genre and by there being a new film of this genre, they will be intrigued and want to find out as much details about it as possible.

The website of the magazine that is displayed below the barcode also reinforces media convergence as the target audience can find out more about the film by going the magazine’s website. This would particularly appeal to superfans and opinion leaders, and so we would have to have interesting and interactive features on our film website.

The codes and conventions of the film trailer make the audience feel various visceral effects which the target audience’s memory will trigger when viewing the magazine cover and the film poster that they experienced whilst watching the film trailer which they may feel a low stimulation of excitement and adrenaline when identifying the film title’s name The Hunted.

The title sounds full of action and outdoor scenes, which we marketed effectively to our rugged traditionalists through use of imagery and footage of outdoor settings in all three texts. Additionally, the images of graphic blood and the effects of violence will create the visceral pleasures enjoyed by fans of this genre, as it suggests that there are exciting and bloodthirsty scenes in the film. As a result, the film marketing campaign effectively appeals to its target audience of especially male viewers, aged 15 and above.

The conventions of the film magazine subliminally conditions the target audience who enjoyed the film, which they will associate the visceral effects they experienced whilst watching the film trailer when they see the film title’s name on various platforms such as the magazine cover and film poster which makes all of the texts more effective.

Overall, these conventions displayed across all texts makes it easier for the audience to identify what the brand product is when they see these images on different platforms without seeing the title. I feel that this one of our key strengths in the project.