Researching methods and techniques

Researching Methods and Techniques The New James Bond

Film

Target Audience

The target audience for the new upcoming James Bond film would consist of fans who have enjoyed the previous films of the James Bond sequel. The success of all the James Bond films has created a huge fan base and is a great interest all over the world. Even though the new James Bond film will have the target audience of fans from the previous films it still has to be a new action packed thrilling story line and of excellent quality to attract new target audience and to of course impress the fans. The new film should still reflect the traditional elements of the James Bond films but use the new technology that we have today to make the finished product that little bit more extravagant. Its clear that the target audience for this new film is mainly a male audience, but there is still a big female audience young and old, especially old because woman aged 40-50 grew up with the original James bond movies in the 1960-70’s.

The target audience for the new James Bond film will be over 15’s as 15 is the predicted rating. The Aston Martin DB9 which has classically always been 007’s spy car throughout the films takes a huge part in the target audience because the car is seen as such a mans ‘dream car’ it will attract the younger and older range of male audience because of their interest with the car.

Over the years of the James Bond films creations, Alcohol has been a large part. In 2008 Smirnoff Vodka announced its Partnership with the famous James Bond spy, 007 for the recent film “Quantum of Solace”. “Almost half a century since the debut of the ‘shaken not stirred’ vodka martini, Smirnoff and James Bond are still the perfect match: two bold, iconic brands that epitomise originality and authenticity,” said Diageo Global Senior Vice-President Philip Gladman. “This renewed partnership gives vodka drinkers around the world a taste of the Bond lifestyle, from cocktails to prestigious VIP premieres.” Heineken Beer appeared in the Bond Film “Tomorrow Never Dies” 1997 as well, which shows that the Producers of the beer company expect the 20+ target audience of the James bond films to show interest in their product, 20+ because the drinking age is 18 in the united kingdom.

Genre

The James Bond series of films is best known to fit in the genre action because of the typical story line that all the classical and newer films follow. It typically has a storyline which includes an evil villain, a beautiful woman in distress known as a ‘bond girl’, 007 himself, and lots of fighting with the villain which normally includes action such as car chases and dramatic exploitations. Because the storyline that the bond films stereotypically follow are quite vague, the producers of the new film can follow the storyline easily but by using the technology we have today to make it spectacular and a new exciting and dangerous adventure for James Bond. The famous character James bond is famously known to be a man who has ‘good taste’ examples of this is his famous love of dry vodka martini’s ‘shaken, not stirred’, his sexy, smart fashion sense and his hi-tech spy gadgets and many expensive sport cars such as Aston Martins and BMW’s.

Country Of ExhibitionThe Premiere of the new upcoming James Bond film ‘Skyfall’ will be held at two different locations, one in Los Angles at the Nokia Theatre (at L.A. Live)in downtown Los Angeles, and one in London, Leicester square (at Odeon cinema). Its important that all the cast and crew are attendant at the two premieres for maximum media and marketing attention. The film will typically be shown in all cinemas in America and in Britain as all the previous Bond movies have been a success so this technique is maximising the profit outcome. As the bond films are proudly British, ‘Skyfall’ will be out a week earlier in cinemas in the UK to pay respect to being a true British production, it will then be available in cinemas in the US a week after the premieres.

Since the first James Bond movie was released in 1963 “Dr.No” all the way up to 2008 when the most recent James Bond production was released in 2008, the average worldwide gross of all the Bond productions is $5,089,726,104 with a budget of $1,081,200,000.

Quantam of Solace London premire at

Lecister Square, Odeon CinemaThe First James Bond Film ‘Dr.No’ premired in 1963

Methods Of Marketing The Bond movies have developed to be one of the most successful film franchise in history. Every new Bond movie comes in with new marketing products and tie-ins. Because there is so many films in the bond series there is always a new bond film to look forward too, which allows there to be a constant excitement and media attention which creates a big hype, creating a bigger fan base. Over the years we have seen that James Bond films always links its self to products, which is their way of method of marketing. The Bond films are very popular with many advertising companies because it is a series that attracts young and old, male and female. Famously Casino Royale (2006) was linked with the supercar ‘Aston Martin DBS’. This is an example of how the producers linked the films with products, which is their method of marketing. At the time, the Aston Martin DBS had just been created, so it was another factor of the film that people were excited about because they wanted to see the car, and in action.

Casino Royale – Box Office Results

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$40,833,156 (USA) (19 November 2006) (3434 Screens)

Gross:

$594,239,066 (Worldwide) (6 May 2007)

Production Companies Eon Productions is the company who is known to produce all the James Bond film productions. The company is based in London's

Piccadilly but also operates from ‘Pinewoods Studios’ which is also located in the UK. Eon Productions are a huge powerhouse behind the James bond series and is a huge part of what has made the series so successful. It would be a wise decision to use Eon productions for the new upcoming bond movie ‘Skyfall’ which is why I have chosen them. Eon productions have produced all the James Bond creations so they know what type of marketing techniques to use and other stragities to make ‘Skyfall’ have the biggest buzz of media and public attention that it can. Eon Productions is also the ‘holding company’ which means they are responsible for the copyright and trademarks to the Bond characters and elements on screen.

