2. Posters:
• Pixar and Disney kicked off their advertising campaign by releasing a teaser
poster for the film with the tagline, ‘No toy left behind.’ This tagline is a
reference to the past two Toy Story films in which a toy has needed to be
saved from a bad situation, and this shows that TS3 will be no different and
this teaser also includes a release date for the film, which the audience will
be happy with because the poster doesn’t reveal too much but also gives a
very important detail. The poster also has a black background, which I
believe has been used to be ambiguous and it creates mystery as we the
audience will want to know as much about the new possible as is possible.
Also it includes the logos of Disney and Pixar, which may not mean much
but at least it’s clear who the creators of the film are (if you’re a first time
viewer etcetera). Which is the main use of teaser posters, to give
information without revealing too much. (Poster on next slide)
3. Release
date.
Tagline. This gives
a clue on what
the plot of the
new TS will be.
Disney and Pixar logos,
the creators of the TS
franchise.
Establishes that this is
the third film in the
franchise.
Black background,
gives it a sense of
mystery and
ambiguity.
4. Posters (cont)
• After the teaser poster dropped there was then a new set of posters
released. However, these posters were different to the teaser as these new
posters establish the characters that’ll be in the film (both old and new),
the posters introduce a new character (Lotso) and assure the fans that fan
favourite characters will also be returning as these characters are the
backbone of the entire TS franchise. In the posters themselves it has the
characters interacting with the 3. This may draw in a further audience as
some may not have been convinced by the teaser but now that the old
characters are guaranteed to return it may convince them to see the film.
There were many posters with new and old characters until eventually
there was a poster with all the characters together in the day care centre,
setting the scene of the film.
5. This is the new
character of Lotso the
teddy bear. This will
entice fans because
they will want to see
who the new
character is and what
role he plays in the
story.
Lotso ’playing’ with the
three. This fits in with
the topic of toys as he
would be played with
himself so for him to
play with something
else fits in with the
theme of toys.
6. This is Buzz Lightyear, he is widely
regarded as the best/most
popular character in Toy Story
with Empire voting him the best
Pixar Character in 2007. This
would excite audiences as BL is
the face of Toy Story (along with
Woody) and if he wasn’t in it then
it wouldn’t feel like the real Toy
Story.
7. In this poster it provides all the
characters that will be in it, the
characters are all together which
means that both sets of characters
will interact with each other in one
way or another. This may also imply
that they’ll need to work together to
achieve a common goal.
Also on the poster is iMAX. This is significant as
their equipment is of the highest quality (hence
why all mainstream cinemas use) which will entice
an audience as they’ll want to see the newest films
in the best possible quality possible. It’ll also be
good for the cinemas as with the higher quality
they charge more for tickets. Also 3D is an
emerging way in which people take in films.
8. Trailers
• The first teaser trailer didn’t provide any plot details but it did show the toys coming together and making the title screen (Although there were 2 titles made, one by Woody and
the toys and the other which was more professional made by Buzz), this could imply that the characters will again have to work together. It also shows the personality of the
characters: Woody taking the role of leader of the group, Buzz upstaging Woody (as his sign is remarkably better than Woody’s), Rex being loveable but goofy (as he goes the
wrong way) and so on
• This trailer dropped on the 15th July 2009, which was around 11 months before the movie came out, which is good as it establishes that there’ll be a movie and it sets the stage
for further trailers closer to release.
• The second trailer was a ‘real’ trailer which had more detail than the teaser (as these normally) and it established what the storyline would entailed, it continued off where Toy
Story 2 left off with Andy playing with his toys as a child as a montage, then it cuts to a much older Andy who is at college. His mum asks him what he’ll do with the toys (as he’s
too old to be playing them) and he doesn’t say anything, he leaves his room which could be an allegory of him leaving his past (and ultimately the toys) behind. It then cuts to the
toys arguing among themselves as to what will happen to them, some toys think they’re going to be sold, and others think they’ll be thrown away. Then it cuts to the day care in
which a toy from there remarks ‘New toys!’ which now clearly establishes that Andy is getting rid of them which will be a big shock to the audience as over the last two movies
we’ve spent a lot of time seeing the relationship between Andy and the toys blossom and for it to end with them being given away will shock and make audiences sad. This trailer
is good as it reveals that there’s a new setting for the film but that’s it, it doesn’t give away any big plot details which will entice the audience into coming to see the film.
• The trailer dropped on October 13th 2009 which is around 9 months before the film came out, which is a good idea as it isn’t too close to the release date and it gives people
enough time to catch up on the past trailer that they may have missed.
• The third and final trailer was the trailer that had a lot more detail, like the second trailer it established that Andy was going away to college and he had to make a choice on what
to do with the toys: take them with him or give them away. After this the trailer remarks that this movie is from the makers of Finding Nemo, Up and Wall-e. This might not be a
big detail but it may attract an audience who liked those movies (even if they had no intention of seeing it before) because they’ll be curious as to what other projects their
favourite filmmakers can do. And at first we have one of the new characters (Lotso) saying coming to Sunniside was the best thing that could happen to them, indicating that
there’s a positive storyline at first but eventually we see that isn’t the case. We realise that the toys at Sunniside have their own gang of sorts and they prevent toys from leaving.
