Counting

All those stories about how much productivity was lost by people playing Pac Man on Google when the game appeared on the homepage in honor of its 30th anniversary are based on the assumption that instead of people playing Pac Man they would have been hard at work and not playing Farmville instead. Which might not, you know, exactly be the case.

Developing a content publishing platform

If you’re not reading Voce Nation (and you really should be) I’ve started a series of posts there over the last couple weeks on the nuts and bolts of beginning a content publishing program. That’s something we do exceedingly well at Voce so I thought it would be appropriate. Right now the first three entries in the series are live and a bunch more are coming over the next several weeks.

Part 1: Form Follows Function: The initial step in the process is one that can be alternatively gut-wrenching, thrilling or a little of both. It starts with sitting down with a client and trying to find the answers to a number of questions: What goals are we trying to achieve? How are we going to measure them? Who will be contributing? What platforms will be used? What communications are already being developed that we can build off of? Those are just some of the potential questions to get asked.

Part 2: Choosing the Platform: In my first post I steadfastly avoided pigeonholing what was being discussed by avoiding identifying it as being a corporate blog program. While a blog might be the primary platform people think of when discussing publishing plans it’s far from the only option. Programs such as these can be run solely on social/status networks, within the comments on third-party blogs or elsewhere. They can also be solely internal-facing and happen on intranets, corporate wikis or even plain old fashion inter-office email.

Part 3: Developing Internal Policies: It might seem unnecessary to have these policies developed and in place since the issues they address may not exactly match what the program is meant to be about or deal with. Why would there need to be policies dealing with, for instance, employee misconduct if the program is about influencing industry peers and potential customers? For the simple reason that all social media programs are, by their very nature, wide open to the entire public and so tinges may need to be dealt with on those platforms regardless of their original focus. Even if those policies and agreed-upon procedures say “Maintain a staunch ‘no comment’” they need to be there so those involved in the program are not left swinging in the wind when something comes up.

Click through for the full posts and, as I mentioned, stay tuned for future installments.

Movie Marketing Madness: Shrek Forever After

All good things must end, right? Movie franchises are no different, really, and despite the fact that series eventually run their course and it’s better if they’re put out to pasture the studio can always look forward to, assuming things have been successful, enough years of continued income from licensed goods until it’s no longer awkward to discuss a reboot with fresh actors and a fresh story.

After three successful movies beginning back in 2001, Shrek Forever After is being heralded as the last in the popular Shrek series. In the previous three films we’ve followed Shrek from a simple – and feared – ogre to happily married ogre to father of his own little baby ogres, all with his friends such as Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) beside him as well as his wife Fionna (Cameron Diaz). The latest movie finds Shrek growing uncomfortable in his role as respected father and husband and so winds up making a wish to Rumplestilzkin that he could just go back to being a regular ogre. He finds himself in a world where he’d never been born and where he must undue whatever caused this situation if he hopes to live happily ever after.

The Posters

The first teaser poster simply presents a confused Shrek standing amidst variations on the familiar characters that aren’t familiar at all, all in front of the “S” logo that has been used in the campaigns for all the previous movies.

It’s clear something is amiss in how Fiona is sporting armor and carrying an axe and Puss in Boots is a bit rounder than we remember him. Shrek simply looks confused as to what’s going on and Donkey doesn’t look that different but it’s clear there’s something out of place in this scene. So the audience at once gets something that’s completely familiar and the promise of the unexpected, which is something this series could use.

A later series of teasers featured Shrek, Fionna, Rumplestiltzkin, The Gingerbread Man and Puss in Boots on individual one-sheets with dialogue that was specific to each one. These are pretty funny and work to make sure the audience knows that their favorite characters are back as well that a few new ones will be introduced to mix things up a bit.

The final theatrical poster played up the movie’s battle setting, with Shrek on one side leading an army of ogres and Rumplestiltzkin on the other leading his army of witches. The copy “It ain’t ogre till it’s ogre” let’s the audience know that this is the final installment in the series in a relatively playful and fun way.

It’s worth noting that the posters for this movie as well as the three previous films have all done a fantastic job of maintaining brand consistency. They all have the same lettering and the same sky blue background that the characters are set against. It’s a testament to whoever has been overseeing these campaigns that this level of consistency has been achieved since it would have been easy for someone to come in and try something new and different for any of these movies. Instead you have a nice set of posters that are instantly recognizable by the audience not just because of the characters but also the designs surrounding them.

The Trailers

The first trailer betrays a slightly darker tone that’s being taken in this (supposedly final) installment. We’re quickly introduced to the notion that Shrek has fallen victim to some sort of curse and has landed in a version of his world that’s vastly different than his own. Fiona is wanted by the authorities, Donkey doesn’t know him and Puss in Boots is quite a bit more rotund. It doesn’t hint at all as to what’s caused all this, which is a bit weird. Overall the tone of this spot reminds me somewhat of It’s a Wonderful Life in that this seems to be showing us what the land of Far Far Away would be like if Shrek had never been born or something like that.

The second trailer laid out more of the story and just what the stakes are. It opens with Shrek talking about how different his life is and how he wishes he could just go back to being an ogre, complaints he’s sharing with Rumplestiltzkin, who tells him that is a possibility. One signature and a whirlwind later, Shrek is in the distopian version of his world and surrounded by familiar faces who don’t know him at all. His only hope is to get Fiona, who now leads a band of ogres and other rebels against Rumplestilzkin, who reigns as king in this land, to kiss him before the end of the day. It’s a little more in-line with what we’ve come to expect from the franchise but it still strikes a markedly different tone from previous installments even while the gags – including one where the chubbed-out Puss in Boots gets Donkey to do some hygienic maintenance for him – are still what we’ve come to expect here.

Online

When the official site loads you see a big banner across the top of the page that has most every character that’s appeared in the franchise to date, giving the visitor a good indication that this movie goes out on a big scale. Below that are various buttons that prompt you to do various things.

“Create Your Ogre/Join the Resistance” is a way for you to create your own ogre and enter it in the conflict of the movie. “Do the Roar” is really just a little thing to click a button a number of times before Shrek gets annoyed and yells. You can then share that experience, such as it is, on Facebook or Twitter if you like.

The rest of the buttons on this opening page are more standard. There’s a window where one of the TV spots plays, one where you can get Tickets & Showtimes, one that lets you Watch the Trailer and a link to the movie’s Facebook page, which has even been updated with the new “Like us” terminology.

Clicking the big banner at the top lets you enter the site and visit most of the content. Rumplestiltzkin appears and if you click the contract he’s holding takes you to a section of the site that’s primarily games for you to play, showing the emphasis once again is on kids with the online campaign.

Back to the main content, the first section is “The Story.” Arranged as a series of short sentences that outline the basic plot of the movie, you read each one by clicking through a series of rotating stills from the film, a presentation that is very kid-friendly and designed to keep young visitors engaged.

“Videos” has a couple of the Trailers, a Music Video from Landon Pigg and a spot called Discover the Forest that was created in conjunction with the Ad Council and which is designed to get kids outdoors and exploring nature.

“Downloads” has a set of Wallpapers and email Signatures that you can grab that mimic the poster art. Interestingly, then, those posters from the official campaign are not under the Posters section here. Instead what you’ll find a are a series of propaganda/recruitment posters from the ogre resistance. They’re neat, but it’s odd that the official posters aren’t here.

