The document discusses various marketing techniques used to promote the film Chatroom. It summarizes trailers for the film, which emphasized themes of deception, manipulation and tension online. Product placement and partnerships with social media sites were also part of the marketing strategy, as the film explores dangers of the internet and needed to attract audiences in a time before widespread media coverage. Alternative DVD covers and cast interviews on YouTube aimed to make unknown actors more likable and appeal to potential viewers.

1. Chatroom.
Marketing Techniques.

2. These are like predatory eyes and they
give a hint to the kind of character
William is, as he is in the centre of the
This grin already eyes.
establishes the dynamics
between the characters More word play (imagine my
before you’ve even seen excitement). This film came out
the film: he is the around the same time as The Social
predator, they are his Network, so this could be a play on
prey. that, but also everyone uses social
network sites, and this vilifies them.
Their facial
expressions are tense This looks like computer
and nervous, showing coding, which let’s the
this is a tense film. audience know it’s about
computers and internet
and hacking.
This is a play on the computer
The poster has a dark term that everyone knows
colour theme, representing ‘ctrl alt delete’ (love me some
the dark themes in the word play). All the people in
film. the film look up to William
(like he is their ‘task
manager’), but instead of
helping them, he just messes
up their lives.
The title appears
to glow, much like They’ve mentioned a
a computer previous film by Hideo
screen, which is Nakata, as not everybody
relevant to the knows his name, but
film, as it is about everybody has heard of
the dangers of the The Ring, so it gives this
internet. film some credibility.

3. This is one of the slogans for the
This is an alternate DVD cover for the film. film. It sets the tone for the film,
A brief synopsis of It shows the character of Eva in pink, to
the film, so that with a warning, showing it’s going to
show her girl-ish nature. be a thriller.
people who have
not seen it will
know what it’s
about.
The icon not only
represents the
computer side of the
film, as nobody really
talks online, they
type and so show a
Stills from the side of themselves
film, so that they want to show to
people can see other people. It
some of the things could also represent
can occur in the all the manipulation
film. and secrets in the
film.
The DVD cover is made up of profile picture icons, to show how many
Technical specs of the film, so that people log on to the web each day. Them moulding to make one face could
people who care about that or need to represent that you never really know who you’re talking to online, that
know it can know it. people can ‘put on a face’, as William does in the film.

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8
Wlb96gyXQ
• This is the international (Europe mostly, this film wasn’t that big anywhere
else) trailer for Chatroom.
• The beginning is fast, rapid cuts, to show the tension in the film.
• It uses glowy font, like a computer font, and it comes out a letter at a time,
like it is being typed, keeping in with the main setting of the film.
• It mostly shows the deception in the film, saying you can ‘be what you
want to be’ and showing clips of the nasty side of the web.
• Halfway through, it cuts and starts to look like a gangster film with the
whole ‘the player’ ‘the rebel’ thing and the music, which is misleading
because it’s not.
• It establishes all the main characters.
• It establishes the main plot (eventually, it’s a really long trailer, like 3 and a
half minutes long, what is this) of William’s manipulation of Jim.
• It gets really intense at the end, with the screaming and running and the
two guys fighting (which really has not much to do with the film at all, I
guess they just wanted more action in the [ridiculously long] trailer),
showing the action and tension in the film.

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs
Uz1Dh_WAk&feature=related
• This is the UK trailer.
• It has a voiceover, unlike the international
trailer, and it uses an American voice, which is
weird considering it’s a UK film and was never
shown in US cinemas.
• I think maybe they wanted a US
audience, because it gives away a lot of the
plot, like US trailers do, but it just never got to
the US.

6. http://www.youtube.com/user/Chatro
omTheMovie?feature=watch#p/u/10/
XsUz1Dh_WAk
• This is the official YouTube channel for the film.
• They released ‘sneak peaks’ a month before the film came
out. This is to attract in an audience, as the film didn’t have
massive media coverage, so it needed to make its own.
• They also did cast interviews, with fan questions as well, to
show the cast as young, likeable people, as they are all
relatively unknown actors (as one review said, “rarely seen
elsewhere but on E4 after 9pm…), and so they had to show
that they were alright people so that people would be like
“aww, they’re sweet, I’m going to go watch that film now”
(I’m so technical it hurts).

7. Other Marketing Things.
• The film also did many ‘take-over’ pages on
websites such as Bebo and Myspace and other
social networking sites.