Evaluating the Marketing Campaign for 'Remember Me'

Now I have finished creating all of the elements of my marketing campaign for the romantic comedy 'Remember Me' I am going to answer the following four evaluation questions:

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?
• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
• How do your products engage with the audience?
• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

In terms of the representation of social groups, I have focused mostly on the representation of gender (both male and female) as this seemed most appropriate because of my chosen film genre, romantic comedy. 

Conventionally, films from this genre feature romance blossoming between members of the opposite sex, and I have chosen to follow this convention with my characters throughout the trailers, but also indicated clearly in the image and copy on my poster. 

Emma, the female lead seen in the trailers, poster and social media pages advertising my film ‘Remember Me’, is represented stereotypically, with her presented as ‘feminine’ and ‘appearance focused’, similar to the representation of female leads in romantic comedies that I analysed as part of my research such as 'Mean Girls', 'Legally Blonde' and 'Clueless', though without the mean streak that the lead characters in some of those films have.

However, in my film I have slightly subverted the conventional male stereotype often seen in romantic comedies, where the male character is usually portrayed as overly confident or in control. 

Instead, my male protagonist is presented in a more natural and relatable way, showing that he is thoughtful but also slightly nervous and emotional about the proposal. 

This is reflected through his actions in the trailers, where he is shown taking deep breaths while looking at the ring and checking the time on his watch, highlighting that he is organised but also aware of how important the moment is.

These, and numerous other, scenes are intended to establish the major character traits of both characters, and therefore create expectations for the audience about how each of them will react in situations later in the narrative. I represented them both like this to encourage the audience to root for them to end up together and for them to be presented as likeable and relatable. 

To question whether they will overcome the challenges yet to come and if they are seen as ‘too perfect’ of a couple to get through the barrier or narrative ‘obstacle’ to their respective chances of finding happiness, and this representation will create expectations in the audience that they may struggle to last as a couple, and therefore, sets up the characters’ narrative challenge.

I have also considered the representation of age in both my trailers by presenting the main characters as a young couple. They are shown as fun, cute and in love but still relatable, particularly through their everyday routines and interactions. 

For example, singing and dancing in the car, laughing on the train, or showing them having a disagreement and not looking happy to show that the relationship has ups and downs like real ones do. 

Making the characters young helps to appeal to my target audience, as they are more likely to relate to their relationship and experiences. It also reinforces the romantic comedy genre, as younger couples are often used to explore themes of love, commitment, and future plans (such as the proposal).

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

My research into film marketing campaigns highlighted that distributors work very hard at creating consistency across the various elements of the advertising for the film, so that audiences are aware of exactly which film is being promoted, and make links between the trailers, posters and social media pages that they see. In a crowded marketplace, consistent branding can be crucial and it is important that the different elements of a film marketing campaign build upon, and reinforce, each other.

The elements of each of my productions, the trailers, the poster and the social media pages, work together to create a sense of branding through, for example, using the same font on each of the media products. 

I chose Vogue, a font commonly associated with films from the romantic comedy genre, in all of my copies from the titles and billing in my trailers, to the copy on my poster, tying all of my media products nicely together.

This sense of branding is reinforced by a unified colour scheme across my products, where I have used softer colours more commonly associated with rom-coms.

There are numerous other elements which tie my products together, from the use of similar images of the film’s stars (in all of my products) to the use of the same tagline – ‘some hearts remember, what the mind forgets.’ – in my trailers and posters. 

The names of the cast and crew are consistent across the billing blocks on my poster and in my trailers, as is the release date for the film - August 31st - which appears across all of the elements of my campaign.

Finally, each of the elements of my marketing campaign features reviews praising the film, to encourage audiences to believe that 'Remember Me' is a must-see movie.

How do your products engage with the audience?

It is crucial when marketing films that each element of the campaign resonates with the target demographic. I wanted the audience to care enough about my central characters from seeing them in the trailers, to want to go and see the film and to root for them to succeed in love. 

Here, the representations I mentioned previously were crucial. In terms of making each of my products engaging, I worked hard at ensuring they would appeal to my chosen demographic and that they would encourage the audience to see the film.

My trailers uses lots of techniques to engage audiences, from the production company logos at the beginning which indicate that this is big-budget movie from companies with a proven track record in making successful romantic comedies, to the up-tempo pop music that will encourage the audience that this is a feel-good movie and will be fun to watch. 

The taglines outline the character traits of each character (supported by the images) and I establish the narrative conundrum in the trailer, so that the audience want to see the film to see if the characters can overcome this. The tagline indicates to the audience that this is a perfect date movie, and reinforces that the central theme will revolve around the characters finding love.

The TV spot is faster-paced, and more of a montage of many of the funny, cute,‘stupid moments in the film, which would be released in the week before the film’s premiere, to drive audiences to the cinema. It also includes more footage, not previously seen in the theatrical trailer, to tease the audience with more information about the plot and characters in the film. Many of these endearing outakes would appear on the social media pages for 'Remember Me' to try to align the spectator with the characters.

My poster also makes reference to popular and successful romantic comedies – 'Notting Hill' and 'Love Actually' – made by the same director. 

This will encourage audiences familiar with these movies to see the film, almost giving 'Remember Me' a seal of approval. The social media page for the film engages with audiences by including behind-the-scenes reels and drip feeding information about the film’s release. 

Social media platforms, like Instagram, encourage audience interaction. I would hope that followers would share this information, using the hashtags, second chances.

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Throughout the planning stage of my project, I logged all of my research onto a blog so that I could quickly and easily refer to my findings when creating my trailers, film poster and social media page. 

Romantic Comedy Research 1

Romantic Comedy Research 2

Romantic Comedy Research 3

Romantic Comedy Trailers - Research

Romantic Comedy Posters - Research

Romantic Comedy Social Media Pages - Research

Much of the research I did was related to conventions (of the different media but also of my chosen genre) and I was able to look back at my findings when creating my products so that I could incorporate these conventions into my trailers, poster and social media page. This was incredibly helpful in enabling me to create authentic media products from my genre. 

For the trailer research, I found that a common convention (which I have incorporated into my trailers) was the inclusion of production company logos/idents at the beginning of trailers (often adapted for genre and accompanied with pop music).

I have included logos for Universal and Working Title – all production companies with a proven track record of making romantic comedies. 

Universal has made rom-com farces such as 'Bridesmaids' and 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' and Working Title have made 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', 'Notting Hill' and 'Love Actually'. I also included these production company logos in the billing block of my film poster. 

The font which I used for my trailers, film poster and social media page, went with the usual conventions of fonts used in romantic comedies. My research suggested that conventionally, the fonts used in rom-coms are serif and stereotypically ‘arty’, with flicks and feet, which represent the softer tone of the genre (compared to action films, or horrors). I have used the font Vogue which has the majority of those conventions. I also noticed that many romantic comedies used upper case fonts for their titles, so I adopted this for mine.

In terms of my storyline and the use of film language I do not challenge conventions at all in my film. I followed the classic narrative structure and patterns of romantic comedies – the couple seen in love, everything going well, there is an obstacle in their way (shown at the end of the trailers, with the car crash), they overcome this obstacle and they end up together.