You can meet most of the main characters from the film in the “Characters” section, another part of the site that clearly has kids in mind. Each character gets a description of varying size as well as a Gallery of stills featuring them. Some characters also have Video clips of a starring moment from this movie.

There’s lots of stuff to download and do under “Games & Activities.” The Activities tab has PDFs of coloring pages and more that can be downloaded and printed out for the little ones to busy themselves with. Games takes you back to the Games Forest, where you can play till your heart’s content. There’s also the Do the Roar thing here as well the Join the Resistance ogre creator. Down at the bottom of the page there’s a section called “Alternate World” that does the same thing.

Also down at the bottom is the “Partners” tab that gives some time to the companies that helped promote the movie.

The movie’s Facebook page has updates on the promotional efforts, photos from the movie and such and links to some of the main site’s activities like the Ogre Resistance and so on.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

More than a little TV advertising was done for the film, with most of the spots building off the trailers and simply cutting them down. Because of the shorter running time a lot of the nuance was lost, with the audience presented with the idea that something was wrong in the land of Far Far Away but with little context given for that.

While I’m sure there was plenty of online and outdoor advertising done as well I haven’t seen much of anything.

In terms of cross-promotions, first up is the Ad Council and U.S. Forest Service, which partnered to create the spot mentioned earlier that encouraged kids to get off the couch and discover what’s outside their doorways.

Blue Bunny, ConAgra Foods, General Mills and Hostess all created movie-branded products ranging from ice cream treats to Kid Cuisine meals to Twinkies that featured the characters from the film on the boxes at least as well as various things that had been turned green to tie in with the movie. Most of these also had some sort of contest or sweepstakes associated with them. Similarly Langers Juice offered a free Shrek game for the Wii with the purchase of 10 bottles of juice.

McDonald’s also brought Shrek and his friends to their Happy Meals with a variety of things from the usual toys to collectible glasses to watches. The fast feeder also created a Shrek-sized Chicken McNuggets meal guaranteed to kill you on the spot or your money back.

Vidalia Onions (cause ogres are like onions) created an interactive experience on their website that tied in to the movie and encouraged people to learn more about onions as a whole and what recipes you can include onions in.

Outside of food there were promotions from S.C. Johnson, which offered a trip to L.A. to meet Shrek, but only for residents of Canada. Cosmetics company O.P.I. created a series of nail polish colors inspired by the movie.

Also listed on the Partners page of the website are Bank of America, Comcast and Visa, though what their involvement with the movie was isn’t clear since there are no details offered and no stories that I could find offering information. The only one that there was any information on was Visa, which offered cardholders discounts on tickets bought through Fandango.

A couple technology companies are on-board as well. HP is a long-time partner with Dreamworks and is using this movie to promote their “Keep Forever Green” environmental-consciousness campaign. The deal includes a number of online and downloadable actives from the company.

Intel also gave the movie some love. While no details were findable on what sort of cross-promotion there might have been, scenes and characters from the movie featured prominently in the CES presentation by CEO Paul Otellini.

Media and Publicity

There was some notable questioning going on around the decision by programmers of the Tribeca Film Festival to put the movie in the opening slot this year, a slot that’s usually reserved for movies that sport a tad more…prestigious lineage or at least have a New York connection to make them relevant.

A planned photo spread in the newly launched Vman, a glossy men’s mag, didn’t turn out as the studio was hoping. What they thought was going to be a very classy feature spread with photos of the movie’s characters turned out to be one with those characters interacting with scantily clad models in suggestive poses and layouts, leading Dreamworks to disown the spread. As with all things like this there are better than even odds that this is more or less exactly what was planned as a good way to get people talking about the movie, but that’s not the official line.

There was also some discussion of just what the movie’s title was anyway. Starting life as Shrek Goes Fourth, then becoming known as Shrek Forever After but with some advertising and press coverage referring to it as Shrek: The Final Chapter, there didn’t seem to be a consistent identity for the film, likely coming about as a result of some competing interests within the studio.

The cast got interviewed as well with much of the press, as is certainly the case with this story (New York Times, 5/14/10) focusing the actors looking back on what drew them to the project in the first place and what sort of fun they’ve had in the process.

Overall

It’s amazing how similar this campaign seems to the one for Shrek 2, reviewed six years ago. The entire thing is meant to create a sense of familiarity among the audience with the return of the characters, the website is geared solidly and primarily toward the younger crowd with its emphasis on easily-digestible content and games and the posters are, as I mentioned earlier, similarly branded.

But it’s a good push and certainly does what it needs to do, which is primarily sell the audience on a familiar property. The emphasis on this being the final chapter in the series seems a little odd considering it’s just unwise to definitively close the book on anything, but then again the studio is likely trying to bring in audiences by trying to create an event mindset around the movie that it was otherwise missing. That’s an important idea when going up against Iron Man 2 and in the wake of previous movies like Alice in Wonderland and Avatar that certainly *were* events for the public.

PICKING UP THE SPARE

• 05/25/10: Paramount/Dreamworks Animation created a mobile display ad for the movie that used HTML5, the new video standard that’s set to compete on mobile devices with Flash, which is famously non-appearing on Apple phones. When a viewer taps the ad it expands and prompts them to watch the trailer.
• 06/04/10: The promotional glasses from McDonald’s had to be recalled because they were found to contain a chemical that was potentially harmful.

Movie Marketing Madness: MacGruber

I’m not – I repeat not – going to rehash the sordid and spotty history of film versions of skits originating on “Saturday Night Live” here. We all know the anecdotes, about how for every Blues Brothers or Wayne’s World there’s a Stuart Saves the World or It’s Pat.

No, what I want to discuss is the art of the parody when the audience has little connection to the material being parodied.

In the case of MacGruber, which is indeed the big screen upconversion of an “SNL” skit (with the character also being used in a Pepsi Super Bowl spot), the source material for the parody would be the fantastic 1980′s action series “MacGyver,” about a secret spy who could construct a machine gun from a couple of thread spools and a square foot of aluminum foil. But how many of the teens today have ever actually seen an episode of the show? Do they have any connection to it other than other pop culture references? Does that change how the subsequent spoofs and parodies are received?

While the fictional McGyver may have been super smart and incredibly well versed in the field of physics, MacGruber is a bit less knowledgable though substantially more deluded about just how smart he is, with skits often ending with him and his cohorts exploding as he failed to save the day.

The new movie ups the ante, pitting MacGruber against Deiter von Cunth (Val Kilmer), a terrorist who has stolen a nuclear warhead and is now threatening Washington, DC. Recruited to stop him after faking his own death, MacGruber reunites with his long-time partner Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wig) and a young soldier assigned to help him (Ryan Phillippe) and heads out to stop von Cunth.

The Posters

The movie’s first poster is more than a little disappointing. It’s just Forte, Wig and Phillipe standing there looking at us. There’s no copy there or anything other than a few critic’s quotes and the credit block. If you didn’t know this was a comedy there’s nothing about the poster that’s going to fill you in on that score.

The second one-sheet is not all that much better. This time the cast is set against some sort of explosion. At least this one has some sort of nod to the property’s comedic aspirations with the copy at the top reading “The Ultimate Tool.” That’s something.

The Trailers

First up on the trailer front was a red-band version that tried to sell the movie on the basis of the language used, which works best on a situational basis. But along with the language we also get the bare outlines of a plot that involves a Russian nuclear warhead being stolen, a situation only MacGruber – who is thought by just about everyone to be dead – can resolve. To do so he recruits Wiig’s character and is assigned by the military a young assistant who is a bit more by-the-book than MacGruber.

