No likey commercials
Not sure that I have anything productive to add to this rant about pre-feature marketing. I get what he’s saying, but I don’t see anything beyond just frustration in most of his arguments.
Just sayin’
I keep trying to figure out if there’s anything stupider than calling for a boycott of mainstream trade publications because you feel like they’re not giving credit where credit’s due on scoops and breaking news but I’m really not thinking of anything.
I get what the problem is, that movie sites are breaking stories that then show up two days later in THR or Variety with no attribution of who got the story first. But that’s pretty rampant behavior among bloggers as well. I think we’ve all been victims of someone passing on a story that we’ve broken as their own and I think we’ve all felt the same sort of righteous indignation when that happens.
Whatever other issues there might be about this, I’d suggest that everyone who’s crying foul about the practices of movie trade pubs take a look at their own behavior before their own noses bent too terribly far out of shape.
MTV launches Splash Page comics blog
MTV has launched their new comics blog, titled Splash Page. Already at launch, the site has a bunch of cool stuff like news of a brief appearance - more of an easter egg than anything else - of the Joker in DC’s upcoming Supermax prison flick and a look at two new collectible statues for Watchmen that are being produced by DC Direct.
Essentially, Splash Page is meant to cover not only comics but the intersection of comics and film since both those industries are exercising a tremendous amount of sway over each other in the last few years. MTV is launching the site now in part to play into the buzz surrounding Comic-Con this weekend but it’s not just for that, this is a full-on comics blog that is looking to be a source of some great news and exclusive first looks.
The site is being written by a bunch of folks that should be familiar to you, including writers that are already on the MTV Movies blog and other sites, so I’m assuming the quality will be up to those levels. It’s being overseen/edited by a former writer from DC, meaning that this isn’t just a corporate media perspective but one from people that are really interested in comics and entertainment.
From the introductory post:
With films like “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” ruling the box office, and fare like “Persepolis” earning Oscar nods, there has never been a more remarkable time for the industry. But the amazing summer of 2008 is only the beginning of Hollywood’s comic craze. Dozens of amazing projects are coming down the pike, and you can trust that we’ll be aiming our journalistic cannons at them all.
We also want to make a promise to you, and that’s that we take this seriously. Having covered comics professionally for nearly a decade and having read them for far longer, I’ve seen the frustration firsthand when mainstream media treats the industry as a launching pad for “Zap, Bam, Pow!” headlines and Archie jokes. So to that end, we’re assembling a cache of expert contributors to help fuel Slash Page, in addition to hiring of one of DC Comics’ most talented editors, who will be joining us full-time in the coming weeks. We view advancing comics as a mission, and we’re pleased to combine our experience in covering movies with our love of pencils and ink.
I’m really looking forward to what these folks have to say since it’s certainly going to be of interest to readers of MMM. I’m hearing there are lots of exciting tidbits coming down the pike from them in the next couple days and weeks, meaning this is going to turn into yet another must-read resource.
Get in on The Conversation
Scott Kirsner gave me a heads-up on what sounds like a very cool event happening in San Francisco this October. Dubbed “The Conversation,” the event features a variety of speakers, including Reed Hastings of Netflix and representatives from companies like YouTube and Dreamworks.
The focus of the event is on the meeting place of film, games, the Internet and other media and how that mashing is affecting the creation, distribution and marketing of film and other content. That includes discussion of both tools and tactics. I’m definitely going to try to make this as it sounds far too interesting to pass up.
Finding an Audience: Distribution Notes for 7/18/08
Karina passes on competing viewpoints on how important a theatrical release is in the life of a movie, with one side calling it extraordinarily important as a legitimizing factor in the minds of the audience and the other saying that with all the new and better targeted distribution platforms out there, the idea of putting a movie in a theater is kind of out-dated. The LAT also examines the growing online market for independent films.
The ground-breaking Four-Eyed Monsters online gets celebrated by Cinematical on the verge of the movie’s release on DVD.
The conventional wisdom that high gas prices send people to the theater - a short trip as opposed to longer weekend trips - gets questioned.
US Airways will no longer show theatrical features on its flights, but studios aren’t too worried that other airlines will do likewise.
It should come as no surprise that a study funded by a company that offers DRM solutions raised a red-flag about the rise of piracy of big-name movies in both the U.S. and Great Britain. Yeah, that’s real shocking.
