QOTD: 6/26/09
But can we please agree to stop using each major breaking news story as an excuse to flog your favored hobby horse, whether it’s “new media can’t do what traditional media can” or “old media is sluggish and nonresponsive”?
Anniversaries big and small
The Augsburg Confession was presented to Emperor Charles V on this date in 1530.
It’s been one year since the formation of Brothers of John the Steadfast, named after one of the men who signed that document.
You’d think the two were tied together in some way. Oh right. They are.
Movie Marketing Madness: Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen
The general rule of thumb for sequels is that they have to be bigger than the original film. Cram more of whatever seemed to have work in the first movie into the second because hey, the audience responded to it the first time around so let’s just add more of it for the second outing. Throughout cinematic history (assuming history begins in 1978 with Jaws 2) when filmmakers and studios have looked at creating a sequel to a successful blockbuster they have collectively decided that it’s a simple matter of multiplying everything by two – or sometimes more. If the first film featured two explosions the second film has to feature five. If the shark was scary in the first one then you have to amp up the blood and dismemberment in the second, even if the reason the first one was scary was because you barely saw the violence, only the after-effects.
The funny thing about sequels, though, is that they’re rarely praised because of their embrace of the MORE MORE MORE philosophy of filmmaking. Instead you often hear the words “retread” or “unoriginal” or some variation thereof when people are talking about it. That’s because in addition to containing more of the same visual elements these installments also tend to put the same characters in the same series of situations they were before, so we wind up leaving the theater feeling like we’ve just watched the first movie again, only different.
When you have a movie as successful as Transformers was in 2007 it’s only natural for the studio and director Michael Bay to aim to create a bigger, more flashy sequel to a movie that already was about as big and flashy as they come. The original followed Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf, as he became entangled in the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons, giant living robots that had recently come to Earth and renewed their eons-long war here. That’s about all the plot the movie had, with the rest of the running time being devoted to things blowing up and cool special effects shots of the robots transforming to or from their vehicular modes.
That sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, is now about to hit theaters as one of the biggest entries in the summer of 2009′s field of films. The film picks up shortly after the events of the first one and once again puts LaBeouf’s Sam Witwicky in the center of the battle between the warring factions. This time, though, he alone carries something the Decepticons are looking for, the key to calling more of their brethren to Earth so they can complete their evil plans. The robots are bigger, they’re badder and there are more of them.
The movie is more or less a lock to win the weekend and will likely wind up as one of the film’s biggest grossing films. The campaign, therefore, doesn’t need to break a lot of new ground or make targeted appeals, especially not given the massive appeal of the first one. But that doesn’t mean that analyzing the tactics used and matching them up against the perceived goals of the studio isn’t still important so let’s get into doing just that.
The Posters
When it was announced that the title for this new movie would be “Revenge of the Fallen” there was a ton of speculation around and investigation into just what that referred to. Turns out there is a character from the Marvel Comics series that’s been revived for this movie called The Fallen (warning – spoilers for the movie are behind that Wikipedia link) and the first teaser poster gave us our first glimpse at its movie incarnation. Granted, it was a very dark and shadowy look, but a first look nonetheless. If this was any indication the character is going to be very dark and glowy and menacing, which is probably pretty accurate. There’s actually not a whole lot to it beyond those glowing eyes, but it accomplished the goal of getting people talking and making the film’s eventual release date known to the general public so it’s hard to argue with how it looks.
That teaser poster was released pretty early in the film’s campaign – I’m pretty sure it was the first official marketing collateral made public – and there was silence from the print campaign for quite a long time after it.
That silence was broken with the release of three character posters, one for Bumblebee, one for Optimus Prime and one for Starscream (I think). Each one placed the character in front of an Egyptian pyramid, thereby not only showing off that character but also confirming that said pyramid would be the setting of a major action sequence in the film. These posters aren’t all that different from similar one-sheets created for the first movie and I’m not quite sure what the goals behind them were. It’s not like the look of the characters has been massively re-jiggered or anything, so I have to think this was simply a tactic to get people talking about the movie again and it seems to have done just that. That’s not to say they don’t look cool – they do – just that they’re conversation starters and don’t appear to have any larger communications goals behind them.
The theatrical poster once again featured that pyramid but also included another location where, as we’ll see in the trailers, another of the film’s major action sequences takes place – an industrial refinery. Place in-between those two images are the big floating heads of Prime and Bumblebee, with LaBeouf and Megan Fox down in the center of the design, in front of the pyramid. This very much mimics the design of the first film’s theatrical poster, which also had those two humans dwarfed by the conflict around them, and I actually really like that continuation of the branding, something that would have been easy to ditch with a big movie campaign like this that surely was designed by a large large committee.
The Trailers
The teaser trailer doesn’t muck around for very long before getting into the explosion porn. There are brief shots of a couple locations – a city street and an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean – that are quickly broken up, literally, by the falling to Earth of what seem to be massive amounts of asteroids. Those asteroids or whatever they truly are also land in the Egyptian desert right next to a pyramid. We then cut to a robot crashing through someone’s apartment and transforming into a sleek sports car as it races down an alley, with three smaller robots/vehicles in pursuit. After that it’s a bit of the rampage caused by a huge, two-wheeled bad guy at the refinery, with a couple scenes of LaBeouf and Fox running away from things thrown in for good measure.
