AD: Fans, Friends & Followers Movie Marketing Madness
1

Sprint expands in-theater efforts

Posted by Chris
at July 8, 2009

sprint logoCell phone company Sprint is a major presence in the in-theater advertising market. I mentioned earlier their r8it program with National CineMedia that prompts people to send in their instant post-movie feedback.

Now, according to The New York Times, it’s going in-lobby with kiosks that print out coupons for concession upgrades when a passer-by scans in a code from their Sprint cellphone. Screenvision also says the kiosks could be expanded to other advertisers, potentially giving users the option to receive a coupon for a post-show meal or something else.

That’s just the latest effort from Sprint to tie cellphone usage to the theater-attending action, including text-to-vote campaigns and more. Sprint also runs pre-show spots on NCM’s network that encourage people to shut off or silence their cellphones when the movie starts so as not to be murdered by other members of the audience.

The story also contains a bit of news about NCM’s primary competitor in the in-theater ad network business, Screenvision. The company is reportedly expanding the roll-out of digital screens that are replacing traditional movie poster displays – something I was speculating about recently and didn’t know Screenvision was already doing – and the introduction of holographic displays that it will offer to advertisers looking for a “wow factor” in their lobby presence.

Advertising, Movie Marketing, Out of Home
1

Social Media for Storytellers

Posted by Chris
at July 8, 2009

Lance Weiler of The Workbook Project has put up a great, simple deck on how to extend a film’s story and audience using social media tools. The presentation dovetails nicely with the conversation Scott Kirsner started on always being on the lookout for ways  to find new ways to promote a film, a post I then picked up on and riffed off of.

Social Media for Storytellers

View more presentations from lanceweiler.

If you’re reading this in an RSS reader and can’t view the embedded slideshow you can click here to view it on Slideshare.

Movie Marketing, Online
0

National CineMedia rolls out post-movie feedback r8it

Posted by Chris
at July 8, 2009

r8-it_LogoIn-theater ad network National CineMedia has, in partnership with Sprint, introduced a new tool called r8it (pronounced “rate it”) that gives movie-goers the ability to provide feedback on the movie they just saw and share it with others. From the release:

r8 it is an interactive mobile text/WAP polling program that gives moviegoers a unique way to share their thoughts immediately after enjoying a film in their local theater. Through messaging in on-screen spots in NCM’s FirstLook pre-feature program, Lobby Entertainment Network (LEN) and box office handouts, audiences will be asked to text in the name of the movie they just saw, and will then receive a message back featuring a fun question that asks them to rate a particular element of the film from 1-10.  As an incentive to play, ten r8 it participants will be selected at random over the course of the promotion to win move tickets for a year.

Results of the polls will be showcased online at www.NCM.com/r8it and through the new r8 it app that will be distributed over the NCM Media Network of more than 20 entertainment-related Web sites.

The program hit 70 theaters in top nationwide markets this past weekend and runs through September 10th. You can read more about the campaign at Mediaweek.

I’ve been playing around with thoughts about how, in my mind, studios could begin to leverage cellphones as a way to collect instant feedback on the movies someone has just seen but now it looks like NCM is taking care of just that and you know what? It works. If you visit www.NCM.com/r8it you’ll see that you can share the widget on Facebook and MySpace and post specific feedback to Twitter, with is great since it allows someone’s friends and connections to view their feedback as well.

Movie Marketing, Out of Home, Wireless
1

Book/Campaign Review: Personal Effects – Dark Art

Posted by Chris
at July 8, 2009

pe_da1OK, first off let’s talk about the book Personal Effects: Dark Art as a book. The story is interesting, the characters well developed and it certainly is a “page turner” in the very classic sense of the term. I especially like the fact that while some background information on the characters is given, there’s nothing offered that isn’t directly important to the plot of the story we’re being told. It’s a fun and easy read if you’re a fan of procedural thrillers, even if you’re like me and don’t usually truck with the more horror-focused genre. Looking at the book as a stand-alone object it’s highly recommended.

Now that that’s out of the way let’s talk about the world that author J.C. Hutchins and creator Jordan Weisman have created here and how they’ve extended the story in a ton of interesting ways.

I was one of the lucky handful of folks to get a package containing not only the book but also the following items:

In addition to what was included in the packet – much of which is apparently included in the front cover of the book when you buy it in stores – there are a number of websites that are mentioned in the book and which lead up to, continue and flesh out the story themselves:

In addition to that, if you search Google for many of the key elements in the story you’ll find references to them that have been planted by the authors. Likewise, if you call the phone numbers included in the book or in the supporting documents you’ll hear voicemails from the characters.

So now let’s look at the more traditional – and even then I’m stretching the term “traditional” marketing elements that are listed on the book’s official website:

Phew.

In short Hutchins and Weisman have take a single story and provided the additional materials necessary to let the reader fully interact and explore the world it takes place in.

Now while some of the tactics employed for Dark Arts aren’t completely applicable to the world of movie marketing many are. Character blogs that are referenced within the movie, podcast supporting material, the creation of documents that are related to what’s happening in the movie – all of these are doable and they’re doable at whatever scale will work for a filmmaker’s budget.

Also applicable to filmmakers is the array of material that’s available that allows people to express their enthusiasm for the property. The Phase Two section of the Dark Arts site is a case study in and of itself in what sorts of resources independent filmmakers that rely on word of mouth need to be adopting in order to let people do the marketing for them.

Some of my friends in the social media world got similar packages and I’d encourage you to read their posts as they approach the Dark Arts story and marketing from different angles. Greg Verdino, C.C. Chapman and others received them and have provided their own take on it.

But let’s cut to the chase at the end here: None of this would be even the least bit interesting if the story weren’t good. Like the ARG campaigns for Cloverfield and The Dark Knight, the payoff in the form of the main attraction needs to be worth the work the audience has put in. In this case it’s a little different as it is, ideally, work that’s being done simultaneously with reading the finished product, but the same principle applies.

A big thanks (and a helping of full disclosure) to Hutchins for sending me this review copy of his book as well as all the fantastic material that’s been created in support of it.

Reviews
1

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-07

Posted by Chris
at July 7, 2009

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Movie Marketing Madness: Bruno

Posted by Chris
at July 7, 2009

Bruno PosterIt’s always a source of comedic material to have those who consider themselves hipper and more seriously attuned than the general public make fun of something that’s bland and generically popular. Mystery Science Theater 3000, Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show – they’re all examples of a bunch of really funny and really intelligent people coming together and having a few (well-deserved) laughs with their audience at how anyone could find something like Family Circus amusing.

Basically there’s a whole swath of the comedic world dedicated to laughing at the squares.

In the last several years there’s been no bigger example of this than Sasha Baron Cohen. He’s created a catalog of characters that, which each unique and different, all have in common the fact that they’re designed to pull one over on the subject of their derision, with the audience laughing along at how unhip some people can be. We saw one of those creations, Borat, a few years ago. In that feature film Cohen, as Borat, went across the country as if he were some sort of cultural ambassador, a clever ruse to expose how narrow-minded some people were and how others reacted to someone who was just completely inappropriate on every level.

What Cohen does is, on every level, performance art. It’s not that he’s trying to be funny himself it’s that he’s making the whole thing into something for the audience to be amused, even if it’s uncomfortably so, at. In that regard he’s the modern day decedent of someone like Andy Kaufman in how he pushes boundaries and forces the audience to go outside their own traditional definitions of comedy.

His latest feature film mines another of his earlier character creations: Bruno. Bruno is a flamboyant homosexual fashion maven who, in the movie, is coming to America to see what people are like here.

Yeah.

The Posters

There was just one poster that I saw but it gets the basic point across.

In that one poster Cohen, as Bruno, stands in a field of yellow flowers dressed in an…interesting yellow outfit. It’s outrageous as a visual and Cohen certainly looks committed to the character, as always, and it works for what it needs to do, which is draw the connection between this and Borat and position this movie as attractive to anyone who liked that one.

Unfortunately I think the way it draws that connection is a little too spot on and actually defeats the joke. With the copy “Borat was so 2006″ the poster simultaneously makes the connection in the audience’s mind and also makes sure we *know* this is Cohen pulling our collective chain. It’s not like we didn’t know that already, at least not those of us who pay attention to such things, but we don’t need to have it spelled out for us in this way, which takes away all remaining vestiges of our suspension of disbelief.