There are a couple genuinely funny moments in the spot, including MacGruber’s description of what an Upper Decker is and his initial reaction to the amount of wires contained in a nuclear missile, a case where the addition of the R-rated language actually does help to sell the comedy.

The all-ages green-band trailer that was released later covers mainly the same territory and includes many of the same jokes. What gets expanded here is just how self-involved and incompetent MacGruber is. After talking about how he doesn’t use guns but instead uses home-made explosives (meant to reinforce the McGyver association), the van behind him explodes on him, for instance. There are also a couple scenes of Wiig dressing up like MacGruber, a plan she doesn’t clearly understand since he’s the one the bad guys want to kill, and then being left all alone at the meeting place while MacGruber sits in the van 20 blocks away…because the closer spots had meters.

After that came another red-band trailer, though it wasn’t that different from the first one. We get the same “upper decker” joke and the same reaction to there being a lot of wires in a nuclear missile. There are a couple additions in the form of an extended look at the van MacGruber is hanging out in and what happens to it.

Take all those and throw them together and you have the final theatrical trailer for the movie. There’s little that’s new here, so the spot acts kind of like a greatest hits reel of the funniest moments we’ve seen from the previous trailers.

Online

The official website at first redirects to a Rogue Pictures page but from there you can keep on going to the movie site. When that loads you can choose to help MacGruber attempt to defuse a bomb that’s about to blow up the internet by handing him various logos and images from around the page. Of course this ends the same way most of MacGruber’s missions do.

Diving in to the site’s content, the first section is “About” and it’s there that you’ll find a Story synopsis, multi-part Production Notes that show just how quickly the movie went from conceptualization to finished product and Cast & Crew information.

There are about 20 or so stills in the Images gallery. Video has one trailer, four of the TV Spots and a half-dozen Clips that show extended looks at the movie.

“Downloads” has a collection of Wallpapers, Buddy Icons, a Screensaver and some Ringtones you can grab.

“Mullet Maker” is a tool that lets you upload a photo and instantly add a MacGruber-esque mullet to the image that you can then share with your friends. There’s also a “Soundboard” with some audio clips from the movie that you can either listen to or mix up into your own longer creation that, again, you can then share. Finally on the entertainment front is MacGruber Academy where you can play a handful of games to become the expert MacGruber fancies himself.

The “Restricted” section has both red-band trailers, as well as a third video that has Forte offering not so insightful commentary on the second of those trailers.

Down at the bottom of the page there are boxes that contain the latest updates from the official @Grubes69 character Twitter account, which is mildly amusing and the latest updates from other Twitter users that mention how much they’re looking forward to the movie. The movie’s Facebook page is the usual mix of publicity and marketing updates with some photos and videos as well.

An iPhone app was also created that featured a game which mimicked the movie’s plot, pitting MacGruber, his wits and a bunch of everyday items against Deiter von Cunth. There was also a soundboard, photos and more, all of which are rated R but which are pretty funny.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Part of the movie’s promotional presence at SXSW included the launch of a tie-in with online video platform Tongal. That partnership allowed people there to create MacGruber-inspired concepts in 250-characters or less, including a line from the movie. A list of semi-finalists will then be chosen and participants encouraged to create and submit 90-second videos around that concept, with the creator of the winning video then given a hometown screening of the movie.

Other than that a decent amount of TV and online advertising was done, at least based on what I’ve come across. Most of the TV spots recreated the trailers, albeit in abbreviated form and therefore worked on much the same levels.

Of course the movie’s actual campaign overlooks the fact that the 2009 Super Bowl commercial featuring the character – as well as his Richard Dean Anderson, the actor behind MacGyver – was widely seen as a testing ground for the audience’s potential taste for more of the clueless MacGruber. So in essence this movie kicked off in the form of a commercial.

Media and Publicity

Unfortunately it wasn’t all sunshine, roses and low expectations on the road to the film’s eventual release. The producer of “MacGyver,” of which this movie – and the source SNL sketches – is clearly a parody sued the studio behind MacGruber in February saying it infringed on his rights. Considering it’s been known that a movie was in the works for quite a while now and since the suit is coming after the marketing for MacGruber had kicked off, it would appear to an outsider that the MacGyver team is looking for a quick payday since Relativity can’t at this point grind the whole machine to a halt. Assuming, that is, they don’t get laughed out of court.

There was a high-profile debut for the film at SXSW, an unusual appearance considering the film festival there has a tradition of being more hipster-oriented and not quite the venue one would predict an SNL sketch film would appear at.

The movie unfortunately fell off much of the press radar for the while prior to release, save for the unearthing of some pictures from MacGruber’s early attempts at being a nude male model and some reminiscences of how much we all want to be as ingenious as McGyver (Los Angeles Times, 4/16/10) in high pressure situations.

Overall

Not a bad campaign and certainly one that, aside from the posters, conveys the title character’s sense of self-importance, lack of social skills and general craziness. By relying on Forte’s ability to play the character completely straight even while he utters the most ridiculous things and does the most ridiculous things the campaign really sells what appears to be the strongest thing about movie itself.

The trailers emphasize Forte, as does the website and that’s a good thing. The posters, though, are a huge weak spot. Surely there was some way to convey the movie’s key selling points in a clearer way that wasn’t so…boring for lack of a better word. The problem is that if people aren’t familiar with the character there’s nothing about the one-sheets that is going to provide a compelling reason for them to see the movie.

Other than that it’s an alright marketing push for a movie that, among movie fans, has at least some anticipation around it.

Movie Marketing Madness: Robin Hood

I have to admit a the outset of this column that I have something of a grudge against all modern retellings of the Robin Hood legend. It’s not that I hold some sort of feelings that the Errol Flynn version is simply untouchable (though it’s *that* close), it’s that the 1991 Kevin Costner version is forever hold in a place of singular loathing in my mind, largely because of a day that summer spent at Great America where the video for the Bryan Adams theme song was played on a screen in all the ride queues, meaning I saw and heard it about 5,486 times in a single day. While it’s an alright movie when viewed outside of this vendetta, it does indeed pale in comparison to Flynn’s more swashbuckling film. Heck it pales in comparison to the Daffy Duck/Porky Pig retelling of the story, one of the all-time classic Looney Tunes shorts.

But now there’s a new retelling in the form of Robin Hood. Starring Russell Crowe in the title role and teaming him with his Gladiator director Ridley Scott, this current adaptation seeks to recast the legend with less of an emphasis on the “rob from the rich, give to the poor” theme and more on Robin being a patriot who believes the people have a right to have a say in how they’re governed. Adding to that is Robin’s motives to uphold the promise of his lineage and fulfill the promise of his father’s role as a champion of the people. So basically what we’re getting is a hero still seeking the approval of his dead father and the friends of his dead father, daddy issues that are supposed to give him depth but which are a far cry from the triumphant heroic model that has dominated much of history. This is supposed to, I guess, make him more relatable to modern audiences. Let’s see how the studio is selling this to the masses.

The Posters

The only poster does what it needs to do and does it efficiently. The sole image – taken almost directly from the first trailer we’ll discuss shortly – is that of Robin Hood staring intently down the arrow he has nocked and ready to fly from the bow, his face grimy and bloody. In the upper left hand corner it’s shown that the movie is coming from director Scott and by invoking Gladiator below his name the audience is shown clearly that this is a reteaming of two of the creators of that blockbuster a decade ago. Kiddy-korner from that, in the lower right corner, is Crowe’s name as well as Blanchett’s, both of whom are labeled as Oscar Winners just above the credit block. I really like how it’s not an over-crowded image but instead stark and simple and all the more striking for it, where something more cluttered would have detracted from the impact in those viewing it.

The Trailers

The first trailer that was released unfortunately does little to actually establish this as a Robin Hood story. We’re treated to lots of shots of soldiers running through the woods or across a beach and a woman hiding in her room and lots of shots of Crowe looking solemn or vengeful. But the images of him with a bow and arrow are really the only thing, aside from the title treatment, that even hint at this being related to the character of Robin Hood. A bit disappointing considering the level of talent involved since this footage could be for any medieval action/romance flick.

The second trailer went more into the story, which has Robin leading a revolt of sorts against the despotic King John, a revolt the king obviously is none too thrilled about. He’s branded an outlaw and hunted down. Part of leading that revolt comes as a part of Robin seeking to embrace the destiny that’s before him, something that’s expected of him as the son of a man who dared suggest the common people have as much to expect from their ruler as the ruler does from the people. There’s a little bit about his meeting Marion, though not much outside of a crude joke about her severing his manhood should he try anything while they’re forced to share a bedroom. While action sequences abound in this spot the final shot, which makes it look like there’s some sort of medieval invasion of Normandy going complete with troop transports, comes off as a little silly.

That second trailer was then turned interactive about a week before release, with little factoids popping up at set points in the spot that give background on the Robin Hood legend, details on what Scott was envisioning for the movie and more. I completely get what they’re going for with these sorts of trailers but don’t think they’re as effective as they could be at accomplishing that.

A third trailer was released just four days before the movie was scheduled to be released that upped the action quotient while jettisoning anything relating to a more emotional plot. That’s somewhat expected when you realize it runs just 1:18, meaning it doesn’t have a ton of time within which to include a lot of story nuance.

Online

The official website opens with the biggest prompt being to watch the interactive trailer that contains all the little factoids. There’s also a link to the Lionhearts page, a charity effort that allows people to enter for a chance to win some cash for themselves as well as some for the charity of their choice. On the other side of the page there’s a sweepstakes to enter to win a trip to England.

Upon entering the site you’re greeted with a content menu is displayed as a panorama of some of the movie’s key locations.

First there is “About the Film,” where there’s a Synopsis and a five-part series of Production Notes that detail the major milestones of the film’s production.

“Cast and Crew” is next and there are the same sort of biographies and filmographies we’ve all come to expect from such sections.

“Video” has all three trailers, a handful of TV spots and some extended clips from the movie as well as at least one behind-the-scenes vignette featuring director Scott. The “Photo Gallery” has, if I counted right, 28 stills from the film including a couple of shots with Scott.

You’ll find Desktop Wallpapers and Buddy Icons under “Downloads.”

There are also sections for the Lionhearts program as well as one for the Interactive Trailer again, meaning the studio is putting a lot of eggs in that interactive basket.

At the bottom of the page are buttons to share the site on various social networks and bookmarking sites as well as links to the Universal Twitter profile and the movie’s Facebook page, which has updates on the movie’s advertising and promotional campaign.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

A decent advertising campaign was run consisting of TV spots, online ads and outdoor banners. The TV campaign mimicked largely the trailers, only paired down for the running time of commercial television. Likewise the outdoor and online advertising more or less solely used the same key art from the poster campaign, re-purposing the image of Robin staring down his arrow shaft

Media and Publicity

A major publicity coup was scored when it was announced the movie would screen at the Cannes Film Festival, even if it was out of competition, on opening night. That added to the buzz around the movie at a time the idea of star-driven films were being questioned as a whole. After that screening there was a bit of talk about the movie, including how the hero had gone through so many iterations over the years (Hollywood Reporter, 5/11/10).

As the movie neared release the studio aimed to get people talking with the release of a ton of extended clips from the film that showed off various parts of the movie it hoped would connect with audiences.

Later stories such as this one (Los Angeles Times, 5/7/10) would focus on Scott and Crowe and their reimagining of the character as someone not so much interested in financial parity among the citizenry but instead in making the king pay attention to the needs of the governed. That’s a pretty dramatic shift in the way the character is portrayed and one that may have an impact on how audiences perceive it.

From what I saw – or didn’t see – it was a fairly subdued effort and certainly not a full court press for a movie like this. That seemed a little odd but perhaps the studio was saving its powder for one of their movies later in the summer.

Overall

Did Universal just occasionally forget they had this movie coming out? With so much of the movie industry press focusing on how studios were counting on established brands with built-in audiences to take some of the marketing pressure off and pre-sell films, this effort seems like it takes that idea too far. Instead of a campaign that works to build awareness and then lets the audience take it from there, this seems to be a campaign that’s just not even trying.

One poster? A new trailer the week or release, when most people have already made up their minds? That seems like barely even trying, especially when you couple it with a publicity campaign that doesn’t seem to have generated much press.

Perhaps the studio is simply realizing that they’re going to caught up in Iron Man’s jet-wash and so are just trying to get the action audience that saw Iron Man 2 last weekend and is looking for something different this time around. Whatever the case this seems like a lackluster effort for a movie that one might assume would be among the studio’s biggest early summer releases.

Retention rebate

Instead of constantly bombarding me with coupons for domain services and promotions that I’m not eligible for because I’m already a customer, the hosting company I use for MMM should be sending me emails about how they’re going to knock my fees down to the same level they’re using to entice new customers because of the many, many security issues on their side that have resulted in that site being down for so much time over the last month or so.

Movie Marketing Madness: Iron Man 2

Expectations were high in 2008 when Iron Man was about to be released. This was, many considered, a second tier comic book character who wasn’t nearly the household name that Spider-Man, Batman and Wolverine were. So a movie starring The Armored Avenger, especially one that was being eyed as the launch of a new and hopefully lucrative franchise, was seen as a something of a wild bet.

That bet was even greater considering this was the premiere release from Marvel Studios, the newly-launched film division of Marvel Comics and its effort to take control of its stable of characters, at least the ones that it hadn’t already licensed out to other studios. So this was the premiere film that would, the talk ran, prove just how viable this venture could potentially be.

With the loose, improvisational direction of Jon Favreau and the equally loose and charismatic acting by Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Tony Stark, the movie proved to be a massive success both commercially and critically as audiences lapped up the mix of action and humor and critics praised the better-than-expected writing, direction and acting.

So the sequel, if anything, has to do more to live up to expectations than the first one. That’s true not only because of the reactions to the first one but also because the intervening time has brought Marvel’s cinematic plans more clearly into focus. While 2008 also saw the release of The Incredible Hulk, the next couple years will see big screen adaptations of Thor, Captain America and ultimately The Avengers, where all these characters come together into, that’s be honest, the culmination of my childhood comic-reading wishes.

While the first movie had the task of setting up the character of Iron Man and largely introducing him to the mainstream audience, this one gets to continue the storyline of how Stark is trying to reshape his image from one of a war monger to one of a more philanthropic playboy super hero. But the machinations of business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and his alliance with the mysterious villain known as Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) bring complications in to that journey. Aiding Stark, though, are his loyal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) as well as friend James Rhodes (now played by Don Cheadle), who will wind up taking on armor of his own under the guise of War Machine, a more military-minded version of the Iron Man design.

So with even more on the line than last time let’s look at how Marvel…oh, and Paramount Pictures, which now distributes all the Marvel Studios films…are selling Shellhead’s second cinematic outing to the public.

The Posters

The first teaser poster that was released cleared up a lot of speculation as to whether or not a certain character would make an appearance in the film. Behind Iron Man himself, who seems to be sporting a somewhat sleeker version of his armor, is War Machine, the more heavily armed version of the Iron Man armor that’s worn in the comics by James Rhodes. With Rhodey being part of the film series from the very beginning the debut of War Machine has been long-anticipated and this poster makes it clear that we’ll be getting more than one set of armor in this sequel.

Second came a look at one of the movie’s primary villains, Whiplash. Standing with his electronic whips splayed out on either side of him and with his…what are we calling this, a harness?…glowing on his chest, his appearance is interesting enough. But adding to that is the fact that behind him are all sorts of press clippings about Tony Stark, making it clear that we’re dealing with someone who seems to have a personal vendetta against Stark and who is going to wind up using his technology, or a bastardized version of it, against him.

Two more posters were released a few months later, one with Iron Man and one being War Machine’s first solo appearance in the campaign. In both cases they’re positioned against a giant “2″ and provide the audience with a pretty clear shot of both sets of armor.

The theatrical poster was a nice continuation of the same one-sheet from the first film. Iron Man looms in the background, with War Machine slightly off to the side and a little in front of him. In the middle and lower parts of the design we see the human beings that are in the movie, Tony Stark (striking roughly the same pose he did in the first movie’s poster), James Rhodes, Natasha Romanov and Pepper Potts. The way the characters are arranged, as I said, makes this a nice brand continuity from the first entry’s theatrical poster, which had a similar layout.

Notably – and a lot of people did indeed point this out when it was released – missing from this poster are either of the film’s villains. That’s a little surprising considering what a big component Whiplash especially has played in the trailers. But considering what the campaign is trying to sell are the heroics of the main cast it doesn’t strike me as completely odd.

After that a character-specific poster for Black Widow was teased online in advance of it being available at WonderCon, an event roughly similar to Comic-Con though nowhere near that scope. The poster shows off the Widow’s look, including the skin-tight outfit that’s unzipped just enough to show off Johansson’s best acting attributes and the wrist-shooters that the character uses.

Two more posters came later that were specifically aimed at promoting the movie’s appearance on IMAX screens, with one featuring Iron Man wearing the “suitcase armor” and one with Whiplash looking relatively despondent despite the big glowing whips he’s holding on to.

The Trailers

The first trailer debuted in December of last year at the end of an online clue-seeding campaign by Paramount that lasted two or three days. Over the course of that handful of days various sites were sent close-ups of some of the newspaper clippings that appear behind Whiplash with one word in the headline highlighted. When four of those words were put together they led, as expected to a website, in this case StarkSecretConfessionRevealed.com, which resolved to the Apple trailer page for the movie.

That trailer opens with a shot of, of all people, Garry Shandling as a U.S. Senator who’s questioning Stark and making it clear the government is intent on having him turn over the Iron Man armor, something Stark says he has no intention of doing. After that we get a scene of Stark and Pepper Potts flirting in an airplane (Paltrow seductively kisses the Iron Man helmet when Stark requests a smooch for luck, a scene that personally I felt the need to watch three or four times) before he jumps out and lands in the middle of a celebration that includes dancers sporting skimpy Iron Man-type outfits. But that then gives way to a scene of Whiplash making his own armor and talking about how Stark has tried to re-write history and has forgotten the people his family has hurt in the past.

We then get a few quick shots of the supporting cast – Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes and Scarlett Johansson as both the innocent-looking Natasha Romanov and as the body-slamming Black Widow – before Whiplash reveals himself by cutting Stark’s race car in half with his whips. The spot then ends with Iron Man out-flying a jet and then, finally, with Iron Man and War Machine back to back and fighting against what appear to be robots that look a lot like they’re based on the Iron Man armor.

The spot did a good job of kicking off the excitement for the movie and certainly showed the audience there were lots of good moments in the movie for them to look forward to.

A second trailer was then scheduled to be debuted a couple months later during the broadcast of “The Jimmy Kimmel Show” Downey was slated to appear on immediately following the 2010 Oscars telecast.

That second trailer was pretty cool, starting out with the same shot of Iron Man flying in to the glitzy event with the crowds and the dancers and such. We then get a scene of Pepper Potts letting “the notary” in to see Stark but since the woman who walks in is Johannson we know she’s no simple notary but instead the Black Widow, someone we’ll later see kicking some security guard butt and getting a turn to try the Iron Man glove and fire a repulsor ray. Before we get to that, though, it’s time for Whiplash to get some time in the sun as we see him preparing his costume and it’s whips before then slicing up Stark’s race car with those whips. After a shot of him facing down Stark in prison he’s brought to see Rockwell’s Justin Hammer – his first appearance in the campaign – who tells him he can provide the resources to make Iron Man a thing of the past.

After that it’s time to showcase War Machine a bit, starting with Cheadle as Rhodey telling Stark he doesn’t need to be a “lone gun slinger” anymore, a scene that gives way shortly to the sequence of Iron Man and War Machine back to back against a host of, presumably, Hammer’s mechanized menaces.

The two best shots in the spot, though, are where Stark is face to face with Nick Fury and reading a report which labels him as having traits of textbook narcissism, to which he simply responds, “Agreed” and the last sequence, which debuts Stark’s “suitcase armor,” something that’s been around for quite a while in the comic books but which is making it’s cinematic debut as, apparently, a stripped down version of the Iron Man armor that Tony uses to battle Whiplash after his race-car attack.

An interactive version of that second trailer was later released that allowed people to view some of the geekier details of what they were seeing, something that was especially helpful if you’re not completely steeped in Iron Man comic mythology.

A later trailer was released that specifically promoted the movie’s appearance on IMAX screens, with footage that combined bits from both of the previous trailers.

Online

After the main landing page of the official website loads it becomes clear what the intent of the site is pretty immediately. There are prompts to not only watch the trailer and get showtimes but also nice full color graphics of all the movie’s promotional brand sponsors right there below Iron Man’s glowering visage. That’s pretty nice placement for those brand logos, which are usually relegated to a page well within the site where only the most dedicated and interested are going to find them. And it’s a statement to how powerful those promotional partners have become that they can command such placement.

When you opt to Enter the Site you’re given the option to experience the Iron Man or War Machine versions of the site, though I doubt there’s any difference in the actual content that’s subsequently available.

On the first page upon entering you’re shown a close up of whichever armor you chose, with little swirling circles that you can click on to find out more about that part of the armor technology. As you navigate through the site different sections of the armor become available and more of the features are detailed. Off to the right are boxes that make available various video content, including the Trailers, some of the TV Spots and a Clip or two.

Finding the Nav bar to the opposite side of those video clips, the first section is “About the Movie” and the first section there is Cast, which is where you can read an overview of the characters in the movie as well as the biographies and career histories of the actors who play them. A similar tack is taken with the Filmmakers sub-section, which explains who all the folks behind the scenes are. There’s also a Story area that gives a quick synopsis of the movie’s plot.

“Videos” just recreates the same video content selection that was available earlier in the site navigation. There are about 28 stills from the movie in the “Gallery” section. A collection of Wallpapers, Buddy Icons and a Screensaver are all found under “Downloads.”

You’ll find out all about what those other companies have done to help promote the movie – and their own products as well – under “Partners,” which includes not just the consumer brands but also links to all of Marvel’s various stores and content hubs as well.