20th Century Fox is holding a series of screenings at stores and other locations in popular spots around the country to promote their DVD library as a way to get people excited about home video released.
The numbers on DVD aren’t dire yet, though, with 67% of those 13-29 still saying they rent or buy discs monthly. And spending on both DVD and Blu-ray discs has actually risen 1.6 percent in the first half of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
Blockbuster is counting on the release of a few big-name titles like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to boost its fourth-quarter earnings.
Meanwhile, Disney is counting on the interactive features on its Cinderella Blu-ray will generate a new wave of interest in the format. And Warner Bros. is hoping for the same consumer interest as a result of dropping prices.
Netflix is adding its Watch Instantly download service to the Xbox 360, setting the stage for even more such services. As Matt Griswold says, the service will allow for up to eight friends to watch the same movie at once, bringing social recommendations and viewing back into the formerly solitary home video game.
Paramount has signed a deal to put current blockbusters like Beowulf and Cloverfield, among others, on the rental site Jaman.com that will make the titles available for about $3 or $4.
Viacom has worked out a deal with the Weinstein Co. that will have that studio’s films become available on the new pay-cable channel it’s starting with a couple other studios. The deal will start with movies the Weinstein Co. releases beginning in 2009 and include films from its Dimension Films division.
Lionsgate is also among the ranks of those making deals, with time with YouTube. The studio will make clips from its library of movies available officially on the site, with the two parties sharing advertising revenue from the clips that appear on Lionsgate’s channel. The deal was hashed out when Lionsgate was trying to get all their unauthorized clips off of YouTube and realized it was relatively pointless.
Movie Marketing Madness: The Dark Knight
The campaign for The Dark Knight, the second movie in the newest iteration of the Batman franchise, has a tough act to follow. As I’ve stated time and time again, the push for Batman Begins in 2005 is one of my favorite campaigns I’ve ever analyzed in my time in seriously reviewing movie marketing efforts. That’s because, as you likely know, it is so amazingly consistent from one component to the next. From the posters to the trailers to the website, everything about the campaign was done in that same sepia-toned style, with Batman looming large and mysterious in the center of the action. It created a singular public face which was reinforced time and again in the audience’s mind and created a strong brand identity in every sense of the phrase.
For that and other reasons (I’m a long time fan of the (good) Batman films, this one was shot in Chicago, including my building, etc) The Dark Knight has been something I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while and which, admittedly, I’m pre-disposed to liking. So consider that my disclaimer.
The Dark Knight picks up just shortly after we left off in Batman Begins. But with Bruce Wayne feeling like his work as the Caped Crusader is coming to a close thanks to the work of Harvey Dent and a corruption fighting District Attorney who is committed to bringing order to Gotham City things seem to be calming down, or at least coming to a point where the actual system can begin working. Into that mix comes the mysterious Joker, a “better class of criminal” that is devoted to bringing down Batman - and Dent - in his efforts to…well…enjoy himself as chaos is set free in the streets again.
And that leads us to the main issue surrounding this campaign. The early stages of the push by Warner Bros. had focused heavily, as we’ll see as we progress, on the Joker’s involvement. He was causing mischief online and his markings were seen on the first posters and other materials. The Joker was, to make it clear, being positioned as the main selling point for the movie.
But then Heath Ledger, the actor portraying him, died, with reports surrounding his death speculating either on an accidental overdose of medication or a purposeful suicide. Gone was not only a son and father of a little girl, but also the person who was going to be at the forefront of the campaign. His death threw into question just about everything. Does Warner Bros. continue to use the Joker in the campaign? Do they continue on with plans to create Joker toys and other items? Or will this all just be too ghoulish?
But now, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look at the way The Dark Knight was - and in some cases wasn’t sold to the movie-going public. Because of the way the campaign was structured it’s going to require a bit of deviation from the usual format.
Picking Up the Spare: 7/16/08
The Incredible Hulk
The success of the new movie version of the Hulk has been debated back and forth since its release, with the last word on the matter seeming to be that it just didn’t do well enough to warrant a franchise. Universal continues to say it’s happy with the movie’s box-office, and the lighter, more action-oriented tone of the movie makes it more open to sequels, but the lack of a sequel that’s been greenlighted already kind of speaks volumes.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Animation World News has some more details on unlocking the secret codes on the various sites setup for Hellboy’s second big-screen outing and goes into more of the story surrounding this aspect of the campaign.
