Ill Manors - Marketing and Promotion

Ill Manors is a British crime film written and directed by the music artist Plan B. It was released on June 6th 2012; budgeted at and estimated £100,000 and was surprisingly successful despite its significantly low budget. The films overall box office income reached a total on £451,000, multiplying the original budget by a staggering four times. The film relied significantly on the marketing and promotion techniques in order to gain the immense success it eventually received.

The film was seemingly unique in relation to the amount of publicity it received before it was actually released. Plan B, being as musician, was an established artist and had secured large fan base who followed his music. Before the film was created, he released an album named Ill manors which reach the UK's no. 1 in the charts for a period of time. This was also very convenient in presenting aspects of the upcoming film as the music video for his songs where filmed and created in the same locations as the film. The album was later complimented by the film which also provided further promotion for Plan B's album as it featured throughout. This supplied a platform for the film and an astounding quantity of attention to the film even in the early stages of production as the awareness rocketed due to the already established popularity of Plan B. This was also very effective in attracting a specific audience of people who were interested in his music. 

Social media, networking and websites were very influential in promoting the film, as due to the very low budget of £100,000, a small portion would be available for marketing and promotion. So the social media were very effective as despite the fact that they have no cost to make and run, they result in a significant increase in popularity and awareness worldwide. Networking such as Facebook, which gained 31,609 likes and Twitter which credited 3,668 followers were used as well as their unique introduction of the film website www.illmanors.com to display the posters, trailers and exclusive context and gain access to fan/audience interaction. Allowing them to answer and questions and queries in regards to the upcoming film. Also competitions were used on their pages to increase the popularity as people would enter to win a chance to tickets to see the film. Additionally, by using social networking, it is much more success to contact and reach their main targeted audience of young adults and receive responses and feedback from them. Resulting in the film to recognise the strong aspects and weaker aspects of the film, allowing them to alter and editing any specific parts which cause any queries. Therefore suiting the film to this particular audience.

Another promotional technique which was attributed to the film was the use of posters which were published in order to raise the awareness and profile of the film. This technique is seemingly effective as despite its subtle production, it provides the audience with a limited insight and understanding of the nature and context of the film. Overall eight posters where produced, illustrating an urban location/theme of a city and also displaying one of the main actors holding a gun which conveys the genre very effective providing a gritty/grime feel. These posters also encapsulated reviews of other companies, allowing the audience to gain knowledge of the success of the film. The result in this technique is that a much wider audience is reached as the poster were distributed from billboards in central  London to magazines, visible to millions of people per day.

In May 2012, another technique was used through the release of the films trailer which lasted one minute 45 seconds. The trailer is a very effective technique in providing further insight to the context of the film including clips form the film. Throughout the trailer a soundtrack is used which is recognisably Plan B's music. The trailer provides a clear overall feel/perspective surrounding the film, exploring themes of drugs, crime and violence. The main characters (assumed) are displayed in the trailer to be located in an urban location of a city, causing a presumptuous atmosphere surrounding the film due to paradigms of society in London. The trailer also has a specifically persuasive element as it included several reviews from a variety of credible sources.

The film also entered several film festivals which once again has minimal cost and also boosted the awareness of the up coming film further. It featured in festivals all around the world, entering prestigious festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Official Selection Vanguard, Festival do Rio 2012 Official Selection, Stockholm Film Festival 2012, Zagreb Film Festival 2012. Ill manors also triumphed in other specific competitions, deserving the awards of being winner of Prix Coup de Coeur Award Dinard Film Festival 2012 and winner of The Technicolor Award for Best Cinematography Dinard Film Festival 2012. On May 30th 2012, Ill Manors premier was released in London, where the film's actors and countless celebrities such as Alesha Dixon, Tinie Tempah and Ed Sheeran were interviewed and walked the red carpet and in time viewed the first official screening of the film. This resulted in great publicity and attraction as many press and critics travelled to London in anticipation of their reactions on the film, later publicised the following day.

Furthermore, despite the films very low marketing budget, many effective marketing and promotion techniques where used that had either low cost or free of charge. Despite the insufficient budget, the film was successfully promoted and gained great publicity, awareness and popularity through the social media which was encouraged by Plan B's original fan base.