As my genre is horror, I have decided to analysis the Paranormal Activity franchise campaign. I will be analysing the posters, trailers and any other marketing techniques used. This will benefit me when, I am creating my trailers and posters as I may be able to incorporate some techniques used in this campaign to my own. There are 3 films already within the franchise, and a fourth being released only a few weeks away.
Posters
The Paranormal Activity Campaigns posters all follow the same style or theme, as they show ether a tag line or quote at the top of the page in order to express to readers about the content of the film. The style of the posters are very basic, they have a black background and consists of the main image being central to the poster. However the image consists of a CCTV image of a bedroom or a character. This is in order to give audiences a sneak peak of what could in tail within the film, and gives the poster enigma towards audiences which therefore could persuade audiences to go see the film. The title of the movie is placed below the main image, in the typical textual font which stands out towards audiences as they know that this is a paranormal activity film. These posters act as a teaser for audiences as the reveal very little of the film, however it gives the public knowledge about a new paranormal activity film. All poster of the Paranormal Activity campaign all follow the same house style and theme.
As you can see, above are Paranormal Activity 4 and 3 posters above. They both follow the same house style, this keeps the franchise consistent and unique as target audiences and fans know what Paranormal Activity posters look like.
Trailers
As you can see I have displayed paranormal activity trailer 4 and 2, I have done this in order to show, how all the trailers follow the same style in terms of using hand held devices to video most parts of the footage. This has been done in order to create a buzz and a unique atmosphere towards the trailers, as the first film was made for a mere $15,000 this campaign prides itself in simplicity therefore always using hand held camera scenes to make the trailer unique and appeal to audiences. Most scenes are filmed in night vision to create suspense and make it creepy and uncountable for audiences. As many hardcore horror fans will not have seen I hand held camera trailer since the Blair With Project. Each trailer consistently features quick fast actions, and non digectic sound this is in order to make each shot snappy and effective towards audiences which creates enigma. And leaves a stain on audiences mind, making them want more of the film.
Viral Marketing
This is where Paranormal Activity the franchise was most effective during the whole of the marketing campaign, as this was there sole focus. The first paranormal activity films relied solely on word of mouth, twitter and facebook and other viral sites.
Their main focus was on social networks, like twitter. They encouraged the people who have seen it (during it’s limited release) to “Tweet Their Screams,” basically to write reviews. Almost all of the reviews were good and only 140 characters long, which doesn’t leave room for much criticism, which lead to the larger limited release, mainly focused on college towns.
After Paramount saw the success in those few towns, they knew they had to get this film out on a larger scale. They allowed users to “demand” the film in their town, giving us (the users) the power to decide where this film will play next. In the mean time, Paramount said if they react 1 million “demands” they would release it nationally. Eventually it did. “Paranormal Activity” has been on the trending topics of twitter for a few weeks now, which states how well the viral marketing campaign is doing.
The twitter and facebook campaigns regularly update fans about the latest news and instalments of the franchise. And are used effectively as they are regularly posting up pictures and linking fans to the latest trailers of the film. Which creates an extra buzz and hype about the franchise.
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