Film advertising- Django Unchained

Django Unchained Marketing Campaign.
As Quentin Tarantino’s much anticipated Django Unchained approached a great marketing campaign was needed. You don’t have to be a Tarantino fanatic to have expectations on a gangster film coming from the director, meaning the  marketing was of great importance to sway the audience away from this, as Django is a Western.  

   

Both these posters are promoting the film, but at different target audiences. The first is informing viewers on the setting, age and storyline. The writing is clearly an old western font, and the chain hanging from the ‘o’ is a reference to slavery. The only hint of violence is the colour red, whereas the next poster has concentrated completely on selling the violence in the movie. Therefore I think the first poster is more aimed at people interested period dramas/westerns.  Stereotypically a more mature audience, whereas the second poster is more obviously targeted at an audience in to the crime genre (Tarantinos already made fan base). The poster revolves around the violence, the guns, the splattered blood, the actors; Dicaprio looking menacing, Waltz hinting his weapon, and Jamie Foxx poised and ready for revenge! One of the biggest selling points about the movie are its actors, especially Dicaprio with the largest fan base. Although he doesn’t appear in the movie for long he is marketed with as much credit and the two main parts (Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz). A conscious decision from the marketing campaign to attract the actors fans to the movie.  

Interactive marketing tools are a useful way to make the audience feel involved with the movie, a great tool is having a website for the film. The Django Unchained website keeps its fans updated with downloads, such as social media covers and profile pictures of its characters ect. This is then selling the movie to people further than its existing fans, creating awareness through facebook/twitter friends. The website also has videos (Django trailers) photos, games, features. By including things such as games to the website its attracting a larger group of people to the website. The more people who use the website, the higher sales of the film. They are much more likely to then go and watch the film after using it, than if not reminded about the film at all.     

Another use of interactive marketing is a page created through the social networking site, Facebook. The page is dedicated to the soundtrack of the movie, being that Tarantino is well known for his use of music throughout his films. Django soundtrack interacted with the images on screen, for example the sound of whipping went with the beat to the song being played. The page gave links to download and buy the music, so fans of the films can further their experience of the movie.  

 

Django’s marketing campaign did make a misjudgement when it came to merchandising the movie. Django’s characters were made into toys, which was almost instantly banned (first from ebay) as deemed as inappropriate and offensive. Although this could work in the films favour by giving the press a story and creating awareness of the movie, maybe something more appropriate could have been made as merchandise. Merchandise is a great way to sell your movie, and can make the difference between a big hit and a huge one (eg. starwars). Merchandise can be clothes, posters, PS/Xbox games, mugs, glasses etc. It can increase a films popularity in a massive way, by merchandising with clothes you are getting the audience itself to promote the film.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

This was my merchandise idea for Django Unchained. It is more obviously targeted for adults unlike the toys which could be mistaken as made for children. To make sure of this it clearly states that’s it is ‘for over 18s only’. And to avoid any other precautions with the contents of the box at the bottom it explains what they can, and cant do. I thought that this would appeal to the films fans as it includes a lot of memorabilia from the film, and also a range of items that could appeal to men and women. 

Django is full of controversy using the racist term 'nigga' 100 times throughout, controversial as it is produced by a white man. For this reason two screenings were held, one to an all African American audience, and another to a mixed white and black group. This could determine truly if black people took offence in anyway or generally disliked Django more. But the results came out equal, which I think is because Django Unchained is giving empowerment to the slaves. Since the results came out this way Tarantino wouldn't have even had to over think the decisions made, whereas if they came out different he may have had been forced make some changes. Screenings are a great way to test the audiences reaction before the film is released, people who work closely with the film may not be able to recognise problems which are obvious to a fresh pair of eyes. Questionnaires are usually handed out on screenings to fully evaluate how the audience feels about the film. A lot of screenings have influenced change to films, all dependant to the audiences reaction. 

Since it is so easy to judge a film before we even watch it for many of us it has become routine to check reviews before watching a film. Therefore reviews are becoming more and more vital to a films success. A bad review can stop a massive amount of people from even giving the film a try, ever growing sites such as rotten tomatoes and IMBD are responsible for this.

Django was released on Christmas Day 2012 in the USA and Canada, since the typical Christmas day movies to be realised are family ones, this is giving an option to film fanatics or couples without children.  It is certainly not the conventional film to be released on Christmas day, but distribution clearly believed that it had a strong enough campaign to have high cinema viewings. Which it did, receiving $30,122,888 on the opening weekend just in the US alone. The rest of the release dates were mid-January, this may have been distributed this way to create anticipation after its release in the US.

Interviews with cast, directors, and producers is also a successful way to get the audience excited for its release. An interview with Tarantino on Django unchained got heated when he was pressed on the link between movie violence and real life violence, the video has reached over a million views because of Tarnation’s reaction being ‘I’m shutting your butt down’. Tarnation’s defensive reaction was a clear indication of his commitment to his storytelling.

 Django Unchained proved a huge success, and has gaining high reviews across the board. Even on the usually harsh site rotten tomatoes, receiving 88% from critics and a huge 92% from audience. Winning many awards including AFI film of the year 2013. A lot due to its distribution, marketing campaign, and of course its genius director Quentin Tarantino.