Advertising
Trailers –
The Avengers Infinity war was one of the most awaited movies of the century and its advertising was widespread across the world, they had carefully planned the structure of when to release teasers such as trailers, information about the plot, cast and crew. On the 10th of February 2017, the first teaser was released which announced the production of movie (Wikipedia, 2017), this teaser was 3 minutes and 37 seconds long and it featured interviews with the crew and cast showing how exited everyone was for the production, it also included some archive footage which gave a brief idea about the plot. It was in November 29, 2017 when the first official trailer was released (YouTube, 2017). This featured 2 minutes and 27 seconds of footage which included different scenes from the movie and some cliffhangers in the trailer itself which would make the viewers hooked and do more research into the movie. About 4 months later, Marvel entertainment dropped the 2nd official trailer (YouTube, 2018) which caused a lot of chaos as the fan following was huge, the trailer was 2 minutes and 18 seconds long which featured more scenes from the movie which caused a lot of people to create their theories about what could happen in the movie, this increased the fan following. After the theatrical release in April 27, 2018, More unseen footage were released, interviews with the cast and crew were also released and also behind the scenes footage which showed what went into the making of this film.
Additional Advertising –
The trailers for The Avengers Infinity War were aired on television and an estimate of $20.86 million was spent on the advertising of the movie on US TV. It was reported that the Avengers Infinity war trailer aired 923 times across 39 networks, the two main networks which advertised the movie are NBC & ABC (Variety, 2018). Both NBC & ABC are broadcasted internationally (Wikipedia, 2018) so that many different types of people across the world would be able to witness the trailer and go watch the movie at release. Both NBC & ABC are family channels which is ideal for advertising for Avengers Infinity War as the fan following of the movie varies from all ages as it is based on comics and superheroes which is interesting to ages 12 & above (BBFC, 2018). The film was advertised in traditional ways too such as through magazines, newspapers and posters at public places. The Avengers Infinity War trailer used to play during the trailer period before any film started at the cinema, this guaranteed a large number of people viewing the trailer which would increase the popularity. The Avengers Infinity War even made the cover for vanity fair which has a print circulation of over 1.2 million (Deadline Hollywood, 2018).
Product Placement & Sponsorship –
In the may of 2017 Robert Downey Jr and his organization, Random act funding partnered together with Omaze and initiated a contest to benefit the organization, A randomly chosen winner who donated will receive and Infinity war set (Wikipedia, 2018) A week before the film's release, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was lit up each night for the film, counting down to its release. Marvel also featured tie-in events across seven of their mobile games to promote the film. In early May 2018, Marvel and Epic Games announced the "Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup" mode for Fortnite Battle Royale, where players could find the Infinity Gauntlet hidden on the game map and become Thanos with added abilities. The Russo brothers were big fans of Fortnite and approached Donald Mustard, the worldwide creative director of Epic Games, about the potential for a crossover between them (Epic Games, 2018). On November 20, 2018, Little, Brown and Company will publish Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War: Thanos – Titan Consumed, written by Barry Lyga. Despite not existing within Marvel Studios' MCU canon, the novel explores the origins of Thanos before the events of the film. Lyga noted he spoke with Marvel Studios to get an "outline of who Thanos is and what he means to the movies", and "was given great latitude and a free hand, while in others I had to tip-toe very carefully through the MCU"(Wikipedia, 2018)
Social Media –
The most modern & one of the most effective ways to advertise films is through the use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many more mediums, these mediums allow the film to be talked about instantly, these mediums also allow the film to release information. Film critics and audiences can also share their thoughts about the film. The first Avengers Infinity War post on Facebook received over 27K likes (Facebook, 2018).
Awards –
There are plenty different types of awards for different aspects of filming which range from acting to music and visual effects etc. These awards significantly increase the popularity of the movies as it proves that the particular film was the best in its award-winning aspect. Any film that wins an award are more likely so sell DVD & Blu-ray copies of the film. Films like Titanic (1997) & Ben-Hur (1959) went on to win 11 Oscars each (Wikipedia, 2018) which is the biggest achievement a film could get, these awards significantly increased the popularity and demand for these 2 movies around the globe as the Oscar is seen as the highest achievement in the film industry around the world.
Reviews –
Even though no awards had been presented to the Avengers Infinity war at the time of publishing, the nominations were enough to draw more people’s attention to the film, and knowing that the nominations for the awards are unbiased and completely impartial encourage people to tell their friends and more people to watch the film, this increases the demand and popularity of the film, With the nominations itself, many news platforms around the world start talking about the film and newspapers report on the film as well (Google, 2018). There are many trusted websites on the internet which provide detailed reviews and information about any film before their release so that people have a basic idea about the film and this helps them decide if they would like to spend their money and time to watch this film.
Festivals, Tours & Press tours –
A few days before the general release of any film, there is an exclusive screening in fashionable locations such as in the case of Avengers Infinity war it was El Capitan theatre in Hollywood (eonline, 2018). This exclusive screening is a large-scale publicity event which sees the crew, film stars and special guests watch the film before it is released worldwide. These types of events are famous for their red carpets, which is where the cast and crew get to interact with the press and fans. Some films can also premiere in film festivals around the world such Venice film festival in Italy, Sundance film festival in Utah, United States and Cannes film festival in France (Wikipedia, 2018). A premiere of a film is a marketing strategy which increases the popularity of the film efficiently, Similarly Avengers Infinity War visited many popular tv talk shows such as Jimmy Kimmel live & NBC’s Late night with Seth Myers (Wikipedia, 2018). These talk shows are also the perfect way to portray the messages the film will send and the awareness it creates about different things.
Bibliography -
