Marketing Comparison - Film4 & Hollywood Blockbusters

Film4 films are marketed in a much more subtle way, in comparison to how Hollywood Blockbusters are. For example, films such as ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’, and ‘This Is England’ were never really used for major advertising campaigns, or were never attached to a brand in build up to the films release. Whereas, with a film such as ‘The Dark Knight’ the marketing strategies were completely different. The film itself was attached to the Burger King brand, and there was even a new burger released at the time to help promote the film further. When Hollywood Blockbusters are being marketed, its all about promoting the film as much as you can, without making the audience become sick of the film before they have even saw it. Film4 films rarely spend a lot of time making sure that their film is the most anticipated, although there was an exception with ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. This film was extremely popular, and many people took advantage of the fact that this film was successful. For example, ‘The Pussycat Dolls’ released a single that was a re-work of one of the soundtracks to the film. Not only did this get the soundtrack of the film instantly recognised, but it also promoted and advertised the fact that this film was unique at the time, as there weren’t many films with Indian music around. The film was also constantly talked about due to its success at the Oscars and its other various accolades. Then again, this is one of the very few Film4 Films that are marketed in a way that is similar to a Hollywood Blockbuster film. Film4 films are usually marketed in a way that means they aren’t promoted and advertised everywhere you look, but they are known, and spoke about. Hollywood Blockbusters marketing strategies are completely different to Film4, and this is probably due to the fact that Film4 is an Independent film company. As a result of this, Film4 films have a lot smaller budget in comparison to big Hollywood Blockbusters, so they have to be a lot more cautious when it comes to making decisions on what to spend money on. Whereas, Hollywood Blockbusters usually have big budgets where they can afford to spend a lot of money on marketing, and promotions. Hollywood Blockbusters also have enough money to put their films on general release, whereas Film4 would usually put their films in selected cinemas, and on limited release. This saves them money, and also they get to choose very carefully where they want to put the film, so the film has more of a chance of being successful in carefully selected cinemas. This proves to be better, as appose to putting a film that doesn’t really appeal to a wide range of audiences on general release, and seeing that it is only successful in a few cinemas-resulting in a drastic waste of money, something companies like Film4 really can’t afford to do. Film4 have to carefully market their films because they want to get as many viewers as they can, without spending too much money on actually advertising the film. Hollywood Blockbusters seem to have an outlook where they feel that marketing, promoting and advertising their film is one of the most important things. Marketing is one of the biggest elements for seeing whether the film is going to successful or not, if the marketing is a big flop and ends up being a waste of money, then it isn’t a very good reflection on the films future success.