London National Wedding Show 2012 - Upcoming launch of 2012 website

With the recent turn in events when I was researching wedding shows I came across this National Wedding Show which has been cited as the the "UK's BIGGEST WEDDING EVENT" so I have instead decided to focus on this wedding event as it is more likely publicised and has a wider fan base.

The whole appeal of this event is emphasised by this screen shot of the upcoming website for there 2012 wedding show. (screen shot taken on Tuesday 29th November 2012)

Creating anticipation as well as giving them the opportunity to book in advanced to save money but it could also suggest that there is a likelihood that tickets will be sold out. Whilst thinking about money and brides there tends to be no expense to the amount they will spend their money on so by highlighting the fact that they can save money might encourage them to pre-book.

Whilst it does not state who their target audience is I am assuming by the colour and layout of the shot it is centred around attracting women, the pink colours and flowers all indicate this. However they do say "A visit to the National Wedding Show is an absolute for all those planning their perfect wedding." Women tend to be the ones planning the weddings however men might come to this event to accompany them, or even buy the tickets to surprise their fiancé and help ease the stress.

Target Audience: Sherlock Holmes 2 vs UK National Wedding Show London

Sherlock Holmes has no set target audience. In this case this is a sequel so it had gathered a fan base that have watched the first movie and has a high probability of watching the second movie.  However as this movie is firstly established as an adaptation of a book people who have read this book may also have interest in this movie and vice versa, people who see the movie may also garner interest in reading the novels.

Since it is a movie its main characters actors will also attract people who are the actors/actresses fans who will watch the movie mainly or foremost because of who is starring in this movie. For example Robert Downey Jr also starred in Iron Man and that is also a franchise so what producers may have done is chosen actors who have an established fan base to guarantee interest in these people.

Since Mintel did state 2 in 5 in cinema goers are 16-24 years that would also show that their target audience also includes a large majority of people these ages.

Qualities of people within the target audience:

-interested in detective movies

-have an interest of who is starring in the movie

-have said actors attracted media attention in which the press link to the movie

-people interested in up and coming movies

-families

-etc

 (http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=532654#hit1)

VS.

Without visiting the national wedding show website the obvious target audience would be to brides planning their weddings, mothers helping their daughters or even wedding planners accompanying brides and providing more of a selection.

“Mintel estimates that the average UK wedding now costs just under £20,000”

            (Mintel, 2010)

This quote also may suggest that the people who attend this show may have been saving up for their weddings or are relatively wealthy being able to spend a person’s average salary for the year on one day.

However according to their website:

• The show attracts over 50,000 visitors a year
•   The average household income of visitors is £58,000
• 89% of visitors are in the ABC1 socio-economic band, our audience has the ability, as well as the desire, to splash out!
• The average spend of visitors as a direct results of the show is £1,427
• 97% of visitors come with the bride
• 27% of visitors come with the groom
• Half of all visitors bring the mother of the bride
• 40% of visitors come with their bridesmaids
• You have access to not only the bride but the bridesmaids, mother of the bride, groom and a whole host of the wedding party

• The average group size is 2.6
• 4 out of 5 visitors dont visit any other Wedding Show
• 77% of visitors are getting married within the next 7-18 months you are gaining acces to couples in the early stages of their planning when lots of decisions are still to be made - 69% of visitors say they are in the early stages of their planning

(The National Wedding Show, 2011)

This information includes who are the main spenders at these shows, because of this the marketing communications should be directed mainly at these people because these are the statistics of people who have attended and may show a trend in future target audiences.

Nature/Context of the events

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes has turned into a franchise with a fan base of millions of people worldwide. It started out as the main character in a detective novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It has then transformed into the franchise it is today with its own movies including Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, been adapted into it’s own series which is currently airing as Sherlock on the BBC and has also won the 2011 BAFTA television awards, turned into computer games and also purchasable sound track music CD’s from the movies.

The event of Sherlock Holmes premier for its second movie is highly anticipated amongst its fan base. Premiers in general attract loads of people with the appearances of celebrities, opportunities to get pictures and autographs of these celebrities. It is a night of glamorous dresses, a-list celebrities and giving everyone there a red carpet experience.

According to mintel these red carpet events provide an escapism trend. It also shows that 1 in 5 cinema goers expressed an interest in attending a premier as well as a 2 in 5 16-24 yr old range that also makes up this amount of people who are actually cinema attenders.

(http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=532654#hit1)

VS.


National Wedding Show

This event as a whole helps brides prepare for their big day, it clumps the important details of the wedding which brides would worry and stress over this includes dresses, flowers, makeovers, colour and decoration schemes amongst other activities that would be included depending on the type of tickets purchased. “The National Wedding Show is an absolute must for all those planning their perfect wedding.” (National wedding show, 2011).

These shows are meant to help minimise the work that brides have to do, minimising researching to one main location. The nature of the event is self-explanatory; it is a show to show-off wedding essentials and things to be considered when planning an event.

Sherlock Holmes Cinema Poster

I went to the cinema last week to watch Justin Timberlakes new movie In Time and when leaving the cinema I saw the picture above of Sherlock Holmes 2. Below in red capital letters says "COMING SOON". If I had not of chosen this movie to follow I personally would not know when exactly it would come out, as I am not a true fan of the movies. However it does create a sense of curiousness within the audience to know when this movie is coming out and to fans of this movie makes them want to research more on what may happen and when exactly it is coming out.


This week (Thursday 17th November 2011 midnight) however I went to the midnight showing of Twilight:Breaking Dawn and in the pre-advertising before the movie the trailer for Sherlock Holmes 2 came on. This again did not state the date of release as the above trailer does. I went looking for the trailer the cinema had shown and could not find it, all I could find were these trailers that states the month of its release.


I believe both advertisements that I had seen were to entice the audience to try to find out more about the release date of the movie as well as to get the audience to become aware of the fact that there is a sequel to Sherlock Holmes. I also believe that they are trying to attract a wider audience as people who are interested in watching the sequel may have to watch the first movie as well.

UK London Wedding Show 2011 - Back Tracking on promotional advertisment

This event is happening in February 2012, the date in which I took these screen shots is Friday 11th November 2011. 

As part of their promotional advertisement they offer the buyer £1 off when purchasing the ticket in advanced. 

This makes sure that they can monitor the ticket sales of the event as well as monitor the level of attendance .

This advertisement is directly on the site so it attracts the people who are genuinely interested in this event. Limiting the promotion of the event to everyone.  

Sherlock Holmes 2 - Back tracking on recent articles/advertising

Found so many websites about the release of the posters for the movie and just took this one as my example. 

It's dated July 19, 2011 which is nearly 5 months before the expected release. 

This creates anticipation within the audience and makes people aware of the movie which can provide word of mouth advertising as well.