Campaign Analysis - Warner Bros' "It - Chapter One"

"It - Chapter One" Campaign

Introduction 

This campaign begun by teasing the launch of the new horror film based on Stephen King’s novel of the same title, called “It”, with Andy Muschietti directing. This film is part of a two-film series, and acts as the first 'chapter', diving into the protagonist's earlier lives. Warner Bros, who were responsible for the advertising, created a whole campaign roll out for the launch. To consolidate their campaign and the launch of the new film, Warner Bros created and used a plethora of different methods to ensure they would be able to capture the general public’s attention, an the pre-existing fans of this iconic, and infamous creature known as Pennywise, The Dancing Clown. These methods were: multiple teaser trailers until the ultimate trailer was released; a VR experience which enabled viewers to actually put themselves into the shoes of the children of Derry; multiple elusive publicity stunts denoted as hints and easter eggs placed around Australia, and the USA of the infamous red helium balloon tied to drain grates, with ominous statements denoting how “It’s closer than you think”; a website released nearly a whole year earlier, sporting a gallery with lots of videos and photos; traditional media carrying out interviews with most of the cast and crew involved including the costume designer which would be considered to be a major aspect of this film – due to it effectively being a creature feature; an 8-bit video game that puts audiences into the sewers of Derry; countless posters and billboards denoting the launch date of the film as well as hinting at Bill Skarsgard’s reiteration and interpretation of his own Pennywise. 

Target audience 

The target audience of these campaigns would be of a demographic of young adults(15+) and older, of mainly any lifestyle but mostly ABC1 as you’d have to have enough disposable income to buy tickets, disc copies or subscriptions to streaming services, as well as have enough time to go out and actually watch it. This is mainly thanks to it residing in the horror genre alongside denoting extreme violence, strong horror elements, and lots of derogatory language and slurs. Also, a possible reason for this target audience being older (35+ etc) is because Stephen King’s novel originally was released in September of 1986, and so a large chunk of the audience for this particular media product would be at least 35 due to that being when the novel released. Additionally, pre-existing fans of this particular novel would be familiar with the typical features and elements of the novel – for example the clown/circus elements denoted via the use of the infamous red helium balloons, as well as the fact that they’re tied onto sewer grates which is commonly connoted with the antagonist known as Pennywise. However, younger aspects of the target audience were lured in through the social media and offline marketing aspects of the campaign, due to them being digital natives, they’re familiar with technology and also most likely go out and about a lot, enabling them to see the offline marketing in the form of billboards, posters, and balloons tied to grates. 

 

                                                    Key Messages 

Warner Bros is trying to create awareness for their new film, by making the general public excited and thus causing them to be enthusiastic about the film’s upcoming release. They were tasked with creating a completely unique yet eye catching launch campaign for the theatrical release of It, attracting audiences from all over the world, from many different cultures and lifestyles who would ultimately all come together, like a community, to watch and divulge into the terrors that the film was anticipated to give. Luckily, their campaign worked very well, successfully growing the pre-existing fans and audience of Stephen King literature in order for them to enjoy the adaptations of his work onto the big screen. 

 

Engaging an audience 

They engage their audience by using almost elusive imagery, such as red helium balloons, which would be very intriguing due to them being placed in random locations. These locations meant that the red balloons were tied ominously onto American sewer grates, acting as an easter egg for past fans of Stephen King’s novels to realise what they signifed. This act of promotion was rather risky due to the niche target audience of horror novels, however another adaptation of Stephen King’s It was released in 1990, a short series of two episodes directed and produced by Tommy Lee Wallace which became very globally successful and won numerous awards for it - thus making the world of “It” become less of a niche category for the general public. Additionally, due to the fact that Warner Bros also released an 8-bit video game as part of the campaign launch, it engages the audience further by making them actually be able to interact with the product in a new and enticing way. This particular method of video games transforms the audience from a regular passive audience, by just watching the films, and reading the novels, to an active one, where they can actually get deeper into the world of It, and personally feel the terror that Pennywise inflicts onto their favourite characters onscreen and on the pages. Having the audience actually be in the character’s shoes causes them to feel more involved and passionate about this particular product, by perhaps feeling empathetic towards the people denoted in the novels and series due to now having actually felt a sense of the pain and suffering they endured.  

