Dear all, Apologies for cross-posting With SCMS deadlines rapidly approaching, myself and Steph Janes seek panellists for the proposed panel below, please circulate as you see fit, and do please get in touch if you have any questions. Best, Ed. *SCMS CFP Coming Soon... Starting There – Location based promotion for Screen media.* Scholars have long discussed the often ephemeral nature of new media promotion, from YouTube content and websites to interstitials and memes (Grainge, 2011; Noto & Pesce, 2016). Promotional content has perhaps always fitted naturally into this category, more traditionally characterised by brevity in both duration of the content and of the audience’s exposure to them, an interaction which was often considered as something of a one-way conversation. Despite the increase in work on film promotion often focusing on trailers and titles, there remains an area of ephemeral communication that warrants further exploration that of location based journey for promotion. With the rise of mobile technology, a promotional campaign has the ability to both reach out to audiences and to guide them to specific locations as part of a broader, spatially linked experience. Broadly an ‘internet-based advertising scheme employing a scavenger hunt metaphor’ (US Patent number 6,102,406) these promotional journeys may span multiple territories, and involve multiple users. The development of these and other ephemeral forms of promotion have seen promotion as a whole move from the circus barker to that of an explicit journey, with audiences invited to participate in one identifiable event in advance of engagement with another event. Within this nexus of the various promotional stages is the complex interplay between kinds of texts and user experiences. Straddling the boundaries between the traditional real-world positioning of advertising and art installations or exhibits, they move further and further away from texts that ‘yell out torrents of absolutes’ (Medhurst 1992). Interactive and location-based texts are currently part of the multimedia promotional experience, and encounter challenges that could not have been envisaged by the earliest promotional content creators. The proposed panel takes the premise that interactive promotional experiences exist at a subjective level of ephemerality, unlike the poster or the trailer that may circulate long-after the event promoted is ‘live’, the level of experiential consumption for these ‘advertising schemes’ is such that the experience itself is the promotion, and often tied to an exhibit space that is public, and shared. This panel, therefore considers the specific challenges surrounding the study of these increasingly prevalent modes of promotional media. How are we, as academics, to approach and define them as objects of study and where do they fit in with our current understandings of the purpose and value of promotional materials? This panel aims to explore the role of the academic in relation to promotion in this manner considering • methodology in capturing, reconstructing or following such promotional ephemera • issues in textual definition • implications for areas of study • the implication of cross-media promotion • case studies of campaigns • ballyhoo and historical promotional campaigns within this remit The panel organisers will consider papers that speak to any of the broader topics around the production, reception, and study of interactive, ephemeral, experiential and location-based experiences of promotional activity and all are encouraged to submit. Given the tight deadline, proposals should take note of the SCMS guidelines (1) a title, 2) a summary no longer than 2500 characters, 3) 3-5 bibliographic sources), and be sent to [log in to unmask] by 20th August 5pm GMT at the latest. With thanks, Ed Vollans, and Steph Janes -- Dr Ed Vollans (AMA, FRSA): Researcher; Watching The Trailer Project www.watchingthetrailer.com @watchingtrailer The contents of this communication are for the addressee only and should be treated as confidential. This communication reflects the views and/or opinions of the sender and is in no way a representation of any affiliated organisation or institutions. ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu