Cloverfield radio ads - and more on why I’m disappointed by Phase 2 of this campaign
First off, there are two radio ads that have leaked online for Cloverfield. Despite the fact that everyone’s reporting on them, I’ve listened to them and I’m having a hard time believing they’re real. Something about them just screams “two guys who ripped audio from the trailers” to me. For one thing: Why are the advertising on radio? That just seems like throwing good money away here. What stations are they going to run these on? Hip, alternative rock? That target audience is more than likely already going to be aware of the movie, so advertising is just providing unneeded reinforcement.
And that leads me to my real point. Alex left a comment on my post about the movie’s TV spots saying I was missing the point in regards to my disappointment that they’re actually running formal ads for the movie. He made the case that the TV ads were there to provide said reinforcement to an audience that has been sans Cloverfield updates for going on four months now, basically the time between the first trailer and the TV commercials.
Let me try to put this as clearly as I can: Advertising is what you do when you don’t have a story to tell.
Does that make sense?
Let’s continue to use Cloverfield for this explanation. But first let me ask you to do something for me: Tell me what’s interesting about the brand of toothpaste you use. Now tell me whether you got that “something interesting” from a commercial you saw or from your own personal experience with that toothpaste. My guess is it’s the latter.
Now tell me what you’re more likely to tell someone who asks you why you use that brand of toothpaste; The fact that there was just a super-cool commercial for it, or because you remember using it at band camp and the first girl you kissed said she liked it?
Thought so.
Yes, Alex is completely right - there was a four month gap in the formal marketing campaign, in the release of materials that were meant for mass distribution. But I checked my archives and I alone wrote about the movie somewhere between 15 and 20 times in that period. That’s because there were new Jamie & Teddy videos, more pictures being added to the 1-18-08.com site and other things happening. And I know that he and a whole bunch of others were putting up just as much stuff, if not more, than I was.
So while there was no marketing going on, there was a conversation happening. That conversation was being spread far and wide, but at the same time was targeted at the people who were already interested - or likely to be so - in the movie. That has a higher return than mass-audience commercials that so very, very much aren’t.
Because let’s be honest - someone driving to work who’s just interested in hearing “Another Brick in the Wall: Part 2′” for the 400th time in his life is not going to be interested in this radio ad. And the suburban housewife who’s trying to watch “Dirty Sexy Money” is not going to be interested in this movie. But the people who have been filling message boards, writing blog posts, obsessing over pictures - the people who saw the first trailer and immediately sent text messages to friends saying “WTF iz 1-18-08? Trailer frakin rulez” - are going to be interested in it, but they’re not interested in commercials.
Phase 1 of this campaign was, for all intents and purposes, being run by the citizenry. Phase 2 of the campaign is being run by professional marketers with their spreadsheets on audience breakdowns and “intent to purchase” figures and such.
What I think Phase 1 failed to do here is sufficiently harness the power of the conversation. This is not - I repeat IS NOT - Snakes on a Plane Part Deux. The people talking about Cloverfield online are not making fun of the movie or generally taking part in a joke. They this this movie could be really cool and are sharing that excitement with their friends - just like any good product they buy or service they experience.
Point me to one survey in the last year that shows people put more stock in paid ads over word-of-mouth and use commercials to influence their buying decisions more than contact recommendations and I’ll adjust my thinking. But advertising is gaining skeptics, not followers, according to everything I read. At the very least its power is waning compared to word-of-mouth.
So that’s why I’m disappointed that Paramount is advertising the movie - because good service and a good product should generate exactly this kind of excitement, excitement that should do more to sell the movie than a dozen paid ads possibly could.
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