OCR Unit 6 - Revision guide to LO4 / Section B question

1. Unit 6
LO4 Revision

2. The question
O Gemini Films are an independent film company based in the UK.
The company wants to promote the opening of its new film ‘In
Static’. The genre of the film is a gritty thriller with a BBFC
certification of 15. The film will be released in July 2017. The film is
expected to generate interest from a variety of TV magazines and
review websites because the lead actor is soap star ‘Harry Sparkie’.
The narrative is centred on friendship and homelessness. Gemini
Films wants to promote the film six months before the release. The
trailer is complete.
O Q6* Develop a social media campaign for the opening of
the film ‘In Static’.
O In your campaign you must include the following aspects:
O Timescales, milestones and review dates
O Channels used to reach the audience
O Content plans

3. The mark scheme
O You are going to be assessed on four particular things here, and the
question tells you what they are…
O Timescales, milestones and review dates
O Channels used to reach the audience
O Content plans
O the * by the question means you’re being assessed on spelling,
punctuation and grammar.
O Campaign plans will include an excellent understanding of the
timescales, milestones and review dates of the social media
campaign and target audience requirements.
O There is a comprehensive discussion of channels used to reach the
audience.
O Content plans for the campaign are wholly appropriate and justified.
O Sentences and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well
structured, using appropriate technical terminology. There may be
few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

4. The top of the mark scheme
O For a Level 5 answer (levels 5 and 6 means top
marks) the ideas will be justified with reference to
the case study.
O Credit should be given for wider understanding of the
use of social media to promote the campaign, which
may include:
O How the campaign could be used in conjunction with
other marketing techniques (trailers, posters, website).
O Legal and classification restrictions in terms of content
and reach.
O How the campaign would be evaluated and how
audience feedback might be gained.

5. Breaking down the question…
O Gemini Films are an independent film
company based in the UK.
O So you are being told this isn’t a big blockbuster
project with an unlimited budget – it’s a British
movie with a smaller budget and your marketing is
going to be focused in the UK in the first instance.
But low budget British movies do take off in
overseas markets, particularly in the big money
market of the USA (Trainspotting, The Full Monty,
The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire) so you
need to think about how to extend your campaign
into those overseas markets.

6. Breaking down the task…
O The company wants to promote the
opening of its new film ‘In Static’. The
genre of the film is a gritty thriller with
a BBFC certification of 15.
O So you’re marketing a film, it’s a thriller and
it’s a 15. This gives you lots of information
about who your target audience are (because
you have an age range, and you have genre
information, and the genre information gives
you a reasonable generalisation about gender
and lifestyle interests).

7. Break break breakdown
O The film will be released in July
2017.
O So you have a release date to build your
campaign towards. Identifying and
understanding key dates and so on is an
important part of your answer.

8. Burning down the house
O The film is expected to generate interest
from a variety of TV magazines and review
websites because the lead actor is soap star
‘Harry Sparkie’.
O So you are being led towards some particular areas
to use within your campaign – the ‘old media’ of
magazines and the ‘new media’ of websites – as
well as the need to focus on specific social media
channels. You are also being given a lead on a
particular focus for marketing – the ‘star’ image of
the lead actor. This might suggest some specific
ideas about the film’s target audience.

9. Breaking Bad
O The narrative is centred on friendship and
homelessness.
O So you have some more information which, this time,
I think is perhaps a little less useful. It’s more
important that this is ‘a gritty thriller’ – it’s not a
different take on ‘A Street Cat Named Bob’. You just
need to use this somewhere – perhaps part of your
plan could be to script some questions based on the
film’s content that you’d like to be asked for the
magazine articles? (This absolutely happens – the
film’s marketing people will take whatever control
they can over what the magazines/websites/review
shows actually report).

10. Breaking down the task…
O Gemini Films wants to promote the
film six months before the release in
July 2017. The trailer is complete.
O So you have a timescale – you need a six
month campaign. You can plan for
‘timescales, milestones and review dates’
by blocking out a month-by-month plan.

11. Key assessment criteria
O Lets pay attention in detail to the different
things you are going to need to write
about…

12. Channels – how to campaign in
conjunction with other marketing
techniques
O You might decide that six months is a very long
time and that for the first few months of the
campaign all you need is a ‘soft’ marketing
approach. This is when you can do things like
create character profiles in social media and post
to them as though from the character –
Instagram would be particularly good for this,
and Twitter might be useful too, and would be a
good way in to planning content for your social
media channels – or suggest recutting a teaser
trailer out of the finished trailer that has been
made (which would be good for YouTube, and a
good way in to planning content for another social
media channel).