There’s no attempt at showing any of the movie’s actual story in this initial spot since it’s unlikely the audience is going to care all that much what that story might be. It works in that it’s honest about what it’s trying to do, which is simply show people that the Transformers are returning to theaters and that there are bigger explosions, more exotic locales and new robots to check out.
The theatrical trailer, to its credit, does start off with more of the film’s plot being laid out. Sam is about to head off to college and 1) Isn’t bringing Bumblebee and 2) Has given his girlfriend – who works on motorcycles by straddling them while wearing incredibly short cutoff shorts and a torn t-shirt that…I’m sorry where was I? – a webcam, which kind of seems very 2005. It’s as he’s unpacking there that a shard of the Allspark falls out and imprints itself or something on his brain. That causes him to force the screenwriters to copy/paste Richard Dreyfuss’ role from the middle section of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, meaning his character starts scribbling weird symbols uncontrollably everywhere he goes.
That actually leads to the best part of the trailer, which is where John Turtorro’s character shows up. He’s apparently gone off the deep end of the conspiracy theory pool but has the clues to help Sam figure out what these symbols mean.
After that it’s back to being all robot action and humans being in the path of danger, with Megatron being resurrected, Prime hitting things and Sam and Mikela running away from or being pinned down by various bad guys.
This one works pretty well, largely because it takes 45 seconds to let us get invested in the characters again before jumping back into the action sequences. It’s fast-paced to be sure and it’s hard to make out some of the shots as they fly past, but it does give the viewer a good overall sense of what the movie is going to be about.
The one thing neither of the trailers addresses is the issue of The Fallen. There’s no attempt to try and explain who he is, nor is his presence ever acknowledged. It’s just a tad surprising this isn’t covered at all in either spot since his name does appear in the film’s title and all. I can only guess that the decision was made to consciously not show him since in all likelihood the audience wouldn’t notice, what with all the other things going on.
Online
There’s just a ton of stuff that hits you about the face when you bring up the movie’s official website – and that’s just the landing page. First off, one of the soundtrack’s songs plays automatically but I couldn’t find anything that lets you stop it or turn off the volume. You’re prompted to either watch the video for that song or watch the latest trailer by clicking one of the video boxes in the upper right hand corner.
Just below that is the Robotize Me feature. It’s not much, just the latest tool to upload a picture of yourself or a friend and have that face added to the body of a robot of your choice.
To the left is a “Fan Art Gallery” that includes everything from hand drawn works to fully rendered computer creations to tattoos to logos people have stuck on the side of their cars. Whatever each individual thing is, it’s cool when studios provide this kind of showcase for fandom.
Toward the bottom are promotions for the first movie’s DVD and Blu-ray as well as the “Transformers Music Shop” which is the microsite for this movie’s soundtrack. Below that are icons that allow you to share the site via various social bookmarking and networks as well as a “Grab the Transmitter” button that lets you snag the code for a widget. You can register before you do that if you’d like for that widget to include some exclusive content.
Finally there’s a row of logos that brings you to more information on the film’s promotional partners, a topic we’ll cover later.
With all that behind us let’s go ahead and Enter the Site.
First up, as is only befitting a movie that emphasizes visuals above all else, is “Video.” There you’ll find both of the trailers as well as the Super Bowl commercial and six other TV spots. That’s not the entire roster by a long shot but is probably an adequate sampler for the general public.
There are 20 stills from the film in the “Gallery.”
“Games and Activities” has, of course, games and activities. Robotize Me is once again offered here in addition to the Starscream Showdown, a side-scrolling game that pits the Decepticon against the military and eventually Optimus Prime. Finally here is We Are Autobots…
“Downloads” has Decktops that use most of the stills we’ve seen in the film’s publicity as well as Buddy Icons and Screensavers.
You’ll find a few items that can help you spread the word about the movie under “Fan Kit.” First there’s the Banner Builder that lets you do just that – build your own, customized web banner for the movie that you can embed on your own blog or website. There’s also Tools, which opens up a new site that contains the Banner builder, games, profile skins, downloads and more content to help you engage with the Transformers movie brand more deeply and pass that on to others.
“Fan Art” gets promoted again and then there’s “About” which is a whole section devoted to a six or seven paragraph description of the movie’s story and characters, a tally that includes the long credit block at the end.
“Cast and Filmmakers” is still labeled as “Coming Soon” and finally there’s another section on the “Partners.”
The movie’s MySpace profile mostly contains content from the official site, including the trailer, photos, videos and features like Fan Art Gallery and Robotize Me. The Facebook page has photos, videos and a few other bits of content that, again, are duplicates of what you’ll find on the official site.
In addition to the “official” campaign there was an attempt made at a “viral” effort, largely focused around the idea that just a few people are paranoid enough to believe that Earth is being invaded by giant robots. The sites TheRealEffingDeal and GiantEffingRobots both claimed to have real reports and videos on the matter. They’re alright for what they are but I’m not generally a fan of efforts like this so it’s definitely not for me.
