Design and write an article for a film magazine on the promotion and marketing of a blockbuster movie with particular focus on how the producer considered the target audience and the publicity and marketing strategy for the movie. You must comprehensively explain the relationship between producers and film audiences with educated examples, constantly using subject terminology correctly.
Film Magazine Articles - Researching Existing Products
The Film
Black Panther:
Director: Ryan Coogler Writer: Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole Release date: 16th Feb 2018 Based on: The Marvel Comics Budget: 200 million USD Domestic box office: 700 million USD International box office: 1.3 billion USD Distribution: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Production: Marvel Studios Starring:
Chadwick Boseman - T’challa/Black Panther Michael B. Jordan - Erik Killmonger Lupita Nyong'o - Nakia Danai Gurira - Okoye Martin Freeman - Everett K. Ross Daniel Kaluuya - W'kabi Letitia Wright - Shuri Winston Duke - M’baku Andy Serkis - Ulysses Klaue |
The film was distributed by several companies all over the word in some countries, such as Saturn Films (Slovakia), Cineforum (Romania), etc. However most of the distribution of the film was done by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, which is Marvel Studios' parent company. Walt DisneyStudios Motion Pictures is well-known for releasing action/adventure/drama blockbusters, typically with a younger target audience in mind.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures:
Walt Disney Studios Motions is owned by its massive conglomerate the Walt Disney Company, that is one of the most well-known and recognized motion picture production companies. The company also owns over 36% of the film industry market share in America, having recently (20th March, 2019) aquired 20th Century Fox, a former member of the 6 major studios.
Marvel Studios is most common recognized to make film of the superhero sub genre, and has created a number of largely successful franchises with these films, such as The Avengers, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, etc. Marvel Studios also has ownership of the Marvel Comics, upon which most of these films are based. Both Walt Disney Studios and Marvel Studios have a large established fanbase that continues to grow along with the number of films the studio produces. Black Panther sparked a lot of controversy regarding race and discrimination, mainly targeting a niche audience of black movie-goers but creating a large impact on the community as a whole, which helped Walt Disney Studios Motions Pictures to market and distribute the film with a very high success rate. Several fans of the Black Panther comics were concerned about the film adaptation due to their intense passion for the film and the character of T'Challa himself, who was the first superhero of African descent. Marvel and Disney were both praised for their handling of the film, along with the budget they invested within Black Panther. Some of the several blockbuster films distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures are:
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Poster Campaign:
- Teaser Posters: 2 of these teaser posters were released. The first shows T'Challa as royalty sitting on a throne in a massive golden room in his Black Panther suit. This bears resemblance to the aesthetic of the Asgard from the Thor film franchise, which creates further synergy among the film and the Marvel franchise that it is a part of. Moreover, T'Challa in his Black Panther suit is recognizable to the audiences who may have watched Captain America: Civil War, in which Black Panther has a some quick screen time. The second poster shows the Black Panther standing atop a mountain, standing on a giant panther totem, looking over his kingdom of Wakanda, with a simple tagline "Long Live The King'. Both of the posters also had a date at the bottom that indicated the release of the film, which created hype within the audience along with a buzz of anticipation for the film. Neither of the 2 posters revealed any plots points of importance, which raised enigma codes within the target audience.
- Characters Posters: The teaser posters were followed by Marvel releasing character posters for each of the main cast members – of which there were 11. Each of these posters featured a small tagline below the main image, which told the audience about each character's key traits and their motivations in the film.
- Dolby Poster: Black Panther's Dolby AMC release came with its own special edition poster, which has a water-colour aesthetic and bears resemblance to a comic book cover, showing Black Panther coming towards the audience, against a white background.
- IMAX Poster: This poster aimed to sell audiences on the experience, using a ver Struzan-like painting of Black Panther, with the rest of the main cast arranged around him, the capital city of Wakanda gleaming in the distance at the bottom of the one-sheet.
