Curse You, Powster.
I decided to do some research regarding the website design for our website marketing component of the project. My research focused on looking at example websites for films that have been distributed primarily through the film festival circuit.
Now, a small talk about conventions. Of course, I assumed beforehand there would be conventions among the website designs. A tab for a trailer, links to social media, the usual stuff for marketing. However, it was to my surprise to find that the first four websites I looked at all. had. the. same. website. design.
And here's why.
✑PARASITE(AND HONEY BOY, AND THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON, AND CLEMENCY)
↠ GET TICKETS
This part of the website features the key art for the film, an advertisement for the film to see it in IMAX, a way to search and buy tickets for the film at nearby theaters, and a map that shows them.
↠ VIDEOS
The videos page has a link to trailers for the film and another link to get tickets in the corner.
↠ SYNOPSIS
The synopsis page gives a small description of the film and lists one star of the film as well as the director.
↠ SOCIAL ASSET
The social asset page is actually not a page at all, but rather a link to a set of social media assets like key art, graphics, and even press notes from Bong Joon Ho answering common questions about the film.
↠ WATCH AT HOME
The watch at home tab links to a page where there are social links, a playable trailer/10 minute preview, and links to buy the movie in different mediums.
↠ JESSICA JINGLE
I absolutely loved this marketing strategy. The "Jessica Jingle" was a little song that the character Jessica had sung in the movie. They created a way for fans of the movie to download the song to put as their ringtone for free (which, if used would market the film!).
↠ SHARE #PARASITE
When one hovers the #Parasite part of the tab, there are two icons linking to Twitter and Facebook. By clicking the links, they set up the user to post the link to the parasite website.
For the Honey Boy website, I liked how they had the social media links at the top for the social media accounts made for the film.
The Peanut Butter Falcon website had a tab called "FEEL THE LOVE" that lets the user scroll through social media posts with related hashtags to the film!
Now, a small talk about conventions. Of course, I assumed beforehand there would be conventions among the website designs. A tab for a trailer, links to social media, the usual stuff for marketing. However, it was to my surprise to find that the first four websites I looked at all. had. the. same. website. design.
And here's why.
✑PARASITE(AND HONEY BOY, AND THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON, AND CLEMENCY)
The first website I visited was for Parasite (2019). The home page had the trailer playing in the background, which I thought was really engaging right off the bat. They advertise the awards the film has won and then links to tickets and ways to buy the movie to watch at home.
These are the tabs that were on the website (below).
↠ GET TICKETS
This part of the website features the key art for the film, an advertisement for the film to see it in IMAX, a way to search and buy tickets for the film at nearby theaters, and a map that shows them.
↠ VIDEOS
The videos page has a link to trailers for the film and another link to get tickets in the corner.
↠ SYNOPSIS
The synopsis page gives a small description of the film and lists one star of the film as well as the director.
↠ SOCIAL ASSET
The social asset page is actually not a page at all, but rather a link to a set of social media assets like key art, graphics, and even press notes from Bong Joon Ho answering common questions about the film.
↠ WATCH AT HOME
The watch at home tab links to a page where there are social links, a playable trailer/10 minute preview, and links to buy the movie in different mediums.
↠ JESSICA JINGLE
 |
| Anyways, I have a new ringtone now. |
I absolutely loved this marketing strategy. The "Jessica Jingle" was a little song that the character Jessica had sung in the movie. They created a way for fans of the movie to download the song to put as their ringtone for free (which, if used would market the film!).
↠ SHARE #PARASITE
When one hovers the #Parasite part of the tab, there are two icons linking to Twitter and Facebook. By clicking the links, they set up the user to post the link to the parasite website.
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And then I checked the Honey Boy Movie website.
And then I checked The Peanut Butter Falcon.
And the Clemency.
It was all the same! layout!
Now to why all of these films had the same website layout.
POWSTER.
Powster provides an industry-standard website format for the advertisement of films.
It did stress me out how every website I checked used the same format, but the little differences it had were what made some websites better for marketing than the other.
The Clemency website had a google form on the "Host a Screening" tab where people could apply to screen the movie at their school/work/etc.
They also had a newsletter so people could get updates on the distribution and availability of the movie.
I also liked how The Peanut Butter Falcon and Parasite had clips of their movie playing right when somebody had entered the website because it had it engaging with the film's content right off the bat.
Although we won't be using Powster to market our short film because of the amount of money it costs and considering the fact we aren't/don't have a legitimate distributor, we liked some of the marketing aspects of the film's websites that set them apart from each other and made some more engaging than the rest. I am also hoping the design of our website can be much more creative and relate to the tone/message of the story in our film, defying the oddly common design convention I found through these websites.
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