13. Legal and classification restrictions
in terms of content and reach.
O You can show off an understanding of censorship and regulation
issues by making sure that even though the film is a 15, you cut the
trailer to a 12a/12 (12a is a cinema certificate, 12 is a home viewing
certificate). That way you extend the number of films your trailer
can be shown with – because if the trailer is a 15 it can’t be shown
before a 12a/12 certificate film – this is quite a common tactic to
ensure the trailer gets the widest possible distribution – and just
like that you’ve ticked off one of the higher grade criteria – a wider
understanding of legal and classification restrictions in terms of
content and reach.
O (Just by showing you understand there is a difference between 12a
and 12 you’ll get a big tick). By talking about the kind of detail from
‘a gritty thriller’ that you might need to cut to get the 12a/12a (bad
language, violence, injury) you are justifying your ideas with
reference to the case study which starts to tick off another higher
grade criteria.

14. Timescales, milestones and
review dates
O You need to plan out six months – from February to July.
O Ask for extra paper and draw a grid table, like this
O You don’t have to use instagram/twitter/youtube – you can
choose. This is just an example. You can use the grid for
your outline planning for…

15. Timescales, milestones and
review dates
O Deadlines – The final deadline in July (month 6) –
deadlines for launching the trailer/website/poster,
deadlines for launching the social media accounts
O Milestones – First x thousand
followers/likes/views/downloads on different social media.
First x hundred retweets. First x? comments.
O Review Dates – Following straight on from your
milestone dates you schedule reviews – have we achieved
this? What do we do if we haven’t?
O Content – You can use the grid to do the outline planning
for the kind of content you are going to produce.
O You are going to give in the grid with the rest of your work
at the end of the exam – it’s not just a planning tool for you,
it’s part of your answer.

16. Writing your answer
O Using the ideas in your grid (which, you
will recall, you are going to give in along
with the rest of your answer) you can write
the rest of your answer.
O Organise your written answer
month-by-month. Use your planning
grid as a starting point and write a section
of planning for each month.

17. Writing your answer…
O Within each month, write about the
different social media channels you will
use and the links with traditional
media.
O Keep looking back at the criteria in the
question – what are you being asked to do?
Plan content for a cross media campaign using
social media. So identify different social media
channels and explain, briefly, what you will do
with them each month. Explain how the ‘new
media’ you will be using will work alongside
‘old media’ like posters and trailers.

18. Questioning the answer
O At the end of each month, explain why your plans
for that month will help to attract the target
audience of the film. Always pay attention to the target
audience, and always justify what your doing or planning to
do by explaining how it will work for the target audience.
O At the end of each month, make a note of deadlines,
milestones and review dates in the month and
explain what they will mean. For example, during
month 1 you will have deadlines to launch social media
accounts for, say two main characters from the film. You
could review them after seven days to see if they have
‘taken’ – if they are attracting following/contacts and if the
content you post is attracting views/likes/and so on – and
to make plans about what to do if they haven’t.

19. Questions and answers
O Be active about seeking out audience
feedback on your marketing campaign.
O Don’t just rely on the things people say on social
media. Organise a focus group and ‘talk to them’
(not necessarily in real life) at least monthly. Get
their feedback on the different aspects of the social
marketing campaign and get their feedback on
what people say in their comments on your social
media. Make plans about what to do with the focus
group feedback. Remember, you are not taking
feedback on the film you are marketing, you are
taking feedback on the marketing campaign.

20. I’m reviewing the situation
O Have a plan about how to evaluate
your campaign at the end. Use your
focus group feedback and your analysis of
your social media campaigns. Use a social
media analytic tool like Keyhole…

21. Keyhole and other social
media analytics
O http://www.keyhole.co
O Use Keyhole to measure, in precise detail, a brand or trend’s
impact on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Giving you
access to an intuitive and shareable dashboard, it tracks
hashtag, keyword and campaign metrics in real-time. These
include reach, impressions, periods of high activity and
more.
O You can also leverage its data to lead your influencer
outreach efforts. Clicking the dashboard’s Influencers tab
will reveal information surrounding accounts that have the
highest reach and interaction numbers. To boost your
engagement, identify important accounts in your niche and
re-share their most popular content.

22. What to check your answer
for…
O Have you set out timescales, milestones and review dates?
Have you been detailed about what will happen when and
how you will respond to the reviews?
O Have you set out the different channels you will use to run
the campaign?
O Have you given details of the content you will create and
use?
O Have you linked your new media ideas with more
traditional media?
O Have you discussed legal and classification issues?
O Have you made detailed plans on how to collect, analyse
and evaluate and respond to feedback on your campaign
O Have you kept referring back to the details of the case study
– this is for a gritty British thriller…?

23. Answer the question
O Gemini Films are an independent film company based in the UK.
The company wants to promote the opening of its new film ‘In
Static’. The genre of the film is a gritty thriller with a BBFC
certification of 15. The film will be released in July 2017. The film is
expected to generate interest from a variety of TV magazines and
review websites because the lead actor is soap star ‘Harry Sparkie’.
The narrative is centred on friendship and homelessness. Gemini
Films wants to promote the film six months before the release. The
trailer is complete.
O Q6* Develop a social media campaign for the opening of
the film ‘In Static’.
O In your campaign you must include the following aspects:
O Timescales, milestones and review dates
O Channels used to reach the audience
O Content plans
O 30 Marks