Sample Book Chapters
Chapter 1 -- Creative Strategy (For Marketing)
Chapter extracts in this website amount to 4,000 words distilled from 102,000 words in the print book.
The most important concept to keep in mind when creating movie ads is that most film releases are analogous to “new product” launches.
Certainly, consumers are predisposed to various elements of familiarity in a movie, such as well-known actors or films based on preexisting properties such as popular novels. Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford are somewhat brand names as heroic good guys, and the Harry Potter books have legions of fans. Yet, films with popular stars and films based on popular books bomb all the time.
Thus, familiar elements simply represent marketing hooks because the movie itself is a freestanding consumer product—its own brand.
To get fresh ideas, the studios usually hire two to four outside creative boutiques—ad agencies that develop advertising materials—to develop a trailer. Two to five outside shops are hired to create television advertising. For key art, which is the central design of print ads, one to three boutiques usually are hired. These boutiques are mainly located in Los Angeles, with staffs ranging from 5 to 50 employees.
The total cost to conceive of and polish creative materials into a finished advertising campaign for a big Hollywood film ranges from $1–$3 million, depending on how many outside ad shops are involved.
Outside creative boutiques usually are hired to create the key art, which is the poster and print media materials. When ads are created in-house, the procedures are much the same. Studio brass still reviews and approves the work.
After receiving direction from film distributors and possibly creative talent, the outside shops devise sketches of proposed concepts of movie posters—the roughs, so called because they are unfinished but drawn to actual size. The roughs are presented to the film distributor for evaluation, after which a more polished version is created. A concept can be modified or abandoned along the way.
As a concept is developed further, it eventually takes the form of a comp, or comprehensive layout, which is polished but still subject to discussion and modification. “Print is much more difficult than television spots and trailers because you have to pretty much focus on a single image,” said creative maven Tony Seiniger, who is best known for his “Jaws” poster.
***
Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Note: Book passages and tables are updated where appropriate, and some bridge text may be added to smooth transitions in the accompanying excerpt.
Certainly, consumers are predisposed to various elements of familiarity in a movie, such as well-known actors or films based on preexisting properties such as popular novels. Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford are somewhat brand names as heroic good guys, and the Harry Potter books have legions of fans. Yet, films with popular stars and films based on popular books bomb all the time.
Thus, familiar elements simply represent marketing hooks because the movie itself is a freestanding consumer product—its own brand.
To get fresh ideas, the studios usually hire two to four outside creative boutiques—ad agencies that develop advertising materials—to develop a trailer. Two to five outside shops are hired to create television advertising. For key art, which is the central design of print ads, one to three boutiques usually are hired. These boutiques are mainly located in Los Angeles, with staffs ranging from 5 to 50 employees.
The total cost to conceive of and polish creative materials into a finished advertising campaign for a big Hollywood film ranges from $1–$3 million, depending on how many outside ad shops are involved.
Outside creative boutiques usually are hired to create the key art, which is the poster and print media materials. When ads are created in-house, the procedures are much the same. Studio brass still reviews and approves the work.
After receiving direction from film distributors and possibly creative talent, the outside shops devise sketches of proposed concepts of movie posters—the roughs, so called because they are unfinished but drawn to actual size. The roughs are presented to the film distributor for evaluation, after which a more polished version is created. A concept can be modified or abandoned along the way.
As a concept is developed further, it eventually takes the form of a comp, or comprehensive layout, which is polished but still subject to discussion and modification. “Print is much more difficult than television spots and trailers because you have to pretty much focus on a single image,” said creative maven Tony Seiniger, who is best known for his “Jaws” poster.
***
Copyright © 2005, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Note: Book passages and tables are updated where appropriate, and some bridge text may be added to smooth transitions in the accompanying excerpt.
TABLE -- Top Weekend Openings 1982–June 2004
|
Weekend BO
|
Total BO
|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Title |
($ mil.)
|
Distributor | Date | ($ mil.) |
| 1 | Spider-Man 2 |
$115.8
|
Sony/Columbia | Jun. 2004 | $373.4 |
| 2 | Spider-Man |
$114.8
|
Sony/Columbia | May 2002 | $403.7 |
| 3 | Shrek 2 |
$108.0
|
DreamWorks | May 2003 | $418.5 |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
$93.7
|
Warner Bros. | Jun. 2004 | $232.8 |
| 5 | The Matrix Reloaded |
$91.8
|
Warner Bros. | May 2003 | $281.5 |
| 6 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone |
$90.3
|
Warner Bros. | Nov. 2001 | $317.6 |
| 7 | Lost World: Jurassic Park |
$90.2
|
Universal | May 1997 | $229.1 |
| 8 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
$88.3
|
Warner Bros. | Nov. 2002 | $262.0 |
| 9 | The Day After Tomorrow |
$85.8
|
Fox | May 2004 | $182.1 |
| 10 | Bruce Almighty |
$85.7
|
Warner Bros. | May 2003 | $242.7 |
| 11 | X2: X-Men United |
$85.5
|
Fox | May 2003 | $214.9 |
| 12 | The Passion of the Christ |
$83.8
|
Newmarket | Feb. 2004 | $370.2 |
|
Note: Box office figures cover United States and Canada |
|||||