They have full control and we wonder if Woody/Buzz and the gang can overcome this scary new toys that have been introduced, it reminds me of 1984 by George Orwell as in
Toy Story 3 they have their own surveillance and an important topic in 1984 is surveillance. I think this is the best trailer as it doesn’t give too much away while also making it clear
what the plot will be.
• The trailer dropped on February 11th 2010, which is 5 months before the film dropped. I believe this is a perfect time to drop a trailer as it creates further hype for the film, as
some may have forgotten about it and this trailer will remind them of the film itself.
11. Online – website.
• Along with trailers/posters the creators of Toy Story 3 utilized another method to further their advertising campaign, online.
• They made a website for the movie, with a lot of content for the audience to digest. When you first click on the website it
contained reviews from the critics and what they thought, obviously they’d all be positive but this is good for them, it shows that
their film is widely loved by the critics, and ultimately: film critics are the people we’d go too for an honest, in depth analysis of a
certain film. So, including the reviews creates hype, excitement and good publicity for the film.
• It also has a section with all the characters, these sections provide little snippets of information about all the characters to either
help new TS viewers get up to speed, or for returning fans who want to learn something new about their favourite character. (In
the top right you can see an example of the information section of the website). Along with information about the characters it
also provides information on the past TS movies, this is to remind people of the story thus far incase they forgot, as there was a 12
year gap between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 so it’s useful to politely remind the audience. Also it adds the opportunity for the
audience to establish a bigger connection between us and the characters by learning about their back story
• Furthermore, the website has games, this is presumably intended for the younger audience as the majority of young peoples like
to play games, whether it be on consoles or the internet. They have games catering to each character, with their being a game
including all the characters. This is a really smart move from Pixar as games are one of the biggest forms of media in the world,
with billions of daily users, around 1.2 billion play games in the world, which guarantees that there’ll be a large audience who will
play on the games.
• Regarding the section with the characters, there’s mini video series’ to introduce us to the new characters, this is important as we
don’t know much about the characters as they’ve just been introduced, so to get all the relevant information before the movie will
help us the audience understand the film better once it comes out. An example of this is ‘Kens Dating Tips’ which allows us to get a
better look in his character, purely from this we can understand that his character is a ladies man.
12. Advertising and cross-promotion!
• A method that Pixar used to promote TS3 is cross promotion (definition: to use of one
service/product to use another).
• Pixar agreed a deal with Toys R’Us which said that TRU would have specific sections of
their stores selling nothing but Toy Story related products. This is effective as this will
create a form of advertising in itself, word of mouth, if people see TS products then
they’ll tell others about it which creates a sense of excitement for the film.
• Kellogg’s (the cereal brand) also released special promotional Toy Story boxes, this is a
key technique as Kellogg’s are one of the biggest food brands out there, and this’ll get
the film out there to the biggest possible audience. Also it’ll be beneficial for Kellogg’s as
TS3 was one of the most talked about films and this’ll mean they get extra customers as
people will want every bit of Toy Story merchandise possible.
• Also Pixar made one-sheet posters and put them on top of billboards. Billboards are one
of the best methods of advertising as it means everyone going through their day will see
it, whether it be people driving, walking ecetera. Thousands of people pass a billboard
everyday so that’s thousands of potential new audience members.
13. Media and publicity
• To promote TS3 at Comic Con Pixar decided to re-release the first two Toy
Story films in 3D (Three dimensional) which will create hype for the film,
and it also gives people the chance to experience the past 2 films in a
different format and if the audience like the past 2 films in 3D then Pixar
will probably release TS3 in 3D as well.
• Like with every new film that comes out the actors (in this case, voice
actors) have to be announced, and again at Comic Con Pixar announced
who would voice the new characters, this will create an audience as if
there’s someone’s favourite actor in this film then it will create hype as
there are a few ‘superfans’ in the world who’ll watch anything that their
favourite actor is in even if it’s terrible.
• Pixar also released movie related ‘props’ around the country, an example of
this is when they released leaflets for ‘Pizza Planet’ which is the fictional
pizza shop that has featured in a lot of past Pixar Films.
14. Media and publicity (cont)
• Finally, Pixar implemented a social media campaign
• YouTube: as said before Pixar released their own mini video series for each of the
new characters in TS3, they released Groovin With Ken to relate to rich and
famous people regarding their lifestyle. Disney wanted to branch out to tech
savvy audiences.
• Twitter: on Twitter Pixar paired up with the social media site and made Toy Story
3 one of the trending topics. Trending is when you know that a story is very
popular and the trending page is available to every Twitter user in the world.
• Ad: Pixar released an iAd (advertisement which allowed third party companies to
have their ads on Apple apps) for the iPhone 4.
• Facebook: there was a special page made which allowed people to directly buy
tickets for the film, and you can share when you bought tickets, which may
encourage others to buy tickets.
