Good content trumps all

Posted by Chris

September 17, 2007

Ian Schafer is discussing the spike in blog mentions, as tracked by BlogPulse, for Iron Man after this past Monday’s debut of the movie’s first teaser trailer. In doing so he makes the following statement:

“Good content wins.”

That’s pretty much true regardless of what vertical we’re talking about. Good content will always rise to the top and generate excitement in the intended audience. By looking at how many more blog mentions of the movie (or source character since they’re one in the same) Ian provides a tangible evidence of this sort of passion.

(Before I continue, let me give a shout-out of congrats to Ian on his inclusion in an AdAge list of “2007 Media Mavens.” Well deserved.)

Speaking of the Iron Man trailer, there’s a story in Variety about how the last few sequences of the trailer, where Iron Man outraces a pair of fighter jets, were more or less created for specifically for the trailer. A couple people have seemed outraged by this turn of events but my basic reaction was, “Ummm. OK.”

The footage was reportedly created for screening at Comic-Con and then used in the trailer. That’s fine. They needed to create some excitement for the movie and they did just that, so mission accomplished. And the sequence is relatively benign, it’s not like it’s an actual “scene” in the traditional sense of the word, just some cool footage showing off the armor. So if it’s not in the final film it’s not like it will substantively impact the core of the movie.

But the problem with that story is that it’s not completely accurate. Director Jon Favreau has posted a message saying that while it’s not quite 100% finished, the F-22 scene is in the movie. They just figured it was good enough in its current form for showing at Comic-Con and the subsequent trailer.