An effort by 20th Century Fox to get some “viral” chatter for I Love You, Beth Cooper has backfired. They paid a high school valedictorian to end her speech with a declaration of love for a classmate in much the same way the movie portrays, an attempt to show how the movie has inspired kids to go out on a limb. The deal with the student was actually struck by a buzz marketing firm working with the studio and has resulted in the high school were the incident took place are plenty honked off that they hosted an ad for a movie. A video of the speech, filmed by the agency and then placed on YouTube, has gone nowhere and the movie tanked.
Karina points to an example of marketing an independent movie in the right way and an example of doing it the wrong way, both of which I’m in complete agreement with her on.
The Ombudsman for The Washington Post responds to reader criticism of how listings for showtimes at area AMC Theaters no longer appear in the paper. The removal of the listings was AMC’s decision, not the paper’s, and according to a company spokesperson was based on wanting to allocate those dollars elsewhere, partly because people are getting their movie time information online more and more and not from print pubs.
This practice has been in use for a couple of years now but has been picking up steam of late, that of using subtitles with colons for sequels instead of numbers. Some movies like The Dark Knight have completely different titles than the original, but the basic idea behind both tactics is that they present a more original image to the audience instead of appearing to be a retread.
More commentary on the study that shows product placement within successful films leads a boost in share prices for those brands, something that’s going to mean more of that particular tactic being implemented.
Interpublic has found a new head and a new name for its branded entertainment unit, tapping a former AdAge and Entertainment Weekly editor to lead its newly re-branded Ensemble division.
There’s no shortage of guns and implied violence in the ads and other marketing materials for this summer’s movies, including those that are aimed at kids.
Kevin Dugan passed along word to me about a promotion for The Ugly Truth that had celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton passing on a “Sponsored Tweet” that prompted people to follow and interact with the Twitter account set up for the movie. Below are screenshots of 1) The @TheUglyTruth account before Hilton’s promotional tweet (make sure you note the Followers), 2) One of Hilton’s tweets and 3) The movie account after (see the bump in Followers).
