United Artists launching branding campaign

Posted by Chris

October 30, 2007

Now that they’ve gotten their sea legs running the revamped United Artists studio, Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner are launching an ambitious – and unusual – branding campaign, reports The New York Times.

The studio will be launching a good-sized ad campaign in print, on radio and online to celebrate its rich history. That history will be on display in another aspect of the push, a huge 90-DVD box set of United Artists films. There will also be a city-to-city tour of movie screenings and some sort of promotional deal with Panasonic.
The campaign comes as UA is heading into 2008, which is the 90th anniversary of the studio’s founding by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith as an outlet for artists to have more control over what they were creating.

The 90th anniversary of the studio has its own website where you can check out the film history and buy smaller, more manageable and affordable “Best of United Artists” DVD collections.
Launching a branding campaign for a studio is unusual since so few consumer decisions are based on the studio as opposed to the films themselves. That’s why this feels to me very much like a push to attract not only stakeholder interest but also the interest of artists. The new UA needs to be seen as a desirable location for creators and creatives in order to be successful.
When you think about it, the sort of control UA was originally setup to provide for artists is exactly what artists are claiming now with the launch of video sites like MyDamnChannel and FunnyorDie. There they can put up what they want and see what sticks and monetize the work in a variety of ways. But it’s low-cost and potentially high-reward, even if those rewards are limited to brand awareness and other buzz.