Through my dissertation I studied, researched and analysed the changes seen within the promotional media industry, with a specific focus on the curation of film posters through the Star Wars franchise. Therefore, using this research I will further explore the benefits it would have when implementing it into possible industry uses. To do this effectively I will examine the Marketing industry, using the case study of Art Machine to argue how my research is beneficial for industry companies. This research will culminate in a plan for a create way to display my findings, attracting industry professionals in a format more intriguing than an 8000-word dissertation.
1- Industry- Marketing
In 2021 Caroline Forsey defines marketing as ‘any actions a company takes to attract an audience to the company’s product or services… with the long-term goal of demonstrating product value, strengthening brand loyalty, and ultimately increasing sales’ (Forsey,2021). Throughout the digital age, this sector has continued to grow rapidly with the market being ‘valued at 34.61 billion U.S. dollars in 2019… expected to grow to 52.26 billion in 2021’ (Statista,2021). With recent advances in technology, as well as the impact Covid 19 has had on the industry, a trend of marketing/ advertising being aimed towards a digital market has been accelerated into the mainstream. This is supported with Inman (2020) stating that ‘online and social advertising [is] expected to account for 62% of the £26 billion ad spend in the UK this year’ (Inman, 2020).
Look into the trend of shifting into digital marketing in more detail, Bump (2022) lists virtual and augmented reality, virtual events and influencer marketing as some of the main uses of technology to help digitally market and advertise products (Bump,2022). When identifying the uses of VR/AR technology, Smart Insights (no date) states that it helps ‘bridge the gap between experience and action… [with it] chang[ing] the dynamic between brands and consumers’ (SmartInsights, no date). Here they argue that instead of trying to exit and remove advertisement materials, VR/AR actually changes consumer attitudes, making them want to experience the content as it is unique. However, when it comes to this type of marketing, VR/AR will always rely of the consumer, a) having the technology present to access it, b) being able to use the technology to access it, and c) being willing to engage and adapt to a new style of advertisement.
When looking into the trend of influencer marketing, this video perfectly summarises this marketing strategy through this detailed video:
As well as this, Woods (2016) argues that influencer marketing works due to it manipulating the idea of getting a recommendation off a friend or family, stating that ‘92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over advertising’ (Wood, 2016:6). This idea of family/ friends being able to impact consumer experience shows how important it is for industries to ensure that they create materials that are able to be shared. Therefore, by being able to achieve this idea of trustworthiness on a larger scale to thousands of potential consumers, you are able to see that appeal of influencer marketing for many brands and companies.
2- Organisation- Art Machine
To be able to explore the previous trends in more detail, as well as identifying how my areas of study within my dissertation fit into a real brand case study, I have chosen to analyse film marketing company Art Machine. Art Machine describe themselves as a ‘fully integrated visual design agency’ (ArtMachine, 2022), producing marketing materials in the form of print, digital/social, Motion/VFX and Trailers. Founded in 1999, Art Machine ‘got hitched to the Trailer Park family in ’07, and today builds integrated 360 campaigns’ (Art Machine, 2022). This conglomeration with Trailer Park has allowed them to cater to all forms of media promotion, maximising their potential audience. As well as producing marketing material globally, Art Machine is also a global company with head offices located in both Los Angeles and London, with the combination catering for between ‘201-500 employees’ (Linkedin,2022). Operating as an out-of-house marketing agency, Art Machine has worked with a wide variety of clients within the film and television industry, including Marvel, Disney and Netflix.
According to impawards (no date), the largest digital collection of movie posters,
Art Machine is the seventh biggest US, and the biggest UK poster design agency (impawards, no date).
When looking at their marketing approach, Art Machine have an obviously heavy leaning on print posters due to this being their main focus, with a wide variety of genres present:
However, Art Machine can also be seen to be adapting to the recent trends stated above through the adaptation of creating marketing materials for digital, social media use.