Hancock
The site for Hancock that was developed by Trigger was tagged as one of Adobe’s Sites of the Day.
So many ways to lose
As I stall for time while prepping my MMM: The Dark Knight column, allow me to pass along David Armano’s Wheel of Marketing Misfortune, which includes many (many) sinkholes that studios often fall into online.
BlogOrlando 2008 includes a little Thilk-y goodness
As insane as it might sound - to me no less than you - I’ve been asked to speak at this year’s BlogOrlando event at the end of September. BlogOrlando is, of course, put on by Josh Hallett who, in addition to being an awesome photographer, is a seriously good guy and one of the brightest in the marketing field as a whole, much less the social media wing of that industry.
If you’re in the area or feel like coming you can register here, but hurry before the spots are filled. And you can check out the full (so far) list of speakers here and here.
The Avengers
Movie Marketing Madness: Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army
If last week’s Hancock was an example of trying to sell the movie of a superhero that is new, without an existing fanbase, Hellboy is an example of trying to sell comic book character that only the hardcore comics fans are likely to know about.
Hellboy is among the more obscure comics adaptations hitting theaters this summer, though unlike Hancock he does have an actual comics legacy to pull from and capitalize on. The character has been around for a number of years, after having been created by Mike Mingolla a while ago. And he’s already had one big screen outing, as well as a number of really, really cool direct-to-video features that continue the story of Hellboy and his supporting cast very well. So he’s an established movie character as well.
Still, the primary problem Universal faces this week is the fact that Hellboy is not Iron Man. He’s not the Hulk. He’s not Batman. And with so many big-time superheroes coming to the big-screen it’s going to be easy for people to forget about Hellboy, a problem that’s only accentuated by the fact that he’s a little darker and more mysterious, fighting not a bad guy per se but a whole underworld of monsters, an underworld he used to belong to and constantly has to fight the pull to rejoin.
Bringing him back to the movies is director Guillermo del Toro, the mastermind behind Pan’s Labyrinth and a number of other films that have a penchant for the supernatural, including the first Hellboy flick back in 2004, one of his first mainstream American films. The plot of Hellboy II is pretty simple - bunch of bad guys, in this case the spoiled heir to an underworld kingdom who was a preference for violence, are trying to disrupt the human world. So it’s up to Hellboy and his team to push them back where they belong, all the while throwing around one-liners and chomping cigars. Let’s dive in.
The Posters
The first poster that hit the streets was released at Comic-Con in 2007. Very much a teaser in every sense of the word, the one-sheet showed nothing from the movie other than its title. Instead it was just a bit of artwork from Mignola that depicted Hellboy in his comics form, something that was designed almost solely to elicit “OMGs” from the fans of the character, whether they were in attendance at the event or just viewing it online after the fact. There was the slightest bit of plot hinting via the huge robot something that lurks behind Hellboy but that’s about it.
After that a series of character posters were released that sought to re-introduce the cast of the first film to us. Hellboy, Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien got posters all to themselves, as well as new addition Johann Krauss. These were released over a series of weeks and definitely did a good job of getting people excited about the second theatrical entry in the franchise. Plus, they were super-cool in terms of design, showing something of the character’s powers and overall being consistent with the look and feel of things like the website, creating that all-important brand experience.
It was a little while before another poster hit, but when it did it was big. Once again debuting at a Comic-Con event, this one-sheet had not only the hardcore comics fan allure going for it but also the fact that it was designed by legendary poster artist Drew Struzan, he of the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter (at least the first few) franchises, as well as countless others. This one is..well…it just rocks. Hellboy, armed with his Big Baby gun, looks up at the towering hordes of robots that are coming at him out of a cloud of dust. It works well by combing great artwork with an image that captures the overall gist of the movie’s conflict in a single frame. Definitely a great effort.
The final theatrical poste r brings us back to a real image of Hellboy, who’s seen with gun in hand and with his other hand - the big stone one - smashing the ground. That part of the image is a little underwhelming, since his mighty punch seems to have disturbed barely more grass than I do when I’m walking in my yard, but that’s a minor quibble. It’s a good, fun poster that brings the character to the masses in a slick but darkly tinted way, a feeling that’s accentuated by the “Believe it or not, he’s the good guy” copy point that appears at the top.