 

How demographics, issues, and stereotypes are used to enforce the campaign. 

They used some completely new, unique and innovative ideas on how they could advertise and promote the film, denoting that it’s something that’s worth your time to go and see – implying it’s got a large budget and lot’s of celebrity endorsement. The celebrity endorsement side of this campaign is mostly depicted through the cast, however it’s also denoted through the original novel’s author as Stephen King acknowledged that he reportedly “had hopes” but ultimately wasn’t “prepared for how good it really was”. This enforces the campaign as people look up at celebrities as inspiration, and ideal self and partners, meaning that they will most likely listen to what they have to say and as well as to what they vouch for, believing that they’ll like it too if they do. Also, to have the actual creative mind behind the entire concept of It to come out and state how much the film exceeded his expectations, emphasises this and gives the campaign credibility and status. Furthermore, advertising for horror films is usually rather difficult as you, as the advertiser, cannot give too much away at all otherwise it ruins the suspense and thrill of a horror, however you also can’t not give enough away as then the audience have nothing to relate to, nor grip or attract them with so therefore they won’t care enough about the release to go and see it in cinemas. 

 

The campaign's logistics 

In order for this campaign to garner the most attention it realistically could get, planning and scheduling would have had to be completed years before. A budget being pre-defined with all the different media being acquired and ready to go. For a campaign this large, ubiquitous, and extreme, they would’ve had to have a massive budget (luckily for Warner Bros, they’re a large, and defined conglomerate in the media industry meaning they’d already have access to lots of funds to allow this to happen) however the actual figure was never disclosed to the public. The official website for IT debuted on August 31, 2016 which was the first real advertisement part of their campaign. Allowing their target audience to access the campaign through an easily accessible website, and see footage and videos for the actual film nearly a year before it’s release. This allowed for them to immediately gain traction. Quite a long time after came the teaser trailers and then soon the official trailer which released on March 29, 2017, which was nearly 6 months before the official theatrical release date. Furthermore, they also made the cast and crew appear on many talk shows and be interviewed a lot too in the lead up to the release.  

 

Legal and ethical issues 

Due to being an adaptation of a book, Warner Bros had a lot to consider legally. They had to get permission from Stephen King, the author or the original material, in order to take his narrative and characters and develop them into a film product. Although, due to the novel having more than 1000 words, the adaptation had to be split into two films which together both sum up to around 5 hours of film – which even then a lot of the narrative from the novel had to be cut out. Some content that was cut out from the novel was most likely due to ethical reasons. For example, one of the penultimate scenes from the book was cut due to it being heavily controversial – considered an overtly sexual scene, in order to escape from the antagonist, Pennywise, the underage group of protagonists (AKA “The Losers”) were made to perform a ‘ritual’, symbolising their move from childhood that made them vulnerable in the first place (due to the antagonist solely preying on children). Furthermore, the novel’s depiction of gay men in particular was also controversial due to them being a heavily abused demographic in the novel, and so the director of the adaption, Andy Muschietti, would’ve had to portray it in a way that wasn’t so dehumanizing or vulgar. Also, the campaign heavily relied on it’s underage themes, for example balloons or 8-bit video games, and so Warner Bros had to be careful and ensure that they weren’t actually advertising this 15 rated film to children that were usually the target audience for balloons etc. (around 10 years-old). However, due to the origins of 8-bit video games, most children wouldn’t be aware of them because of their old release date and almost vintage/ retro style, mostly people who were young when they released and became popular would now be old enough to watch the film.  