It also seems a little dismissive of Borat, like this is the newer, fancier version and Borat is the old model to be abandoned. I’m not sure that’s what it was going for, in fact I’m pretty sure it’s not, but that’s the impression I get regardless.

The Trailers

Bruno PicThe first trailer released was, unsurprisingly, a red-band version. It began with reminding us of how outrageous Borat was and how much we enjoyed it before using the same “that was so 2006″ line the poster uses.

What follows then is even more outrageous – and even occasionally funny – footage from Bruno. There’s him explaining he’s gay to a Sears employee (Oh isn’t it funny how some people react to gay people), him picking up a black baby from the luggage carousel at an airport and then taking the kid on a moped ride and on a talk show to explain the adoption (right….) and him busting in on a Fashion Week catwalk event wearing a suit of Velcro (didn’t Letterman do this in 1983?). The red-band designation seems to stem from two things: A topless woman at a swinger’s party and Bruno asking a self-defense instructor how to defend himself against a man with two dildos.

The all-ages version opens the same way, bringing to mind remembrances of Borat. It’s roughly the same trailer, just with those two bits removed.

The problem I think I have with these trailers is that it’s hard to see that anyone is not in on the joke. From the talk-show host that lobs seemingly scripted questions to him and the audience’s stereotypical reactions to the fact that there’s NO WAY a bunch of Bible-belt hunting buddies OR the U.S. Army would just allow some flamboyant homosexual to come and film the goings-on, everyone seems to have given their tacit approval to being filmed and being part of the gag.

Online

The main online hub for the movie was not a traditional website. Instead it was a skinned MySpace profile called MeinSpace, on which Bruno has a profile.

The page was designed in a very cool manner, extending the mythology nicely. At the top of the page there’s a video introduction that plays that includes all the wacky, outrageous stills that have been released.

Below that is the red-band trailer and then links to the all-ages trailer and other videos, including a TV spot and the video from his appearance at the recent MTV Movie Awards, something that’s addressed more below. There are also photos and ringtones and more that you can view and download.

In addition to MeinSpace the rest of the movie’s online strategy is built around social networks as well. There was a Facebook profile that contained pictures, videos and a Live Premiere Webcast app. There was also a Twitter profile where he posted all kinds of wacky one-liners.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Bruno Pic 2Mainly the advertising for Bruno came in the form of a handful of TV spots. There were about three created and released though the only place I’ve seen them is online. They’re all basically recut and edited versions of the trailer and they’re all wildly inappropriate for almost all audiences. I don’t see any cross-promotional partners or anything else, but as we’re about to see the publicity efforts will more than make up for that.

Some online advertising was also done, including the use of Facebook’s new Hybrid Engagement Ad, a new format that ties into the Facebook Fan Page created for the movie. There was also a bit of outdoor advertising done, including on the top of New York City taxi cabs as documented – with hysterical commentary on the umelaut – by Costa.

Universal also was among the very few to secure an ad in some form on the main page of Twitter. A small box sometimes appeared that linked to CinemaTweets, a site that was created by Universal and Federated Media for the Bruno campaign that collected all the tweets that used the #cinematweets hashtag, whether they were about Bruno or not. It would be interesting to see them expand this a bit beyond Bruno since I don’t want a site/service like this to die as the marketing for this specific movie fades.

Media and Publicity

An good amount of online ink was spent covering the movie’s filming tactics and the buzz around those became a story in their own right. Coverage of the stunts Cohen was pulling around the U.S. to compile footage were reported and scrutinized in and of themselves, resulting in a flurry of publicity for the film. That sort of really early buzz could work for the movie by building anticipation for how it’s all going to be put together or potentially work against it since the surprise of the embarrassing situations that have been caught on film will be significantly diminished.

Some examples of those tactics:

Then there was a lot of buzz among movie lovers when footage was debuted at this year’s SXSW, footage that was preceded by a taped introduction by Cohen.

Unsurprisingly the film was initially slapped with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, something that can’t have been unexpected and might even have been welcome, if not outright orchestrated, by Universal to keep the “OMG this film is going to be crazy controversial” buzz going. Of course it eventually won an R-rating to that it could go into relatively wide release and not get banned from all advertising outlets.