- Regal Cinemas Poster: The movie theatre company formerly known as Regal Entertainment Group released an exclusive poster featuring Black Panther's face looking out towards the audience from an opening in the black background shaped like the continent of Africa.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/1/7/121724333/published/mv5bmtg1mty2mjyznv5bml5banbnxkftztgwmtc4ntmwndi-v1.jpg?1556309640)
Official Theatrical Poster Analysis
The official poster came out on the 16th of October along with the official trailer. This is a common convention of film marketing campaigns, as several posters and teaser trailer are most often followed by an official theatrical poster and trailer. The poster incorporates a graphic device in the background as a holding element, which creates a futuristic environment for the action to take place in, an element of the action/adventure/dystopian film genre; as denoted by the placement of the action of the main cast in the centre of the poster. Moreover, the poster features a strong pyramid device looming over the logo of Marvel Studios as well as the title treatment. These geometric structures placed around the actors creates a very symmetrical universe that hold the city of Wakanda. The pyramid also reinforces the title treatment while mirroring a winged shape behind T’Challa’s character, creating an “X” shape, that from a distance appears to be uniting all the elements of the poster. The design of this poster has a very structured and organized formation that comes across as new and exciting to the target audience.
While T’Challa is the largest character on the poster, he is surrounded by several other main cast members, connoting to the target audience that this film has a powerful ensemble cast that works together successfully to work as one large unit towards a goal in the film, rather than having just the main lead character play out the entire plotline, which again creates a sense of unity. In addition, this poster makes use of proairetic codes often used in films of this genre (action codes - Levi Strauss) to generate interest in what the characters are doing, for example, Shuri is holding weapons looking out of the frame with a very serious expression on her face, much like the other characters on the poster; this makes the audience question what the characters are looking at, and if it is dangerous. However, T’Challa, the main lead, played by Chadwick Boseman is looking straight into the camera, directly addressing the audience and enabling them to engage with his character.
The use of colour is also an important feature in this poster. Here the use of blue connotes a futuristic and technologically advanced universe, juxtaposed against the orange/yellow tones of the actors’ skin. Orange and blue are complementary colours that are frequently used when marketing blockbusters, conforming to the subgenre of action/comic-book-films. The natural opposing forces between hot and cold colour associates guarantee drama at first glance. The poster also uses green, red, purple, yellow and red sparingly, connoting that this part of the Marvel universe is unlike anything seen. The various futuristic looking patterns and symbols surrounding the main cast create a unique aesthetic that bears several African patterns and symbols, even featuring symbols on pillars on the right hand side that mean “love and unity, strength and congress, for Panther chief and country”, which correlates with the tagline at the bottom “Long Live The King”, giving a nod to narrative of the film and the setting within which it is based. The iconography of the title treatment resembles the comic book font used in Black Panther comics, which creates a comic-book aesthetic for the target audience, and induces a sense of nostalgia for the pre-existing fans of the Black Panther comics, conforming to films of this genre. Furthermore, the iconic Marvel Studios logo also uses its brand to attract a large local and global fanbase to the film. This poster conforms to other conventions of film posters such as a classic byline credit paragraph at the bottom, with the names of the main cast placed in a row at the top. The names of these A-list celebrities such as Lupita NYong’O, Angela Bassett and Andy Serkis, attracting a wider secondary target audience.
The official poster came out on the 16th of October along with the official trailer. This is a common convention of film marketing campaigns, as several posters and teaser trailer are most often followed by an official theatrical poster and trailer. The poster incorporates a graphic device in the background as a holding element, which creates a futuristic environment for the action to take place in, an element of the action/adventure/dystopian film genre; as denoted by the placement of the action of the main cast in the centre of the poster. Moreover, the poster features a strong pyramid device looming over the logo of Marvel Studios as well as the title treatment. These geometric structures placed around the actors creates a very symmetrical universe that hold the city of Wakanda. The pyramid also reinforces the title treatment while mirroring a winged shape behind T’Challa’s character, creating an “X” shape, that from a distance appears to be uniting all the elements of the poster. The design of this poster has a very structured and organized formation that comes across as new and exciting to the target audience.
While T’Challa is the largest character on the poster, he is surrounded by several other main cast members, connoting to the target audience that this film has a powerful ensemble cast that works together successfully to work as one large unit towards a goal in the film, rather than having just the main lead character play out the entire plotline, which again creates a sense of unity. In addition, this poster makes use of proairetic codes often used in films of this genre (action codes - Levi Strauss) to generate interest in what the characters are doing, for example, Shuri is holding weapons looking out of the frame with a very serious expression on her face, much like the other characters on the poster; this makes the audience question what the characters are looking at, and if it is dangerous. However, T’Challa, the main lead, played by Chadwick Boseman is looking straight into the camera, directly addressing the audience and enabling them to engage with his character.