Interestingly, this is the only poster I’ve seen that mentions the movie comes from del Toro. Actually it doesn’t tout that as much as the fact that it comes from the “visionary director of Pan’s Labyrinth” above the title. The reason I mark that as interesting is that this is a theme that will be hit upon heavily in the trailers. It almost seems to me Universal was hoping the trailers would find richer soil in art-house audiences, while the posters main audience would be comics fans who might not be as drawn to the legacy of Pan’s as they would be to art that was taken directly from the comics or which had a rich heritage in the sci-fi fantasy realm.
The Trailers
The first trailer skirted the line of being a teaser, spending a lot of the first part of its running time on setting up the mysterious world that lurks around and beneath ours, all of which is being brought to us by director Guillermo del Toro. It then gets around to showing us the main bad guy of the movie, some sort of royalty that’s going to destroy mankind. Eventually we’re shown Hellboy himself and the other good guys, with Big Red being shown as his usual heroic but slightly grumpy self. It sets up the basic story pretty well, showing how things are still the same for our band of paranormal investigators, still not existing and still scaring the regular humans as much as the baddies, despite constantly saving the day.
The second spot spent more time at first setting up the motivation for the bad guy in the movie, showing how he’s reclaiming his birthright, a process that involves him making his presence known to the upper world and causing a bit of mayhem. After that we transition to the action, with Hellboy and his crew bringing the fight to the bad guys, with gallows humor intact.
The third and final trailer is probably the most traditional one in the line-up, especially taking into account the fact that this is a sequel. It starts off by reintroducing us to the character and how we met him in the first movie, as a tiny little demon that is just so adorable and then as a big fighting machine that loves kittens. It then moves into a general plot overview of the new movie, with a general setup of the plot and the adversaries Hellboy and the other good guys will be facing. It’s a great spot that probably is going to have the most mass appeal since, by adding the setup to the character at the beginning, makes the movie just a tad more accessible than the other trailers. I’m not saying it’s the best of the batch, but it’s the most well-rounded and that’s important here.
Unlike the collection of posters, del Toro’s name is mentioned all over these trailers. Every one at some point intones that this comes from the director - often preceded by “visionary” or some other superlative - of Pan’s Labyrinth. Obviously the studio thinks this is going to bring in fans of fantasy films in addition to those that are looking for some cool sci-fi/comic-book storytelling. The cast of demons and creatures that are on display here back that theory up, making it clear Universal wants to convince Pan’s fans that this movie is the thematic, if not outright, extension of that film.
Online
The movie’s main online presence is split into two main parts: The first is the site that’s meant for general audiences and which looks very much like a movie website. The other, labeled the “Production Site” is more functional and doesn’t have a look or feel that you would instantly recognize as being attached to a major studio release. I’m not saying it’s chintzy looking or anything - it’s still very slick and well designed - but it’s definitely meant for a different audience.
The official site, the one that is geared more toward a general audience, has some above-average content. It’s arranged with a main menu of content off to the side and some location-named sections at the bottom.
Before you enter the site, though, there’s already quite a bit of good content that’s offered. The third trailer is there, along with a pop-up that allows you to share the video on your own site or post it elsewhere. There’s also a widget you can grab that includes some of the site’s standard stuff, a link to the special iPhone-optimized site and a list of the promotional Partners.
First the main menu’s content: “The Film” has a pretty good stuff in the form of Production Notes, the Cast and Crew write-ups and The Story. The sections, when put together, provide a solid picture of the movie and the journey it took to come back to the big-screen. They’re well-written and entertaining and have the same sort of sense of humor the movie itself conveys, which is a good thing.
The “Video” section does exactly what I always think such sections should do, which is act as an archive of the video segments related to the movie. All three Trailers, a handful of TV Spots and a couple of extended Clips to enjoy. 
“Gallery” is exactly what you’d think it is, though it is a tad more extensive than other site’s sections with a lot of pictures. “Downloads” has Buddy Icons, Wallpapers, a Screen Saver and all the movie’s posters, including both domestic and international varieties, a nice touch that often gets overlooked here.
The “Whack-A-Troll” game is not all that complicated but let’s face facts - punching demons with a big red rocky fist is fun under just about any circumstances.
“Explore the BPRD” is the same stuff that you’ll find at the bottom of the site. It basically provides an alternate entry point to the content, along with some new stuff, by taking you to locations from the movie. Each one features a different one of the main characters and clicking them will bring you to downloads and video clips related to that character along with some other stuff. It’s a nice navigation tool that extends the movie’s universe and brings visitors into it a little bit more.
There’s also a link there to the other, more functional Production Site I mentioned before. There you’ll find some more stuff like links to del Toro’s online presence as well as that of actor Doug Jones under “Links.” There’s also “News” that has all the major announcements regarding the movie’s production and marketing materials releases. A “Gallery” of production art and a sections of “Images” that contains posters and stills are also there. “HBTV” has all the trailers, TV spots and some Featurettes. “History of Hellboy” is a nice introduction to the characters in this universe and “Synopsis” is a good overview of the movie.
In terms of communication, Universal did a good job of putting some tools in place. There’s an old-school Webring you can join if you have a movie or Hellboy-oriented site you’d like to promote. The Message Board is pretty standard, but it’s nice to see it there. Finally, there’s an RSS feed you can subscribe to to get updates, something that, to be perfectly honest, is completely and utterly essential.
The final main portion of the online presence is del Toro’s Notebook, which contains his sketches the director made. It’s all narrated by del Toro and is great, completely relevant to his audience since this is the same sort of thing he did for Pan’s Labyrinth and very much in line with his overall reputation in general.
One thing that I didn’t think got enough play was a wiki Universal created just for the movie. The site featured information on the cast, the characters, the production and the other talent involved in the movie, all in community-editable format. I don’t see that there was a ton of participation on the entries - the ones I looked at all pretty much resemble the place-holders the studio put up there at launch, but I’d encourage Universal and other studios to keep trying this approach, especially with movies like this that are likely to have such strong online followings.
The movie also had MySpace and Facebook pages, of course. The MySpace page featured the third and final trailer, some downloads, a photo gallery and the Whack-a-Troll game. The Facebook fan page was a little more sparse, with just a couple of trailers and a photo gallery making up most of its content, as well as a contest where you could win a statue in exchange for becoming a fan of the page. 
Also appearing online was an alternate reality game that featured a bunch of microsites. Universal created a bunch of sites, beginning with Hetfet.org, a site for the ethical treatment of fairies and trolls, and continuing on through TheSecretDevice.com and other sites. With each unlocked combination and such more clues were revealed and more content uncovered, including new design videos and more. I didn’t follow it extensively but between what I did catch and the recaps on sites like Comics2Film it seems to have been pretty engaging and fun, with rewards that justified people’s interest in the game.
Finally, there’s a short animated comic prequel that tells the story of the mythology that leads into the movie’s story, essentially explaining to Hellboy what the audience needs to know going in. In addition to being almost an essential viewing item it’s quite entertaining and definitely worth checking out.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
In a summer where advertising space for movies had to be tight, Universal seems to have gone all out. I’ve seen online ads for the movie pasted all over the Internet, and the outdoor campaign has, whatever its reach, gotten a good amount of mentions in the online press, especially when there’s something funny, like a Hellboy ad appearing on a billboard right next to a church. Hi-larious.
There have also been quite a few TV spots created, seemingly all of which can be viewed online at the production site. Player X also helped the studio out by creating, publishing and distributing clips from the movie to mobile devices. 
One of the biggest cross-promotions - at least based on the amount I read about it - is with Adidas, who created a new Hellboy-themed line of shoes that are teh awesome. I don’t usually go for this kind of thing since I’m no long eight years old, but these would make me reconsider that thinking.
In perhaps the best movie marketing decision of the year so far, Universal tapped into the properties of a number of its sister companies to advertising Hellboy. They created a series of spots pairing Big Red with characters from shows like “Chuck,” “American Gladiators” and “Inside the Actors Studio” that had him in a variety of situations, most of which end up with him being well meaning but slightly inappropriate.
The official site also lists as promotional partners BigFix, an enterprise productivity platform company and Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s, though I couldn’t find anything on their sites or through a search on what those partnerships entail.
Overall
You know, the campaign we’ve just reviewed may not break any substantial new ground, but it does has the “fun factor” going for it in spades. The whole thing does a good job of conveying the gallows humor of Hellboy and his team and just comes across as being fast and loose, exactly the right image that needs to be portrayed.