In yet another stunt to prove how outrageous the character is, Bruno literally flew down to the stage of the MTV Movie Awards in a very revealing body suit and a pair of wings. But there was a technical SNAFU half-way to the stage and he had to make an emergency landing in the middle of the audience, right where rapper Eminem was sitting. This resulted in Cohen’s naked hind-quarters planting right in Eminem’s face while Cohen made apologies and tried to continue on with his award presentation. The stunt was supposed to look like an accident but was obviously staged, a belief many held and which was backed up when one of the show’s writers admitted as much on his blog, though the post was later pulled down.

Unfortunately there was a bit of the same sort of problematic publicity generated by Cohen’s antics in the filming of this film that there was in the filming of Borat. A woman sued Cohen, saying that the tussle resulting from a stunt resulted in her being injured and confined to a wheelchair for a period of time, but the reality of the claim is up in the air. NBC Universal, shortly after the suit was filed, issued a statement saying the claim was baseless and that the footage from the event shows there was no contact between the two and so Cohen was not responsible for any injuries she might have suffered.

Ultimately the press for the movie centered around whether it was a condemnation of homophobia or a validation of it. If you read Brook Barnes’ NYTimes take-down of the movie, you’ll see that it manages to achieve both of those goals precisely because people will get from it whatever conclusions happen to match their own world views. If someone is homophobic – and they see the film to begin with, which isn’t likely – they’ll come out nodding their heads that yep, the gays are out to make fun of Middle American Conservatives. If someone isn’t they’ll come out of it nodding their heads at how ridiculous Cohen has made all those homophobes look.

The MeinSpace thing got a bit of coverage in some of the media and advertising trade press, with the angle being that the use of MySpace for such a cool, hip movie campaign could help make the social network, by association, cool and hip again.

Cohen even appeared on the cover of a recent issue of Esquire, fully naked put posed artfully so as to, thankfully, not expose anything. That appearance became a local story here in Chicago when the manager of a newsstand at O’Hare Airport put the magazine behind one of those blinders that are usually reserved for Playboy and other magazines that feature controversial material. This despite, as an example used by Chicagoist shows, a similar Esquire issue featuring a woman who’s naked but not showing anything remained uncovered. Similar things happened elsewhere in the country.

At the last minute the movie had to undergo a bit of a trim, with the studio cutting a scene involving Bruno mocking Michael Jackson the day the singer died, which happened to be the same day the movie was scheduled to have its big premiere. That’s a rare showing of restraint but I don’t think anyone would argue with the move.

Overall

Bruno TitleThis is a decent campaign that Universal has put together for a movie that, in all honesty, is probably not going to have much mainstream appeal. That’s not a fault of the studio or the campaign it’s executed, it’s just (I think) a reality of the place the movie-going audience is in right now. Bruno is not going to be on the “To See” list after Transformers 2 for many people. It’s more likely to be on the “To See” list of people who have recently seen Moon or something like that and are looking for a movie that pushes boundaries a bit more.

That being said I think there’s a lot to like about the campaign. It’s funny from beginning to end and I admire the way Cohen plays the character throughout the push, never dropping from Bruno mode for very long in an effort to really sell it as the “documentary” it purports to be. That’s probably the strongest facet of the campaign and as long as things remain firmly attached to the force of will that Cohen possesses it remains funny and well-done.

Advertising, Movie Marketing Madness, Online, Out of Home, Posters, Print, Television, Trailers, Universal Pictures, Word of Mouth
0

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-06

Posted by Chris
at July 6, 2009

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2

Take-aways

Posted by Chris
at July 6, 2009

Andy Sernovitz is talking about how it’s important for companies, as part of their presence at a trade show or other industry event, to give attendees something in exchange for getting permission to follow-up with them after the show.

Most moviegoers will never attend Sho-West, a major film festival or other film industry event where swag is given out and contacts made. That’s why it’s important, I think, for studios to think of the movie-going experience as mini trade shows that people go to every day. The fact that everyone sports a cell phone means studios have a contact point with the audience that those audience members carry around with them. So as they’re sitting there before the movie starts get their permission to send them emails or text messages about upcoming movies in exchange for entry into a sweepstakes or something.

Stop thinking of “Getting people into the theater” as the end goal and instead begin to view it as just one step along the conversational path with an individual and I firmly believe studios will not only see box-office as a whole rises but studio loyalty also spikes. That’s what the companies that buy a booth at a trade show are doing.