This adaptation to include social media content as stated by Art Machine themselves, allows that company to become ‘fully integrated’ (Linkedin,2022) across platforms, therefore resulting in them being able to ‘engage moviegoers and increase viewership for [their] studio partners’ (ArtMachine,2022). As well as creating content for films and television shows on different social media channels, Art Machine are also present themselves across Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. These social channels are mostly used to help advertise their own company, sharing recent projects and giving updates on new job opportunities.
3- Literature Review
When analysing Art Machine against the theoretical framework of my dissertation, it is clear that there are many connections between the two. Firstly, at the start of my dissertation literature review it is stated by Kerrigan (2017) that the film industry is ‘dominated by the Hollywood majors’ (Kerrigan,2017:13), Art Machine further supports this with 15 out of their last 20 print film projects being created for Hollywood major clients. However, it could be argued that this is the case due to Art Machine being an out-of-house agency and therefore smaller independent film companies create their own promotional materials as they cannot afford to outsource their marketing.
Looking into the ideas of out-of-house agencies in more detail, Gray (2010) argues that using these companies can produce ‘ample opportunity for creative disconnects, and for uninspired paratexts that do little to situate either themselves or the viewer in the story world’ (Gray,2010:207). This could therefore be seen within the work of Art Machine with most projects containing multiple posters of the same design, as well as the overall composition of the posters doing very little to portray the narrative of the film to audiences (as seen below).
However, Art Machine believe this isn’t the case, with them stating that their projects have ‘great ideas [and] even better design’ (ArtMachine,2022). Therefore, it could be seen that this is a bigger issue than just this company, with Art Machine and others having to put more focus into attracting and maintaining an audience than the design of the posters themselves. Heath (1977) explores this idea when stating that ‘the individual film counts for little in its particularity as opposed to the general circulation which guarantees the survival’ (Heath,1977:28). The same could be considered with the promotional materials that support these films, as agencies such as Art Machine have to maintain audience interest in a film for months before the theatrical release. Looking at Art Machines most recent 20 print film projects again we can see that there is an average of 4 posters created per film by Art Machine, with other agencies also making posters for the same films as well. Also, large film companies such as Marvel and Lucas Films can be seen to have an average of 12 posters made by Art machine, further supporting the priority of maintaining interest over unique and creative design.
This discussion into the designs of posters is also supported by Klinger (1989) who presents the idea that industries are not ‘primarily interested with producing coherent interpretations of a film… the goal of promotion is to produce multiple avenues of access to the text… in order to maximise its audience’ (Klinger,1989:10). Although Art Machine can be seen to believe that their print marketing has ‘great ideas [and] even better design’ (ArtMachine,2022), further analysis of their about section also shows that they state Art Machine ‘cut through the clutter, engage moviegoers and increase viewership for our studio partners’ (ArtMachine,2022). This statement could therefore be interpreted as Art Machine themselves realising the changes in the film marketing industry, with them having to put more focus on the audience than the designs. Also, the idea of ‘cut[ting] through the clutter’ could be interpreted as Art Machine being aware that they are unable to create unique and creative designs as the Hollywood majors regard this as ‘clutter’, preferring a simple poster that is easy to digest for a large potential audience.
Finally, the last connection Art Machine has to the literature review of my dissertation comes from their expansion into creating social media content, as seen through their ‘digital/social’ (ArtMachine,2022) section on the website. When looking into why this is important, Gray (2010) states that ‘posters are often only one element of a concerted advertising campaign… internet advertising has become par for the course with new media products’ (Gray,2010:57). This therefore shows that it is important for Art Machine to stay on top of recent changes and trends within the industry, making sure that they are able to offer Hollywood majors the best potential advertising campaigns for a film, flowing across multiple social platforms as well as digital and print.
4- Findings & Analysis
It is obvious that there are clear connections between my literature review and Art Machine. Therefore, the findings and analysis of these connections completed within my dissertation will help further benefit Art Machine in the view to present possible improvements or changes in the way they view the promotional materials created.
Within my findings it was discovered that audiences prefer traditional posters such Star Wars: A New Hope due the combination of a unique composition as well as an art style that is no longer seen within a contemporary society. This issue is reflected within the sequel trilogy posters with the art style of the originals being replaced for realistic photoshop images which fail to connect with the audience. Art Machine can be seen to be at fault for these issues with the company producing the official poster for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Although the overall poster was ranked low within the Star Wars fanbase, interviews within my findings showed that Art Machines reference to the original posters through the white boarder at the bottom, was an element that many fans like about this poster.
