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'eco:Drive' by AKQA
Aimed at improving fuel efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. Driving data is transferred from your Fiat to your computer, where you are then awarded a mark out of 100, according to how efficiently you have driven. For more on AKQA's award winning campaign.The online film marketer's tools
From display adverts on a page through to stimulating discussion using blogs and review sites, this section offers an overview of the key tools at your disposal.
Arguably a fast, simple and incredibly effective way of advertising a new film to consumers on the internet is through display advertising. It is a visual format that allows you to grab attention and deliver a message quickly and in an engaging way.
Display advertising allows you to reach consumers based on the content they are reading or demographics that include location. At its most basic level, there are websites on the internet dedicated to discussing, reviewing and promoting films like Yahoo! Movies, Film Guardian, Empire Online and many more. These websites make film advertising easier because you can directly target film fanatics and potential customers.
To reach a wide audience however, you can place display advertising across websites that aren’t directly related to film. Display advertising is advanced enough now to allow targeting by content type, audience demographics and location. You can approach large website publishers directly or use a sales house to place your adverts across hundreds or thousands of sites in one go.
Display is a branding and message delivery tool as well as offering a direct click through to your film’s microsite. Use display to raise awareness of your film and increase audiences. By doing so, you will simultaneously increase interest and later traffic to your site via the likes of search engines.
This is a no brainer – video advertising is perfectly suited to film. Film trailers are among the most popular video content on the internet and this popularity can be used to your advantage.
The majority of large websites in the UK also now offer video content with pre-roll and post-roll advertising before and after the content. Audiences will be engaged with the video and receptive to relevant, short video advertising. It offers you the opportunity to deliver a taster experience of the film you are advertising – unique to video.
Online video advertising is different to cinema trailers, in the same way that TV is also different – treat it as its own format. Try to re-edit a trailer or advert for online purposes. The screen will be much smaller or of lower quality, so an edit with fewer highly detailed shots will work better, as
will a shorter length. 15 seconds or less is considered the standard and most effective length for online video advertising. There are some instances, particularly with film marketing where longer video clips are appropriate. For example the first few minutes of a film might be shown to get the audience hooked. The British film, Severance, made the first three minutes available on YouTube, for example.
You can now combine display and video advertising to deliver the ultimate in online film advertising. Moreover, the size and shape of a banner is no longer an issue.
New Media Maze created a series of video banners for the film Things We Lost in the Fire that saw a piece of video that spans the whole banner without stretching. This is attention grabbing beyond any other form of display advertising.
Banners also allow for video trailers to be embedded in a banner. Using expandable banners allows for a larger video size and the user can watch the trailer without having to visit another page. Such interaction is incredibly powerful and of course fully measurable.
You will know immediately if your display advert has been a success in engaging a consumer when they click to access the video content. Because they actively asked to view the video content it means they are fully engaged, wishing to know more about your product.
The key to success here is to think of your advert as a benefit to consumers. You can garner their attention and, because they’re interested, offer them additional content through the advert such as the video and links to downloads.
One take on video within display is Vibrant Media’s in-text video advertising that allows for a specific word or phrase across a website to be highlighted using a double underline. When a person then hovers their cursor over the highlighted word a small ad will pop up over the page and a video clip will start playing. The promoters of the film Bourne Ultimatum used this technology on the word ‘Bourne’ during the promotional period.
A number of large websites now offer a homepage takeover or sponsorship on their sites. This grants you greater impact by including your brand or film imagery within the most popular areas of a site, or even replacing parts of the site’s design.
Homepages are always the most popular page of a website. By ensuring high visibility of your film on a homepage you will ensure it is viewed by the majority of the site’s visitors. It will also give you maximum impact because a takeover doesn’t happen regularly and stands out over all other advertising – also making it quite expensive.
A sponsorship can take many different forms depending on what you negotiate with a website, such as:
You can maximise the impact of a homepage takeover or sponsorship by combining one or both of these and by also offering display and video advertising throughout a site. Just remember for best practice to always think of the consumer. What will benefit them? How best can you draw their engagement without feeling forced?
A cost effective method of advertising film is to produce editorial content for your own website or, more importantly, for other websites with existing audiences. Some websites will accept editorial content for free while others will charge a fee to add it to their site.
Mobile internet is now at a stage that allows for the delivery of advertising to handsets. While the business models are in place the market itself is still at a fairly early stage creating low-cost opportunities for early adopting advertisers. Mobile advertising includes:
You can’t control the reviews of your films but you can help reviewers and bloggers gain exposure to your films and pass this on to internet audiences. This is particularly useful in the run up to your film release as you can release tidbits of information, production photos and news.
The internet allows for your imagination to run wild for advertising. Windows Live Messenger is becoming a hot spot for targeting a young audience who enjoy chatting to friends using the program. Transformers the movie was promoted on messenger by the agency Inside using icons, backgrounds and other decorations for the chat boxes as well as 1 to 1 discussions with a Transformers’ character.
Results were incredibly promising with 40% of the 21 million user base clicking to watch the trailer and 65% of users downloading the customised background. Interestingly the 2007 MTV and Nickelodeon, Circuits of Cool report - written in association with Microsoft Advertising – revealed that 40% of Messenger users do not view Personal Expression Packages such as these as advertising.