The use of colour is also an important feature in this poster. Here the use of blue connotes a futuristic and technologically advanced universe, juxtaposed against the orange/yellow tones of the actors’ skin. Orange and blue are complementary colours that are frequently used when marketing blockbusters, conforming to the subgenre of action/comic-book-films. The natural opposing forces between hot and cold colour associates guarantee drama at first glance. The poster also uses green, red, purple, yellow and red sparingly, connoting that this part of the Marvel universe is unlike anything seen. The various futuristic looking patterns and symbols surrounding the main cast create a unique aesthetic that bears several African patterns and symbols, even featuring symbols on pillars on the right hand side that mean “love and unity, strength and congress, for Panther chief and country”, which correlates with the tagline at the bottom “Long Live The King”, giving a nod to narrative of the film and the setting within which it is based. The iconography of the title treatment resembles the comic book font used in Black Panther comics, which creates a comic-book aesthetic for the target audience, and induces a sense of nostalgia for the pre-existing fans of the Black Panther comics, conforming to films of this genre. Furthermore, the iconic Marvel Studios logo also uses its brand to attract a large local and global fanbase to the film. This poster conforms to other conventions of film posters such as a classic byline credit paragraph at the bottom, with the names of the main cast placed in a row at the top. The names of these A-list celebrities such as Lupita NYong’O, Angela Bassett and Andy Serkis, attracting a wider secondary target audience.
Trailer Campaign:
Teaser Trailer:
The teaser for Black Panther came out on the 9th of June 2017. The trailer introduces the audience to the universe of Wakanda in Africa, and gives an idea of the narrative T'Challa trying to be a good king. The teaser trailer has over 41 million view on YouTube as of now. This was released a while before the release of the film to get the audience hyped up and excited for the movie as well as the marketing campaign about the take place. |
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Official Theatrical Trailer Analysis
Black Panther's official trailer came out on October 16th 2017, giving the audience about 5 month long wait period for the release of the film. This raised hype and anticipation for the movie and gave the audience a very vague and standard storyline of a hero fighting to save the world against the bad guy who wants to burn it down, virtually giving none of the major plot points away.
Cultural Marketing:
The biggest thing for the campaign was really super-serving black moviegoers while also making it the broadest moviegoing event” |
How did Marvel reached its target audience?
- Marvel used market segmentation to target underrepresented black movie-goers, approaching a niche target demographic, and consequently also reaching a less directly targeted demographic locally and globally through word of mouth, buzz and controversy.
- A month prior to its trailer unveiling at Comic-Con, Disney released its first teaser to viewers of the NBA Finals. This was a good decision not only because NBA viewership peaked at 20.1 million in 2017, but also because NBA viewership peaked towards African-American males by 63%. Marvel also made a large effort to interact with its audience through social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram and Facebook, through their grassroots marketing campaign.
- For Marvel, one of the most important target demographic was children and teens, since the film was rated PG-13. Disney aided in raising money through its grassroots efforts, for underprivileged children to see Black Panther. Disney also partnered with Hasbro to promote a Black Panther toy line, which helped raise children's awareness of the movie.
- Disney also tapped into another market segment of women of colour by organizing the "Welcome to Wakanda: Fashion for the Black Panther Era" fashion line that coincided with New York Fashion Week.
- Marvel also organized several Black Panther screenings all around Africa, a place often overlooked by marketers and studios. However, the Black Panther marketing team decided to pay an homage and respect to the basis of this film which is set in Africa with African cultures, traditions and people, reaching out to a global audience.
What did the film mean to its audience?
