P4 B

P4 B – Advertising

Advertising has been crucially important for every film that Walt Disney Pictures has ever produced. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was no different for Disney, as they knew that the best way to make the most amount of money and get the largest audience possible was by advertising the film many months before its release. This helps explain why advertising for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was so important and was such a high priority for Disney.

The most common form of advertising is trailers, trailers are depended on so heavily by film companies in the 21^st century such as Walt Disney Pictures because of how good they are at making the public aware that the film is on its way whilst also giving audiences a taster of what they can expect to see when the film is released. Today, there are many ways in which film trailers can be viewed, with the most common method being through YouTube. Film trailers can also be seen dotted throughout social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and can also be seen on our TV screens when the adverts are showing in between programs making trailers a great way to get through to the public.

A recent example of promotion/advertising for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the release of Star Wars Battlefront on the 17^th November 2015. The game was released around a month before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a bid to increase the films popularity for release day. The release of Star Wars: Battlefront not only got people extremely hyped for the release of the new Star Wars film and helped increase its public awareness, but it also massively boosted Disney’s profits from the saga (which they bought from LucasFilm in 2012). Star Wars Battlefront went on to sell 12 million copies worldwide and made Disney a gross profit of around $660 million despite receiving mixed reviews from game critics and the gaming community. It has also got to be given some level of credit for helping Star Wars: The Force Awakens earn over $2 billion at the global box office.

The availability of merchandise before a film’s release is also used as a form of advertising. This is something that Disney did with Star Wars: The Force Awakens with toys and clothing related to the film being put on sale months before the release of the film. This therefore helped garner popularity for the film as people would see the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” logo dotted around stores which would make them aware of the films existence which would in-turn make them more likely to go and see it. Fans of the saga would go out and buy toys that they knew were going to be featured in the new film such as lightsabers and helmets, this then made them more likely to go see the new Star Wars film as they would be eager to see the toys they bought appear on screen giving their toys a sense of worth.