Movie Marketing Madness: Bride Wars

Now that Hollywood has, over the course of just about four weeks, finally met its “Nazi movie” quota for 2008 and all the other serious-minded awards bait movies have been released it’s time to turn our attention to lighter fare.

And a Bride Wars shall lead us.

Bride Wars tells the story of two young women who have been friends since childhood. Growing up they were both taken to The Plaza in New York City on a regular basis and saw all the glamour that was put into a wedding there. So of course they both want to have their weddings there when they grow up.

Threw a twist of fate that only occurs in movies, both women, played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, wind up getting engaged around the same time and have weddings planned around the same time. Then a scheduling screw-up happens and they find out their events were both booked for The Plaza on the same day. Because this is, of course, not doable, one of them is asked to change but neither one wants to and so on and so forth.

The Posters

There’s only one poster that I’ve seen released. That one has Hudson and Hathaway both in wedding dresses, back to back and looking smiley. It’s not actually an advertisement for a movie, it’s an ad for the idea of a movie. This is the kind of quick mock-up art that you’d use if you were pitching the movie to a studio to get made. By utilizing it to sell it to the audience Fox is telegraphing that there’s nothing of interest here – just be wooed in by the incredible allure of these two very pretty young ladies in their pfoofery. This is a clear indication the movie is skin deep emotionally and it’s not making any promises to anything other than that. Just look at the pretty.

The Trailers

The one trailer released lays out the premise of the movie pretty clearly, though it would have to work hard not to. We’re shown why the two main characters have such an attachment to The Plaza Hotel and just what good friends they are, with them even – and this is especially hilarious – catching the bouquet at someone else’s wedding at the same time.

Once the conflict that comes between them is explained it devolves into a series of sight gags, with someone messing with the spray tan of the other and then that one messing with the hair coloring treatment of the first. It’s basically showing us it becomes a series of junior high school put downs, but instead of crying yourself to sleep remembering when they were hurled at you you just paid $9.50 to watch them come out of someone else’s mouth.

Watching the trailer one last time I wondered if Candice Bergen took the role of the wedding coordinator because she figured it might earn her some of that positive buzz Sigourney Weaver earned earlier for her role as a surrogate counselor in Baby Mama. I have no proof of this, but it seems like there would be similar possibilities for the role and so I’m going to stick with this.

Online

The movie’s official website opens with the two stars getting into a fight within the confines of a picture frame they’re in before eventually settling down and into a pose close to the poster image. Get it? It’s funny cause they’re fighting and they’re in wedding dresses! When they’re supposed to be acting demure and lady-like! It’s comedy, dammit!

After that atrocity is over you enter the site and the trailer starts playing. You can pause it, though, if you’d prefer to continue listening to the Wilco album you’re playing through iTunes.

The first section is “About the Film,” which just has a brief plot description along with more hilarity in the form of Hudson and Hathaway beating each other up in the frame. Continues to be funny stuff.

“Cast & Crew” is next, with short write-ups about each of the players that doesn’t go into any sort of depth. There’s also a “Tanning Spray Prank” tool you can use to turn the picture of Hathaway that’s on the page from her usual pale to bright orange.

There’s a surprisingly deep selection of stills in “Photo Gallery,” including a good amount that aren’t just taken from the trailer. “Videos,” though, contains no such surprises – just the trailer. So technically it’s “Video” and shouldn’t be plural.

“Downloads” has an array of Wallpapers, AIM Icons, Ringtones, Mobile Wallpapers and a Screensaver to grab if you’re so inclined. The heft of the mobile-friendly material probably speaks to the target audience the studio has in mind here. There’s also a “Hair Dye Prank” that let’s you turn Kate Hudson’s hair blue, just like in the movie.

Because all wedding-focused movies are Constitutionally required to have a quiz, this one does. In this case it’s to see which character you’re most like. There’s also a “Bridal Beatdown” game that turns the ladies into Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, fighting each other and occassionaly pulling out the “special move” of either fake tanning color or hair dye. Personally I was hoping for a “FINISH HER” at the end, but that didn’t happen.

The movie’s Facebook page has the poster, a photo album, the trailer and a bit more, including a couple of games.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Fox certainly didn’t skimp on the advertising for the movie. There were a whole handful of TV spots created and cross-promotions lined up. There was also some extensive online advertising that I even I couldn’t miss, including this full-page takeover execution that all but obliterated the content of the actual site.

The “Partners” page of the official site lists a handful of companies that signed-on to help promote Bride Wars, many of which are exactly the kinds of companies you’d expect to be trying to associate themselves with a wedding-focused movie that appears to be light and fluffy entertainment for women.

Wedding information site The Knot is first up, but I didn’t see anything on the site that was unique to the movie other than a couple of ads on the front page. Same goes for David Babaii for Wildaid and Karisma Hotels and Resorts.

Jewelry retailer Ice.com and the iconic Tiffany & Co. both have sections on their site devoted to the jewelry featured in the movie. Tiffany’s site also hosts an exclusive clip from the film.

Gown designer Vera Wang is running a contest on her site asking why women chose a certain person as their maid of honor and awarding everything from a set of bridesmaid dresses to a linen’s package. The site also has the movie’s trailer.

Retail site Bluefly also has a contest that awards a $1,000 shopping spree on the site and also links to the Bridal Beatdown game.

There were also a ton of promotional spots shown on channels like HGTV and TLC featuring faux intereviews with Hudson and Hathaway talking about the movie and their relationships with friends and dream weddings and such. Lots of chatter about how great the movie is and all that along with a couple clips from the film.

Media and Publicity

Both stars made the rounds and entertainment writers were more than happy to talk to them both about things like the difference between men and women. All sound and fury leading to nothing much, but kudos to the publicity people at the studio.

Overall

A very well put together and consistent, from a branding perspective, campaign from Fox that, as you might have gathered, seems to be aimed at the lowest common denominator of the audience.

Everyone seems to be expected to check their brains throughout the campaign and not even think about looking under the hood. Granted, that will likely work pretty well for an audience that is seeking simple, escapist entertainment. The campaign telegraphs everything they need to know and, like the film itself, is based upon the notion of wish fulfillment and schoolgirl fantasies. So job well done on, I’m guessing, representing the movie in a truthful manner in this campaign.

PICKING UP THE SPARE

1/12/09: California Closets is touting their promotional participation of the movie, specifically mentioning the fact that they created a custom closet solution for the setting of a pivotal scene in the film. If you’ve seen the trailer, this is the closet that they discover a Tiffany ring box in.
2/9/09: BehindTheBuzz has a deeper look at the cross-promotion between the movie and online retailer BlueFly.