Black Panther adopts a cultural narrative, going beyond the comic book story or plot. It is based on African tradition and history, with influence from various African tribes and cultures to create an incredible myth of a new, futuristic Africa, led by an enlightened ruler. This marketing for this silver-screen epic was more of a cultural movement than an advertising campaign, discussing issues of politics. Moreover, this film was released during Black History Month in the US, which was a well-played marketing strategy, and adding that to the predominantly black cast, director and crew turned this film into a cultural phenomenon and a powerful social movement. |
A cultural narrative is the ongoing and unfolding history of a people or community – it is the aspirational journey of a tribe as they struggle to make sense of the world and their place in it. Yes, it’s linked closely to identity and ideology, but the narrative is fundamentally one of opportunity. The future lies ahead. |
Grassroots Marketing:
Black Panther has an incredible grassroots marketing campaign and the passion, anticipation and hype for the film spurred widespread fundraising efforts:
Fredrick Joseph, a marketing consultant from New York City created the #BlackPantherChallenge with the aim of raising $10,000 through a GoFundMe page to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem. Within days, he had surpassed the goal, raising more than $40,000. The hashtag took off on social media. Now there are over 200 Black Panther fundraising campaigns, including in cities like Toronto, London and Ghana. The campaign attracted the attention of celebrities such as Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis. Spencer wrote on Instagram that she would rent out a theater in Mississippi so underprivileged children could see the movie on the big screen. Davis lent her voice to a fundraiser in Austin, which just recently raised $4,000 to send 200 kids to see the movie.“The focus is on kids because kids are extremely impressionable,” Joseph said. “With the current landscape that we’re in, culturally and politically, it’s never been more important in the modern era to combat some of these negative entities, especially for kids of color, and young LGBTQ kids, and women.”
- Fundraising
- Celebrity involvement
- Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram Hashtags
- Sharing fan art online
- Interactive Q&A sessions with the main cast
Fredrick Joseph, a marketing consultant from New York City created the #BlackPantherChallenge with the aim of raising $10,000 through a GoFundMe page to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem. Within days, he had surpassed the goal, raising more than $40,000. The hashtag took off on social media. Now there are over 200 Black Panther fundraising campaigns, including in cities like Toronto, London and Ghana. The campaign attracted the attention of celebrities such as Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis. Spencer wrote on Instagram that she would rent out a theater in Mississippi so underprivileged children could see the movie on the big screen. Davis lent her voice to a fundraiser in Austin, which just recently raised $4,000 to send 200 kids to see the movie.“The focus is on kids because kids are extremely impressionable,” Joseph said. “With the current landscape that we’re in, culturally and politically, it’s never been more important in the modern era to combat some of these negative entities, especially for kids of color, and young LGBTQ kids, and women.”
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Hashtags used throughout the campaign:
- #BlackPantherLive - used for a live Q&A on Twitter
- #AnswerTime - used for another Q&A on Tumbler
- #BlackPanther
- #BlackPantherFanArt - used to share Black Panther artwork created by fans on Twitter and other social medias
- #WakandaStyle - used to share photos of fans dressed up in Wakanda-esque costumes on Twitter and other social medias
Marvel encouraged its audience to speak up about the film through this use of hashtags and customized Twitter Emojis for characters like Black Panther, Nakia, Kill Monger, Shuri and Okoye, integrating the fans into the marketing campaign. Marvel then encouraged the fans to tweet the name of their favorite character from the movie: the character's name preceded by a hashtag. The fans were also encouraged to share their favorite song off the Black Panther Album featuring Kendrick Lamar and various other artists. Marvel also promoted a sweepstakes contest to their fans, encouraging their fans to share their favorite Black Panther memory of their personal photo using the hashtag '#Marvel10YearSweepstakes’. Here, Marvel advertised that the fans might get a chance to win a trip to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ premiere. With these grassroots efforts Marvel generated a big buzz for Black Panther, which in turn upped the film's prospects at the box office in a massive way.
Cross Media Convergence:
Magazines & Other Print Media: Marvel started a conversation about the film and its meaning with audiences as early as December 2015, in Empire Magazine. In the article, producer Kevin Feige touched on the film’s multilateral significance both as a work of art, a political statement and a necessary stepping stone in the Avengers enormous franchise.
