Marketing: the pragmatic art of posters
In an era where everything but the kitchen sink is moving online, is there much strength left in traditional forms of outdoor advertising? Hansika Bhagani found that the humble movie and TV poster is still very much alive.
Promotional posters may be as old as the moving image itself, but this old marketing and artistic tradition has not lost its relevance. Ahmed Salama, creative director at DLSHS Film says key art is as important as it ever was: “Besides the trailer, the poster is the primary representation a screen project has in the physical world. People think it’s just a poster, but it’s an immensely powerful thing. In some cases it can even add to the entire narrative of a film outside of the cinema”.
Along with Salama’s company (The Combination, Cedar Boys), there is a relatively small circle of creatives that produce most film key art in Australia.
Jeremy Saunders has been among the most prolific. Saunders is a self-taught designer who has worked for many of the big-name Australian film releases, a few of the small ones and some reworked international titles. Although he often begins the process of design when the film might only be half completed, part of the trick is maintaining a balance between pleasing people and having a strong storytelling sense: “You’ve got a director who is all over the project and has very distinct ideas about how the film should be told, but equally often is too close to the film to be able to step back from a marketing perspective. The producers have obviously been working on the film for years and have a huge interest in making it the sort of campaign they would be proud of. And then again you’ve got the distributor who in most cases is paying for it. So we have to make sure that they are happy and they need to think that as well. But at the same time, you’ve got to avoid compromise with posters, because it never works. People can smell that from a mile away.”
Key art by Jeremy Saunders (click to view full image):
Salama agrees that producing key art requires a fine balance. “Because of the large number of creative stakeholders invested in each film project, whom each all have their opinions, the process can get muddy very quick. This is why, contractually, we seek a single point of contact from the filmmakers or distributor, which we liaise with formally on all final sign offs and amendments.”
Another player in the Australian industry is Carnival Studios. Led by Creative Director Demi Hopkins, they’ve worked on local releases such as Uninhabited and Unfinished Sky, as well as re-branding international posters for an Australian audience. The process for Hopkins and his team is similar to what Saunders and Salama go through. “We will generally watch the film and be briefed by the client on what they’re hoping to achieve and project. Initially it’s about understanding who the film is trying to speak to and whether there is anything specific that needs to be said. The direction and tone is really the crux and once the client is confident of the direction, we spend an equal amount of time on the finishing of artwork – colour grading, image retouching and compositing and title treatment design” he said.
Unlike Saunders and Salama though, the budget for many of the films he’s worked on doesn’t include road-testing the key art on audiences.
Saunders says audience testing is important because that’s who the materials will have to work on. “It’s great because you get to see people’s feedback immediately and often you can sit there and watch with bemusement at how they come to the conclusions they do from the image that you’ve given them, but it is really useful .” He recalls having to go back to the drawing board on more than one occasion based on audience feedback, “In The World’s Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins, all the audience wanted to see him on the poster, and they all wanted to know that it was a true story. That was really important to them.” Although he preferred to execute a more creative concept, he went back to square one. “Generally people want to see who’s in it. You get some strange responses, like they might think there aren’t any people in it, I don’t know, what kind of film do you see that isn’t animated that didn’t have anybody in it? But people do like to be reassured.”
GOING INTERACTIVE
At Network Ten, the poster for a TV show is often the first glimpse an audience will get into an upcoming programme, said Grant Gilles, Ten’s network marketing manager who oversaw the campaigns for The Biggest Loser, Offspring and the US drama The Good Wife. “We would start a print campaign as much as eight weeks out from the launch of a show; that is well before the on-air promotion might commence.” The staggered promotional period is aimed at generating a broad awareness across the public sphere before other forms of advertising are released.
“In that respect, a well designed poster can make a significant difference in strengthening the marketing campaign and connecting a program with its audience” says Gillies.
It may not be long before key art becomes an integral part of the point of sale. In Korea users of SK Telecom can point their mobile phone at a movie poster to buy tickets for that film. In other countries it’s more commonplace for viewers to download trailers and ringtones from the soundtrack. The increase in the use of smart phones will drive advances like these.
Today, more than ever, the concept of a poster is carried through not only to cinema, print advertising and billboards but to DVD packages, websites, and even iPhone Apps. Online trailers, viral campaigns, Twitter posts are the new tricks on the block used to sell a film. For Gillies, the emergence of interactive technologies means a bigger platform with which to engage audiences. It means innovation is required in a traditionally static medium, “Our audience expects high quality from us – both in terms of the creative and also innovation in the marketing of the programs. So when we launched The Good Wife we used street posters as a distribution point for a free copy of the first episode; with The Biggest Loser we gave away free pedometers via street posters; and for Offspring, we utilised blue-tooth technology to give away music from the Offspring soundtrack as ring tones.”
As well as embracing interactivity, there’s more to a well-designed poster than meets the eye. Gillies says, “The challenge for a poster to be effective is for it to combine the presentation of a program
brand (quite often, a new one), a positioning statement about the show and the ‘tune in’ details, as well as all our collateral being on-brand for the Network. It has to do all those jobs, while still being
clean and clear”
The bottom line for all key art lies in its ability to attract viewers, and generate brand awareness. Saunders says it’s difficult to gauge whether that directly translates into bums on seats, but he believes a poster has done its job when it communicates the film effectively. “You’re generating an audience for the trailer or for reviews or to make people aware when their friends are tweeting about it or it’s just to raise the profile of the film in people’s minds so that the next time they hear the words Inception or Griff the Invisible they already understand it on some level because they’ve seen the image.” However, the recognition of movie posters as legitimate artwork is also slowly becoming appreciated worldwide. The key art of Saul Bass and Drew Struzan have been much celebrated in the media and the Key Art awards hosted by The Hollywood Reporter, now in its 39th year recognises the talent of film marketing – key art, TV commercials, packaging and new media. In Australia there’s no such significant recognition of film or TV illustration although the Promax ANZ awards go some way to recognising print and outdoor advertising for television.
The future for key art, its producers agree, is still strong. The growing popularity of digital advertising and social media means the marketing budget will have to spread into wider areas and the print media campaign may become a supporting asset rather than the primary marketing asset it was just 10 years ago. Yet the key art will still need to work in a somewhat different context, albeit with the
same goal. Salama sees the traditional still medium being swapped over for subtle motion posters. They’ll be shot using digital cinema cameras and look like traditional posters with added movement
“We’re able to bring to life things like the characters engaging with the audience, as well as bring to life the graphical elements of the poster in motion to create an immersive rich poster experience.”
Hopkins too is excited about the possibilities for creative treatment with the new technologies, “We can see a future where it is common place for concepts to be developed at an early stage that will
work across static print forms and digital. While the communication channels keep expanding, I believe key art will remain vital for strong campaigns, it’ll just be adapted across many platforms.”
And no matter what technology is the flavour of the day, an iconic image will always have the potential to stay with the audience long after many of the film scenes have disappeared from memory.
Interesting thoughts. And very well-written. Thanks for sharing!
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Just kidding..this type of approach is refreshing and believe it’s just what Aussie films need. Keep the great work up!
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