Q3:How has the film been marketed to ensure it successfully reaches its target audience?

According to a Fox spokesperson, the budget to promote Avatar was $150,000,000. From my research into the marketing of Avatar and from the research I did when I was attending an exhibition of the film, I have reason to believe that there are 3 broad audiences which Avatar has:

1. Young adults
   
2. Film enthusiasts
3. Families

I have split up the film's marketing by which audience group is targeted.

Young Adults

Avatar's marketing campaign seemed to be aimed mostly at young adults as it mostly consisted of many symbiotic partnerships with other institutions that reach to this audience group:

• LG - Who sponsored the premiere of Avatar and had a 30 second advert shown before it:
• Coca-Cola Zero (and Twitter and Facebook) - Coca-Cola has designed cans with AVTR on it which will reach young adults and encourage them to visit the AVTR website. The AVTR website is set in the Pandora universe (the location where Avatar is set) as it has several references to the film and adverts for Coca-Cola Zero which means it acts as a symbiotic partnership as it encourages people interested in Coca-Cola Zero to watch Avatar and vice versa. Additionally, the website has a link to Twitter and 'tweets' about Avatar coming from it. There are also links on the AVTR website to the official Facebook page so that they can become a fan:

To generate more public awareness of Avatar (and to symbiotically help YouTube), Avatar has a YouTube account which has reached more than 450,000 people with its videos of trailers and featurettes which appeal to an audience of film enthusiasts as well.

Additionally, Facebook and MTV hosted a 30-minute webcast of James Cameron answering questions sent by fans. TV trailers for Avatar have also been broadcast on MTV as it reaches young people.

Another way that awareness of Avatar has reached this audience is through word - of - mouth as young people may communicate with each other about the film. Word - of - mouth has become an incredibly important aspect in determining its awareness in the public recently due to increase in digital technology over the last 20 years. Technological convergence has made it easier for people (particularly young people) to communicate quickly and spontaneous with each other via wireless broadband, bluetooth and by texting without having to meet in person.

Film Enthusiasts

Although many film enthusiasts may have been aware of Avatar before its premiere from the reasons I shall mention below, it was still necessary as it was announced on news on all of the main channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five) which gave it lots of awareness to people but also it was reported on the news as being the ''most expensive film of all time'' as the film (allegedly) had a budget of $237,000,000.

Many film enthusiasts wanted to see Avatar because it has pioneering new technology (in the fields of motion capture and 3D filmmaking). As a result, a large portion of the marketing has been to inform this audience of what goes on behind-the-scenes.

Newspapers such as The Guardian have had articles explaining Avatar's new technology. James Cameron and Sam Worthington have been interviewed on TV channels including Sky Movies and Film 4 which film enthusiasts would probably be subscribed to. Film magazines such as Total Film and Empire (see cover below) have had interviews and information about Avatar which again, might reach film enthusiasts. Additionally, during the production of Avatar, James Cameron invited several directors and other people in the film industry to the set and to screenings to generator word-of-mouth among people in the industry and film enthusiasts in the know.

Families

I have noticed that although a lot of families attended the exhibition of Avatar that I went to, there was only one main type of marketing targeting them. That would be on television, specifically in post-release trailers of Avatar such as this:

Similar trailers have been broadcast on channels such as ITV, usually at times between 6PM and prime-time when families are likely to be watching. Also on ITV, GMTV had a story on it which would reach families due to the nature of the show.

Written by Dominic

Additional Research from Sheera