Movie Marketing Madness: X-Files – I Want to Believe

Posted by Chris

July 26, 2008

Shhh…Don’t tell anyone – least of all 20th Century Fox – there’s a new X-Files movie coming out shortly.

I mention that because up until the very last minute, the studio seemed content to not worry about promoting the movie very much at all. The movie’s release date kept getting closer and closer with no trailer or posters and not even a formal title, necessitating much of the early coverage of the film to refer to it as “X-Files 2” or “As-yet-unnamed X-Files sequel” or something along those lines. There was plenty of press coverage of the film’s shooting and the reunion of the two stars and the creative talent, but no name and no actual marketing that was going on.

When the campaign finally did get going it seemed to be a scatter-shot effort, without a strong brand identification component. Part of that short-coming might be because it’s been six years since the show the movie is being spun-off from signed off of TV and 10 years since the first film hit theaters. So there’s a significant gap since the property was last churning out new material.

That leads into he main challenge for the movie and it’s marketing campaign, which is figuring out just where the target audience for the movie, the latest in a string of much-later franchise entries or relaunches, is. Unlike properties such as Indiana Jones, there didn’t seem to be much clamoring from anyone but the hard-core fans for new stories of the FBI’s most mysterious division. And the film is coming out in the middle of a summer that is seeing not only a number of high-profile relaunches and sequels as well as a surprising number of successful original films, some of which have franchise potential themselves.

That’s led the studio to engage in a campaign that has less to do with the return of two familiar characters than the establishing of what they’re hoping is a decent mystery flick.

I Want to Believe, unlike 1998’s Fight the Future, eschews the TV show’s conspiracy and mythology in favor of a story that’s more in the mold of one of the series’ stand-alone “monster of the week” episodes. That decision likely has as much to do with the desire of the creative talent as it does with dictates of a studio that doesn’t want to make the movie any more inaccessible to the general audience than it generally needs to be. The story brings Mulder and Scully back together after, seemingly, a number of years apart from each other as they’re asked to investigate claims that a recluse is getting visions from God that could reveal why young women are being murdered in the wilderness of the frozen north.

The Posters

Speaking to the notion that the marketing for the movie was half-hearted at best, there were just two posters created, a relatively small number considering this by all rights should have been treated as a much bigger deal.

The first one-sheet amps up the spooky atmosphere, with Mulder and Scully appearing only as small little figures toward a bottom corner of the design. Their shadows stretch over the remainder of the poster’s real estate, though, and form a “X” as they intersect. The light that allows for the shadows to be cast is all smoky and such, making it look like the characters are walking through some sort of, well, fog machine to be completely honest.

The second poster is, unfortunately, even more underwhelming. This time the pair are walking toward us across a frozen lake, with a cadre of officers in the background and a blood-spattered “X” in the foreground. The scene is taken directly from something that’s shown in the trailers, leading to a bit of familiarity in the minds of the audience. But there’s something about the perspective of everyone in the design that’s just a little off and that keeps the poster from being completely effective, I think. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it doesn’t look quite right. The good part is that this design will be used again, marking the best usage of consistent imagery to create a brand identity in the campaign.

Trailers

The theatrical trailer opens very mysteriously, with Billy Connelly’s reclusive preacher intoning things about his visions. We then get Amanda Peet pleading with someone off-screen that she needs his help – she needs his belief – in order to unravel some sort of mystery. As the screen goes to black we here Mulder and Scully say hello to each other in their usual emotionally distant way. From there we get more and more shots of the two of them together, sometimes with Connelly and sometimes with the other FBI agents, with the action slowly ramping up to a fever pitch. There’s a bit of reminding the audience that it’s Fox Mulder that “wants to believe” in mysterious phenomena and then more running and shouting, broken only by the occasionally bit of trademark skepticism from Scully. Toward the end there’s even a shot of the two main characters in some sort of embrace, something that’s sure to please the legions of “shippers” that are always rooting for these crazy kids to get together.

The oddly titled “Online Exclusive Trailer” opens with Mulder talking to Connelly’s preacher about one of his visions. There are lots of quick cuts and such before we see Mulder pleading with Scully to join him on this investigation. The transition into more or less pure action is more immediate, though this one contains many of the same scenes as the first trailer. Both also feature the trademark theme music, and I’m sure hardcore fans soiled themselves in excitement upon hearing this for the first time in six years.

I’m not sure what the overall strategy was since it seems a little odd to me, but the second trailer also appears on live streaming video site Seesmic. I mean it’s a great idea to put the video wherever you can, but this seems like an orphan tactic since it’s just the one trailer and nothing else.

Both trailers rely at least a bit on the viewer’s existing familiarity with the characters and their history. There’s simply too much that’s unspoken under the surface of their interactions with each other for there not to be something going on between the two of them, but unless you know what that is already you’re left scratching your head a bit, which is not the way to win over a new audience.

Online

The movie’s official website is possibly the best part of the mainstream campaign for it’s level of information and it’s tactics that are put in place to bring fans of the franchise together. The site is divided into two main sections, top and bottom, with links and menu items in both sections and we’ll look at them in just that order.

The first section along the top menu is “About the Film.” That contains a brief Story recap that unfortunately moves to quickly from the description of the plot to just being another credits block. Also there are biographies and information on the Cast and Filmmakers as well as a Gallery which contains about 20 stills from the movie itself and its shooting.

