Marketing in Inception.By Jack Mugglestone

BudgetO The budget for Inception was $160

million.O But the film made a staggering

$825,532,764 worldwide.

Step 1 – Having a specific Target Audience

O The priority of the Director, Christopher Nolan was to make sure that the film was as less revealed before hand as possible. ‘Nolan likes to let people watch his films in the theatres without knowing too much about it, this keeps them genuinely surprised and keeps the film interesting’. Said Senior VP of Marketing, Michael Tritter.

O The film would contain a lot of action so would be generalized at young adult males. But the film is deeper than that, since the main idea is about stealing dreams. The film can spread to anyone with an interest in unnatural or strange subjects. This is what made it such a huge success, it was unique.

Step 2 –A fantastic Teaser Trailer

O The films teaser was revealed in Summer 2010. It came at a good time as the summer was filled with the same old sequels and movie remakes.

O The teaser was as less-revealing as possible. This kept people talking and thinking about what the films purpose was.

O The only shots we saw were of the characters and a cup full of water at a slant, showing the audience that gravity had no effect on it.

O We were left with the catch-line ‘Your mind is the scene of the crime’.

Step 3 – The audience had to match the marketing

campaignO The marketing had to match the type of people

interesting in the unreal, and those of interest with the mind and dreams.

O This meant with an enigmatic trailer, only hinting towards dreams and crime from within the mind. This allowed people to build the film up themselves as they didn’t know what it was about, so it would generate curiosity.

O An online app called Mind Crime Prevention was created and this allowed people to have a bit more information into the film. This alone generated buzz. As the app was announced people wanted to know what it was for, so shared ideas online through forums and social networking.

Step 4 – Drip feed the information released.

O Inception did this well. As the teaser trailer only provided little parts of information to the fans. Also it tells us that it would be from the same Director as ‘The Dark Knight’. So fans of that and alike would be drawn to this film.

O This would also generate curiosity of the films genre and standard. Nolan has been known to do high profile action films such as Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. That means fans could expect a highly budgeted and high quality film coming from a director/producer of this standard.

Step 5 – Restrict Information

O Inception released an App for androids phone, this provided a vital piece of their marketing campaign.

O The Mind Crime Prevention app showed viewers a link to the films main site which obviously explained the film. Then a link to a website called YourMindIsTheSceneOfTheCrime. Users had to complete a maze game, then were treated to an official movie poster.

O This site continued to reveal posters and the occasional video of things like a message from the producer, this all came very slowly.

Step 6 – official websiteO The official website was set up

http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com/dvd This provided a new trailer along with the teaser and original theatrical trailer. It provided a synopsis of the film, which is the first time the audience could get a proper insight into the films plot. It also delivered cast and filmaker information.

Step 7 – Virtual WorldO The marketers for the film then created 2

downloadable apps. First the Mind Crime Game, allowed people to create mazes and complete other mazes. In doing this they were rewarded with photos, trailers and other promotional gifts. The other was the app SCVNGR (scavenger). This created curiosity by also letting you find locations and being rewarded with more promotional items. This really built up the buzz throughout the internet, as still no actuall plot was revealed.

Step 8 – The Traditional Marketing

O Of course with all these styles of marketing, there had to be some traditional marketing techniques as well. This meant releasing a substantial amount of posters and viewing time on TV. Also, bus stop signs, web page ad’s and also build up from the cast giving interviews on TV and the web.

ConclusionO In conclusion Inception generated

such a huge through its internet fan base, using its apps and online webpages. This is what gave it such a good opening weekend and overall grossing. It managed to draw the audience in without revealing the main story line, forcing them to go to the cinemas to reveal the story. This is what made it successful.