Movie Marketing, Out of Home
1

Marketing in Madness in 60 Seconds: 7/3/09

Posted by Chris
at July 3, 2009

staticAdvertising/Marketing

Display ads will come to Dish Networks in early 2010 thanks to a partnership between that company and WPP’s GroupM. That system will likely then be rolled out to DirecTV and possibly even beyond that as addressable ads continue to be all the rage for cable television.

Advertising executives have an idea of what the impact of DVR ad-skipping is having on their business but don’t know how to counteract it.

Digital College Network is a new start-up out-of-home advertising network that is installing screens that will display entertainment, advertising and other content on those screens, which will be placed in college bookstores across the country.

YouTube has introduced new overlay ads that can link to an outside website directly. Overlays were all the rage about a year and a half ago and it’s odd they waited this long to jump on this bandwagon.

A study done by a television industry trade group says that television is a more effective environment for advertising than the web, especially in terms of “emotional engagement.” I’m awash in shock.

Advertisers have agreed in principle to new self-regulatory guidelines that would give web users more control over behaviorally targeted online ads. The proposed guidelines from the AAAA would require ISPs, ad servers (including Google, Yahoo and others) and companies that make browser toolbars to get opt-in agreements from users before serving up such ads, though how that assent is given and to what extent it would be applied remains unclear.

Media

The New York Times is dropping a restriction it had placed on member papers that content must appear in print first. Members can now post original NYT pieces on their sites before that content appears in print, a move designed allow those member papers to evolve to meet consumer needs.

Social Media

Flickr has made it easier to post the photos you upload there to Twitter.

Twitter has started the process of trying to copyright “tweet” in response to the wide-range of applications that use that word in their names. It says it won’t go after those currently using the word but just want to make sure that, since it’s so connected in people’s minds with Twitter, it’s not being abused.

Marketing Madness
1

Finding an Audience: Distribution Notes for 7/3/09

Posted by Chris
at July 3, 2009

movie-ticket-and-popcornTheatrical

The few remaining indie arms of the big studios are buying minimally, some of the true independents are picking up a handful and the others are just kind of sitting there doing nothing. Yes, the market for independent movies truly does bite right now.

Home Video

Rumors are circulating that Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Sony are in talks to merge the production, distribution and other backend operations relating to the DVD business in an effort to cut costs.

Online/On-Demand

The Supreme Court has declined to hear arguments relating to the opposition by a consortium of Hollywood studios to plans by some cable providers to introduce networked DVR functionality. That functionality would un-hinge DVR services from a set-top box with its hard-drive and, for all intents and purposes, put it in the cloud that is the operator’s services. The system will be slow – and expensive – to roll out but will ultimately be a cost-savings since it means they don’t have to pay all those manufacturing costs. PaidContent has more of the winners/losers in this.

Warner Bros. has signed a deal to handle digital release of films managed by Oscilloscope, making sure those movies get into online storefronts. New media distribution will happen after the films complete their theatrical run.

The limited broadband speeds in the U.S. still aren’t enough to effectively stream HD video content to homes but are being utilized to some effect as complimentary channels for Blu-ray content.

Distribution, Finding An Audience, Home Video, Online/On-Demand, Theatrical
0

Quick Takes: 7/3/09

Posted by Chris
at July 3, 2009

filmstripThe rising role being played by online, social network-based word of mouth is partly to blame, at least according to some people, for the fact that star-power seems to be waning in importance in movie marketing. Once-invincible stars aren’t bringing them in like they used to and are being beaten by movies with ensemble, second-string casts and other factors that don’t carry as much traditional weight.

The AMC blog looks at some of the greatest movie hype-starting hoaxes in history.

The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood is increasing the pressure on federal regulators over the advertising for PG-13 movies that airs during programming meant for younger children. The group points to the large amount of ads for Wolverine, Transformers 2, Terminator Salvation and more that have been broadcast this year. In response, the MPAA, which is charged with self-policing the ads for these movies, says it works hard to make sure whatever is approved is appropriate for those audiences.

Valeris Van Galder is leaving her post as co-president of worldwide marketing at Sony Pictures but is not said to be going to another studio. Instead she simply appears to be stepping down for personal reasons. Mark Weinstock, the other co-president of the division, will assume her duties upon her leaving.

