M2 - unit 20 marketing and promotion strategy for horror series
TV Trailer
I have created a TV Trailer for my horror series that will be streamed on BBC3 and shared across social media platforms such as X, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. A trailer is an effective promotion for my horror genre since it builds tension and can hooked the audience from the trailers.
The trailer will be around 1 minute and 15-30 seconds, this is so the trailer isnt too long but i will be able to get the main points across, it will have a montage of tension building clips and have eerie piano music in the background, we will also have close up shots of evil nuns such as them running around the skitzophrenic friend (Lucas). This is because i aim to jump scare the audience, This is good as my audience tht do watch horror films will be hooked and are likley to watch the series after the trailer.
The trailer introduces all the characters and will allow te audience to recognise them since they arent "famous" actors and i cant use celebrity endorsement, and also gets across the main themes of the trailer and messages such as the consequences of using drugs (whilst drugs may have short term pain relief it will cause futher harm later in life, i will also review the scenes when editing them to make sure they comply with the 15 age rating, i will also use the abandonded church as the main setting to show the eerieness and chilling atomsphere. I will have a deep voiced voiceover to add to the theme of horror and guide the audience to give some narrative, and also include a call to action like "watch now" to encourage the audience to watch the trailer or series on BBC3 and iPlayer, i will also include logos like instagram, snapchat and tik tok.
I will edit the trailer on final cut pro and export it in 1920 x 1080 hd, which will comply with the requirements from BBC3, along with this BBC iPlayer and Netflix are the most used streaming platforms and this will boost the likleyness of my trailer and campaign doing well and reach my target audeince. Along with this the platforms i am using to promote the trailer will match the demographics of my target audience
Radio trailer
I will include sound effects in my radio trailer such as deep eerie piano which is commonly used for horror films and creates suspense, along with this i will use footsteps when lucas is walking to the church followed with a scream to give the audience the idea that something has happened to him. The main voice over will highlight the key points of my trailer such as the consequences of using drugs mentioned aove. And will bring awareness about schizophrenia and the use of drugs, along with mental health issues and encourage the audience to check on friends.
The trailer will also refer sinister nuns and renforce the idea that drugs lead to dark consequences of using drugs, this allows the audience to visualise the horror elements of the series from the sound alone. My trailer will be aired on the radio, such as BBC Radio 3 and possibly Radio 1 and 2 aswell, this will be effective for my campaign as the main demographics of BBC3 is 15 to 29 year olds which aligns with my target audience. And data shows that radio is the 3rd most effective media platform to promote a campaign.
Billboard advertising
Billboard will be helpful to expand the audience reach, since some of my audience may not watch BBC or listen to their radio, this means i can target a wide range of people as it will be in places such as main roads and near universities which will target 18-23 year olds which i think will be the main viewers of my series, it will be designs so it looks sinister and scary to grab ttention, such as a nun reaching over to look like its trying to grab something, and have my title "Look" in bold and constrasting text, it will also inclde social media logos to promote the adueince to go the social media pages and watch the trailer.
An example of a horror billboard is BBC's Dracula billboard which look different at day from night, at day it looks like a normal person but the audience can tell that its a horror themed billboard since most people know dracula, and at night fangs will apear which reveals the hidden duality, along with this i will include the release date and where to watch the trailer on the bullbard aswell.
Social media
Social media will most likley be the most effective way for me to promote my campaign, this is because it doesnt cost anything (unless paid someone for graphics design, and will reach a wide audience, i will be using tiktok, instagram and youtube to promote, which will align with my target audience. On weekdays i will post at 4pm as this is when most people are online due to school and work being around 8-3, and on weekend i will aim to post around 10am to 5pm as this is when engagement will be the highest. I will use tiktok as it will have high engagement and will be able to target the younger side of my audience (15-18 year olds are the most used age groups on tiktok) and will most likley appeal more to them than the other audiences. Instagram is the most popular platform for my audience so i will have my most astetically pleasing post on there to make it appeal more to the audience and hopefully gain more viewers on the trailer. Twitter will be used as it will reach more of a male audience, and male audience are shown to enjoy/watch horror films more than women, as data as showed that men engage more with horrorcontent. And youtube will allow me to post my trailer and possible behind the scenes content to attract engagement. BBC3 has 1.4M followers on social media platforms and most commonly use celebrity endorsement, and engaging visuals, however since i dont have a big budget i for celebrity endorsement i will focus my trailer on story driven ,arketing and get across the point that using drugs has dark consequences, this means my viewers invested in the mystery of horror of the show. I similar maketing campaign to mine was Smile(2022), which had short, tension build clips wit low angles and close ups to aim to scare the audience and also had a similar target audeince of 18 - 25 year olds.
