Movie Marketing and Consumer Control: Part 3
There are a number of studios that have been and are doing a lot to embrace blogs and their new media brethren. Sony might have been the first (at least the first I knew of) with their production blog for Spider-Man 2 in 2004. It was written by a co-producer on the film and chronicled some of the high points of making the movie. It even included an RSS feed and allowed comments from fans. So Sony gets a nod for innovation and being at least among the first to market. Let’s take a quick look at some of the more recent or on-going efforts.
Blogs
Warner Bros.: I’ve often said that having a blog isn’t always necessary. Some films lend themselves to blogs more than others in the same way some companies really wouldn’t benefit from blogs. What I have said is an absolute minimum requirement is that RSS updates regarding added site content be available. What Warner Bros did for Superman Returns is combine those two ideas. They started a blog for the movie that, at least to date, is being used exclusively for site updates. The launch of the teaser trailer as well as other additions have all been announced there.
Fox Searchlight: Fox Searchlight is my new favorite blogging studio. They not only have their own blog but have given one to Jason Reitman, director of Thank You For Smoking. Reitman has used it to talk about his publicity tour for the movie and other issues and it’s been good reading. He’s the very definition of the passionate creator and seems a natural fit for blogging.
Video Podcasts/Video Journals
Warner Bros: Again, Superman Returns has given them the opportunity to tap into direct communication with the audience. Director Bryan Singer created a series of video journal entries chronicling the creation of the big-screen return of the big blue boy scout on BlueTights.net . These video entries gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most-anticipated movies of 2006 beginning over a year before the movie was scheduled to hit theaters.
Universal: Director Peter Jackson took a similar approach with his video journals on KongisKing.net . While that’s a fan-site the Production Diaries, as they were called, had to have gotten at least tacit approval from the Universal honchos.
Dreamworks: Someone at Dreamworks is obviously a big fan of the video podcast format. Two movies have been supported by them, first Woody Allen’s MatchPoint and more recently the comedy She’s the Man . Instead of focusing on behind the scenese production peeks they’ve been interviews with the cast and crew. Still good stuff.
I think it’s interesting that so many studios skipped audio podcasts and went right to video podcasting. Only Warner Bros to my knowledge actually created an audio show. Unfortunately it was for House of Wax and featured the ever-vacuous Paris Hilton. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t do more along these lines.
Actually I’m not. Video journals are sexier and shinier than audio podcasting and do it’s likely easier to find budget dollars for them. Plus they play better into the fact that movies are, after all, a visual medium. I still think, though, that there’s a place in the marketing mix for audio and I’d like to see more studios experiment with it.
Community Acknowledgment
Universal/Dreamworks: On the website for Steven Spielberg’s latest flick Munich , there was a section called links that contained, well, links. Those pointed to articles and more information on the terrorist attacks that are the starting point for the movie. One of those was to the Wikipedia entry on the topic and was a great inclusion since it gave interested visitors more information if they were looking for it.
Warner Bros.: Once again WB is at the head of the pack when it comes to online efforts. They granted a number of movie-themed websites visits to the set of Poseidon, their remake of The Poseidon Adventure. When the sites posted their recaps Warner Bros linked to them on the official site. That’s a great way to show how much they care about the free publicity those sites give their movies and appreciate those efforts.
Online Interactivity
Probably the most favorite feature studios are adding to their online marketing mix is the creation of some sort of interactive component. Some are part of the main website, others have been given their own URLs as microsites. Whichever way is gone the point is to get the user doing something with and interacting with the brand.
There are too many sites and features along these line to name and new ones seem to pop up every week. For the most part, though, they tend to fall into one of two categories in terms of what you do on the site. The studio’s goal is the same: To create something that you want to share with a friend and therefore pass along the name of the movie with someone whose awareness might not be at the same level as that initial user. It’s an attempt to create something viral that will get passed around via word of mouth or, as the case might be, word of mouse.
The first kind gives you the ability to upload a photo and manipulate it in a way that’s consistent with the movie. The first one in this style that got a lot of press was the “Crash this Trailer †promotion for Wedding Crashers. More recent entries include “The Uglifier†that was created for the DVD release of Nanny McPhee and “Shaffigy Yourself â€for Disney’s Shaggy Dog remake.
The second is where you create some sort of message that you can pass along to your friend. For the 40-Year Old Virgin DVD, Universal created a site that let you type in a message that would then appear in the ripped-off chest hair of Steve Carrel. Likewise Warner Bros created three sites for The Corpse Bride that allowed you to write text on a fogged-up mirror and other things.
Consumer-Generated Content
The latest trend has been to let the community itself create some marketing materials that could then potentially get wider distribution. People are doing this on their own anyway, so why not make a contest out of it and engage some passionate consumers?
Universal: For their upcoming horror/comedy Slither they launched a contest called “Slug It Out.†A variety of video and audio assets were made available online for people to create their own TV spot for the movie. The winner could have their creation actually become part of the TV push for the flick, which in addition to the monetary prize is a great incentive.
Hollywood Pictures/Buena Vista: A contest challenging users to create a poster for the video-game themed horror movie Stay Alive was created that took an interesting route. Instead of engaging consumers directly on the official website it actively enlisted some of the bigger fan-sites to spread the word about the contest. This wasn’t just something they noticed but something they were asked to participate in. That’s a good idea since by doing so they likely increased the word-of-mouth reach a great deal.
Summary
I’m sure there are more efforts in all of these categories than I’m aware of and there are certainly more out there than what I’ve covered here. These, though, are some of the big ones and are representative of trends in the industry.
What I’m hoping for in the future is that a studio emerges as being truly fearless. Awareness of movies is at an all time high, though you wouldn’t know it from ticket sales. All those celebrity magazines are de facto movie and entertainment publications that are doing a lot to bring movies to the top of consumers’ minds. So there’s very little downside for experimentation in podcasts, blogs and other media. As long as they’re well thought out and appropriate to the movie being marketed than go ahead and do it. It will empower and engage your fanbase and build that base as word gets spread. Don’t focus on what might be shiny and cutting edge. Work harder to create good content.
Technorati tags:
movie marketing, sony pictures, warner bros., universal pictures, 20th century fox, buena vista, sony classics, disney
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