Finally, there was the We Are Autobots site. The fancy term everyone threw around for this site was that it was an “Augmented Reality” experience, but all it did was put Optimus Prime’s face over yours using the Active X plugin and your computer’s web cam. That means it’s effectively the exact opposite of the Robotize Me feature since it’s his head and your body instead of your head and his body. It was good for a bit of publicity but it’s not like it’s super useful marketing or anything.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
The central – and pretty much initial – component of the TV campaign was a spot aired during this year’s Super Bowl. The spot is basically a combination of footage found in the two trailers, but slimmed down to a mere 30 seconds of running time. So don’t expect context, just loud explosions and lots of special effects that were designed to get the attention of people watching the game. I remember actually being a little disappointed in the spot when I saw it during the broadcast, mainly because it seemed to go by so fast and leave little to no impression upon me. But it seems to work better after you’ve seen the trailers since you at least have a little bit of information that explains what it is you’re watching.
Eventually the studio began running TV spots, most of which actually featured footage that was new and hadn’t been included in any of the trailers released to date. As is often the case, many of them had a “theme” or focus about them, with some focusing on the mysterious signals that bring more robots to Earth and some just focusing on action sequences. The advertising push began around early to mid May, about a month and a half before the film’s release and kicked into high gear right around the time the campaign for Terminator: Salvation was waning after its release. Eventually, if my count is right, over 20 individual spots would be created and released, a ridiculous number even for a movie with as much riding on it as this one does.
There was also a good amount of online advertising done, beginning with square ads like this one that featured the teaser poster art of Fallen and continuing through to units that incorporated more of the characters and visuals from the movie and the campaign.
Moving on to the cross-promotions for the movie shows that things have changed more than some people would like in the intervening two years since the initial installment.
One of the biggest promotional partners for that first movie was General Motors. Made sense since it was their cars that most of the Autobots transformed into when they didn’t want to be robots. But it’s now 2009 and General Motors is in heeps of financial trouble. That means what should have been a full-throated marketing campaign in support of the movie – and by extension its cars – has been scaled back signifcantly. The cuts were announced a few months before release as part of the news that GM would be snipping $800 million from its overall marketing budget, including many of the dollars that would have gone to Transformers-branded spots. Instead of an all-out campaign the effort was reduced to a handful of print ads and not much else since the automaker did not want to appear to be squandering taxpayer bailout money on entertainment expenses.
A bit of promotional help they were able to squeeze in for the movie was an appearance at the Chicago Auto Show in February. There GM showed off Bumblebee and some of the other cars that appear in the movie. There was also a promotional video created that showcased the cars as they appear in the film that ran at the booth at the show as well as one that was much more industry marketing focused, talking about the design of the cars and how they came to be created and then integrated into Transformers.
Also on the vehicular front is Aprilia USA, a motorbike company, that introduced a Transformers-branded bike that was introduced at one of the road races the company participates in.
One partner that didn’t jump ship was LG, which released a limited edition version of the Versa phone that came emblazoned with the Decepticon logo and with exclusive movie content pre-loaded on the device. LG also created a movie-themed microsite that made you part of N.E.S.T – the Non-biological Extraterrestrial Science Team (probably something from the movie) and which gave you access to games, downloads and other content you could add to your LG phone, as well as more information on the phone itself. LG’s activities also included a 30-second co-branded spot and sweepstakes and a Transform Your Home sweepstakes that awarded over $10,000 in LG home entertainment products.
Burger King acted as the film’s fast food partner, one of three movie promotions the chain is engaging in during the summer, all with Paramount. BK locations will include Transformers toys in their Kid’s meals and offer a new burger called the BBQ Double Stackiton (which is kind of awesome) for the duration of the promotion. Transformers director Bay will also personally helm a handful of TV spots advertising the chain’s tie-in, something he also did for the first movie.
For M&Ms there’s a ton of stuff going on. The candy brand’s microsite brings you into the M&M Trucking Co. and asks you to help them and Optimus Prime keep the candies safe from Decepticons. Something about an internet-wide search for clues that will help in your quest. That storyline is continued in the TV spots created for the movie promotion that show Prime rolling in and then tossing a truckload of candy out of harm’s way.
Also on the site is information about the co-branded packaging that’s being offered as well as the ability to watch the above commercial.
Kmart launched a fully-featured promotion for the movie. Beginning in early June and running through the Fourth of July, the retailer’s marketing initiative was largely themed around Father’s Day, which fell just a few days before the movie’s opening. In-store signage as well as co-branded TV spots offered two tickets to the movie with every $50 in menswear purchased as part of the “Transform Your Dad” promotion.
Kmart also put Transformers-centric “headquarters” with movie-themed merchandise at the front of their stores and launched a branded site where visitors could download movie content as well as buy movie products.
The retailer also tied in with many of the other promotional partners Paramount lined up, specifically Burger King and Mars Snackfood. Inside of BK’s Kid’s Meals were coupons for Transformers products that were redeemable only at Kmart stores. Mars, for its part, created displays and events at two New York locations that were branded with both the movie’s logo and Kmart’s.
7-Eleven is bringing the movie promotions fast and furious this summer, with Transformers 2 being the latest such deal. The convenience store chain pulled out the usual stops, offering a special “Bumblebee Blast” Slurpee flavor that you could get in one of four collectible cups and drink from one of four collectible straws that had removable robot action figures on them. In addition to those traditional cups there was also a mug in the shape of Prime’s head. Finally, they offered a DVD of the first movie in a case that transformed into Megatron that was pretty cool if you don’t already own the film.
Also on the retail front was Best Buy, which offered an exclusive comic featuring a lead-in to the new movie on DVD units of the original film as well as Disturbia and Eagle Eye, two other recent LaBeouf films. Along with that comic were access codes people could use to access exclusive movie content on a branded microsite created by the chain.
Just in time to help with the movie’s marketing was the re-release of the original “Transformers” cartoon series on DVD. In addition to individual season sets, the entire “Generation 1″ series was released in a massive 16-disc Collector’s Set that contained a handful of bonus features and a couple of extra items. It’s a huge set and obviously meant to appeal to the few folks that didn’t collect the previous editions from other studios from a few years ago and, I have to admit, the all-in-one set is pretty attractive to me, even if I don’t have the money to blow on Transformers DVDs. The first season set even got its own promotional trailer.
Those weren’t the only DVDs to get re-issued, of course. The first film got a new edition on both standard DVD and Blu-ray with a host of new features, including a heavy focus on footage both from the finished film as well as its behind-the-scenes making.
And of course let’s not forget the toys that have been released both to satisfy new fans and to pique the nostalgia of older fans, all part of Hasbro’s strategy of wringing new profit out of the properties it holds the right to, something we’re going to see again later this summer when G.I. Joe hits screens.
Media and Publicity
As you’d expect from a film like this – and specifically from a director like Bay – his reputation and personality wound up being one of the focal points of the media coverage around the release. Unfortunately not all of that was positive.
First there was a flap over statements made by the director after Paramount went ahead and set a release date for a third installment months before the second even hit theaters. He apparently felt put out and blindsided by this and said he’d agreed to a date with the studio for 2012 and not 2011 like they said.
Then just a week before that release rumors started circulating that he was dropping out of the franchise entirely in favor of shooting small movies in the south of France or something. Those rumors were based on statements he made about wanting to do smaller projects but, as he later explained in his refutation of the rumors, they did not mean he was leaving the Transformers world behind him.
Of course Bay didn’t just cause the media relations department headaches. They were able to secure him a Vanguard Award for filmmaking excellence at the recent ShoWest trade conference, a major event attended by theater chain movie bookers and therefore a great audience to shill for the movie in front of.
Bay also helped his own cause by making the trip to BotCon, the annual gathering of Transformers fanatics. He not only put in a personal appearance but even took a new clip from the film there to debut to the faithful fans, something to get them excited about the movie and hopefully not only turn out themselves on opening weekend but also excited enough to tell all their non-diehard friends to go as well.
Bay also did his part to stoke excitement for the IMAX release of the movie by teasing that there would be additional footage in those prints that wasn’t in the standard prints. Of course some of his claims that Optimus Prime would be “to scale” on IMAX screens had to be taken with a grain of salt considering all the bruhaha over the size of those screens a couple months ago, but I guess he’s correct when it comes to the truly large IMAX presentations.
That comes on-top of the fact that it is, indeed, a sequel. And Paramount has other outlets for their marketing dollars, specifically Star Trek and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Both of those are new (for all intents and purposes) franchises that need the attendant big launch so that they can turn into successful series. So if the movie lacked for intensity – and a case could be made that it does – it’s at least in part because the studio had other priorities on its 2009 calendar.
Overall
It’s a massive campaign but not necessarily a strong one. There are too many instances where, looking at the whole thing, it seems like the studio pulled a punch or two in each component category.
There are only two trailers, only a handful of posters and a website that doesn’t really go all that deeply into the movie’s universe or anything. Plus, none of those three address what the movie’s title is all about. That’s probably a strategic decision based on the notion that introducing anything new when people only want the familiar would be a bad move. But it’s notable and, for those of us curious about what The Fallen is, a bit disappointing.
The one area that continues to flourish is the promotional partner and advertising area, even with General Motors scaling significantly back on their efforts. Most of the partners there are putting up good campaigns, mostly co-branded with the film and including footage, something that’s always good for the movie itself.
Unfortunately the publicity end of things keeps being tripped up by Bay himself, a classic example of someone who should keep his hole shut and not create negative publicity where there wasn’t any.
Overall it’s alright but it’s hard to feel like this is measuring up to the push of the first movie, an opinion I was coming to even before reading Bay’s comments.
PICKING UP THE SPARE
- 7/10/09: Optimus Prime visited “The Late Show With David Letterman” to deliver the Top 10 list one night.
- 7/10/09: Jordan’s, a furniture store that also has IMAX theaters at every location, promoted showings of the movie at those retail outlets with some online advertising.
- 7/31/09: Paramount worked with mobile platform operator ChaCha that had ads for the Transformers sequel iincluded in the text responses sent to the system’s users when they asked a question. The campaign, according to ChaCha, increased the movie’s audience awareness by 27 percent and drove significant traffic to the movie’s mobile site.
- 7/13/09: In response to the movie IDW is launching the first on-going Transformers comic title the franchise has had in years.
- 9/3/09: Rick Mathieson passes on the results from InsightExpress into the success rates of ChaCha’s mobile promotion for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The campaign, according to the research, increased awareness and intent for the movie across a number of demographics. I join Rick in his skepticism of the results and agree with him that the overall ad campaign blitz in the last weeks before releases certainly are skewing these results, at least to some extent. Still interesting, though.
- 10/9/09: Papa Johns is getting in on the promotional fun (Video Business, 10/9/09) for the DVD release of the Transformers sequel, an interesting move since they were a partner with 20th Century Fox for X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s theatrical release.
- 10/13/09: NASCAR is helping with the home video promotions as well, with Optimus and Megatron designed cars battling it out in an upcoming race and fans being able to choose their side online thanks to a tie-in with ESPN.com.
Clapton/Winwood: United Center, Chicago
Pic from Clapton's official site
I’m not going to try and write my own review of the Steve Winwood/Eric Clapton concert last night at the United Center in Chicago. I will say that it’s just incredible to see two consumate professionals like these guys who are, after all these years, still at the top of their game. Their voices might be a little tired but that’s the only outward sign of age they show outside of how they’ve actually gotten better at their trade.
There was a marked lack of pretense about the entire evening, with both the stars and their backing band simply going about their business and having fun in the process.
Here’s the setlist, retrieved from Greg Kot’s review of the show:
1. Had to Cry Today (Blind Faith)
2. Low Down (J.J. Cale)
3. After Midnight (J.J. Cale)
4. Presence of the Lord (Blind Faith)
5. Sleeping in the Ground (Sam Myers/Blind Faith outtake)
6. Glad (Traffic)
7. Well Alright (Buddy Holly/Blind Faith)
8. Tough Luck Blues (Big Maceo)
9. Pearly Queen (Traffic)
10. Crossroads (Robert Johnson)
11. There’s a River (Winwood)
12. Forever Man (Jerry Williams/Clapton)
13. Georgia on My Mind – Winwood solo (Hoagy Carmichael)
14. Driftin’ Blues – acoustic (Charles Brown)
15. How Long Blues – acoustic (Leroy Carr)
16. Layla – acoustic (Derek and the Dominoes)
17. Can’t Find My Way Home — acoustic (Blind Faith)
18. Split Decision (Winwood)
19. Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix)
Encore:
20. Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson)
21. Drowning on Dry Land (Al Jackson)
Movie Marketing Madness: Year One
Historical comedies are a mixed bag, to say the least, especially when you dive as far back as cavemen, Roman gladiators and basically anything else that puts the action anytime around or before the birth of Christ. Sometimes you hit a homerun – I’m thinking A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the first few segments of History of the World Part 1 – and sometimes you don’t – I’m looking at you Caveman and One Million Years B.C, even if you do star Raquel Welch and therefore provide a crucial plot point to The Shawshank Redemption. My point is that for every solidly funny prehistoric comedy you’ve got a handful of duds and serious movies that wind up being unintentionally funny.
The latest entry in the early civilization comedy is Year One. Starring Jack Black and Michael Cera, the pair play a couple of cavemen, but they seem to be living in Biblical times as they also encounter the Roman Empire and other things that seem to be a few millennia later than what you would normally associate with the quest for fire period. I’m sure this is explained within the movie, but as we’ll see it’s not made clear how all this happens in the campaign.
In addition to a stellar cast – Cera and Black are joined by David Cross, Hank Azaria and others – Year One is directed by one of the all-time comedy greats, Harold Ramis, who is also credited with developing the story and as one of the film’s screenwriters. It’s also being produced by Judd Apatow, so the behind-the-scenes talent is impressive on top of the actors.
The Posters
Surprisingly, I’m just seeing two posters that have been created and released for Year One, and neither of them are all that intriguing.
The first one, the teaser, just features Black and Cera standing next to each other clad in their caveman outfits. Black has an expression that looks like he’s trying to figure out some sort of con or other scheme, which is more or less what we expect of the characters he plays. Cera has a blank, overwhelmed and somewhat confused expression, which again is more or less what we expect of his characters. So this one plays into the brands that these actors have built up over the years. The “Meet your ancestors” copy at the top makes it clear we’re supposed to cringe at the antics of these characters because, hey, we’re related to them. That’s a bit on the nose, but I don’t have a huge problem with it.
The theatrical poster uses the same photos of those two actors but crops out everything below the shoulder, showing just their faces in close-up. The same copy point is used, so the only real change between this and the teaser is the inclusion of the credit block between the title treatment and the actor’s faces. There’s not a whole lot of additional commentary that’s possible since it’s not that different from the teaser.
The Trailers
The single trailer – again a bit surprising that there was only one – works pretty well. We start off with an introduction to Cera and Black in their tribe, a tribe they’re eventually exiled from after eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
After their exile they wander around, bumping into Cain and his brother Abel, who are as dysfunctional as you’d expect them to be. Then they get to a Roman city and are captured and sold as slaves and, while they’re there, they also try to save a young woman who Cera’s character has been longing after and who has also been captured and sold into slavery.
There’s a bit of comedy in the trailer but overall it comes off kind of flat to be honest. I get the sense that they included a bunch of “jokes” from the film but that much of the actual humor lies in the smaller, in-between moments that exist in the film. At least that’s kind of what I’m hoping for right now.
http://www.hulu.com/embed/CT0ep6hhc1Ug3Rb6CeftyA
Online
Load up the official website and you’re immediately greeted with the movie’s poster art, with the guys parted a bit more than they are on the one-sheet to make way for a couple of items you can click on. But if you don’t click something quickly enough – by which I mean within 10 seconds or so – a 30-second TV spot for the movie begins playing. You can still go “Back” though and see the options that were presented, or you can Enter the Site.
Before we do that let’s look at those initial options. There’s “Watch the Trailer,” which starts playing the commercial we just discussed. There’s also “Worldwide Release Dates” and the option to “Register for Updates,” neither of which is remarkable.
What’s worth noting is the “You’re So Year One” section.
The You’re So Year One micro-site is basically a Twitter feed, pulling from and feeding to the @SoYearOne Twitter account. It’s actually kind of a fun combination of Twitter and social voting sites like MyStarbucksIdea, since people can Submit their own “oh snap” type comments along the lines of ” You’re so Year One, you remember when the dead sea was just sick!,” which then show up in that Twitter feed. On the site people can comment on other’s submissions or vote them up or down. Visitors can view submissions either by Most Popular or Most Recent.
I was initially skeptical about this, seeing it as yet another Twitter execution that didn’t quite stack up. But taking another look at it I think it’s actually pretty cool, allowing for a good amount of community participation. I especially like the voting aspect since it gives people a stake in the results. At the bottom of the page there are buttons that allow you to share the site on StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, Delicious and Reddit.
Moving on, let’s look at the content after Entering the Site.
“About the Film” contains a one-paragraph Synopsis that’s heavy on the names of the talent involved and, I’m fearful, is indicative of how thin the film’s plot actually is. Cast is here as well but contains just a still photo of that actor and not any information or anything about them, which is a bit odd. There’s also a Soundboard that has about 18 audio clips from the main characters, each of which lights up when you play their clip.
Next up is “Videos,” Which contains the Trailer and a Sneak Peek Video, which is an extended version of the scene where Black and Cera come across Cain and Abel, played by Paul Rudd and David Cross. There’s also a section for TV Spots, but there’s nothing there and it’s still labeled as “Coming Soon,” despite the fact that the movie opens tomorrow. Not sure when that was scheduled to be done, but I’m pretty confident that deadline was missed. It’s especially odd that this is vacant for two reasons: 1) That 30-second spot is featured on the front page of the site and 2) That 30-second spot was a commercial that aired during the recent Super Bowl.
“Gallery” has 13 stills from the film. “Downloads” has Wallpapers, a Screensaver, IM Icons and something I’m seeing more and more, which is Twitter Skins. That last one is basically an image formatted specifically for downloading and then uploading in the “Design” section of your Twitter profile. It’s not a whole lot different from what studios used to do by offering MySpace Skins, just the latest version of that sort of “rebrand with us” marketing tactic.
“Rock Paper Spears” is next, a Rock, Paper, Scissors type game that’s mildly amusing. Along with that is a link to watch a video, hosted on the movie’s YouTube channel, that introduces you to the history of this game. Nice touch, I think.
Also in the more interactive entertainment mold are the “Ancestor Animator” feature, which lets you upload a photo and then integrate it into an animated story that you create. Finally, there’s another link to the “You’re So Year One” site.
At the bottom of the page there are links to the film’s Facebook and MySpace profiles, both of which contain more or less the same material as the official site. There are also options to follow SonyPictures on Twitter or to share the site via social network, bookmarking and news services.
Advertising and Cross Promotion
Sony did plenty of advertising for Year One, both in the form of TV spots and ads both online, outdoor and, I would presume, in print. Most of the TV spots were, as in the case of the one that appears on the official site, simply slimmed down versions of the trailer. What I’m kind of struck by, though, is how much the Cain and Abel scene is played up and featured in these spots. Seems like this one scene is a focal point of much of the campaign. Not sure what to make of that, but it’s interesting.
The TV advertising actually reached a high point, in impact if not in frequency, five months before release when the movie had a spot – the same one that is on the front of the official site – air during this year’s Super Bowl.
http://www.hulu.com/embed/31P9jBJSPOwMlyWp_zCWPQ
That Super Bowl spot was extended by Sony on Crackle.com, with a sweepstakes to win various prizes and and basically explore more of the film in the form of a Sneak Peek, the same sneak peek that’s on the official site, though there are three other extended clips on that microsite as well. You’ll also find those same clips and a bit more on the movie’s FunnyOrDie profile page.
Media and Publicity
Aside from the release of the marketing materials, the first post-production media item of note was when it was announced that the MPAA’s Ratings Board was sticking the movie with an R-rating. That wasn’t the situation for long though, with the filmmakers making some requested trims to the movie and just a day later being awarded their PG-13 , which obviously will help them bring in a broader audience that includes the much-coveted pre-teen and teen demographics.
As you’d expect considering the level of talent involved in the movie there was plenty of other publicity, primarily in the form of interviews with the cast and crew. Unfortunately much of that publicity wound up focusing on potential future projects by those folks, with many of the interviews with Harold Ramis including as many questions about plans for Ghostbusters 3 and interviews with David Cross and Michael Cera coming around to what they know about a possible Arrested Development movie.
Overall
Looking at the campaign from top to bottom I can say that I more or less like it and think it accomplishes the goals of the studio pretty well. The comedy portrayed is going to be, I feel, attractive to the audiences being targeted, especially as they’re likely to be familiar with Black and Cera and the rest of the crew already. So on that level it works, particularly if you break the campaign up into its component parts.
But if you do look at the whole picture that’s been put together for the movie you get the same sense you do looking at a crowd scene in a movie like Gladiator: Only 25 percent of what you see are original elements and the rest is that same picture repeated over and over. Likewise this campaign seems to hit the same four or five notes across all elements. The shot of the guys riding the cart like it’s a roller coaster, Cain beating Abel to death with a rock, the stoning by the Roman crowd…they appear over and over again.
As I said before, I’m holding out hope that this is simply the creators of the marketing campaign picking out a handful of out-and-out “jokes” and reinforcing those time and time again, with the rest of the movie being a bit more subtle and funny. That might be in vein, but considering the talents of those both behind and in front of the camera I’m going to stick with it.
Rogers’ return
I haven’t been reading the Captain America comics series, but from all accounts the recent run over the last few years has been fantastic, including the death of the original Cap, Steve Rogers.
It’s not surprising, of course, that Marvel has decided, two years post-assasination, to bring Rogers back, even as his once-thought-dead protege Bucky Barnes has assumed the shield and flag for the last year or so.
I was kind of thinking they’d wait at least one more year, though. Two years seems safe, three years seems ballsy.
Super potential
Graeme McMillan has a list of 20 Marvel Comics characters who could get their own big-screen adventure and what kind of film they’d be a good fit for. Great lists.
One URL to rule them all
I recently read about MultiURL, a site that lets you create a single URL that points people to up to five of your sites. When you click on a created URL a toolbar appears at the top of the screen that lets you scroll through each site in that bundle. It’s pretty cool and I could see it having a ton of applications for marketers who are looking to make sure people see their homepage, a Facebook page, Twitter account and some other sites.
Here’s the one I created that brings together CT.WP, MMM and my Twitter feed: http://www.multiurl.com/g/iA
Voce Connect – Like Voltron but with fewer swords
Mike just put the official announcement up about Voce Communications hiring cnp_studios and how the result is Voce Connect. From his post:
For several years now, we’ve been working in partnership with the cnp team on a variety of assignments ranging from corporate blogs and community building projects, to newsrooms, microsites, social apps, and the like. Our businesses and our teams were so closely intertwined, it was just, you know, getting weird. Our team would call them on the weekends and sleep on their couches. And their team would come over and take food out of our fridge.
Voce Connect will simply represent Voce’s long-provided social media marketing services with the, well, “formal” addition now of a web development team. If you click over to this Press Page, we have more materials, including a Q&A, that captures why we’re doing this and the value we believe it offers our clients.
Net-net: We know this combination works. Our clients do too. Which takes me to our third and final piece of news:
Along with this announcement there’s a slick new Voce Communications homepage that integrates a lot of awesome content, from the Blog to the Portfolio page and more. It’s also a fantastic showcase for the client wins the agency has secured and the great work we’ve been doing for them.
Having met most of the cnp guys and becoming familiar with their work I can tell you this is a great fit on a number of levels. I’m excited to be part of Voce during such an exciting period.
Movie Marketing Madness: Whatever Works
If there’s a trend in late-era Woody Allen films, it’s that he’s finally owning up to the reality that he needs a surrogate in his movies. By that I mean he’s finally begun realizing that when he writes a “Woody Allen” character in his scripts it’s no longer always appropriate for him to cast himself in that role. Instead he’s enlisting, at least occasionally, other actors to play the stylized version of himself that he channels in his writing. Granted there are really only two instances of this – Will Ferrell in Melinda and Melinda and Jason Biggs in Anything Else – but even so it’s kind of out-of-character of him to even go that far. Also granted – neither of those guys really did that great in the role because they were asked to do an Allen impersonation more than anything else and it just didn’t work out well.
The latest movie to feature an Allen stand-in is Whatever Works, though this time the results might be a bit more on-target. That’s because the person picked to play that role is another misanthropic, sarcastic New York Jew: Larry David. One of the creators of “Seinfeld” and the creator and star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” David is kind of a natural choice for the role since channeling Woody Allen, much like channeling himself on “Curb,” isn’t going to be that much of a stretch for him. The two share mannerisms, intonation and a handful of other attributes that make the selection of David kind of a no-brainer and one that’s liable to work pretty well in the film itself.
Speaking of that film, this one brings Allen back to New York after a brief a few trips to Spain, London, Paris and other locations that weren’t The Big Apple. David plays a New Yorker who, deciding his upscale life is kind of unfulfilling, decides to live a simpler lifestyle. While doing that he meets a young Southern girl played by Evan Rachel Wood, whose family he becomes entangled in. The results of that presumably provide much of the film’s comedy.
Let’s see how Sony Classics is handling the marketing.
The Posters
I think the only one-sheet released domestically in the U.S. is the one I included above, with David standing in khakis and a windbreaker against a blank white background, his hands and shoulders in a “What? What do you want from me?” pose that’s as universal as the figures on the door of a men’s restroom.
It might not be the most exciting, creative or original image ever created but I like it since I get the feeling it sells the movie’s strongest asset – David’s performance – without any hesitation. It’s essentially marketing the film to the audience as a feature film version of “Curb” but that’s alright, I think, since that’s what a Woody Allen movie basically is.
Speaking of Allen, he’s nowhere to be seen here. If you know his movies you’ll likely recognize the generic typeface used for the names of the actors and the title treatment as the same one he always uses in the credits, but there’s nothing that labels this as an Allen movie unless you’re into reading the credits block. On the posters for his last few movies his name has at least appeared, even if it was pretty small. But this one drops it completely as a separate component. Maybe that was a move designed to further enhance David’s role, but it seems like the two would compliment each other instead of detract from one another’s role in attracting the target audience.
The Trailers
The trailer, well…let me be honest. It’s one of the funniest trailers I’ve seen in quite a while, despite a kind of rough beginning. It starts off with David talking directly to the camera, with the people around him seemingly aware of the fact that he’s broken off into some sort of monologue. The guys in back of him look surprised at him wandering off and the camera cuts to a child who points out to his mother that they man across the street is talking to himself. That’s an odd note to hit right off the bat. The content of that rant, that this is not the feel good movie of the year and that those looking to make themselves feel better would be better served elsewhere, is a rare moment of self-deprecating awareness from a Hollywood studio and David sells the line with his usual attitude.
Luckily it rights itself pretty quickly. After that introduction we start to get a sense of the film’s narrative and plot. We see David’s character freaking out – in a very nice apartment – about the fact that he’s going to die some day, which his wife takes to mean he’s dying now, which he isn’t. More scenes of him complaining to his rather unpleasant-looking wife are interspersed with some of him hanging out with his group of more middle-class friends as well as him discovering Wood’s character living in the basement of a building. Eventually her mother and father track her down and the relationship between the three of them and David’s character are obviously going to provide many of the laughs of the film.
Maybe it works for me as well as it does because I’m just a fan of verbal humor. It’s pretty easy to see the same sort of lines being delivered by someone like Groucho Marx or any of the great wordsmiths of comedy, which is a testament, I think, to the power of Allen’s writing.
Online
As you might expect from a small movie with few “bankable” stars and an aging writer/director, the official website is not exactly all that and a bag of chips.
The front page reminds you that the film is first opening only in New York and Los Angeles, as well as the fact that it was an Opening Night selection for the Tribeca Film Festival. From there you can Enter the Site.
Once you do the first section is “Synopsis.” I’ll be frank here: How something that’s so short can also be so poorly written is really quite a feat. The awkward phrasing is truly something to behold and does the film no favors. True, it’s not like a lot of random passers-by are going to be coming here, so this won’t be the first impression of the movie for many. But still, this is pretty bad.
The site designers make up for it to some extent with the “Cast and Crew” section, which contains nice write-ups about the major players in the film, at least those who aren’t Woody Allen. In true non-promotional manner, his listing is purely a filmography and contains no additional text or biographic information at all.
“Gallery” has about 20 stills from the film and its production. “Trailer” has, you guessed it, the trailer.
“Links & Reviews” is actually pretty cool, going a way toward the kind of embrace of the rest of the web that I keep talking about. It contains a link to an NY Observer feature on the movie and links to the IMDb profiles for the major players in the film. That’s a good first step and all but it still could go farther, linking out to fan sites and other reviews and publicity items. Still, a nice feature that a lot of sites completely ignore so I’ll give it the credit it deserves.
There was also a Facebook page for the movie that attracted a somewhat surprising 8,000+ fans. The page contained stills, the trailer, reminders about screenings and some extended clips from the movie.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
Nothing that I’ve seen. A quick search of YouTube and Google News confirms there don’t seem to be any TV spots created or promotional partners signed on. Not surprising.
Media and Publicity
Considering the lack of paid support I guess it’s good the film wound up getting plenty of media coverage and other publicity. In addition to the aforementioned appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival the movie was the subject of a number of news stories. Most of those were interviews with Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood or Woody Allen. There were some that drew the line between this movie and “Curb” but most noted its place in Allen’s cinematic history, as is the case anytime the director puts out a new film.
Overall
You’re never going to get a full-fledged online effort out of a movie like this. (Well…I could probably recommend three or four ways to get more content there by using a WordPress blog admin setup, but I’ll refrain from that.) But the rest of the campaign comes together quite nicely. As I stated this has one of my favorite trailers and a good poster that focuses on an attribute of the film that’s likely to attract an audience.
All put together it’s a decent effort for the latest film from Woody Allen. Not much more to say, so I won’t try.
PICKING UP THE SPARE
- 6/19/09: In my column I talked about just a couple of the movies in which Woody Allen has had other actors step in and play some variation on himself. Christopher Campbell at SpoutBlog finds 10 Allen Proxies and talks about how each one did with that role.
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