You’ll find both Trailers, three TV Spots and two Clips that were shown at a special event about the movie at the LA Film Fest, including the first few minutes of the movie in their entirety. I love the fact that those sorts of clips are there since it’s really low-hanging fruit. The clips were already shown and buzzed about so it’s a great idea to put them on the site in order to create as complete an archive as possible. I seem to think there were more than three TV spots created, but that’s a small gripe.

“Downloads” is where you’ll be able to grab Wallpapers, a Screensaver, IM Icons and even an Email Signature. I’m a big fan of the email signature idea since it’s an easy way to get people who are excited about the movie to spread the word of the movie in their everyday email communications, most of which are likely to go to people who may not be similarly enthusiastic. You can also find mobile-specific Wallpapers and Ringtones to download under “Mubile.”

There are two blogs that are part of the site. One is from writer Frank Spotnitz and is simply called Franks’s Blog. On that, Spotnitz seems to primarily be answering questions he gets from readers and other fans. It’s not an extraordinarily easy read but if you’re a hardcore fan you might enjoy it. The other is The Duchovny Files and, as you’d imagine, is from star David Duchovny and is about his returning to the character of Fox Mulder and some of his experiences on the set of the film. It’s a much more engaging read, filled with Duchovny’s trademark dry wit and sense of self-deprecating humor.

One of my favorite parts of the site is “Community Chat.” It’s just what it sounds like, bringing fans together to chat about various topics, which are organized by rooms you can join that are specific to the show, the movies or the mysteries and stories.

Along the bottom menu are links and sections that aim to inform more generally about the X-Files franchise than the movie specifically, though that’s certainly still well represented.

The first link is “X-Files TV Series,” which takes you to Fox Home Entertainment’s page that contains information on all the DVD sets that are available for purchase. Next is “Events,” which is a listing of X-related events that are taking place around the country.

“References” is a great section that links to fan-created information pages and YouTube channels where fans and newcomers can immerse themselves in the mythology and background of the series and characters.

Next up are links to the movie’s Facebook fan page, which contains a handful of photos, the trailers and some updates on various happenings in the movie’s publicity campaign and to separate sites for the movie’s soundtrack and the Revelations DVD that I’ll talk more about shortly.

One little foray the studio made into “viral” marketing (and yes, I’m going to go wander into traffic after saying that) was the creation of short videos, one with Mulder and one with Scully, that has them opining on his or her relationship with the other. They’re alright but honestly are too short to be truly engaging. If they had been part of a larger effort they might be more interesting but don’t detract from the campaign so they’re probably worth checking out.

Advertising, Cross-Promotions and Tie-Ins

Despite my hunch that Fox was trying to keep this movie as quite as possible, there were a half-dozen or so TV spots created.

The first commercial is, appropriately, heavy on nostalgia and the main two characters, only vaguely hinting at the plot. Let’s face it though, that’s not really that important since it’s mainly the relationship between Mulder and Scully that people are going to come out to see. Others hit many of the same notes but some went more in-depth into the story, assuming the audience already knows who the characters are and just getting on with the selling of the movie.

DC Comics went further into fan’s potential nostalgia for untold X-Files stories by creating a 40-page one-shot comic with a story that reportedly takes place some time in the show’s fifth season, a good target to shoot for since that was during the show’s creative hot-streak.

A major component of the campaign was the studio’s appealing to the existing fan base of the show and the previous movie. There was even an event at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood where “X-Philes” were invited to a special get together with the stars and talent behind the movie, who answered questions and otherwise interacted with them. In a great move, the event was webcast for those fans to couldn’t attend in person.

Much like it did with smaller DVD volumes that contained just those episodes dealing with the show’s alien invasion conspiracy storyline, Fox released a new DVD compilation that was sort of a “Best Of” disc of the show’s stand-alone episodes called “X-Files: Revelations.” The disc contained about a half-dozen episodes from across the show’s first six seasons that are some of the most popular of the monster-of-the-week type stories, which is very much in-line with the focus of the movie and the way the campaign has been put together.

One marketing tactic that didn’t get executed was supposed to be called “Panic in Pittsburgh.” According to AdFreak, the plan was to run a War of the Worlds-type media campaign that would have reports going out of some sort of alien invasion and the reanimating of corpses or some such, an idea that seems to have more in common with Plan 9 From Outer Space than WotW. Apparently the plug was pulled on the effort over concerns it would not turn out well for the studio from a legal point of view and that was probably a good call.

Overall

I really ought to like this campaign better than I do, but I don’t.

I completely understand not every movie can get an Iron Man-level marketing push. But the revival of a franchise like The X-Files, something that was a tremendously popular show and which does have a loyal fanbase, should occasion a slightly bigger effort I think. Instead the campaign suffers from Audience Attention Disorder, an affliction that strikes efforts when the marketer just can’t seem to decide which of two target audiences to actually make its appeal to.

The problem I keep coming back to is that there’s a certain expectation that comes along for the ride when you add a franchise brand name to the mix.

Let me put it this way: I get that they wanted a movie that wouldn’t get bogged down in the show’s existing mythology and history. But there’s no real reason to make an X-Files movie unless you’re going to play into the franchise’s existing mythology and history. It might in fact be a darn fine thriller, but what’s my motivation as a viewer to watch this movie? Is it because it’s a decent mystery or is it because it’s an opportunity to revisit characters I’ve previously enjoyed? If it’s the latter you need to convince me it’s not just a good movie, but that it’s a worthy entry into the catalog of stories involving these characters I already know.

Taken on their own, the individual elements of the campaign are largely alright, with the website and its community-based features reaching into really good territory.

The campaign overall, though, suffers from a lack of focus that stems direction from not knowing who the target audience is, and that unfortunately weighs the entire effort down.