RESEARCH: Where are Trailers Shown?

Trailers are often shown at the cinema, on TV and with poster campaigns as well as being available on social media sites such as Facebook and Youtube. Dedicated Trailer webistes and official film websites also display trailers that have been cut for a general audience and are suitable for viewers of any age, which is different from trailers shown in cinema as these often relate to a specific target audience decided by the film in which the trailer is being shown.

In this age of On Demand media, television adverts have become less and less effective as shows can be streamed, downloaded or recorded. However, trailers are also often included in the DVD or Blu-ray edition release of movies, and despite these adverts being able to be skipped over, the fact that DVD's and Blu-rays can and are often watched more than once is advantagous because it can lead to the trailer being viewed multiple times. Trailers that are for films rated 18 are still given trailers that are shown to general audiences,  though they have been trimmed down and had all of the 18 rated content stripped for general consumption. Also, the only downside to trailers being shown on Youtube is that unofficial channels can upload copies of the trailers, this is in violation of copyright law and is recognised as a form of piracy, which means that the distributor will lose out on revenue. Taking this into account, I conclude that the most effective way of showing trailers is the traditional method in cinemas. This is because the audience you have targeted are experiencing the film in a cinema with Dolby surround sound, on a massive screen, which is critical in immersing the audience  in you film as opposed to if it is viewed on a social media site on a small screen.