Music Album: Prior to the film’s premiere, Marvel released a musical tie-in with Black Panther: an album by rapper Kendrick Lamar, who is also responsible for the film's soundtrack. The album took first place on the Billboard 200 album chart the week of its debut, reaching a large audience and enabling people to listen to the music that would also be present in the film. Hence Marvel created synergy between the two media platforms of film and music, generating a larger target audience along with greater promotion reaching wider-spread local and global audiences through the album which was available on audio streaming services such as Spotify. The great success of the album led to more hype and anticipation for the film. The album featured performing several artists including Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz, Saudi, Khalid, Swan Lee, Vince Staples, Yugen Blakrok, Jorja Smith, SOB X RBE, Ab-Soul, Anderson Paak, James Blake, Jay Rock, Future, Zacari, Babes Wodumo, Mozzy, Sjava, Reason, Travis Scott, The Weekend. There were several other musicians and technicians involved in the making of this album which certainly helped it pull a larger target audience by appealing to fans of the artists that worked on this record, as well as fans of the film or the album itself.
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Lexus Collaboration: Lexus Black Panther: Soul of a Machine, an ingenious feat of creative marketing combined two seemingly unrelated products in a literary vision unifying them both, creating synergy between the locomotive and the film through cross media convergence, while reaching a larger audience and generating greater buzz about Black Panther. And while the 2018 Lexus LC Coupe was not on sale, it still managed to generate interest among its potential customers. Lexus released details of its partnership with the Marvel Studios in advance of a big event being held at San Diego Comic-Con. That deal included a graphic novel in which the carmaker’s latest models play an integral role. It also included a co-branded Super Bowl TV spot to show off the LC500 model that debuted at SEMA last year and was also shown at the Detroit Auto Show in January. That commercial was also used as a paid ad on Twitter, YouTube and elsewhere. |
Fashion Line: Black Panther soon started to gain more publicity and controversy over the several women of colour portraying strong roles in the film. And to further engage this market Disney Consumer Products organized the "Welcome to Wakanda: Fashion for the Black Panther Era", timed to coincide with New York Fashion week. The release of Black Panther sparked increased demand for traditional African clothing and accessories. Hence Marvel was able to reach and target a much larger audience due to the synergy created between the fashion line and the film through cross media convergence. |
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Webpage: Perhaps the most important step in the Black Panther campaign was successfully tapping technology to facilitate grassroots marketing efforts. Marvel had a great interactive homepage created for the film, and it contained direct links to all the film's social media accounts along with the release of character posters. Marvel Studios’ official website for the movie opens with one of the trailers and at the top of the page – and persistent as you scroll – there’s also a more traditional content menu that starts with “Synopsis.” That’s followed by a “Cast” section that uses the character posters we saw above and which can be clicked on for more information. “Gallery” has a number of production stills. There’s a link to listen to the soundtrack album on Spotify in the “Music” section. Finally “Partners” has links to the companies who are helping to promote the film
TV Spots: TV advertising kicked off with a commercial which showed cool effects and action scenes. Further TV spots kept up the hip-hop musical theme and focused on the conflict between Killmonger and Black Panther for the throne of Wakanda, showing how T’Challa has to defend his title and protect his people. An extended TV spot aired during a college football game in early January that showed a bit more of the film and narrative. Another aired during the Grammys and was therefore heavy on the music from Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
TV Spots: TV advertising kicked off with a commercial which showed cool effects and action scenes. Further TV spots kept up the hip-hop musical theme and focused on the conflict between Killmonger and Black Panther for the throne of Wakanda, showing how T’Challa has to defend his title and protect his people. An extended TV spot aired during a college football game in early January that showed a bit more of the film and narrative. Another aired during the Grammys and was therefore heavy on the music from Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
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Other Promotional Material:
- Disney promoted the movie through the Noovie pre-show package from National Cinemedia with clips, behind-the-scenes footage and more exclusive content.
- Brisk, which offered co-branded packaging and produced a video spot featuring Jordan talking about how opportunities come from putting in the hard work behind-the-scenes, before the finished product is ever seen.
- The drink brand alma ran a sweepstakes.
- Synchrony Bank, which ran a co-branded commercial that used the movie’s theme of teamwork to sell its savings accounts.
Cast and Crew: Promotion
The large main cast of the movie went on an international press junket tour to talk to fans and give interviews talking about the film. Also, producer Kevin Feige, said "It [Black Panther] is a big geo-political action adventure that focuses on the family and royal struggle of T'Challa in Wakanda, and what it means to be a king. T'Challa's story is very important to us as it links to the next Avengers Films, which is why we brought it forward." |
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