Bond Films Produced by Eon Productions:

1. Dr. No (1962)

2. From Russia with Love (1963)

3. Goldfinger (1964)

4. Thunderball (1965)

5. You Only Live Twice (1967)

6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

7. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

8. Live and Let Die (1973)

9. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

11. Moonraker (1979

12. For Your Eyes Only (1981)

13. Octopussy (1983)

14. A View to a Kill (1985)

15. The Living Daylights (1987)

16. Licence to Kill (1989)

17. GoldenEye (1995)

18. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

19. The World Is Not Enough (1999)

20. Die Another Day (2002)

21. Casino Royale (2006)

22. Quantum of Solace (2008)

23. Skyfall (2012) (in the progress of being produced)

Genre and Methods of Marketing of 5 other films

I have selected 5 different films which are from the same genre as James Bond films which is action/adventure. I am going to be discussing about how these five particular films were marketed.

1. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

This particular movie shares many qualities the same as the James Bond films, for example they are of the same genre which is action/adventure and the main character is also a spy. This is the third film of ‘The Bourne’ series with the first being ‘The Bourne Identify’ and the second being ‘The Bourne Supremacy’. The Bourne film series was marketed as a ‘Bond for a new generation’. This film was advertised through a viral campaign online, Google and universal pictures went on to make an online video game which followed the same storyline as the film a CIA operative tracking Jason Bourne’s movement all over the world. Universal pictures also launched a digital promotional competition. Embedding advertiser ‘MirriAd’ digitally added special keyword clues to live-action clips of the movie that can be found on Empireonline.com. Due to the game and the promotional competition ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ was a huge success in the box office with a total of $227,471,070! All the marketing decisions really worked well to make this movie have the biggest ‘buzz’ it could have.

2. Salt (2010)

Salt is an American action thriller film, which stars Angelina Jolie, who plays ‘Evelyn Salt’ who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and is on the run to clear her name. This film shares the similarity of being the same genre as the Bond series. This film also connects to James Bond because of some of the stunts that appear in the film, and they also follow the same kind of plot. This films marketing campaign included a game that was available on the web which was called ‘Day X Exists’ and the aim of the viral game was to complete missions which followed a terrorist type plot. ‘Salt’ posters printed that the film would be out in the UK on August 20th 2010 but ended out being available to view on the 18th august. It was released earlier in North America on July 23rd 2010. The film was a success at the box office bringing in $293,503,354 worldwide!

Genre and Methods of Marketing of 5 other films3. The Hunger Games (2012)

This film’s genre is drama/action which shares the similarity with the James Bond series. Before this film was made, ‘The Hunger Games’ was a series of books which was already a huge success worldwide, this allowed the film to have a huge buzz of excitement from fans of the book series. For this film, the trailer movie was a huge success in marketing terms, the trailers itself shows a lot of the action that takes place in the film, which is a great advertising technique as it pulls peoples attention in and makes them want to view the film to find out what all the exciting drama and action is about. They advertised the Trailer on TV, but they split the trailer into two parts spreading it out among other adverts which successfully grasped peoples attention. This is a great, new way to advertise any film by splitting the trailer in two, once seeing both the trailers the viewers have the desire to see more which is when they go to the cinema to view the film. The Hunger Games on its first opening weekend made $152,535,747.

4. The Warriors Way (2010)

The Warriors way is fantasy action film, which shares the aspect of being an action film with the James Bond series. This movies is about a man called Yang who is the worlds best swordsman, who packs it all in and leaves his home of Japan to find an old friend in the Wild West rather than kill the infant queen of a rival clan. This films method of marketing was simply using its trailer as its powerhouse which was viral. Due to this being its only marketing method In the films opening weekend, it grossed $3,048,665 in the US. The film ranked #9 at the weekend charts. The number of theatres reduced from 1,622 to 34 within three weeks from the opening day. The film grossed 11,087,569 worldwide and had a production budget of 42,000,000 USD making the movie a box office bomb. The movie was the biggest box office bomb of 2010.

5. Safe House (2012)

This movie also shares the similarity of being an action film, like James Bond. This films particular method of marketing was using its Cast. The film stars too very famous actors ‘Ryan Reynolds’ and ‘Denzel Washington’. With these actors already being well known, it will attract fans on the actors to watch this particular movie. Denzel Washington appeared on the UK Jonathon Ross show advertising the film in the UK by talking about the film itself. He also appeared on the David Letterman show which is in the US, advertising the show in the US. This method of marketing really worked for ‘Safe House’ and is a technique used for many Hollywood movie, the movie did end up being a huge success in the box office bring in a total of $200,557,656 worldwide.