Finally, “Extras” has links to the Interactive Trailer, the Stark Expo site (more on that below), an Augmented Reality site that allows you to put yourself in the Iron Man or War Machine armor and the Whiplash Slash and Burn game.

The movie’s Facebook Page (note the re-branding that’s gone on there as the network no longer uses “Fan Page”) is a pretty standard affair with photos, videos and updates on the movie’s reviews and such being posted to the wall.

The online portion of the campaign kicked off a week or so after Comic-Con 2009 with the launch of a website for Stark Industries. The site was pretty bare aside from a job application and a scan of a napkin with a note from Tony Stark written on it saying “For Immediate Release: We no longer make weapons” with a directive to Pepper Potts to post this “exactly as is.” It’s a fun little tactic that starts and extends the movie’s story in a nicely concise way.

Just a little over a month before the movie’s release a site launched for Stark Expo 2010, an event begun by Tony Stark’s father and which Tony, as he says in an invitation letter, wants to restart. The site features concept art for the expansive location the event will be taking place on – on a date that matches the release date of the movie – and a brief promotional video. There’s even a promo video for the 1974 event that shows Howard Stark – now played by John Slattery from “Mad Men.” At the bottom of the page there’s a 360-degree view of the building wire-frames and clicking on one of them shows you which supporting company is sponsoring that pavilion, a list of companies that closely resembles the promotional partners for the movie itself. This is an interesting way to get those partners some extra screen time while at the same time fleshing out a part of the movie that has appeared in much of the campaign to that point.

One of the fictional companies taking part in Stark Expo 2010 is AccuTech, a subsidiary of Stark Enterprises that got its own website on the event’s site and so which, it could be safely assumed, figures somehow into the story, at least a bit of it. The AccuTech site also features a video that shows the same sort of sonic weapons used in The Incredible Hulk, which actually takes place continuity wise after the events of this movie.

The second spinoff company was CordCo, which along with the debut of a website also premiered a trade show demonstration video of a new sonic blaster for fighting forest fires. After that Stark Fujikawa showed off their innovative heads-up display technology.

A pretty immersive iPhone game was also created that let you play as either Iron Man or War Machine. It also featured promotional material (MediaPost, 5/1/10) such as posters and character profiles, as well as functionality that let users buy tickets for the movie from within the app itself.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

The first TV spot appeared during the “Kids Choice Awards” a little over a month before the movie’s release and while it featured the same opening as the trailers there was a bit of new dialogue from Cheadle, Jackson and Johannsen as well. Future spots would expand on footage we were initially shown in trailers and carry the same format, essentially, as those trailers in how they open and their general pacing.

Plenty of outdoor advertising was done, with Shellhead being plastered all over New York City as well as, one would suspect, other major cities. Indeed while walking through downtown Chicago recently I noticed a bus shelter that was completely draped in movie posters, both inside and outside, featuring both Iron Man and War Machine.

Also noticed were some cool digital billboards that I spied along I-294 on the way to O’Hare. The billboards recreated the movie’s poster key art, but in two segments. First the pictures of Downey, Paltrow and the others appeared and that was then replaced by the images of Iron Man and War Machine. Along with the armored characters was a big display showing the number of days until opening, which is a great thing to include and is much more dynamic – and therefore engaging and noticeable – than the standard “In theaters everywhere XX/XX/XX.” Very cool.

Of course there was also a ton of advertising done online, both for the movie itself and for the promotional partners that were part of the campaign. For the movie itself, most of the ads simply took Iron Man, either by himself or with War Machine depending on the size and layout of the unit and placed him alongside a prompt to get tickets or find out more about the movie.

Continuing a tradition begun with, really, Spider-Man 2, Marvel used the cinematic debut of The Black Widow to give the character a starring turn in the comics. The publisher announced – around the same time first pictures of Johannsen in costume were released – that the Widow would be getting a new mini-series that reworked parts of her origin and reintroduced the classic costume (not her original but the later one that is similar to what’s featured in the movies). The first issue of that series even featured a variant cover that used one of the publicity stills of Johansson in costume.

There was also the “Iron Man Vs. Whiplash” limited series that not only pit the two characters against each other and re-did some of the details of their previous relationship but it also refashioned Whiplash’s costume a bit to fit more closely with how he would look in the movie. Of course this was before the full costume from that movie was revealed, so this acted as a sort of teaser for that look.

Marvel also brought more direct tie-ins to their lineup, launching a new limited series title called Iron Man 1.5 that took place within the movie universe’s continuity and which filled in the story between the first and second movies. Indeed Marvel’s April lineup was lousy with Iron Man tie-in and launches, including that month’s issue of his ongoing title being the debut of newly designed armor. Two other series were created that existed within the movie’s world as well, “Public Identity” and “I Am Iron Man,” both of which extended the story between the first and second movies.

That was complemented by Marvel running Iron Man Month on its website and focusing on the character in the updates it published. That included histories of the many incarnations of the Iron Man armor, a list of the must-read trade paperbacks that include essential stories, a look at the rivalry between Stark and Justin Hammer and more.

There was also a tie-in in the form of an Anime version of the character that revisits the character with a completely different artistic spin on him that is used in a direct-to-home video release that also was teased at Comic-Con along with the rest of the film.

Usually I don’t write about soundtracks, but in this case I’ll make an exception. That’s because the soundtrack to the film is, essentially a AC/DC greatest hits album. Featuring 15 of the band’s biggest hits, the selection is obviously meant to cement the film’s appeal among hard rock crowd, starting with an announcement that included the debut of a new music video for Shoot to Trill that featured footage from the movie.

The second batch of teaser posters were re-purposed slightly to act as an in-theater standee of Iron Man and War Machine that was pretty cool.

Diesel was one of the first corporate promotional partners to get press for their efforts, which involved the release of a men’s cologne that came in a bottle shaped like one of Iron Man’s gauntlets.

Car-maker Audi provided five cars for the movie’s production, including its new R8 Spyder which is featured as one Stark drives. TV spots such as this one were created as well as in-theater commercials and more as part of the company’s overall promotional campaign (MediaPost, 5/28/10). That campaign also included a microsite where people could upload videos detailing their invention ideas, with the idea receiving the most votes receiving $15,000 in funding to make it happen.

If you go into a Verizon Wireless store you’ll see in-store ads from LG, which for this movie is expanding the scope of its partnership from just being the Mobile division to their entire Electronics sector. That includes more LG products being shown within the movie. The effort will be supported by TV commercials and placement of Iron Man shots in printed and digital ads. A limited edition Iron Man 2 comic is also being given away with purchase of select models of LG handsets.

7-Eleven jumped on once again (MediaPost, 4/9/10) for a promotion that ran for two months and included not only the convenience store’s Slurpees, for which there were special cups and straws, but also a contest that sent the winner on a lavish trip to Hollywood and advertising for the movie on its in-store video network. The retailer has also bought some co-branded TV time.

Soft drink brand Dr. Pepper supported the movie with the usual movie-branded cans – 14 in all – as well as a TV spot that featured Stan Lee himself as one of the janitors cleaning Stark’s workshop, a nice touch that extended the spot’s word of mouth into the movie and comics blog worlds. The Dr. Pepper promotions page also let people enter to win an LG Arena Multimedia smartphone.

Reese’s, a movie tie-in case study in and of itself, created (MediaPost, 4/13/10) movie-branded packaging and co-branded TV spots for its candies and ran a sweepstakes that awarded a trip to the set of a future Marvel movie, which is kind of cool. It also sponsored a competition between three teams of students at MIT to see who could drive more traffic via online promotions to the tie-in campaign’s page, something I’m interested to see the results of should the be published later on.

