Marketing

3. How has the film been marketed to ensure it successfully reaches its target audience?

• To market Avatar, 20th Century Fox used a viral marketing campaign to reach the films' correct target audience. The marketing content was very specifically aimed at the audience, using the website - www.avtr.com - to launch a recruitment campaign for the users to take part in a mission on Pandora. This increases audience interaction with the film and the easy to use website interface means that a wide demographic can use the website - further increasing appeal. The method of narrow-casting has been used by 20th Century Fox in terms of their marketing strategy as when the website user is 'recruited' they must input their details - allowing 20th Century Fox to use these details to target specific audiences in the future through viral email campaigns, promotional offers and film related products.
• The avtr.com website includes links to become a fan on facebook and twitter which shows yet another link with modern technologies - an aspect that plays a significant role in attracting the correct target audience, the young, internet-using generation. You can also post reviews about Avatar on the avtr.com website via Facebook and Twitter which adds interactivity. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube played a key role in the viral marketing campaign with official pages, blogs and videos being posted regularly to keep up audience attention and maintain the hype of the film. Audience interaction is built up on the avtr.com website with the use of 'Alison Boyd' who is part of the Avatar world and provides the audience with another way to immerse themselves in the world of Pandora.

• The official movie website - www.avatarmovie.com - opens with a full screen image showing reviews of the film - instantly grabbing the attention of the audience and showing them how well rated the film is by critics. The next thing the website shows is the full length trailer of Avatar - throwing the audience into the world of the film. The rest of the website includes screenshots and information about the film to give the audience a taster of what they're to expect from Avtar and even has background music to set the scene.

• Unlike with most games, the director of Avatar James Cameron played a key role in developing the video game of the film. He felt that in the past neither enough attention to detail or money was invested in video games and used this phenomenally expensive project as a way of changing this and perhaps revolutionising the industry. The game itself is a prequel to the film and allows the player to enter the world of Pandora before we see it in the film - this set up the film for the audience and also gives the chance to provide background information. As the game was directly linked with the film, it's high budget graphics and set up is unrivalled by previous film games and even allows Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers to play the game in 3D.

• Avatar had several sponsorship deals with well known 'superbrands' LG and Coca Cola - both of which had their own respective websites to endorse Avatar. This is a mutually beneficial relationship and the two are working in synergy to earn publicity and money for one another. In the US, McDonalds offered a free Avatar card with every meal which endorsed the film and would have seen sales increase as people wanted to collect all eight limited edition pieces of merchandise. These are examples of cross media convergence and would have benefited Avatar as all three brands are extremely well known globally and appeal to a wide audience.