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- Display
- Video
- Video within display
- Homepage takeover and sponsorship
- Editorial
- Mobile
- Blogs / review sites
- One to one channels
Display
Arguably a fast, simple and incredibly effective way of advertising a new film to consumers on the internet is through display advertising. It is a visual format that allows you to grab attention and deliver a message quickly and in an engaging way.
Display advertising allows you to reach consumers based on the content they are reading or demographics that include location. At its most basic level, there are websites on the internet dedicated to discussing, reviewing and promoting films like Yahoo! Movies, Film Guardian, Empire Online and many more. These websites make film advertising easier because you can directly target film fanatics and potential customers.
To reach a wide audience however, you can place display advertising across websites that aren’t directly related to film. Display advertising is advanced enough now to allow targeting by content type, audience demographics and location. You can approach large website publishers directly or use a sales house to place your adverts across hundreds or thousands of sites in one go.
Display is a branding and message delivery tool as well as offering a direct click through to your film’s microsite. Use display to raise awareness of your film and increase audiences. By doing so, you will simultaneously increase interest and later traffic to your site via the likes of search engines.
Video
This is a no brainer – video advertising is perfectly suited to film. Film trailers are among the most popular video content on the internet and this popularity can be used to your advantage.
The majority of large websites in the UK also now offer video content with pre-roll and post-roll advertising before and after the content. Audiences will be engaged with the video and receptive to relevant, short video advertising. It offers you the opportunity to deliver a taster experience of the film you are advertising – unique to video.
Online video advertising is different to cinema trailers, in the same way that TV is also different – treat it as its own format. Try to re-edit a trailer or advert for online purposes. The screen will be much smaller or of lower quality, so an edit with fewer highly detailed shots will work better, as
will a shorter length. 15 seconds or less is considered the standard and most effective length for online video advertising. There are some instances, particularly with film marketing where longer video clips are appropriate. For example the first few minutes of a film might be shown to get the audience hooked. The British film, Severance, made the first three minutes available on YouTube, for example.
Video within display
You can now combine display and video advertising to deliver the ultimate in online film advertising. Moreover, the size and shape of a banner is no longer an issue.
New Media Maze created a series of video banners for the film Things We Lost in the Fire that saw a piece of video that spans the whole banner without stretching. This is attention grabbing beyond any other form of display advertising.
Banners also allow for video trailers to be embedded in a banner. Using expandable banners allows for a larger video size and the user can watch the trailer without having to visit another page. Such interaction is incredibly powerful and of course fully measurable.
You will know immediately if your display advert has been a success in engaging a consumer when they click to access the video content. Because they actively asked to view the video content it means they are fully engaged, wishing to know more about your product.
One take on video within display is Vibrant Media’s in-text video advertising that allows for a specific word or phrase across a website to be highlighted using a double underline. When a person then hovers their cursor over the highlighted word a small ad will pop up over the page and a video clip will start playing. The promoters of the film Bourne Ultimatum used this technology on the word ‘Bourne’ during the promotional period.
Homepage takeover and sponsorship
A number of large websites now offer a homepage takeover or sponsorship on their sites. This grants you greater impact by including your brand or film imagery within the most popular areas of a site, or even replacing parts of the site’s design.
Homepages are always the most popular page of a website. By ensuring high visibility of your film on a homepage you will ensure it is viewed by the majority of the site’s visitors. It will also give you maximum impact because a takeover doesn’t happen regularly and stands out over all other advertising – also making it quite expensive.
A sponsorship can take many different forms depending on what you negotiate with a website, such as:
- Including your film’s imagery across the whole or part of a site
- Wording that states some content is “Sponsored by…” your film
- Competitions sponsored by your film
You can maximise the impact of a homepage takeover or sponsorship by combining one or both of these and by also offering display and video advertising throughout a site. Just remember for best practice to always think of the consumer. What will benefit them? How best can you draw their engagement without feeling forced?
Editorial
A cost effective method of advertising film is to produce editorial content for your own website or, more importantly, for other websites with existing audiences. Some websites will accept editorial content for free while others will charge a fee to add it to their site.
Mobile
Mobile internet is now at a stage that allows for the delivery of advertising to handsets. While the business models are in place the market itself is still at a fairly early stage creating low-cost opportunities for early adopting advertisers. Mobile advertising includes:
- Mobile websites
- Mobile search advertising to drive traffic to your mobile site
- Display adverts on mobile sites
- SMS text advertising
- Video content on your mobile site or delivered by MMS messaging
Blogs / review sites
You can’t control the reviews of your films but you can help reviewers and bloggers gain exposure to your films and pass this on to internet audiences. This is particularly useful in the run up to your film release as you can release tidbits of information, production photos and news.
One to one channels
The internet allows for your imagination to run wild for advertising. Windows Live Messenger is becoming a hot spot for targeting a young audience who enjoy chatting to friends using the program. Transformers the movie was promoted on messenger by the agency Inside using icons, backgrounds and other decorations for the chat boxes as well as 1 to 1 discussions with a Transformers’ character.
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