TV trailer - I have created a tv trailer for my horror film that will be shown on BBC3 and also will be put on my social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok), a TV trailer will be effective for my genre as it can build tension which will attract attention to my series. My trailer will last around 1 minute 15 seconds but it will have credits etc so will round up to 1min 45s to a minute. The TV trailer includes a short montage of clips that build up tension (such as deep piano music building up, with scary clips like nuns running in a circle and black screen to a nun face and back to black with the aim of scaring my audience of ages 15- 31) and hints at what the series will be about, it shows all the characters so that the audience will recognise them in the series and sinister looking nuns with clips of the friend group defending Lucas from the nuns. It will show the use of drugs which I will need to review to see if the clips are usable for a 15 age rated audience. The trailer will also show the location (abandoned church) and get across the message to the audience that drugs may help at the moment but over time it will hurt you more and will discourage the younger audiences from using drugs such as weed to get rid of stress etc. This paired with a deep voice over and suspenseful clips building tension and a call to action of watching the series. It will include that the series will be aired on BBC3 and the trailer can be rewatched on their aswell, with my socials included at the end. I will make my trailer on Final Cut Pro and export the file as a 1980 x 1080 HD at 25 fps will be suitable for social media pages and television which BBC3 have told me to use.
Radio trailer - my radio trailer will include special effects such as lighter noises, deep eerie piano music, and footsteps etc to add suspense to my radio trailer, the main voice over explains the key points such as Lucas having skitzophernia which my radio trailer raises awareness on mental issues and that you should always be kind to your friends as you don't know what they are going through, it will also mention about the sinister nuns and dark consequences of using drugs to highlight my point of discouraging younger audiences from using drugs and also allows the audience to build an image in their heads of what the series will look like. My radio trailer will be streamed on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 to boost the views/reach of my trailer. BBC Radio 1 will be the most effective as their main demographics are 15-29 year olds, radio is the third most used media for my demographics of 15 - 31 year olds
I will also be advertising by using billboards, using billboards helps widen my audience as it includes everyone that drive past it (my billboard will be on a main road) so it will include all demographics. My billboard will have my social media pages on so people can view more online and I can build recognition. It will be a scary and sinister image in order to gain attention and catch the eye of my audience and make it recognisable by using an image such as a nun with the main title "Look" in big writing. If I design my billboard well in a way that will gain attention a pick a good location for my such as near a university or main city/road so that I can target my audience of 15-31 year olds, advertising outside a university will be good for age ranges of 18-23 which is a good demographic for my series. I will have the release dat and where to watch the trailer so that the trailer can be watched.
I will also use social media to advert my series, the platforms I will be using are Tiktok, Instagram and twitter and YouTube. These platforms are suitable because they have similar demographics to my audience which helps me target them and directly post to my target audience. Th best times to post are 4pm on Mondays to Fridays and 10 am or 5pm on weekends as this is when most people use social media. Social media is suitable for me to promote because it has no cost and I can share the post with anyone around the world, widening m audience allows me to gain more views and therefore boost my social presence and build a recognisable brand//series. BBC3 also use social media a lot to promote, this is due to their target audience mainly use social media as their main source of media, this allows them to gain the most amount of viewers as possible.
Since the ratio of men having a wider reach on adverts, i will use twitter to promote my social media posts, this is because more men enjoy horror films than women do, also since twitter has a good amount of users, i have promoted my advert to my target audience.
since instagram is the most popular social media platform with their demographics aligning with mine i used instagram to promote my trailer and it worked well.
These charts show that my platforms have a wide audience and my ads will reach above 20% of the people using my platforms will most likely see my advert, the percentages of male to females is fairly balanced however this doesn't matter to me as my series is targeted at both genders.