Advertising, Executive Shifts, Movie Marketing, Quick Takes
1

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-02

Posted by Chris
at July 2, 2009

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Filmspotting on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight”

Posted by Chris
at July 2, 2009

Adam and Matty from Filmspotting appeared on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” the other day. Great appearance, guys.

Movie Marketing
1

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-01

Posted by Chris
at July 1, 2009

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Movie Marketing Madness: Public Enemies

Posted by Chris
at July 1, 2009

Public Enemies PosterChicago – and Chicagoans – has always had a tough time dealing with its violent, mobster-speckled past. On the one hand it’s reality. It’s also good for tourism since lots of people want to come see the streets and locations where Al Capone and his cronies traded in booze and violence for so many years. On the other hand Chicago has done a lot of other things over the years and many people – especially the current mayor – are eager to put that sort of perception of the city behind us as they seek to define its future.

There’s no denying, though, that it’s impossible to read a history of 20th century Chicago that doesn’t include a chronicle of much of that past. Chicago was in-arguably host to some of the biggest events in the history of crime in that period.

Some of that included the career of John Dillinger. That career is now being mined as the basis for Public Enemies, the new film from director Michael Mann. In the film JohnnyDepp plays Dillinger and Christian Bale one of the FBI agents tasked with bringing him to justice. The film follows Dillinger as he engages in his much-publicized wave of bank robberies as he eludes the FBI, even as that agency looks to make that pursuit – and hopefully his eventual capture – the case that makes its reputation. It all ends, getting back to the Chicago connection, outside theBiograph Theater on Chicago’s near-north side.

The Posters

Three character posters were the first components of the print campaign that were released. Depp got one, Bale got one and Marion Cotillard, who plays Dillinger’s girlfriend in the film, got one. Each one was placed in a setting that was appropriate for their character, withDepp’s Dillinger standing on the side of a car with a machine gun at the ready, Bale’s Purvis hiding behind a tree as if he’s waiting for his opportunity to catch the bad guy and Cotillard’s character dressed for the night out and standing on a city street. They’re all very stylized and very cool looking and fit the atmospheric look the movie’s campaign is trying to create very well.

Public Enemies Poster - Character DeppPublic Enemies Poster - Character BalePublic Enemies Poster - Character Cotillard

The theatrical poster puts the focus solely on Depp as he stands, machine gun in hand, looking north on LaSalle Street in Chicago – the same location of the last shot in The Untouchables – and the Chicago Board of Trade building behind him. It’s a shot that’s more or less synonymous, by virtue of that placement in The Untouchables, with Chicago and is used as shorthand not only for the geographic setting but its time as well. It works at what it’s trying to accomplish, which is to set the scene in that way and sellDepp as the main attraction for the movie.

The fact that Bale didn’t get more prominent placement in the poster component of the campaign surprised me and a few other people. But, as one film marketing industry watcher says, Bale still doesn’t have the audience recognition factor that makes him, as opposed to the roles he plays, a big draw factor, at least not a big enough one to pushDepp off the front burner.

The Trailers

It’s hard to comment individually on the two trailers that were released because, quite frankly, they’re both so very awesome.

It’s not just that they’re both visually fantastic, it’s that they both do a great job of creating the sense that they walk the line between showing some awesome scenes andcinematography without spoiling it or making the viewer think they’ve seen all the best bits. Both build the story and the characters in slow and steady ways and build to an eventual exciting climax.

Public Enemies PicWhile each features a slightly different take on things – one of them doesn’t show Depp in close-up until over 30 seconds in – they do both hit on the common themes of this being a manhunt that the FBI is mounting on Dillinger and that Dillinger is enjoying his role as a celebrity, an anti-hero for the working man during the early years of the Depression.

They also both make it clear to the audience that this is a stylishly told story that features compelling and deep characters and some darn fine acting.

I’m actually a bit surprised they don’t play up the violence in the film more. I’m not sure how much of that is contained in the actual film but this is summer action movie season after all and accentuating that violence might have been seen as a safe marketing play by the studio and its partners. I’m not complaining – I think they’re great – I’m just saying I’m surprised they didn’t reach for the lowest common denominator.

Considering the local connection it’s not surprising that the Biograph would have the trailer playing on a screen in the lobby on a continuous loop.