There really aren’t any weak spots to point to. The posters are consistently slick and nicely designed, bringing a consistent brand message to audiences and definitely containing enough to appeal to the core target audience. That’s especially evidenced by the fact that two of the posters debuted at Comic-Con events, where the movie was likely to be among friends to begin with.
The trailers all contain enough stuff to appeal to a variety of niches, including the mainstream one, with messaging that is meant to get comics fans, fantasy movie fans and hopefully a few just general moviegoers into theaters. And the websites contain enough good stuff for anyone to satisfy their curiosity about the movie or the characters and leave really interested in seeing the film.
It may be the underdog comic adaptation of the summer, but Universal has put together a nice campaign for a movie that’s likely going to be a lot of fun.
Macfest 2008
The funny part about this is, Macs are the only technology around at Casa Biro. They churn their own butter, have chickens in the back room (who are really loud at night) and that’s actually two candles in the light in the background. But when it comes to home computing it’s all Apple.
Picking Up the Spare: Wanted, WALL-E, Hancock
Wanted
An MMOG (massively-multi-player-online-game) has been created that mimcs the “fraternity” idea from the movie, enlisting people who can rise through the ranks of the organization. It was actually released before the movie, according to the story, and was a component in the online buzz-building effort then.
WALL-E
Pixar has given a shout-out to a woman who created a YouTube video showing herself crying at the teaser trailer for WALL-E. The woman was given some Pixar memorabilia and invited her to the movie’s wrap party and everything. It’s a very cool story, the kind of thing that reinforces the notion that Pixar is far from a faceless corporation.
Hancock
I didn’t include this in the column despite the fact that the story was released before I published more because I couldn’t find a good fit for it more than anything else.
Sony is planning to release Hancock to owners of Sony Bravia sets via Internet download in the period after its theatrical run is finished but before the DVD is released. The download is run through Sony directly, seemingly without the participation of one of the traditional players like a cable company and is likely to honk those people off. I’m curious to see the pricing on this. It’s too limited a test - again, it’s just web-connected Bravia owners - to draw any real conclusions about the viability of breaking the window like this, but is an interesting move nonetheless.
Finding the Audience: Distribution Notes for 7/8/08
Google has begun experimenting with allowing independent filmmakers to post their entire movies to YouTube. The new deal will allow films to be posted for a small charge and ads will be placed within the movies, with revenue split between YouTube and the producer. Variety has more details.
Struggling retailer Sears is working with MTV on a back-to-schol movie dubbed The American Mall. Locations and clothes are all - or at least mostly - from Sears and the actors will appear in Sears commercials later this year, with the finished movie set for a debut on MTV this August.
This is the first “There are just too many independent movies in theaters and that’s why none of them are connecting with audiences” article I’ve seen in a while but it hits many of the same notes as previous such pieces. There’s a legitimate issue to discuss here about quality vs. quantity, but as long as everything has to be funneled through the narrow theatrical pipeline this is going to continue to be a problem.
Cinemark is working with RealID to significantly expand the reach of its 3D screens, an expansion that’s going to come in handy as more films are released - either in whole or in part - in this format. The rise of 3D, particularly in IMAX theaters and other large-screen venues, is also explored in Businessweek.
Mark Caro at The Trib discusses the dwindling instances of big-screen special screenings of old movies like WarGames, something that is caused by the “always” available culture of DVDs and such. But he also points to how companies like National CineMedia are able to offer titles for return visits more easily due to the advent of digital download to theaters.
Screenvision will be distributing a documentary on marathons to theaters with digital installations, about 170 in all, through its HD digital network. Screenvision has done this sort of thing before and I think the idea of niche films being available on this kind of basis could be a great thing for those movies that just aren’t right for mass distribution models. That’s especially true if its’ arranged by local interest groups of some sort who want to see a specific film.
Unfortunately the threat posed by digital downloads of movies and TV shows has caused a Lehman Brothers analyst to downgrade the stocks of five major entertainment companies on fears their reliance on existing business models will not be conducive to the new realities.
Marketing News You Need: 7/7/08
We all want to hang with the cool kids
Alan Wolk (Tangerine Toad to you and me) has a great piece up at Adweek about what consumers - particularly those that are super media-savvy - really think about brands and advertising. He has some interesting observations about the usage of social media tools, but the real meat of the piece comes when he makes the observation that people are naturally more inclined to be “friends” on social networks with bigger brands.
While I think he’s dead on in saying there only a dozen or so such “prom king” brands, as he calls them, I think there are a lot of things going on here.
First, as he alludes to but never outright says, most of these top-tier brands are aspirational even more than they’re functional. Like he says at the end, Starbucks is likely to evoke a much more passionate outpouring than Maxwell House. The one is a lifestyle that we want to, whether we can afford it or not, associate ourselves with. The second does the job of jolting us out of our sleepy stupor but it isn’t very sexy about it.
Second, these are the brands that have the ad budgets to position themselves as winners in the minds of the consumers. So they’re always there, top of everyone’s mind, something that has a tremendous impact on how they’re perceived. After all, if they have that much money to be spending on ads they must be doing well, which leads to the assumption that they must be popular, which leads to the assumption that they must be good and therefore I must need that brand in my shopping cart/life.
Since, as I continue to maintain, each movie is a brand in and of itself, this sort of lesson is important for studios to pay attention to. Is No Country For Old Men better than Iron Man? An argument could certainly be made for that position, though the number of people friending Iron Man on Facebook almost certainly dwarfed those who added NCFOM’s “Coin Toss” widget to their profiles. There’s a bigger group of people who wanted to associate themselves with the Iron Man brand than NCFOM.
But therein lies the trick. Not every brand *needs* to be a “prom king.” And not only that tier should enter the social media waters. It’s all about activating the key audience, a group large enough to make the movie being marketed profitable and worth the financial risk. That’s why social networking and other online efforts can’t just be “build ‘em and leave ‘em” programs. Studios and other marketers need to be engaging with fans on the profile pages and building relationships.
It’s those relationships, which have the added benefit of often resulting in secondary evangelism by the engaged consumer, that will make or break a brand, whatever tier it might fall into.
Multi-platform campaign more effective for converting customers
According to new research from Integrated Media Measurement shows customer conversion rates can be increased by running multi-platform campaigns.
The rates of customer purchase more than doubled, for instance, when ads on any other platform were added to television spots. The coupling with TV is important since TV brings the reach and other platforms bring the targeting.
It’s maintenance that’s key
The main take-away from this Businessweek story on the various options when it comes to online communities is that there absolutely needs to be someone at the company that built it or is sponsoring it who is responsible for maintaining it. They need to get involved, get engaged and get real with the people who are there.
More than that, even, is that they need to come with a goal in mind. Too often efforts like these are undertaken without anyone in the company asking “Why?” It’s the answer to that question that will guide the company’s involvement and give the members of the community - whether it’s an existing one that the company sponsors in some way or one that’s built from scratch - some feeling of their being a point to their being there.
Cable channels advance in upfronts
This is an interesting development to watch if it becomes a trend: Cable networks are seeing the upfront dollars they’re getting grow while broadcast networks see their dollars stagnate. That’s largely due to the closing gap in the number of viewers, with cable’s programming attracting more of the audience and ratings at the broadcast networks slipping fast.
The hidden costs of widgets
An interesting thing to keep in mind when developing a widget strategy, but something that certainly shouldn’t keep you from executing it, is the fact that some developers charge each time it’s added by someone. But that doesn’t trump the notion, related in the article, that the key value in widgets is that it brings the website to the audience where they are instead of forcing them to come to the site.
Get them talking
Jackie Huba has a round of stats for you regarding word-of-mouth marketing and its effectiveness. Specifically she reinforces the point that it’s the person doing the WOMing that we trust, not the communications channel they do it over.
See your ad at the mall
Considering how important mall advertising seems to be for studios - the current releases are usually plastered all over my local one and I’m guessing it’s like that all over - this study on the reach of mall ads should be interesting. Nielsen numbers show 47 percent of shoppers see the ads, according to the study. The “information about sale items” the study cites as being welcome may not be super-relevant to movies, especially since few theaters are still attached to malls, but it’s still something that could be utilized for home video releases to promote sales at stores there.
Are you listening?
The key takeaway, I think, from the research from ExpoTV about online reputation management is that 89 percent of customers said they felt more loyal to retailer brands that they thought were listening to what was being said online. That’s transferable to just about any industry, I’d bet.
Be afraid
The FCC is looking to get into the regulation of product placement. While this seems to be focuses on the television industry for now there’s no way it ends there, so studios and advertisers should keep an eye on this.