 

How each media enforces the key messages of the campaign 

In terms of the promotional videos for the campaign, Warner Bros’ teaser trailers weren’t very revealing; yes they revealed the entire body of the villain who, arguably, is the main focus of the film, they didn’t however reveal any of the story line nor narrative. This meant that only pre-existing fans of Stephen King would be aware what was to come, which enabled them to build a larger audience and thus more awareness for the film, enforcing the key messages of the campaign due to Warner Bros successfully building a larger audience, thus generating more profit for them through revenue and ticket sales. However, the method of illustrating something controversial in the initial trailers (a complete new re-design and iteration of Pennywise etc.) created just enough ‘buzz’ that enabled them to garner 197 million views in the first 24 hours, gaining them the title of the 5th most viewed trailer ever – at the time, in 2017. Also, a feature they decided to keep a complete secret until the penultimate trailer was the voice they had curated and devised for their version of Pennywise. Secondly, to keep digital natives entertained, Warner Bros utilised social media and websites as another main way of advertising their film and for use in their campaign, due to us residing in a technology-based world. Their social media accounts (Instagram

and twitter in particular) gathered millions of followers and likes by posting images joined with text that infer viewers need to not “let your fear get the best of you”, self-proclaiming their upcoming release as a “global phenomenon”. They posted multiple times a day to ensure younger fans of their target audience would not become bored and forget about it, even linking it to the seasonal holiday of Halloween, creating new hashtags such as “#ITsHalloween” and "#ITMOVIE", using a play on words to stay relevant, and to persuade viewers into becoming / dressing up as Pennywise for Halloween by creating a mini-competition to allow fans to be featured on their page. Also, on the website is where they placed the 8-bit video game about the fictitious sewers of Derry for fans to fawn over and play in order to make them excited about the new release – placing them inside the narrative. Additionally, the director Andy Muschietti began posting exclusive behind the scenes footage and photographs of the cast and crew that made audiences feel they were actually part of the making of It, persuading them to go see the film themselves – almost feeling like a responsibility. He even communicated with the audience on the practically secretive plot of the film, due to not being hinted at in the trailer, he reassured them that the plot would be paying more homage to the novel, than their predecessor of the previous miniseries did (which was a common complaint). These acts of effectively fan-service enforced the campaigns message of garnering a dedicated audience. Furthermore, the ‘guerilla’ marketing of taking the narrative of It from the screen and the novel, to real life through the use of the viral and infamous Balloons tied to sewer grates. This also enforced the campaign due to causing people who saw it on the street to then post images of it to social media, therefore creating even more conversation on their unique marketing. Another few examples of publicity stunts Warner Bros organised were a fake mass rally of real-life clowns who supposedly and allegedly suffered due to the horror film, as well as constructing a replica of the haunted house from the fictional town of Derry in Hollywood, labelling it “the scariest place in Hollywood”. All three of these publicity stunts enabled Warner Bros to interact with their audiences more which in turn made their audience larger, enforcing the key message of their campaign. 

Call to action

This film campaign employs many call to actions, instead focused on entertainment purposes.

It: Chapter one Campaign

This campaign has a consistent message which is raising awareness of the new film, and thus selling this product, and this is completed effectively through its use of an established colour scheme, use of imagery, music, branding, and their numerous slogans. Firstly, the colour scheme denoted throughout the entire campaign is of red, white and black which mirrors the film's antagonist character design. Using the colours of the antagonist in multiple media establishes, initially, the colour scheme but also the sense of fear due to the consistency across the entire campaign. Imagery also aids the consistency of message in the campaign as in multiple media there's always the prevalence of red balloons which has become symbolic for Pennywise, and is one of his major features - as this prop is also used in the film too. Furthermore, music that follows codes and conventions of horror films also builds the consistency due to it being stereotypical so audiences might know what to expect, but also to create hype for the product being sold. Finally, branding and slogans fully establish and flesh out the consistency of the message of the campaign due to them being memorable and fitting with the overall genre and house of the product. For example, "It is closer than you think" is ironic as it's a double entreandre: meaning that both the film is about to released, but also that "IT" is close to the audience, which puts them in the different character's shoes in the film and creates a sense of fear. Overall, this campaign's consistency is denoted through the same fonts, colours, imagery, and branding being used across all media on multiple platforms, which not only creates a social media presence for the upcoming film's protagonist, but also a more wide scale global impact due to the film being made by a major conglomerate so it has a large enough budget to do more traditional methods of advertising (e.g. billboards). Moreover, alongside selling the product of the film, there's also a consistent message that is to sell the original novel the film is based upon, and this is implied due to the same colour schemes, narratives, and beloved characters.