Online

The official website opens by playing the second (I think it’s the second, I don’t remember what order they were released in) trailer, which you can close to start diving into the site. You can continue down that road by clicking “Enter the Site.”

There are a few options right off the bat on the site, which takes forever to load.

“Explore the Crime Wave of John Dillinger” presents a timeline of the real Dillinger’s activities, from his first jail break through his being gunned down outside theBiograph . I love features like this on sites for movies that are based on historic events as they provide a resource for people who want more than just a movie to get some background on the subjects and people involved.

Along those same lines is “Gangsters and G-Men” which gives you some historic biographic information on the people being portrayed. Each one is presented along with the face of the actor doing the portraying, helping you put a face with the name when you eventually see the movie.

Public Enemies Pic 2In the final of these featured spots the spotlight is turned directly on director Mann, with a Biography, Images and Insight into the themes he explores in his movies and how this plays into those. I don’t see this kind of thing on many movie sites, where an A-List director gets broken out in this fashion, but Mann is certainly among those few that deserve such treatment.

Getting into the site’s main content, the menu is actually arranged like a map of the Midwest, with the different areas represented by points corresponding to the areas Dillinger struck in his career.

First up is “Downloads” where you’ll find three Desktop Wallpapers and 11 Buddy Icons you can grab to make yourself up in the style of the movie.

There are 18 stills from the movie under the “Gallery.”

I love the “Videos” section since it contains the Trailer (but just the one, a slight demerit), seven TV spots and seven extended clips from the film. That’s more TV spots than the official site for the Transformers sequel, which had asizably bigger push, contained.

“Notes” has a ton of good information about the creation of the movie and the people involved in said creation. It’s well-written and has quotes from the real people depicted and it’s a good read. “Filmmakers” and “Cast” both give you a bit of information on the talent behind the movie and their film histories.

Finally, “Story” dives into just what the movie is all about and the path the characters take.

At the bottom of the page there are the now-usual array of buttons that let you share a link to the site with your friends on Facebook, StumbleUpon and elsewhere.

There was also an online game that Universal ran called BankRaids that used Twitter and Facebook Connect to let people promote just how well they had done in their quest to become a notorious – and successful – bank robber. Seems like a fun game and I like the instant post-to-Twitter/Facebook once you finish your run aspect of it.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

The primary component of the advertising campaign was the seven or so TV spots that were created and which aired in the four or five weeks before the movie’s release. These were all pretty good, essentially slimmed-down and rearranged footage from the trailers. The main problem faced by these spots was that they were airing right in the middle of the campaign for Transformers 2 and it’s almost two dozen different commercials so it was a little hard to find some breathing room around them.

There was also some outdoor advertising done and, I think, some online as well, but I didn’t see very much of it and haven’t heard a lot of buzz in that area.

Media and Publicity

Public Enemies Pic 3As is befitting a movie with a couple of high profile stars and such a big-time director there was a decent amount of publicity around Public Enemies. Interviews with theDepp, Bale and Mann were in steady supply in the weeks leading up to the movie’s release. There was also plenty of local attention given to the film’s shooting while the production was in Chicago, with other Midwest locations that don’t usually host movie shoots focusing in their own way on the fact that there were major stars in town.

Some of that local Chicago coverage

The film got a decent shot in the arm when it was announced it would screen, likely for the first time to a general audience, at the Los Angeles Film Festival in mid to late June.

Overall

I’m always amazed when I watch a Michael Mann film at how the director is able to combine slick, amazing visuals and meaty, substantive story-telling.

The campaign for Public Enemies positions  the movie along those very same lines. It presents a movie that contains some great performances, really cool visuals and a story that is engaging and interesting, meaning there’s something for everyone. It certainly makes the movie most attractive to those interested in serious movies. It’s probably going to have little overlap with the Transformers 2 crowd that’s more into sweaty Megan Fox and flashyCGI visuals.

The main problem with the campaign has nothing to do with the actual marketing but instead is about the release timing. It’s among the highest-profile releases this week but it’s still coming after those big effing robots and so the campaign has had to run more or less in parallel to that push, meaning it’s been a chore for it to not be drowned out. Hopefully, though, it’s managed to find the audience it needs this weekend.

Advertising, Games, Movie Marketing Madness, Online, Out of Home, Posters, Print, Television, Trailers, Universal Pictures
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