RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTION COLLAGE

We went onto the Film Distributor Association's website and watched the video presentation by head of the theatrical distribution, Kezia Williams on how a successful marketing campaign is created by professional distributors. 

I chose Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, as this is a long awaited sequel in a very successful franchise within pop culture. Everyone everywhere knows who Godzilla is so I'd like to use the aforementioned video to find out how this movie rode on that and both pure spectacle and previous successes to impress fans, long time and new, once again. The plot of the movie revolves around the titanic battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah and how humanity copes with the appearance of 17 or more giants just like them, the ending of the film sees Godzilla defeat Ghidorah and bring an uneasy peace as one of Ghidorah's heads survived (although in a terrible state), Ghidorah is known for his regenerative abilities in this universe and so he likely will be saved for one of the planned sequels. 

Spending on digital marketing has significantly increased, it is becoming common for trailers to be uploaded in a portrait format in order to accommodate social media platforms besides YouTube according to Matt Smith of the FDA. This provides an effortless synergy for the distribution and exposure of the movie to audience's worldwide. 

POSTERS

There were three types of posters that came out accompanying the trailers for Godzilla, there were ones that are purely artwork and followed more closely to earlier concept art of the creatures and then ones that were stylized art work and 3D effects. The final type was a flagship poster for the movie and featured not only an actual, incredibly impactful scene in the movie but Godzilla's actual 3D model.  

TRAILERS

The trailers unlike most do a stellar job of keeping the mystery of the plot under wraps while emphasizing the marvel that is the Kaiju featured in this film they do not give too much of the plot away and are not very long. The covers of famous and beautiful songs like "Claire De Lune" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" are emotional and nostalgic for the viewer and cause you to be drawn to them. This paired with beautiful editing to the music The profound quotes dubbed over the scenes of destruction add to the majesty and loop back to the themes of environmental crisis and how we should respond to them. 

ONLINE MARKETING

 Legendary's Monsterverse franchise has two websites that have helped it's publicity, from the moment Godzilla 2014 was launched there was a countdown on one of them to the next official release date. There was also a website that was launched to tease fans about the next movie and inform them a lot more about the in universe situation, from a lore standpoint this website was launched by Monarch. On said website you can learn more about the movie's characters from Godzilla himself to his nemesis and his allies, things like their confirmed heights and speeds in the air and the sounds they make. You can even observe "sightings" in our world of them and track them down through a satellite, this was a tactic to keep the hype going during the filming of the movie and it's sequel. Whilst this is mostly to appease hardcore fans, this helped in the long run to keep the movie relevant on the youtube scene with many memes spawning from shots from trailers and theories about the plots and possible monsters that could eventually be involved. The Godzilla movies website acts as a medium for fans to get information and discuss the events of the movies, there is almost constantly something knew happening on it which offers a convenient way for someone to connect to others and get answers you couldn't find on the movie's Twitter , FaceBook and Instagram.

PUBLICITY

The Godzilla: King of Monsters publicity team mainly aimed for cooperation between two companies countries outside of Japan (where Toho handled the publicity there as they own the rights for godzilla), such as Johnny Rockets serving an exclusive drink for the movie's release, the "Monster Shakes" made their debut not too long before it came out accompanied by an avocado menu or Xbox creating limited edition consoles designed akin to the flagship monsters of the film. 

OVERALL

The publicity for the movie was more geared for fans of the original 2014 movie and the original franchise, they banked on world building for those who have seen the other monster verse movies and the numerous other monster flicks out there. Overall it was quite successful as the movie did better than the previous and has earned enough to have the director contemplate pursuing more of the franchise after his contract with Toho has ended and the next film Godzilla Vs Kong has been released.