Liam Tomkins - Social networks

How important are social networks to producers and audiences as a form of film promotion? 

Social networks are very important to producers and audiences as a form of film promotion. Producers now use social networks to debut trailers for new films, both blockbusters and independent. 

Social networks are one of the most used forms of communication. Therefore it has the potential of being a very effective way of advertising a film. Producers can use this to their advantage because it allows them to advertise to a very large audience with very minimal effort. The more people who see a trailer for a film, the more likely it is for them to go to a cinema and view the film once it is released. Social networks also allow producers to market directly to their target audience. The trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the video to gain views on YouTube, showing that YouTube is an effective way of advertising a film because people have instant access to media, as well as it being very easy to share with friends. Social networks also allow the producer to reach their target audience and market to them much easier, due to the vast amount of people using social media. Not only are film trailers debuted on the official channels of the film, a lot of other large channels will also upload the trailer, such as IGN. This means that the audience the film is being marketed to has greatly increased. This is important to producers because it will create discussion and excitement within the film's target audience, further promoting it with very minimal effort on behalf of the producer. The Avatar Twitter account asked users to share a tweet to gain access to the film's official soundtrack. This created a lot of promotion for the film because people would share it without previously knowing about the film because they have the opportunity to get something for free.  

International audiences have become very important to producers recently. Social networks allow producers to reach these international audiences as easily as it is for them to reach domestic audiences. This means that the film is advertised to a much larger audience, therefore resulting in the potential of a lot more sales. This shows that social networks are very important to producers because it allows them to reach audiences in other countries and sell the film to them. Social networks allow both Hollywood producers and independent producers to advertise to an international audience. For example, Kung Fury used social networks to advertise their film in a number of different countries. This allowed the film to be successful because they were able to reach a much larger and wider audience than if they were to only create television adverts. 

Advertising using social networks allows the audience to engage with the producers, giving their opinions. Producers can use this to their advantage and make small adjustments to the film based on the audience's response to the trailers. Social networks allow for a more accurate view of audience's response to a trailer compared to a television advert. This allows the producer to make sure that the film they are creating is what the audience want to see, therefore allowing them to make a larger profit because they have almost tailored a film to be a success.  

Social networks also allow producers to find film makers. For example the film Pixels was released on YouTube as a short film. Happy Madison Productions thought that it should be made into a full film and so contacted the creator to make it happen. Pixels then went on to be turned into a feature length film and was sold at cinemas. Even though Pixels was a failure, it still shows that producers are interested in finding new film makers on social networks that have the potential of making future blockbusters. This is also important for audiences because it gives new film makers a chance of being noticed by studios that will allow them to create a film. This also means that there will be more variety in films because new film makers usually have original ideas as opposed to studios who are more likely to just release another franchise film.  

Advertising on social networks is free for producers, the only cost they have is creating the media. This is important because it saves the producer money because the marketing budget will not have to be as large. Film trailers are usually advertised using viral marketing. This is where one person will share the trailer with their friends, who will then share it with their group of friends, this will continue for weeks after the debut of the trailer. This means that producers only have to put minimal effort into advertising a film because the audience does the advertising for them. For example, for the release of Toy Story 3, Pixar created several videos, both adverts for non-existent products. One advert was made to look as though it was released in the 1980's to try and make people remember when they used to own that product, even if it never existed. Fans of the film and other media outlets all shared these videos, creating a lot of discussion around the potential story of Toy Story 3, this created an advertising campaign that was fueled almost solely by the audience sharing these videos.  

Social networks are also very important to audiences. Audiences use social networks daily because it is one of the most used forms of communication. Social media users attend a cinema five times more than non-users. This is important to audiences because a film's advertising campaign can make or break a film for us. 

Social networks allow audiences to see the films that they want to see. Kickstarter, a crowd funding website that offers incentives for people to fund a project, is used by film makers to get funding for their project from the people who want to see it. Kung Fury started off as a campaign on Kickstarter to get $200,000 to create their film, however the idea and concept had such a great response that they raised a total of $630,019, contributed by 17,713 individual supporters of the film. Kung Fury would have been too much of risk for a studio to create because the idea of the film wouldn't appeal to the size of the audience that studios aim for. Crowd funded films are able to take this risk because the number of contributors they have means that they will have that many guaranteed sales. As an audience this is important because it means that there will be a greater variety of films for us to watch, often they are an original idea.  

Social networks allow producers to create expanded universes, by creating apps, games and Wikipedia pages giving the background of certain characters and locations. This allows audiences to experience much more than just the film. We can watch the film and then go home and play as one of the characters from the film in a video game. This makes the film's universe much more immersive and detailed for the audience, providing a better experience for future films if the audience know more about different characters and locations.