Currently I am seeing the largely unexciting print campaign for The Harry Hill Movie. I first saw the poster on the side of the bus and all it had was Hill on a mobility scooter and a comedy cat face. That’s it. Oh and a few names of stars to the side. Oh, the background was yellow. This is a British made movie and should be fully expectant to have the best/ innovative marketing pushes but alas it has less originality than the promotion of his famous ITV series.

Compare this to Kidulthood and Four Lions (which won a best marketing award!) as an example. They had a great marketing angle that sold the movie in its respective genre. Sorry but Harry Hill has a funny ha!ha! face but really the public need a bit more of a sales pitch if they want to actually fork out cinema money. I mean the poster explains nothing of what the film is about apart from the fact that it’s possibly a comedy with some celebrities.

I am a huge fan of Harry Hill but the initial ad roll-out really isn’t selling the genius that he is and the genius that his script undoubtedly will be and soon to be that film that people will say “well, I checked it out on DVD and it’s pretty damn funny” actually.

The marketing department has to sell every film in the same way as Miramax did, make it an event that people want to make the effort to see. That’s why the Weinsteins are legendary in selling difficult films and as this is a low budget British film going up against the heavyweight well marketed US fare, you better be creative to get the audience that want this kind of light quirky entertainment.