As well as the movement away from a unique art style, Art Machine can also be partially at fault for the self-defined Celebrity Pyramid composition of posters explored within my findings and analysis. This composition of poster sees multiple characters/actors stacked on top of each other, often focusing on the protagonist or highest paid actor at the top. Analysing this style of poster against Art Machine, it can be seen that 7 of their last 20 promotional campaigns for film releases use this style of poster. This analysis shows that Art Machine do in fact focus on producing more unique posters when it comes to their composition, yet are still tied down my major studios such as Star Wars and Marvel as they prefer to use similar, recognisable compositions to help attract their audience.
Therefore, with these two elements of artistic style and composition in mind, Art Machine can clearly be seen to fit into the ideas of the film marketing industry going through stages of similarities and trends. In my dissertation research into this showed that although we view traditional posters as unique through their art style, it was actually just a trend of the time that we have now moved past, looking back at it with a sense of positive nostalgia. With this in mind, the current trends of contemporary posters (celebrity pyramid and real images), can also be viewed as just another trend that the industry will move past. With large corporations currently viewing the importance of portraying the celebrities in the film, over the piece of media itself. This could be due to the recent rise of the Web 2.0 and industries still trying to figure out the best way to maximise their audience using these digital outlets.
5- Where Next? -
Using these ideas presented above as well as the extensive research found within my dissertation, it is clear that there is confusion between audiences longing for nostalgia through traditional “artistic” film posters, but also a need for industries to move into the next trend for film posters. Currently, as stated above, the industry is still trying to figure out the best way to implement digital technologies into the traditional promotional media text of the film poster. At the moment in time industries are focusing on the celebrity power, due to social media resulting in this having a major rise and celebrities influence on audiences rapidly growing. This can be seen within my research on the Star Wars posters, but also within my case study of Art Machine across multiple different campaigns.
With this in mind, I aim to create my own piece of promotional material, in the form of a film poster. This will aim to fix both issues presented above, bring nostalgia back to audiences, but also exploring a possible outlet for industries to develop a new trend of film posters, harnessing the possibilities digital technology and social media have given us. The film poster created will keep its focus on the Star Wars franchise, taking a contemporary film and remaking the poster in a traditional format. This will revive the artistic style and composition loved amongst fans. Once this has been achieved, I will then add unique and innovative moving elements to the poster, catching the eye of audiences in a digital environment. This implementation of moving elements on an often still media text will help push the boundaries, hopefully sparking a new trend that will be used across the industry and by companies such as Art machine.
Word Count- 2335
Bibliography-
Art Machine (2022) Available at: https://www.artmachine.com/ (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Bump, P (2022) The Marketing Trends of 2022 [New Data]. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-trends (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Forsey, C (2021) What is Marketing, and What’s Its Purpose?. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-marketing (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Gray, J (2010) Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts. New York and London: New York University Press.
Heath, S (1977) ‘Screen Images- Film Memory’, in Cine-Tracts. 1(1), pp. 27-37.
IMP Awards (no date) Available at: http://www.impawards.com/designers/ (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Inman, P (2020) How Many Ads Do You See In A Day?. Available at: https://75media.co.uk/blog/how-many-ads-seen-one-day/ (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Kerrigan, F (2017) Film Marketing. London and New York: Routledge.
Linkedin (2022) Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trailerparkgroup/about/ (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Smart Insights (no date) Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/tag/marketing-using-virtual-and-augmented-reality/ (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Statista (2021) Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/818754/global-marketing-data-market-size/#:~:text=Global%20marketing%20data%20market%20was,billion%20in%20the%20same%20period (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
Woods, S (2016) #Sponsored: The Emergence of Influencer Marketing. Supervised Undergraduate Student research and Creative Work. University of Tennessee. Available at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3010&context=utk_chanhonoproj (Accessed: 23 March 2022).
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