Ex_Machina Marketing

Magazines

Many independent and less known magazines featured ex machina, plus there aren't many interviews that were published into magazines. Interviews regarding the film are quite hard to find and this could be due to the production company focusing on other marketing techniques, or the film could have not received any interview requests from magazine companies. However there are articles about the film from before and after it was released in online magazines and reviews. It was 'Film Forever's' film of the week in February 2015 and gained lots of positive attention on smaller magazine companies like 'Impact' a magazine for students in Nottingham.  

'Slant magazine' also Included a review for the film in their copy which was significantly more negative, the review includes a 2 and a half out of 5 star rating and can be read here. 
TV Interviews

The cast of Ex_Machina have been interviewed for a number of YouTube channels including Beyond The Trailer, We Got This Covered, Flicks And The City and more well-known channels such as MTV and Film4. This appeals to a wider audience than some TV shows. As this was an indie film with a small budget the cast wouldn't go on big TV shows where the audience may not suit the targeted audience for the film. The YouTube channels appeal to many more people, who are more likely to see the film, this includes younger adults and people interested in technology. The videos mainly contain the cast talking about their experience with the film, meeting their cast members and little hints or spoilers of what if going to be seen in the film. Alicia Vikander has also been on Late Night With Seth Meyers and spoke about perfecting her 'robot voice' and taking on the role of Ex_Machina. These interviews help to attract a larger audience and also allows the audience to see new information about the film, cast or some behind the scenes information. 

Products

Apps and Games

When marketing Ex_Machina the production companies used a dating app, Tinder, to interact with people at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. These people matched with the character Ava, and without them knowing, she spoke to them, asking questions about love and being a human. Afterwards, the people were sent a link to her instagram account, where it was revealed it was a stunt for a film.

Star Wars Marketing

Magazines 

Six 'Special Edition' Empire magazines were released featuring the crew from The Force Awakens, the special addition aspect draws more people into buying the magazine, plus 'in-depth' interviews featuring the main stars are also included in this special addition of Empire. The magazine also teamed up with Hasbro to sell limited edition action figures of the character 'Kylo Ren'. Star Wars clearly see the magazine world as a good way of distributing their film, as one article states '17 best star wars magazine covers of 2015' clearly showing how well they used magazines as a way of getting popularity and all types of people seeing their marketing. 

As you can see here models and clothing sites all advertised star wars, for their own gain and Star Wars' gain. The four quadrants of advertisement were met though magazine marketing alone. 

TV Interviews

The cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens have promoted the film through television media. This included chat shows and interviews on shows such as ABC News, Graham Norton, Ellen and Good Morning America. This promoted the film by the cast members talking about the filming process, the cast and crew and spoilers of the film. Disney owns Lucasfilm and ABC Entertainment Group which the cast of the film where featured on to talk about the film. The cast appeared on the shows before the film was released to promote viewings. The shows attract a large audience anyway, so with an A-list, or soon to be, cast the viewings of the TV shows increased. This allowed the audience to see spoilers of the film to intrigue them and others to go and see the film when it comes out in cinemas or on DVD.  The shows the cast featured on are extremely popular in their country of origin and worldwide. The shows can be seen in other countries or by streaming or downloading it online to watch, this means the audience is even bigger and will be seen by thousands of people.

Products

The marketing team behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ensured that the film was marketed across all different types of media. Most films use marketing through TV interviews, trailers and magazines but only films with big companies and big budgets have the money to pay for tie-in products that market their film. Star Wars: The Force Awakens used so many different tie-in products meaning that the public almost couldn't escape the marketing for the film, it was impossible for nobody to have heard about the film. Some of the products were some that almost made sense with direct links to the film e.g. toys, however others were products that didn't correlate with the film at all e.g. cereal and oranges. These types of tie-in products are where both Star Wars and the company who own the product it is marketed on benefit because fans will be more inclined to buy that product because it has Star Wars on it.

Apps and Games

There is a LEGO Star Wars The Force Awakens game for games consoles like Xbox 360, Xbox One and Play Station, Another Star Wars consul game came out just before the Star Wars: The Force Awakens film did which was called ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ however this game didn’t follow the Star Wars: The Force Awakens storyline but it would still get older audiences excited about the newest Star Wars film which was The Force Awakens. They also produced board games which where Star Wars: The Force Awakens themed.

Essay 2 Star Wars and Ex Machina 'Evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied.'

Essay 2 Evaluate the Role of Digital Technologies in the Marketing and Consumption of Products in the Media... by Charlotte Long on Scribd

">