Technology company Oracle ran a pretty massive campaign that included print and TV ads featuring Iron Man, most of which used the idea that while Iron Man was the perfect combination of man and machine, Oracle is the perfect combination of software and hardware. I saw the co-branded commercial for this partnership *a lot* while traveling as it was everywhere in airports, both on TVs and on other digital signage. Combine that with the print ad on the back of Wired and, presumably, elsewhere, and you can see the company was targeting the IT manager crowd.

Also on the technology front is Symantec, which co-branded its 2010 Norton AntiVirus with movie imagery and included an exclusive comic in boxes.

Burger King was once again on board with Kid’s Meals that featured eight movie toys, some of which appealed to boys (the action figures) and some that were meant to appeal more to girls (the Black Widow’s bracelet and others), as well as a “Whiplash Whopper” that takes its name from the movie’s villain. The chain supported that with a decent TV campaign as well as the usual in-store signage.

Land O’Frost lunch meats ran a sweepstakes, supported by TV, print and in-store advertising, that awarded people a Marvel-centric prize package including trips to exclusive Marvel events and more.

Taking advantage of the fact that racing plays a prominent part in one of the movie’s key action sequences, motor oil company Royal Purple showed off cars at select races that featured heavy movie branding, an effort that was also supported by TV and in-store ads.

Overall the promotional partners for the movie spent over $80 million in media buys that were part of a $100 million total effort (AdAge, 4/19/10) when you take contest prizes and other efforts into account.

Media and Publicity

The initial media coverage (outside, of course, of the stories in early 2008 about Cheadle replacing Terence Howard as Rhodey) started in earnest in early April, 2009, as online geeks converged around every update director Favreau put on his Twitter stream. He started the updates toward the end of pre-production on the film, which coincided with the release of I Love You, Man, which he had a supporting role in, and really kicked into high-gear when the production itself began. He posted updates about sets being completed, actors reporting to the set and more.

Also coming via Twitter was an announcement that the first approved publicity shot from the movie would be debuting in USA Today at the beginning of May.

That first image turned out to be pretty darn cool. The image of Downey as Stark sitting in his lab surrounded by previous iterations of his armor isn’t exactly going to set the world on fire in terms of showing stuff off, but for comics fans it was a direct homage to various scenes from those comics of Stark in his Hall of Armor or whatever it was called – the place where he kept copies of all the different prototypes and versions of his suit that had been worn and tested over the years. This was all about getting people to not only write about it but also place it in context of the comic mythology and history, which is exactly what most people did.

Another round of publicity was created around the release of yet another image, this time a first look at Mickey Rourke as Whiplash. The shot showed him in costume, which Scott Mendelson at FilmThreat was good enough to point out remained relatively true to the feel, if not the actual detail, of the character’s costume in the comics.

The first look at Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow came when she, along with Rourke and Downey, appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly just before Comic-Con 2009. Within the issue was a clearer picture of her donning the character’s tight black leather outfit, complete with the little shooter wrist-bands she wears,

At Comic-Con – which marked a triumphal return for the filmmakers, who kicked off the buzz for the first flick there two years ago – representatives of Stark Industries were manning a booth where they were recruiting new employees. That booth included a recreation of the “Hall of Armor,” including all three versions of the Iron Man suit from the first movie and the Mark IV version that would presumably be featured in the new one. There was also the requisite panel session with Favreau, Downey, Cheadle and Johannson as well as a sizzle reel of footage from the movie – just enough to get people excited and provide super-fast looks at not only the heroes but also the villains.

Giving us a first look at Whiplash in action and continuing the trend so far of behind-the-scenes being the campaign’s focus to date was an “Entertainment Weekly” set visit that everyone on the internet was talking about after it aired. It provided a few good looks at the characters and there may even have been a clue or two as to some unknown plot elements contained therein.

Around the time the AccuTech site appeared online Paramount also sent out a handful of swag packages with items bearing the AccuTech logo – mouse pads, coffee mugs and such, the kind of thing you’d expect from a company like this. Even marketing trade pubs picked up (ClickZ, 4/12/10) the AccuTech effort as the latest online effort for a movie that more fully extends the film’s story in an effort to keep fans engaged and thinking about the movie well in advance of its release.

Some wind was taken out of fans’ sails when an interview with Favreau (Los Angeles Times, 4/14/10) had him saying the film was more or less self-contained and didn’t have a big cliffhanger that would be followed-up in a third movie. That restrictor plate was put on due to the plans for movies featuring Thor, Captain America and ultimately The Avengers (all of which were generating their own press just prior to the release of this movie), which would bring all of those characters together. That’s not at all a bad thing, though, since a sense of continuity is exactly what Marvel has been shooting for since taking back control of its properties and anything less would have left fans feeling frustrated.

Favreau also weighed in (LAT, 4/19/10) on how AC/DC has become a thing in the Iron Man movies now, with “Shoot to Thrill” playing a big role in the second one after “Back in Black” was featured prominently in the first movie.

The publicity tour – and a cloud of volcanic ash over much of Europe that prevented the cast from appearing at the London premiere – brought Favreau and Downey to the Alamo Drafthouse, where they showed a group of eager critics and blog writers the movie and had some fun with their appearance.

Overall

Much like the feeling I had after reviewing the campaign for the first movie, I look at this marketing push and see something that’s simply too big to fail. Not that I don’t think there are issues with some of the individual components, but…actually I kind of don’t I really like this campaign pretty much from top to bottom. The posters are sharp and effectively show off characters both old and new, the trailers are fast and slick and do likewise, as well as throwing in bits like the appearance of Nick Fury that are going to have specific appeal to fans who are excited about the expanding cinematic Marvel Universe. The advertising is full-bore and contains the same attitude as the trailer and the publicity is well placed and effectively messaged.

The sheer scale of the campaign, though, is one of those things that’s quite impressive to behold. There’s just a ton going on here, from the trailers to the cross-promotions and more. Even more impressive, though, is that all these individual elements manages to stick with a consistent sense of branding, both in objective measures like use of the title treatment and such and in more subjective areas such as attitude. The spots for partners like Dr. Pepper and 7-Eleven all have the same playful spirit as the studio-created materials, meaning when the audience comes across each element they’re going to get the same brand perception experience they did when they saw something previously.

As an admitted geek, especially one whose favorite super hero comic when he was a kid was The Avengers, I’m predisposed to liking this campaign just as I was the campaign for the first one. I’m very much one of the target audiences for this movie. So if there’s a problem with the marketing I’m not seeing it because it looks to me like Paramount and Marvel have put together another strong campaign for Shellhead’s continued adventures.

PICKING UP THE SPARE

• 05/11/10: There were even more comic tie-ins Marvel published as digital editions that go into the backstories of Agent Coulson, Natasha Romanov and Nick Fury.
• 05/14/10: Adweek takes a look at the brands that signed on for promotional partnerships with the studio for this movie and measures how much buzz they got for their cross-promotional dollars.
• 06/23/10: An augmented reality app for LG Mobile users put them inside the Iron Man armor so they could see what Tony Stark sees when he’s wearing the helmet.

Movie Marketing Madness: The Losers

(Note: This should have been published last week, but for obvious reasons – including the fact that this blog essentially didn’t exist for the last two weeks – it didn’t. Publishing it today so it can be live and more or less in order.)

