Good looking poster campaigns

A successful poster campaign

Example of the viral posters,
would be placed on a bus stop in real life

I have been looking at film poster campaigns that I think have been interesting so that I can develop the ideas for my own film poster campaign.  I think that the campaign for the film DISTRICT 9 (2009) has lots of great elements that I would like to build into my poster campaign.  I have also chosen to review this poster campaign as the film was in the action/thriller film genre which is an area I am interested in for my own short film.  District 9 was a successful film despite having a limited budget in terms of feature film ($30 million) and no A list celebrity actors.  

Sony Pictures used a viral marketing campaign which started a year before the film trailer in July 2009 with a clear tag line of ‘Humans Only’.  Not only using posters, they also developed stickers and put their images in lots of different places to create interest in the film.  These are all really good examples of Teaser posters and images to create interest in the film.  I think we can easily develop these ideas for the poster campaign.  Because the film is shot like a documentary the poster campaign really works by putting images into the day to day life of its possible target audiences – as if the film is real life.

Their traditional poster

The final ‘traditional’ posters for launching the film built on the campaign and are very effective.  It’s also interesting that because the film did not have very famous actors in it they chose to highlight the Directors who would be known by the cinema going public for other successful films (Lord of the Rings).  In my poster campaign I won’t have any famous actors or directors so I need to think about the best way to present the film poster for impact.

Influences on me:

As I won't have any famous actors and I'm not exactly a world famous director I need to think of other ways to make my film posters interesting and sell my film. I think that the viral stickers and posters used to advertise District 9 would be a good option to go with as it would quickly gain the public's interest if placed in the right places.