A rag-tag bunch of heroes is always pretty easy to root for. It’s one thing to pull for an elite squad of highly-trained and well-equipped soldiers like in G.I. Joe, where everyone has access to the latest in exo-skeleton technology that enhances their physical reactions. (Root for? Yes. Accept as plausible? I didn’t say that.) But a bunch of people who are scraping together their own equipment, going to battle in their street clothes and otherwise scraping by on their instincts and limited resources…that appeals to the underdog in us.

It’s that sort of group that has been assembled in The Losers. Based on the DC Vertigo series from a couple of years ago, the story is that of an elite Special Forces team that is betrayed by a shadowy figure operating autonomously within the CIA. Seeking to clear their name the manage to evade the kill order on them and work in their own special way to find Max and prove that they are not guilty of the crimes he’s set them up to take the fall for.

Yes, this sounds a lot like the setup for an ’80s TV show that’s being made into its own feature film later this summer, but it’s actually a loose variation on a previous DC comic from the 1970′s called “The Losers” as well. So with lots of firepower and wit and only a smattering of movie star power let’s take a look at the marketing.

The Posters

The first teaser poster was released at 2009′s Comic-Con and was pretty simple, considering what it did was take the graphic novel cover art – not a recreation of it but the actual art itself – and put the actor’s names underneath the faces of the characters they were going to be playing. The title treatment was the same and the only addition was a bit of copy saying “You don’t give them orders, you just turn them loose.” That sort of tactic is a great idea for this crowd since they’re going to appreciate this nod to the movie’s origins and see it as a nice addition to their collection. I’m sure this worked at least on some level in beginning to get people excited for the movie.

The theatrical poster took a similar tact but this time did feature the actors themselves recreating that graphic novel art. Some of the character’s positions are slightly changed, largely by virtue of the fact that Zoe Saldana is now a brand name and presumably has some drawing power. The title treatment is slightly modified to look more worn and there’s new copy just above there that says “Anyone else would be dead by now,” a nice bit that acknowledges the movie’s story a bit and is pretty punchy, making the point that this is a group of survivors we’re seeing here.

I’m a little surprised the one-sheet was approved by the MPAA considering there are multiple guns pointed directly at the audience and I thought that was one of the big things on their “No No” list for movie marketing materials.

The next poster manages to look the most comic-bookish of the lot despite it being the one that’s not based on an image from the source comic. Three of the main characters – the biggest names – are placed in the middle of a diagonal stripe that runs through the images, all armed to the teeth and blasting away and off-screen enemies. The secondary cast is featured in small boxes placed around the image, all similarly armed and engaged.

It’s bright pop of a poster that certainly conveys a strong sense of action and motion. There’s no concern about ploy or anything, it’s all guns and attitude here. The reason I say it’s most most comic bookish of the posters is because of those strong black borders around the photos and that stripe, all of which make it look like comic panels and layouts. That’s kind of cool without being overly obvious.

A series of character posters came next, each one featuring of the members of the team. They resemble in a loose way the graphic look on the just previous poster and, helpfully, give a little description of each person’s role on the team.

The Trailers

The first trailer for the movie set a very light, comedic vibe that also came with plenty of action attached. We’re introduced to The Losers, a group of individuals that have come together to handle the tough missions that official government agencies can’t have any part of. But then they’re cut loose and marked for death by an important individual and so engage on the ultimate operation to take him down and hopefully clear their name.

The spot does a good job of giving everyone on the team their fair share of screen time and dialogue, positioning the film as an ensemble. There’s certainly a breezy quality to the footage that’s contained here, with most everyone involved cracking jokes and giving each other a hard time but also showing that it’s a tight-knit team that’s loyal to each other.

It does draw inevitable comparisons to The A-Team, another story of former military types who have to clear their name and avenge the wrongs that have been done to them, but that can’t really be helped, especially not since that property has a film coming out this year as well. But judged on its own merits this trailer for The Losers is a good first effort at appealing to a crowd that likes to watch jokes being made while things explode in the background.

A “sizzle reel” that was kind of a trailer and kind of not was released in early April that featured an extended scene as well as more full character introductions as well as a better explanation of what the plot was going to be. This was the same collection of footage that was shown at WonderCon shortly before being released to the general public.

Online

While the official website loads you can take target practice on the title treatment with a set of crosshairs you can position and fire with your mouse, which is mildly fun. it’s a good thing there’s something to do since it takes the site a while to load.

The first section is “The Losers,” which features brief descriptions of each character and some comments on that character from the actor that plays him or her. You can rotate through the group and pull up each one. There are also Icons, Wallpapers and Video that are specific to each character, which is an arrangement I always like for these sorts of ensemble movies.

“About” contains a decent Story synopsis that should educate the unfamiliar along with Cast and Filmmaker information and bios and some Production Notes you can download as a PDF.

There are probably about two dozen stills in the Photos section, but the navigation through them is unique and engaging, even if, like most sites, you can’t download them.

“Videos” has the Trailer, two video clips and the sizzle reel that was released, labeled here as “Featurette.” Considering the amount of TV advertising done it’s disappointing to see those spots aren’t archived here as well, though.

All the Chat Icons and Wallpapers are collected under “Downloads” and “Sweepstakes” points you to all the sites that have run sweepstakes for the movie.

Finally there’s a “Shooter Game” you can play by shooting the targets that show up in front of you and a “Photo App” which lets you upload the photos of you and five of your friends and place them in the poster art. The word “app” here is thrown around to make it seem cooler than it is, but that’s alright.

The movie’s Facebook Fan Page has a Wall full of updates on the cast’s activities and the release of new marketing material, as well as the usual selection of photos, videos and more.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

There were a surprisingly high number of TV spots created for the movie, most of which were simply cut-down versions of the trailer. Some, though, featured a bit of new footage and a couple were structured more as character introductions than plot synopses. There was some consistency between many of the spots, including the shot of Saldana firing a rocket launcher and the “She is volatile” line that probably doesn’t come after that in the movie but which has been used in the campaign to date.

Media and Publicity

The movie certainly wasn’t going under everyone’s radar but at the same time there wasn’t a whole lot of publicity around it either. Most everyone knew about it, there just wasn’t much chatter in the press. The big hit of buzz came with the cast’s appearance at WonderCon 2010, just a month or so before release

There were also several extended clips released from the movie that were designed to show off some of the action set pieces.

It’s not that there wasn’t activity out there for the movie – there was. It just wasn’t resonating. That’s probably not that important in this case since the movie seems designed to hold everyone over

Overall

What’s odd – and interesting and kind of cool – about this campaign is that if you look at the visual elements this marketing push actually does more to embrace the movie’s comic roots than a lot of other more obvious comic adaptations. Yeah, a lot of movies have teasers that mimic some of the comic’s cover art, but if you look at the website and the posters you’ll see a consistent use of comic-like panels, all featuring thick lines around those panels. I’m not sure what to make of that since this is probably going to resonate only with a small group of the overall comics fans market and the mass audience likely isn’t going to make the connection.

The campaign obviously is relying on the charm of the actors, from Morgan to Saldana to Evans, and I’m guessing the movie follows in that vein. It’s got a lot of good stuff in the marketing, mostly a sense of loose fun amongst the actors and the characters they play that’s missing from most of the action movies of the last decade or so. By embracing and emphasizing that the studio is obviously positioning it as a good choice for people looking to tide themselves over until Iron Man 2 hits in a couple weeks after spending the last few months on 3D family fare such as Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon.