Movie Marketing Madness: Blue Valentine

Relationships take a lot of work. When you first meet someone you find attractive it’s all pheromones and the rush of the unknown and new as your heart beats a little faster, your palms get a little sweaty and your nerves keep you on your toes and ready to jump at the slightest chance to make things *just perfect* for the person you’re wooing. You want them to choose you as the one they’re going to be with because right there at the outset all you see is happiness ahead. Things settle down, though, and quirks become less charming and small irritants take on massive lives of their own. But if you truly love that person you work through them and don’t give up because that’s the person you’re supposed to be with.

The story of how a relationship falls apart is the one in the new movie Blue Valentine. A couple (played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) have their love falling down around their ears. So they take one night to try and put their marriage back together, taking a break from their young daughter and the other responsibilities of their lives and making an attempt to get back to what brought them together in the first place.

The Posters

The poster for the film opts to display in stark imagery the emotions on display in the movie. Sitting on the sidewalk against a building wall Gosling and Williams are in heavy public affection mode, a sense of urgency evident behind their passion and a city bridge in the background. The whole image is given a blue veneer that matches the title of the film and the title treatment and much of the other copy looks as if it is written in chalk, meant presumably to convey a homemade feel. At the top is a pull quote from an early, festival-based review of the movie that makes the case for the two leads to be serious Oscar contenders.

It’s a pretty good poster but while the image of the two embracing on the street could be seen as conveying the fact that they’re just so deeply in love they can’t help themselves it unfortunately also comes off as selling the movie as the story of two homeless people who fall in love. That might be nit-picking on my part, but it’s a feeling I can’t shake and one that doesn’t jive with the rest of the campaign so it comes across as somewhat odd.

The Trailers

The movie’s trailer focuses on how Gosling’s and Williams’ characters seemingly begin their relationship. We see a cute scene of them singing and dancing but after that starts – but with the music still playing – the scenes shift to a collection of more serious and depressing moments, though still with some happiness mixed in. While it doesn’t give the audience a ton of background it is easily understood that we’re going to be watching a relationship at various stages of its life-cycle, as the couple has their ups and their downs. It’s charming and nice, but it sells the movie as a straight romantic drama, which may not be completely accurate based on other word of mouth.

Online

The movie’s official website opens by putting a recreation of the poster’s key art alongside the trailer, which starts playing as soon as the site loads.

The first section of content is “About” which just has a brief synopsis of the movie’s story, though it’s better and more informative as to the plot than what’s seen on other sites.

The “Cast” and “Filmmakers” sections have career histories of those involved in the making of the movie.

“Media” has the movie’s trailer as well as a handful of extended clips from the film.

There’s also a (now-outdated) link on the site asking people to Join the Blue Valentine MPAA Ratings Appeal, a movement that will be explained more below.

The film’s Facebook page make takes the unusual approach to opening with the photo albums, which include plenty of stills from the its appearance at Sundance 2010. There are also videos and updates on publicity and marketing activities, many of which are replicated on the Twitter feed.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

No advertising that I’m aware of. Given the movie’s ratings struggles it’s highly likely there wasn’t a bunch of time to put together an advertising push and with a small movie like this that doesn’t fit into any easy buckets there wasn’t likely to be a huge campaign to begin with.

Media and Publicity

The movie first started buzzing as people saw its premiere screening at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, where it was pegged as one of the biggest surprises and strongest dramas (Los Angeles Times, 12/25/10) to come out of what was otherwise not a very exciting dramatic lineup there. Williams and Gosling were both there and did plenty of interviews in support of their feature, which was picked up by TWC before the festival even closed its doors, something that cemented its position as a Sundance stand-out.

Unfortunately the next major round of publicity for the movie came when it was announced the MPAA had slapped it with an NC-17 rating, something many who had seen the film at either its Cannes or Sundance appearances, debuts where it picked up a good amount of buzz, were surprised at since there wasn’t anything they felt to be overly objectionable about the content.

That ruling was a mixed blessing in that while it may have severely curtailed distribution plans that were already in the works it did bring the movie a ton of buzz as the decision was dissected and commented on. Of course The Weinstein Co. promised to appeal (Hollywood Reporter, 10/14/10) the decision and brought in a team of high-profile lawyers (Los Angeles Times, 11/18/10) to plead that case to the ratings board, though the fuss around doing so was partly to keep people talking about the film since, whatever the rating wound up being, the film was reliant on word-of-mouth to make any sort of box-office impact.

The arbitrary nature of the rating was further called into question as it was pointed out (Los Angeles Times, 12/4/10) that the recent Black Swan featured an almost identical sexual act being performed, the difference being that in the other movie it was two girls in bed as opposed to Blue Valentine’s man/woman pairing. If anything that seems less controversial than showing a brief Sapphic affair, making the decision even more nonsensical.

Eventually the affair ended with the announcement that that, upon appeal, the MPAA had redesignated the film with an R-rating (LAT, 12/8/10), likely due to the pressure applied and the other examples given.

Overall

It’s obviously not huge, but it’s a good campaign for a movie that has a lot of people talking for good or for bad. The marketing itself makes the smart decision, especially in light of the praise that came from its Sundance screenings, to put the performances by Gosling and Williams at the forefront of the campaign and make those performances the center-point of the push. That’s done at the expense of laying out the story in a clear way but that’s alright since the audience that’s going to be interested here is more likely to latch on to those performances and seek them out.

It’s undeniable that the ratings kerfluffle may be what makes or breaks this movie’s fortunes, though. While people were interested in how it had premiered and brought that back up with the release of marketing materials like the trailer, the controversy over the rating is what brought the film back to the top of most people’s minds. How much of that was manufactured by the Weinsteins for exactly that reason is up for debate but doesn’t really matter since all that conversation has worked to remind people of the movie and that’s what counts.

Movie Marketing Madness: Biutiful

The question of what we would do with our lives if we knew our time on Earth was short is one many people struggle with, particularly after we lose someone close to us or have some other sort of traumatic event. It’s been the subject of many a movie but most of those answer the question very extravagantly in the style of The Bucket List or other movies that have people climbing mountains, jumping out of planes and otherwise going crazy. Any sort of reconciliation with loved ones is sort of in the background.

The new movie Biutiful, though, takes a much smaller approach. Javier Bardem stars as Uxbal, a man who lives with his wife and children in the slums of Barcelona, eking out a meager living through largely illegal activities. While he’s always done whatever he needs to for his family, what he wants most when he finds out he’s dying is for them to know he was a good man. So he engages on a journey of redemption that allows him to learn something new about himself at the same time he seeks to set things right with those around him.

The Posters

The poster’s design has decided that the best way to sell the movie is to simply put Bardem front and center, which as a strategy is hard to argue with and is more or less in line with what we’ll see in the trailer. So it’s just his face looking of into the distance, Barcelona behind him, with the director’s and his name between that image and the title. It’s a bit raw looking, which with the expression on Bardem’s face combines to make the emotions he’s feeling felt also by the audience.

The Trailers

There’s not much story in the trailer but that doesn’t make it any less powerful. What it primarily shows is the world that these characters live in, a world of high levels of passion with lots of dancing with abandon, incredibly raw emotions and lots of love, all set in a world of near poverty, where those emotions and that passion are all that there is to hang on to.

What little of the story is laid out winds up being plenty, a testament to the fact that many trailers show just too damn much. We see in one of the jump cuts an image of Uxbal’s brain, which leads us to believe he has brain cancer or something along those lines. And in the one bit of dialogue that’s shown a woman asks him if he’s ready to leave, to which he replies that he’s not going to die.

It’s an incredibly moving trailer that really sells the fact that Bardem’s performance here is the focal point of the movie and that he absolutely kills it.

Online

The movie’s official website opens with an invitation to once again watch the movie’s trailer, which is very much worth done.

The first section on the site is “About” and is where there’s a good Synopsis that presents the film as a character study of a troubled man. The Production Notes that are there are also excellent, with brief bits of insight from director Alejandro González Iñárritu on the film as a whole and Bardem on his character Uxbel as well as Cast and Filmmaker backgrounds and bios.

“Videos” has the Trailer and three extended clips from the movie that run about 30 seconds each and which show various sides of Uxbel’s character. There are eight stills from the movie in the “Photos” section.

There’s a really good Blog on the site as well that brings in and links to some of the positive publicity and early reviews the film has gotten. There are a couple technical things I could quibble with but won’t since this is well put together from a content perspective and I wish I’d known about it sooner.

Many of those links are included in the updates on the movie’s Facebook page in addition the usual photos and videos. There’s also a place for visitors to write a note, presumably about the movie or their experiences that parallel those faced by Uxbel. They’re all in Spanish so I can’t really tell, but I like the idea of giving people a place to share.

Advertising and Cross Promotions

Nothing that I’ve seen or come across stories about. This is a small movie with a limited budget and tough subject matter so it’s not like I was expecting a massive push here.

Media and Publicity

Most of the press for the movie has been praises for Bardem’s performance that’s come from early reviews. There’s been some movement in the last couple weeks for him to get an Oscar or some other form of nomination since it’s consistently been called out as one of the most moving and deep of the year.

Overall

This certainly isn’t a “feel good” campaign by any stretch of the imagination. The marketing here sells what appears on all counts to be a depressing and heart-wrenching movie. It’s also – and largely because of that previous point – not a mainstream campaign. The marketing sells a challenging film that’s going to not only present a world that’s unlike anything the audience is likely familiar with but also one that’s going to push them outside their emotional comfort zones.

The biggest thing the campaign does right is put Bardem front and center. Not only does his performance here appear to be a tour de force but he’s modestly known here in the states. So featuring him makes a ton of sense.

The other thing it does right is convey the tone and overall feel of the movie, which appears to be minimalistic in its affectations yet with harsh tones and big emotions being presented and conveyed through that approach. It’s a striking campaign for a movie that’s high on my list of movies to see.

Movie Marketing Madness: True Grit

20 or so years ago with Unforgiven Clint Eastwood reinvented the Western. The film was his attempt to introduce gritty, violent realism into the genre that he had made much of his reputation in with films such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly that weren’t exactly sanitized but which presented more idealistic and entertaining versions of the old west. He was taking aim not only at his own filmography but the entire history of the genre, including the films of film icon John Wayne, who was synonymous with westerns throughout his career.

One of Wayne’s most notable roles, the only one to earn him an Academy Award, was as Marshall Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. Now, over 40 years since that film’s release, a new version of True Grit is hitting theaters.

This one, not a remake of the Wayne movie but a more literal adaptation of the original novel, comes via the Coen Brothers and stars frequent Coen collaborator Jeff Bridges in the role of Cogburn. The story follows a young girl named Mattie Ross (Hallee Steinfeld), who is seeking vengeance for the murder of her father by a man named Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Looking to bring him to justice, Ross enlists Cogburn to hunt Chaney down and bring him in. As they follow Chaney’s trail they come across a Texas Ranger named simply LaBeouf (Matt Damon) who gets involved in the hunt himself.

The Posters

The movie’s first poster is, well, kind of awesome. Designed to look like the kind of announcement sheet you’d see on a saloon door, it has almost nothing but the actor’s names as well as those of the Coens and the title of the movie. About the only other thing here is the copy “Retribution” at the bottom, something that also appears in the first trailer, and “Punishment comes one way or another” at the top.

Such a simply and stylized one-sheet really sells the movie to the audience that matters and how different it is makes it likely to at the very least get people’s attention as they’re walking down the theater hallway. It’s fantastic.

Four very cool character one-sheets were released later on, each featuring one of the main characters from the film, each one standing in front of a plain wooden wall. Each one also continues to use “Punishment” and “Retribution” on them and feature the same font that was used on the first poster, giving them a consistent look.

A later theatrical one-sheet took the images from all those character posters and put them together, with the whole cast looking out at us, Bridges and Damon more or less in the foreground and Stasfield and Brolin toward the back. The poster makes a point of selling the fact that this comes from the Coens as a major point of attraction for the audience to latch on to and also continues the highlighting of the fact that “retribution” and “punishment” are coming at you.

The Trailers

The first trailer certainly gave the audience a sense of the story and tone.

It opens by showing young Mattie setting out after the murder of her father to find someone that can help her avenge that murder. She enlists Cogburn, who winds up accompanying her on her journey of vengeance.

That’s about all the story, though. The rest of the spot is filled with gunfights and horse riding, with brief glimpses of Damon and Brolin, though there’s no clear identification of who their characters are. What there’s plenty of, though, is a clear sense of violence. We see men dropping from the gallows, people swinging axes, someone being tossed down a well and more grizzly acts.

Overall it’s an effective introduction to the movie, especially to anyone who’s already a fan of the Coens and their propensity toward stories of people being really horrible to each other.

A longer version of the trailer was reported to be playing in theaters at the same time that first version was released online.

That full-length trailer will, quite frankly, knock your socks off.

First we meet Cogburn, who is testifying as to the extent of his body count, which is apparently sizable. We then see Mattie enlist him for her quest for vengeance and along the way we also meet the Texas marshall played by Damon, who is on the same trail as Cogburn.

This trailer shows that a good amount of the drama comes when Mattie is kidnapped by the same man they’re all hunting, leading to Cogburn and the marshall putting the wrath of God down on them.

This trailer shows a lot more of the movie’s attitude and spirit, though, and so works a lot better (which is saying something considering how good the teaser was) in conveying the whole story, including giving us more background on Cogburn and Damon’s marshall.

Online

The movie’s official website is a simple, stripped down one. It opens with the same image that was used on the teaser poster and which has been used in other advertising before giving way to opening the “Video” section, the first on the site’s menu, and playing the first trailer. Also in that section you’ll find the second trailer as well as three TV Spots.

“Photography” has eight stills from the film and when you mouseover the full photo it gives you the option to download that image as a desktop wallpaper, which is a nice way to combine those two things.

“Reviews & Accolades” has a long list of publications that have already published reviews of the movie along with pull quotes from those reviews. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, there aren’t links to read the reviews in their entirety.

Most of the aspects of the film’s production are covered in the various sections of “Story,” including an overview of the characters and cast and information on the costumes and other production elements. There’s also a nice section on Portis, the novel’s author, that introduces us to the man behind the story.

Profiles of the talent involved can be found in the “Cast and Filmmakers” section.

The movie’s Facebook page is pretty simple, with updates on the movie’s marketing and promotional activity, a collection of the character posters (though none of the usual stills that are found on other pages), videos and a collection of quotes from early reviews of the film.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

A bit of TV advertising was done that played up the revenge nature of the story, mostly showing how the young girl enlists Bridges’ Marshall and the search for her father’s killer. There’s only a little bit of either Damon or Brolin, just enough to make everyone’s aware they’re in the movie and have a brief understanding of what their role there is. Most of the spots follow the same rough arc (though it’s obviously condensed) as the theatrical trailer and they work for many of the same reasons. There’s a little less character development about them, again because of the running time differences, but they work at selling the movie as an old-west revenge movie with some eccentric performances.

Outdoor advertising was done as well that I came across, including a huge ad that featured the same art as the first poster that was on display at O’Hare Airport when I was there a couple weeks prior to release.

Media and Publicity

Before filming even started there was a bit of publicity resulting from the announcement an open casting call would be held for the part of the daughter of the sheriff in the story, clearly an attempt to find an unknown who could come to the part with no audience baggage. Those interested in auditioning were directed to a website where they could get more information.

The fact that the studio was holding back the movie until late in the became news (The Hollywood Reporter, 10/7/10) as the fall kicked in to gear, though the fact that the finished product wasn’t locked in until mid-November makes that not all that surprising.

Steinfeld got profiled (NY Mag, 11/23/10) since she’s the big unknown in the movie and is being pegged as a breakout star from it. Other looks at the budding young actress followed as release got closer (LAT, 12/21/10) looking at how she handled herself on a set full of veteran actors and amidst such heavy material.

Of course since this was a new version of a movie originally starring John Wayne was a core focus of much of the press (New York Times, 12/4/10). It’s not a remake of that movie since, according to the Coens, they didn’t rewatch that movie but instead went straight back to the source book. But still the comparisons, particularly between Wayne’s and Bridges’ performances, were inevitable and even the cast and crew were compelled to comment on how their movie was based on the original book and not the movie repeatedly (Los Angeles Times, 12/12/10).

The author of that book, Charles Portis, was the subject of a story (NYT, 12/21/10) that looked not only at the two adaptations of his novel but also at his life as someone who’s not exactly yearning for the spotlight.

Overall

This is a fantastic campaign for the latest movie from the Coens that never gives in to the temptation, which would be easy when dealing with these filmmakers, to wink at the audience. While the movie may be slyly and darkly comic (that’s how the book is often described) the campaign here presents a more or less straightforward Western. If that comic tone has been carried over to the movie that’s not going to be a startling surprise for the audience since they’re less likely to be disappointed by a few unexpected laughs than when movies are sold as comedies but then turn out to be largely depressing.

The marketing is also just nicely consistent and interesting, with that “Retribution” theme being hit over and over again by all the campaign’s individual components. The same look and feel and brand assets are carried over from one area to the other and so audiences are going to immediately recognize it wherever and whenever they encounter a bit of the marketing. My feeling is that not only will this appeal to fans of the Coen Brothers but might even become a late year crossover mainstream hit.

Movie Marketing Madness: Somewhere

Conventional wisdom, at least in much of the “flyover country” that exists between New York and California, holds that there are few things in this world more vain and full of themselves than an actor, particularly a movie star. They are, in many cases, held up as the perfect example of someone who’s so entitled and out of touch with the problems of common folk when a straw man or imagined foil is needed in order to make some sort of point. While not at all fair and certainly not always the case, many don’t help change this with their tabloid exploits and lifestyles that seem to be taken straight from some sort of a How To Be a Hedonist manual.

The story of one such pampered and out of touch actor is the core of Somewhere, the new movie from director Sofia Coppola. The movie tells the story of Johnny (Stephen Dorff), a movie star who lives out of the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel in Hollywood. His life of girls and drugs hits a speed-bump when his 11-year old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) appears at the hotel and is looking to reconnect with her father, a journey that forces Johnny to reevaluate what he’s doing with his life.

The Posters

The one-sheet for the movie looks very much like a book cover with the lush greenery in back of the title treatment, Coppola’s name and her credits below that very much in the way an author’s name would appear. Can’t get this idea out of my head.

Aside from that, the poster does a decent job of setting the location – an upscale lavish hotel – but doesn’t do that great a job of introducing the characters. The woman to the left of Dorff could be his girlfriend for all we know and not his 11-year old daughter, which it actually is.

But it is a gorgeous poster, so it has that going for it.

The Trailers

It’s all about setting a mood with this trailer.

We are shown Dorff’s character, a movie star whose current life we’re introduced to with shots of him posing for a promotional picture, sitting beneath a plaster mold and enjoying the hedonistic pleasures of women that come with the fame he apparently has achieved. But then the first bit of dialogue comes when a young girl, Fanning, says, “Hi Dad.” The only other words spoken are by Dorff on the phone when he asks the girl’s mother when she’s coming back to reclaim their daughter.

Much of the second half of the trailer shows Dorff’s character trying to be a good father, taking his daughter to award shows, playing Rock Band and otherwise bonding. So it’s clear the journey here is Dorff’s, who must learn how to balance the life he’s come to expect with the responsibilities of being a father.

The end of the trailer makes a point of promoting that the film’s music comes from currently hot band Phoenix as a way to continue establishing Coppola’s hipster filmmaking credentials.

Online

Somewhere’s official website starts off with a recreation of the poster key art at the top of the page, with prompts to watch the trailer or find a theater along with a rotating series of quotes from early reviews of the film.

Below that are lots of content areas but all of that is also found in the menu items which are more easily navigable so that’s where we’ll focus our attention.

“Story” has an overview of the movie’s plot and introduces us to both the characters and how they’re going to move through the story as well as, of course, mentioning all the producers and other folks involved in making the movie. Those folks, both the actors and the behind-the-scenes filmmakers, are given short profiles in the “Cast & Crew” section.

“Video” has the film’s Trailer, a Featurette and a handful of extended clips from the movie. Then there are about a dozen stills in “Photos,” most of which are taken from the film itself but also including a couple of Coppola behind the camera.

As is the case on most sites for movies from Focus Features, the “Featured” section has a great amount of editorial content that profiles the stars and director, covers the movie’s premieres and otherwise provides a lot more context and information about the movie and those who made it.

There’s a great round-up of the movie’s publicity and news coverage in the “News” section, which is basically a blog.

Finally, “Awards” highlights what accolades the movie has accumulated or at least been nominated for.

The Facebook page for the film has the usual stream of publicity and marketing centered updates as well as some video and photos.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

I don’t think there’s been anything TV-wise but there may have been some online advertising that I’ve seen.

Media and Publicity

The movie got a big press boost when it was announced as one of the official selections of the 2010 Venice Film Festival, giving the film a big international stage on which to debut its hip awareness. At about the same time it showed up at the Telluride Film Festival, an appearance that game the movie some positive word-of-mouth right out of the gate. But reactions were mixed, with an overview of Venice (New York Times, 9/9/10) saying the movie winds up being colder than some of Coppola’s past efforts. Even so it wound up taking the top prize at that festival, trumping some other high-profile films.

Closer to release there were stories such as this one (Los Angeles Times, 10/31/10) about how the film was shot at the hotel it’s based in and how that location was an essential story element, one the actors and crew wound up immersing themselves in. The hotel was the subject of other stories (NYT, 12/5/10) as well throughout the ramping of the film’s press coverage.

Then there were overviews of Coppola’s directorial career to date (NYT, 12/12/10) and this latest movie’s place in what can now, with her fourth film, be called a body of work. That piece takes a very generous view of her filmography, presenting the points of views of both her champions and critics who either latch on to what she’s trying to say or dismiss it for (to me) the wrong reasons. Coppola also was interviewed (LAT, 12/20/10) on how the movie wasn’t autobiographical but was about how she’s seen dynamics play out in Hollywood families

Elle Fanning was also given her own profile (NYT, 12/12/10) at the same time that focuses on how the actress has grown out of her older sister’s shadow and become a talented actor in her own right.

Overall

I like this campaign, but I’m a fan of Coppola’s previous films and so am predisposed to be interested in this new one. Let’s be honest, though, and point out that the marketing has almost zero mainstream appeal to it. As I mentioned at the outset, the pervading mindset that young movie stars are a bunch of self-indulgent hedonists isn’t going to help sell a movie that more or less confirms that, even if it does include some touching father/daughter moments. The only way much of middle America would see this movie is if the campaign promised the main character would get some sort of comeuppance as the result of his lifestyle and behavior.

But for fans of either Coppola’s movies or those inclined to seek out movies that have become film festival darlings there’s a lot here to like. Everything is stylish, immaculately lit and promises the audience that does come to see it a movie that presents an interesting character study of the people in a world not many of us have access to. It is very much an example of Coppola following that oldest of writer’s mantras and writing what she knows. So this campaign will work on bringing out those who are interested in seeing her tell that story regardless of any other preconceived stereotypes.

Wood

Very excited to hear that Kerry Wood is coming back to the Cubs. Here’s hoping this one-year deal turns into something long-term. Like Mark Grace and a couple others, Wood was one of a new generation of Cubs that I thought and hoped would make Wrigley their home for their entire career. Looking forward to seeing him back in the blue pinstripes.

Movie Marketing Madness: Rabbit Hole

I can’t fully imagine the emotional impact losing a child would have on my family and I. It’s the ultimate form of loss and goes against the way God has intended for the world to operate. I can speculate, I can steel myself, I can map out in my mind the things that would have to be done and absorb the lessons of others but all that only goes so far. There’s a whole world of grieving that lies beyond what one can rationally prepare for and the reality of that situation and part of that rational preparedness means understanding that gulf exists.

How a couple deals with their own and each other’s grief is the story of Rabbit Hole. Married couple Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) lose their young son in an accident and have to find ways to go on both as individuals and as a couple. They each find ways of dealing with the pain they’re feeling in secretive and not-so-great ways but ultimately keep coming back to each other to try and find their footing in this new reality.

The Posters

The movie’s first poster makes it clear that there’s something missing in the character’s lives. An empty tire swing hangs in front of a cloudy, empty sky, the tire itself forming the “O” in the movie’s title with the copy “Love will get you through” within the tire itself. That title is transparent and shows Kidman looking off into the distance very seriously.

It’s a simple but more or less effective poster that not only shows, as I said above, that something is missing but it’s also pretty easy to infer even if you know nothing else about the movie that it’s a child. My guess is that the decision was made to appeal very specifically to a female audience, which is why Eckhart isn’t on the poster and instead it looks like Kidman is going it alone. But that’s betrayed by the copy, which sells the idea that she gets through her loss with the help of a loving husband, or at least that’s what can be assumed. To me it works in its simplicity but when you break down the individual components it becomes rather jumbled in its meanings and appeals.

The second poster put the actors on display in a variation on one of the first publicity stills that were released form the movie. Designed as kind of a flip book of sorts the central image has Kidman seeming to be in…what…the throes of passion with her eyes closed and lips parted. To the left the splintered images of her show a woman deep in grief, though, while on the right hand side we see her being held by Eckhart who in his own image slices is going through his own range of emotions.

It’s a very effective poster that shows off, much as the trailer does, the performances of the two main actors. That’s something that is particularly rare when it comes to poster art. The imagery is helped, for a change, by the copy “The only way out is through,” which hints at the fact that the emotional journey these characters are going on is not an easy one.

The Trailers

The trailer starts out in a parent’s support group, where people are sharing the stories and feelings around the loss of their children. We then see plenty of shots of Kidman and Eckhart dealing with their own anger and frustration about the death of their own boy and going through the motions, including fighting with each other. But the trailer also shows some happy times that the couple has, so it’s apparent the relationship isn’t a lost cause completely.

If you’ve ever had to deal with even the possibility of losing a child the trailer will likely hit square in the teeth. The emotions the characters go through seem all too plausible and realistic and it’s clear the performances by both leads are meant to be on edge and not sugar-coated.

Online

The official website opens by playing the trailer both before and after you “Enter the Site.”

Once you do go ahead and enter the full site the first section that’s available is “Story,” which gives the reader quite a few more plot points than have been shown in the trailer and clears up some of what’s seen there as well.

“Videos” has the trailer as well as as a TV spot that emphasizes Kidman’s performance as well as the movie’s already accumulated awards nominations. “Photos” has nine stills, including one behind the scenes shot.

There are good write-ups of the films cast and crew under “Cast & Crew,” giving us their acting or production backgrounds.

Finally “Gallery” has the movie’s two posters that are available for downloading.

The movie’s Facebook page opens with a message from The Compassionate Friends network, a group that helps parents deal with the grief of losing a child, which is a great way to lead off that part of the online effort. Aside from that there’s the usual mix of updates on promotional activities, photos and videos. The Lionsgate Twitter feed that’s promoted on the official site contains nothing about Rabbit Hole, unfortunately and is instead all about the studio’s other recent release For Colored Girls.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

A couple of TV spots were produced that focused primarily both Kidman’s performance and the film’s already-accomplished awards nominations. There are two 30-second spots on the Lionsgate YouTube channel, one that mentions the Spirit Awards nominations and one that has already been put together touting the Golden Globes nods it received just earlier this week.

There may have been some online advertising done but I haven’t seen it. I’m assuming it’s happening since movies like this usually have some form of online ads that run, particularly on sites that cater to independent film audiences.

Media and Publicity

The first bit of publicity for the movie came in the form of a pretty sizable story in The New York Times (8/30/09) about the production of the film and how Kidman turned it into a passion project after initially hearing about the play it’s an adaptation in. That passion extended to personally selecting co-stars and behind-the-scenes, choices she was free to make since she’s also a producer on the movie.

Almost a year later buzz around the movie had been pretty silent. Until, that is, the news it would be appearing at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

That appearance prompted a number of press stories, mostly interviews with Kidman and Eckhart about how they approached material needing such raw emotions (Los Angeles Times, 9/16/10) and how Kidman, as the driving force behind it, got the movie made (New York Times, 9/15/10) and dealt with the issues that came up during production.

The festival appearance achieved its primary goal as Lionsgate walked out with a distribution deal for the movie.

Even after that much of the press coverage of the film focused on the behind-the-scenes story, with Kidman and Mitchell talking (NYT, 12/12/10) about how they met,  the challenges they encountered in making the movie on such a limited budget and more.

Overall

This is a great campaign for a movie that deals with very touchy emotional subject matter. The posters actually form a nice pair, with the first dealing with the child that’s missing from the scene and then the second focusing on the relationship between the husband and wife. And the trailer and TV spots work well to put the spotlight on the grieving going on by Kidman’s character.

What’s really in this campaign’s favor is the word-of-mouth that movie’s festival appearances has spurred and advanced. Without that there would simply be no one talking about the movie and many of those who have seen it have become very vocal advocates for it, recommending it on their year-end lists and encouraging people to see it now that it’s finally hitting theaters. That’s the secret sauce that turns this campaign from really to very good.

Blame game

I find it absolutely ridiculous that the management of Chicago’s Navy Pier is “blaming” Groupon for cutting into its revenue for the Winter Wonderfest attraction. Navy Pier had used the service to sell half-price tickets.

Look, Groupon isn’t hard to figure out: Retailers trade per-unit revenue in the hopes that the sheer volume of purchases at least partly makes up for that. I’m honestly confused why those at Navy Pier – or anywhere else – aren’t aware of this simple math. If you sell an $18 ticket at half price and understand that Groupon is then going to take half of that, leaving you with $4.50 instead of the full price, you can’t really blame anything but your own stupidity or naivete.

“Blame” makes it sound like Groupon pulled something over on their partners. You tried something, it didn’t work out like you thought it would. Don’t do it again. But don’t act like the partner you signed on with of your own free will acted in bad faith or anything like that.

Movie Marketing Madness: TRON Legacy

The world of computer gaming has changed more than a little over the last 20 or 25 years. Even just 15 years ago when I was in college you could go to a local mall and find an honest to goodness arcade, a dankly lit area with dozens of video game machines that were just sitting there begging not only for your quarters but also an hour or more of your time. Their allure was particularly strong on those with either no social lives of their own or who were desperately trying to get somewhere on time but figured five minutes wouldn’t hurt but who soon looked at their watch to find they’d lost 45 minutes playing Street Fighter.

It’s possible I have some experience both both of these scenarios.

More than that the state of computing has changed significantly in that time. 30 years ago personal computing was really just getting started. At some point in my childhood someone down the street had an Apple IIE, my grade school had machines that we could play Oregon Trail on and eventually my parents got us a Tandy home computer. Serious programming, though, wasn’t being done on these machines because they still weren’t powerful enough. Instead that was relegated to the huge mainframes at companies with dozens of workers at dummy terminals, all of whom were vying for limited system resources to see if their work would bear fruit.

Much of the change in all of this has been documented on film. Go watch The Princess Bride and check out the game Fred Savage is playing at the movie’s opening. Then put in Mallrats and see the game that has Jason Lee so enraptured he gives up nookie with his girlfriend. Watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and check out the pre-Windows environment Matthew Broderick uses to hack in to the school’s computer to change the number of days he’s been absent. There are countless examples like this where the tech that’s caught on camera now seems something even more than antiquated.

No movie is more a snapshot of a technological moment on multiple levels than 1982′s TRON. Not only does it feature an incredibly cool video game arcade…not only does it take place at a technology firm and feature a great shot of those dummy terminals in a sea of soul-crushing cubicles…but it also completes the trifecta by featuring some of the first, and certainly the most extensive use of, computer graphics used in furtherance of the movie’s story.

The movie follows Flynn (Jeff Bridges) as he tries to uncover evidence that his old corporate rival stole the ideas for a handful of now successful videogames. He enlists the help of Alan (Bruce Boxleitner) and his former girlfriend Lora (Cindy Morgan) but is captured by the increasingly intelligent Master Control Program and transported to the Game Grid, sucked inside the computer world where he has to act as a champion for all the oppressed programs, which has the side effect of getting him not only his old job back but a new position as the head of Encom.

While beloved by its fans over the last 28 years, the movie was not a huge success. Some of us, though, have kept the TRON flame alive and continued to champion it as not only being incredibly innovative but also a lot of fun.

Fast forward to 2010. The iPhone many of us carry around in our pockets is more powerful than that Tandy I had all those years ago. Gaming doesn’t happen in arcades but online, either in massively immersive worlds like Call of Duty or on social networks where people have setup and tend virtual farms.

Into this new world comes, unexpectedly, another visit to the world of Encom and Kevin Flynn. TRON: Legacy takes place years after the unexpected disappearance of Flynn (Bridges). His now grown son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) has long given up hope of his father resurfacing but then one day Alan (Boxleitner) comes and drops a clue in his lap. That clue leads Sam onto the Game Grid himself in a search for his father. While he does indeed find him there we see things have changed. Flynn is now a sort of monk in the virtual world, seeking to defend things from an updated – and now malevolent – version of the Clu program he created almost 30 years ago to find those incriminating files. Helping Sam find his way in-world is Quorra (Olivia Wilde), who guides Sam through the rules of the games and fills him in on what his father has been doing while he’s been absent from the real world.

Marketing a sequel that’s not only 28 years after the original but also the follow-up to a movie that wasn’t a box-office success (despite it’s subsequent cult status) can’t be an easy task for Disney but they’ve put on a full-court press. Let’s take a look at how this one’s being marketed in a world of technology that wouldn’t have been imaginable 30 years ago.

The Posters
The first teaser poster is pretty simple. The film’s title treatment appears up top while three light-cycles, a blue one in the middle with yellow ones flanking it on either side, speed forward at the bottom. It’s simple but elegant visually while the copy at the top makes it clear that, as it says, “The game has changed.”

A second teaser gave us a clearer look at the upgraded lightcycles from the movie, this time from the side so we can see more of the machine. This was in line, in terms of look and feel, with the series of banners and ads that were produced more than anything, but in terms of sheer poster design it accomplishes what it needs to by presenting a look at the upgraded versions of something that’s become iconic from the first movie.

The theatrical poster was much more encompassing than the teasers and very cool. In the background are new versions of some classic things such as the sail ship that glides on a beam of light and a regulator about to bring the smackdown on some rogue program. There are also cityscapes off in the distance, including one with an I/O tower that communicates with the outside world, just like we saw in the first movie.

In the foreground are Hedlund and Wilde, him with his arms outstretched and reaching for or releasing an information disk in a very close recreation of the pose the main figures were in on the poster for the first movie. For some reason they’re kind of blurred out, which I guess is supposed to make it seem more digital but which at first had me thinking my computer screen was screwed up. That aside, the evoking of the original’s marketing and everything else that’s dropped in to the design sells the movie very clearly as the next entry in the franchise and as a TRON for a new generation.

A later series of posters took the theatrical one-sheet and put it in the middle between images of Clu 2.0 standing in front of an army of Regulators and very cool jets on one side and an aged Flynn on the other, clearly pitting the two incarnations against each other.

The Trailers

In the summer of 2008, no one had any idea that a sequel to Tron was seriously in development. There were rumors that popped up about twice a year, but most of those resulted in the conclusion that Disney was just none too hot on the idea of revisiting the idea.

All that changed, though, at that year’s San Diego Comic-Con. During a general Disney movie panel at the event a teaser for something else ended, but the room remained dark. When the screen came back up the audience was shocked and surprised to be presented with what appeared to be new and improved lightcycle sequence, with the riders moving around each other in new, more fluid ways. Interspersed in this footage were scenes of Jeff Bridges, still sporting his Obadiah Stane beard from Iron Man, walking around a high-class penthouse or some other such dwelling. At the end, the title “TR2N” was displayed on-screen, though by that time the assembled geeks had pretty much passed out from over-stimulation.

And I’m only slightly exaggerating here. To say it was enormously well-received would be a drastic understatement, with full-length features praising it being written about what was a three-minute or so clip.

The footage was reportedly assembled by Joseph Kosinski, who was rumored to be the director of choice on the project, as sort of a proof-of-concept reel to convince Disney execs that the movie could be done.

Then came news a first trailer would appear one year later at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con.

That didn’t quite come to pass, as what got released was basically a cleaned-up version of the footage that was shown off in 2008, but officially. Indeed it was even still labeled there as being “VFX Concept Test” footage. Even so, the scene does a great job of showing off a modernized take on the Tron world and hints at a much darker story that the audience can expect, what with the program version of Flynn seemingly killing someone in cold blood and intoning that it’s no longer just a game while the human version of Flynn, now living within the computer world, looks on unemotionally.

The first full theatrical trailer, released new two years after the first rumblings, provided audiences with a bit of backstory and setup as to what we can expect from this new installment.

It starts out with Bruce Boxleitner talking with Sam Flynn, the son of Jeff Bridges’ character, about an odd call he received from Flynn’s Arcade, a number that’s been disconnected for 20 years. Sam, needing to see what’s going on, then speeds down there on his motorcycle (presaging the skills he’ll need in-world) and enters the moth-balled establishment, not all that different from how we left it at the end of the original. When the lens rises behind Sam we know what’s going to happen and indeed he is soon transported to the virtual world, where we see him driving tanks, participating in games and, at the end, riding that light-cycle like we knew he would. We also get glimpses of a bunch of other characters, most of whom seem to be up to no good, except for Olivia Wilde who is this movie’s Cindy Morgan in her tight-fitting costume and knee-high boots luxuriating on a couch.

This initial spot is a pretty effective one, planting enough of the old clues there to have fans of the original getting excited about a return to this world while also showing a younger audience that it’s not going to be all about rolling out the old actors and engaging in nothing but nostalgia. It’s slick, it moves at a nice clip and gets the point across that we’re taking a new adventure in an old world.

In conjunction with the movie’s appearance at 2010′s Comic-Con a second full trailer was released that expanded our look at the movie’s story even more. It starts off with Flynn talking to a pre-teen Sam about some incredible story before jumping to the present day and a now-grown Sam hearing about the mysterious page sent from his dad’s old office. Before long Sam is in the computer world and fighting for his life. But before that he’s brought before Clu, the program his father created and which bears his father’s face.

While this trailer has lots of great action sequences and visuals, the added elements here all come from the setup of some sort of conflict between Clu and Flynn, who now lives in the computer world exclusively as some sort of monk or something. That’s a very cool element to tease and one that looks like it will certainly make the film all that much more exciting.

The third and final trailer expanded on that conflict even more. It starts out in the past once again, with Sam seeing his father for the last time before jumping to the older Sam getting the news of the weird page and investigating the moth-balled arcade. We then see him entering the world of the grid and eventually being reunited with his father, who explains that things are not going well in this virtual world. After some setup we see Clu 2.0 calling Kevin Flynn out and eventually all the good guys going to war with the bad guys.

This trailer sells it as much more of an action movie in and of itself and not just a trip down nostalgia lane. It more clearly shows the highpoints of the entire story arc, from the issues of abandonment that Sam feels to his relief at finding his father alive to the conflict that he now finds himself thrust into the middle of. It certainly feels like the most fully-rounded and, I think, have the biggest impact in terms of reaching a general audience that isn’t simply looking for a return to a beloved favorite film from someone’s childhood.

Online

The official website opens by playing the third and final trailer. Once it’s closed you’ll see a box prompting you to buy tickets as well as a rotating image of pull quotes from reviews of the movie.

As the site loads you get a series of messages about high security clearance being needed and there being an identity disc required and all that before the “matter transformation sequence fully puts you on the game grid.

After that happens the first section listed in the site’s main content menu off to the left is “Ride the Light Cycle,” which lets you explore different parts of the game grid on your vehicle. That’s tied to the next section, “Create Your Program, which guides you through the making of your own TRON character that matches your personality.

“Games” has not only a handful of online games you can play ranging from a Light Cycle game to a DJ activity to “Classic TRON” with games that evoke the consoles of yore in battles straight out of the first movie.

There are a ton of videos in, appropriately, “Videos” that range from the original FX Test footage and all the trailers to several featurette type videos hosted by either Wilde or Hedlund that introduce characters, talk about the world of TRON or give other information.

“TRON Movies” has a synopsis not only of the new movie but also of the 1982 original. The “Characters” section is similarly divided, giving us brief dossiers on the characters. “Cast” gives us filmographies and career histories of the major members of the cast.

The “World of TRON” section is broken up into a number of areas that focus on the Vehicles, Weapons, Locations, Lexicon, a Chronology that hits all the major milestones from and between both movies to give you a sense of what has happened when, including the Flynn Lives movement, and finally Story that lays out more of the reason why Flynn is stuck in the virtual world and what the dangers there are.

“Images” contains images ranging from the posters and promotional material to official stills to the Marvel Comics tie-in covers (more on that later).

There are a variety of printable materials in “Activities” that will allow you to make 3D Light Cycles, door hangers and more. “Downloads,” meanwhile, has all the Posters, some Wallpapers, Buddy Icons and Screensavers for you to download and show off.

There’s a stream of information updates in “News” but unfortunately no RSS feed to connect with or subscribe to for further updates.

There’s something for everyone in “Products,” where you can check out the vast array of licensed merchandise that’s been created ranging from action figures to high-end electronic equipment to women’s shoes and just about everything in-between. “Partners” has the names of some of the film’s promotional partner companies but there aren’t links or further explanations of what those cross-promotions entail.

Finally “Sweepstakes” has information on all the things you can win by participating and entering that sweepstakes, including trips to Disney theme parks and other prizes.

The movie’s Facebook page included the usual number of photos, videos and updates about the film but there was also a very cool feature called Get on the Grid. It’s basically a variation on the “upload your photo” concept but with a cool twist – it lets you upload your photo into the VFX test footage that acted as the initial teaser trailer and which first got people talking about the movie.

The website for the movie’s soundtrack wound up being a pretty significant part of the campaign as well, giving people a first listen and look to the contributions from Daft Punk

The movie was, as promised, on the list of movies Disney was bringing to Comic-Con 2009. Just prior to that appearance various webmasters began receiving a package with two tokens emblazoned with “Flynn’s Arcade” on them and a USB drive with a small picture on it. When various people put together the puzzle using those pictures it led them to find FlynnLives.com, a site devoted to tracking reports related to Kevin Flynn (Bridges’ character in the movies), who apparently disappeared in 1989 and has only been sighted a handful of times since then. All this lent credence to speculation that the new film’s plot would be devoted to the search for Flynn in some way shape or form. There was also HomeofTron.com, a site devoted to one fan’s collection of memories from the arcade.

A countdown clock on that site prompted Comic-Con 09 attendees to hit a certain location at a certain time, a countdown that ultimately lead them to Flynn’s Arcade, where there were plenty of video games to play and, eventually, a peak at the redesigned light-cycle from the new movie.

The “viral” (yes, I’m going to go swallow my own tongue after saying that) campaign revved back up in February when webmasters and movie blog writers started getting packages containing various versions of Bit, the digital sidekick of Flynn in the first movie. Some people got “neutral” incarnations, some “No” but all the packages directed the recipients to a Zero Hour site that had Bit counting down to some new event.

When that countdown finally reached its end-point what was revealed was a scavenger hunt in a number of cities that pointed people to specific locations in those cities where they were instructed to say the secret password, with a select few getting a Tron card and cell phone which, presumably, would be used to contact them later on in the game and some other goodies. Along with that a new picture was unveiled on the FlynnLives site which also now included forums where people could discuss their theories behind Flynn’s mysterious disappearance, more information on Encom (the company that figures massively into the story) and more. There was also information that resulted about an exclusive IMAX event posted to the site for The Pit Cell, the location that was shown in the revealed pit.

That IMAX did, as many suspected it would, debut a second teaser trailer, one that featured the first real movie footage and gave some glimpses as to the film’s story. That trailer would be attached a week later to Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. That second trailer was eventually released online (about a week later) but only after, once again, an online puzzle was solved by the audience. That resulted in a site being discovered where people could apply to become Encom employees, applications that then led to them getting employee badges that allowed them to access an intranet and more, with the clues leading to a major event at WonderCon in early April.

Operation Tron, as it was dubbed, wound up being an event that took the campaign into the real world. Set as a press conference by Encom’s Alan Bradley (Boxleitner, in person and in character) announcing a revamp of the company’s iconic Space Paranoids game, the event was then interrupted by Flynn Lives protesters and eventually Sam Flynn himself, who jumped on to the stage to lambast Encom for giving up on the search for his father. Some of the footage of Boxleitner from the event was then re-purposed as a trailer for Space Paranoids Online.

The game then took a turn and started to focus on Sam Flynn more, with various clues being dropped as to his whereabouts and what he was up to.

As that was happening the online playable Space Paranoids did indeed debut and, as someone who grew up with the original movie and dreamed of playing the game featured in it, it was awesome.

A later game popped up on a Japanese Encom site that, when completed, unlocked yet another page on the FlynnLives site.

A while passed that was filled in with more formal marketing materials before another game component was released that, when it was deciphered, revealed a website that promoted Tron Night 2010, which would be taking place on October 28th. That night would see select IMAX theaters across the country showing off 20 minutes of exclusive footage (New York Times, 10/11/10) from the movie in an attempt to get people excited about the rest of the movie.

The game continued with the launch of ArcadeAid.com, a site for a business that repaired the arcade games of yesteryear. A later game on that site unlocked even more secret sites, including FlynnFrontier, which has information about the three books Kevin Flynn authored before disappearing, and others which had more clues and downloadable media for people to view and unlock, all of which continued to build up the mythology.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Outdoor advertising was done as well, with the movie’s title and imagery appearing on outdoor billboards and even on the monorails run within Disney theme parks (a Voce client, btw), which were turned into light-cycles.

Indeed the outdoor portion of the campaign was pretty huge, as the studio used a 12-month long buyout of a Los Angeles area billboard to debut a number of new images from the movie throughout the time leading up to release. Later on that outdoor effort included some huge building-side ads that featured little but the movie’s title, which lit up at night.

More banners, this time vertically oriented, were later unveiled that featured the two primary characters.

There was also plenty of print advertising done, with Anne Thompson reporting that several days worth of wrap-around ads for the movie with the Los Angeles Times, something sure to be mostly a vanity move but also signaling the studio’s level of commitment to the movie.

TV advertising began to pick up in early November with spots that largely mimicked the trailers, showing the story of Sam Flynn as he seeks out his missing father when strange events begin occurring 20 years after he disappeared.

Disney also become the premiere user (Advertising Age, 12/14/10) of Apple’s new iAds for iPads with promotions for the movie showing up in applications on that tablet device.

Several months before the movie was released Disney also announced it was developing an animated TV show that would debut in late 2011 or early 20102, but further details were not made public initially.

There was also the news that Marvel Comics would be publishing a two-issue limited series that would act as a prequel to the movie’s story.

Disney worked with entertainment check-in service GetGlue to create stickers (ClickZ, 9/22/10) for Tron that rewarded certain behaviors – ranging from watching the trailer to watching the movie itself – with stickers on the network.

Tie-in products ranged from the common place to the outright surreal. On the one hand, a series of promotional covers from Marvel Comics that had some characters wearing TRON-like outfits made sense, especially in light of Disney now owning Marvel. But some ladies high-heel shoes were just odd.

A whole series of tie-in clothing and other merchandise was featured at a one-of-a-kind pop-up shop in Culver City, CA where apparel from Oakley and other partners was available, all of it very cool.

While Coors beer was featured in the movie that wasn’t part of any promotional deal, even if it did get a bit of press (New York Times 11/28/10) about how it was selected by the director based largely on the fact that he like the color of the cans.

Coca-Cola was a promotional partner and created a free mobile app titled “LiveCycle” that tapped into a phone’s GPS to turn you into a light-cycle and pitted you against others in your area who also had the app installed.

HP, a technology partner on the movie, also helped promote it by creating a huge outdoor production in conjunction with the studio to show off the cool work it had done.

Progressive Insurance’s participation seems to have primarily taken the form of sponsoring the “Sweepstakes” portion of the movie’s official site.

Nokia (another Voce client) worked with Disney to preload some Nokia N8 devices with movie trailers and made other material available through their Ovi Store. There was also a contest to win tickets to the movie’s premiere.

Norelco created (Promo Magazine, 12/14/10) a page on their site that featured movie games and offered people who both one of their SensoTouch 3D razors and a movie ticket a mail-in rebate.

Media and Publicity

Given the movie’s history at Comic-Con it was appropriate that it was there in 2009 that the movie got a real title: Tron Legacy, which sounds much better than the earlier versions. The official title was attached to the teaser footage screened during the movie’s panel session, footage that eventually went online as mentioned above.

Also on the convention-related front was a push for the movie at Disney’s D23 fan convention in September of 2009 that included some full-size light-cycles on display and more.

Right smack dab in the middle of the online ARG that was going on there came news that Disney had already tapped the movie’s writers to pen a follow-up film, signaling the studio’s belief that this movie would perform well enough to warrant a third in the series.

Disney brought the movie back to Comic-Con again in 2010, a remarkable third year in a row for the film, though this time with a much expanded presence. Dubbed “ComiTRON,” this appearance started with some banners flown outside the convention center and later included a full panel presentation with the cast and crew and a show floor booth that gave fans a look at some of the licensed merchandise that would be hitting store shelves in the near future.

At this latest Comic-Con another fully interactive experience was created, with people prompted to follow the clues given out by a Twitter feed which led once again to Flynn’s Arcade, now dusty and abandoned but which then opened to bring people into the world of Tron.

There was a lot – probably too much – made of a story that emerged about how the movie had been shown to Pixar’s Michael Arndt and Brad Bird, who were asked for their take and who subsequently provided some select rewrites as well as overall story guidance. This sort of things happens fairly often, I’m guessing, but anything involving Pixar sets some people’s radars off.

It was after 2010 Comic-Con that the marketing really kicked in to high gear – a shift in momentum that warranted its own press (New York Times, 7/26/10) – as the more traditional elements of TV spots and other materials took over for the word-of-mouth that Disney had been building over the course of the last three years. Basically having more or less secured the fans, now the studio needed to sell the movie to the general public who may or may not be aware of, much less devotees of, the original.

Also on the experiential front was ElecTRONica, a “dance party” event that was held at Disney California Adventure Park. (Disclosure: Disney Parks is a client of Voce and we are involved in the management of the Disney Parks Blog.) The event/experience brought people in to the movie’s world, with another recreation of Flynn’s Arcade, live entertainment and more.

That exposure was just one element of a broader strategy to make the movie accessible outside the niche of tech-geeks or ardent fans of the original and instead position it as a relate-able tale of finding connections in a wired world.

Even the self-promotional tactics got publicity in the outside press such as when the movie-centered focus of an upcoming issue of Disney’s fan magazine got previewed by Wired (10/23/10) in advance of its publication.

Attitudes toward the original also were the subject of handful of press stories, most of which served to remind us that the first movie was a box-office disappointment. There was also a healthy amount of conspiracy theory mixed in, though, particularly around how Disney didn’t seem to be going out of its way to make sure people had even seen the film. Most of that focused around the lack of new Blu-ray edition in advance of the movie but the paranoia kind of reached its height when it was speculated (LAT, 11/10/10) that the studio was purposely making DVDs of TRON hard to find so people wouldn’t see it, apparently out of fear modern audiences would find it “cheesy.” Much of that was refuted, though, and no conspiracy was being run after all, the studio just had other plans and things were proceeding accordingly.

There was no end of discussion about the original in the press, though, with many stories referencing the techniques employed to make that movie (LAT, 12/6/12) or the technological environment it was created as part of. There was even some talk (Popular Mechanics, 12/9/10) about how the effects in this sequel would appear 20 or so years down the road.

Since this was Kosinski’s first movie there was also plenty of coverage dealing with that angle and pointing out how unusual it is that such a large tentpole release, something that’s being openly eyed as the relaunch of a franchise, would get a relatively unseasoned director (NYT, 12/5/12).

Overall

Ordinarily with campaigns of this size I say something about how they’re “too big to fail” or whatever the popular phraseology is, basically concluding that if the campaign is this massive there’s almost no way the movie can fail at the box office.

With TRON: Legacy, though, I’m not too sure. That’s not to say that I don’t think the campaign works or that I think the movie is going to bomb, neither of which are true. It’s just that since this is a sequel to a movie that didn’t do well when it came out 30 years ago there’s an inherent disadvantage that it’s operating from.

Aside from that, though, there is an awful lot to this campaign. And much of it walks the line between trying to appeal to the nostalgia that’s felt by people like me who not only remember the original fondly but continue to be fans and trying to introduce this new story to a new generation. There are breadcrumbs all throughout the campaign that are geared toward older fans but which aren’t going to get in the way of newer audiences becoming interested in the movie.

Certainly the substantial press effort has been instrumental in getting the audience primed for the film, with exhaustive coverage of most all facets of the production being documented in the press ever since the initial Comic-Con debut. A good chunk of that has been focused on the technical aspects of the movie, with seeming little attention paid to the human actors (outside of Olivia Wilde) who are actually doing their thing in the film.

What the studio has done best, though, is to keep people talking about TRON for about two and a half years without it feeling like things are all played out. The constant appearances at Comic-Con, the ARG that led to the release of various marketing materials and all that press coverage adds up to a sizable campaign that only rarely begins to wear out its welcome or become too much. That’s a decent trick to pull off.

When it comes down to it, though, I like this campaign a lot. Again, though, I need to state clearly that I’m predisposed to like this and be anticipating the movie so this campaign has worked on me pretty well. I get what it is the studio is selling and, most importantly, I’m anxious to buy.

PICKING UP THE SPARE:

• 12/15/10: The movie’s graphic novel adaptation is getting the motion comics treatment, with that being sold through the iTunes App Store.
• 12/16/10: The breadth of the film’s tie ins, cross-media promotional activity and other marketing is examined by the LAT as it looks at how Disney has pulled out all the stops for this release.

Movie Marketing Madness: How Do You Know

Romantic triangles always make for fun cinematic fodder. There are great opportunities in that simple premise for comedy and drama, with different films taking different percentages of those two components and fashioning them into something either wholly original or largely derivative based on the quality of the filmmakers involved.

One of the best at creating something largely inventive is writer/director James L. Brooks. He’s created some of the best entries in the genre, from Broadcast News to As Good As It Gets and a handful of others (not including Spanglish, thank you very much) and including a ton of television’s most memorable series, Brooks is a legend.

Brooks’ latest is How Do You Know. The movie follows Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), an aging athlete who’s unsure about her place in the world. Into her world comes two men, baseball playing Matty (Owen Wilson) who’s not great at commitment but finds himself falling in love with Lisa and George (Paul Rudd), a corporate everyman who’s currently in the middle of some major legal issues that are impacting his life as well. So these three hash out their various personal issues at the same time they’re finding each other.

The Posters

The poster is pretty simple and just uses the faces of the four main actors in stills that have been pulled from the movie itself and repurposed here. Each one gets a colored background of their own but that’s about all the original design work that’s been done here. The campaign is obviously relying on the notion that we’ll be attracted to the movie simply by the presence of these stars since, in addition to minimal design work, there’s no copy explaining the story, just a note about it coming from Brooks. And since that’s only going to appeal to a small cinephile segment of the audience that’s going to have limited impact in and of itself.

The Trailers

The first shot of the trailer introduces us to Wilson and Witherspoon’s character, with the two of them obviously at the beginning of their relationship. But she’s then shown to be having some problems living up to expectations. After that we meet Rudd’s George, who’s having some legal problems just before bumping in to Witherspoon and when the two guys meet it’s clear there’s going to be some conflict between them for Witherspoon’s heart. Both of the guys then work as hard as they can to woo her in their own way, with her of course ultimately deciding.

While the story might be pretty conventional – girl can’t decide which guy most completes her – the trailer plays up Brooks’ writing as the key differentiator here. His writing’s rhythms come through loud and clear in everyone’s performances. All of these actors aren’t in new thematic territory here but they have something interesting to work with an that alone makes the movie pretty promising.

Online

The movie’s official website opens with the four color-coded character segments and you can click on any one of those to learn more about each character. When you do so there are links in the photos that appear to either general marketing material like the trailer or to a specific Character Gallery. All that same material can be found in the “Characters” section of the main content menu.

The site’s “About” section has a good Synopsis write-up that gives an introduction to the characters and conflict in the film as well as Cast and Filmmakers sections. Once again, there aren’t any bios or histories for the actors or other talent provided here. All we get in the Cast section is a brief soundbite of their character’s dialogue that’s pulled straight from a scene in the trailer.

“Gallery” has eight stills from the movie and “Videos” just as the Trailer and a brief collection of Outtakes that runs just over a minute or so and features some clips of the cast hamming it up or blowing their lines. Then “Downloads” has a Wallpaper and some Icons to grab if you like.

The best part of the site is an interactive decision-tree infographic that lets you run through scenarios and then tells you whether you’re in trouble or not. It’s kind of amusing to see what sorts of situations it presents for your consideration.

That interactive element is also linked to on the movie’s Facebook page, which also has publicity updates (as does the Twitter profile), photos and videos. For some reason there are individual profiles for each of the four main characters, with updates that are supposed to be written by them. But those updates appear to be from within the movie itself and so come off even more oddly than they otherwise would have, which is saying something.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

There’s been quite a bit of advertising that I’ve come across online, in print and online.

The print and online units have largely, based on what I’ve seen, used the same character photos and colored backgrounds that are found on the one-sheet with a brief description of that character in that ad.

The TV spots work at making sure we know this is a romantic triangle but don’t get much deeper into the story than that, taking out all the talk of indictments and jail time and such that are present in the trailer. They work pretty well at making the movie appear as an amusing alternative for a Friday night, with a story that relies heavily on the charm of the lead actors to carry things and cover for anything that might be missing from the story’s telling.

Media and Publicity

Much of the movie’s publicity has revolved around one (or both) of two topics:

The first is that it seems to be the focal point for a number of people to “return” to the big screen after some form of absence. In the case of Nicholson (Chicago Sun-Times, 12/12/10) it’s after a three year hiatus and largely at the behest of Brooks, who he’s worked with multiple times before. In the case of Witherspoon (Entertainment Weekly, 12/9/10) it’s after what could only be loosely called a two-year break from acting, though she was in 2008’s Four Christmases but then hasn’t appeared on film since then, with Monsters Vs. Aliens just featuring her voice work. And then of course there’s Brooks (New York Times, 12/12/10) behind the scenes since he hasn’t directed a feature since 2004’s Spanglish.

The other topic, one that appeared relatively late in the game, was the film’s cost. Apparently assembling not one but four major motion picture stars (plus the multi-hyphenate Brooks) ballooned the budget for this modest adult comedy to a reported (Hollywood Reporter, 12/9/10) $150 million. The high price tag was also attributed to Brooks’ reshooting big chunks of the movie later on in production and the story about its budge was picked up by plenty of other outlets and speculated on repeatedly.

Overall

I think I like this campaign, but I’ll be the first one to admit that people’s mileage is going to vary depending on how attuned to those unique rhythms that are favored by Brooks and which, as I said, are very much on display in the trailer. The campaign shows pretty clearly that the actors just don’t act in this movie like they would in other movies. That may turn off some people who only want the exceedingly familiar but it may attract others who like a little bit of offbeat in their film choices.

The campaign does have a nice sense of unity and consistency, though. I’m not just talking about the fact that elements from one component (the poster) are reused as-is in other components (the ads). That consistency is also on display in how it’s not just the same footage in the trailer and TV spots but also the same overall tone and feel, something that has to again be attributed back to Brook’s unique take on the material.

PICKING UP THE SPARE

• 10/20/10 – Jen Chaney at The Washington Post blames the movie’s lackluster opening weekend on a confusing marketing campaign that hid the story and tried to sell it on star power. I don’t quite think that’s accurate, but there are some elements of the campaign that could have made the story a little clearer. If anything I think the campaign’s failure to assure the audience ahead of time that there would be a happy ending did more to spoil its box office since the marketing, unlike that for a lot of movies, doesn’t completely spell out the entire third act of the film.

Movie Marketing Madness: The Fighter

Many people live in someone else’s shadow. We’re either not noticed by people who matter to us because they cast such a presence everywhere they go or we wind up living their lives vicariously for them for some reason. Sometimes that’s fine and it’s all for the best but at some point the stress of constantly having to live up to everyone else’s expectations of who we’re supposed to be and how we’re supposed to act becomes too much and we finally want to burst out and do our own thing.

Based on a true story The Fighter, the new movie from director David O. Russell, tells just such a story. Brothers Dicky Ecklund (Christian Bale) and Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) Ward are both aspiring boxers in Boston, but it’s Mickey that is able to hone his talent and not get sidetracked by getting into trouble with the law. But with the help of a new love (Amy Adams) and the determination to get out from under his brother’s control not only does Mickey wind up with his big break but also with better relationships with everyone in his life.

The Posters

The movie’s first and only poster is pretty simple, with just an image of Bale and Wahlberg leaning up against the ropes, with the latter wearing his boxing gloves and both of them looking around the ring. Other than that the only elements to the one-sheet are the title with the three lead’s names along side it, a credit block and the announcement that this is “Based on a true story.” I’m more than a little surprised there isn’t a reminder of Russell’s previous movies but perhaps most of them aren’t mainstream enough for them to be considered strong motivators for the audience, despite Flirting With Disaster being one of the last half of the 90′s.

The Trailers

The trailer opens by establishing the relationship between Bale and Wahlberg, as well as showing how the latter is trying to achieve some sort of success in order to play more of a role in his daughter’s life. But he’s not a very good fighter, apparently, and is disappointed in one of his big breaks. But then we see the upswing of the arc as the love of Adam’s character and the appearance of some professional trainers/promoters give him another chance at glory.

It’s a pretty sweeping trailer thanks largely to the music that’s played and shows the characters going through rough, raw emotions as they deal with disappointment and try to pick themselves back up again. It may be a little too generic for some people since it doesn’t then have a strong hook that will land with one particular audience or another. But it’s well edited and will appeal to some who see it as a triumph of the spirit type of story.

Online

The first section of the film’s official website is “Story” which contains a decent synopsis of the film and lays out the relationships that are going to be portrayed and which are obviously going to provide the emotional drama for the movie.

“Videos” just has the one trailer despite the fact that many long-form TV spots and extended clips were released elsewhere. “Images” has 14 stills from the movie to view. Biographies and film histories are all under “Cast/Crew’ for the major players.

There’s also a link there to the official website of the real-life Dicky Ecklund, the character played by Bale in the movie.

The film’s Facebook page has updates on the film’s marketing and publicity as well as a few photos and videos. There’s also the Tale of the Tape, which allows you to upload your photo into a vintage boxing promotional poster to make it look like you’re going up against Wahlberg.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

An extended TV spot appeared during the season finale of “Mad Men” that feels like a trailer. This one focuses on how Wahlberg’s character lives in the shadow of his older brother and has been used by him – or so people keep telling him – over the years. It’s the conflict between those brothers that is the central focus here, though the other relationships are given time as well. Another long-form TV commercial was more well-rounded, showing more of the interplay between all the characters and how they relate to each other and how they all relate to Mickey as he goes for his last and best shot at making something of himself.

I think there was some online advertising done as well that utilized video units and included clips taken from the trailer.

Media and Publicity

Despite it being completed and seeming like a natural for the festival circuit, the movie was held back in a move the studio positioned (The Hollywood Reporter, 10/7/10) as one designed to give it maximum late-year buzz momentum as awards nominations were being sorted out.

The movie was announced as a last-minute addition (Los Angeles Times, 11/9/10) to AFI Fest, something that served as the film’s unofficial coming out party and which was sure to get some buzz started around it.

Press coverage for the film included profiles of Adams and her approach to the role, particularly in terms of how she tried to match the extravagance of her co-star’s performances. There were also looks at Wahlberg and Bale (New York Times, 12/5/10), who each had the spotlight shone on them in a way that looks at their particular reputation in Hollywood, as a “bad boy” and “reluctant promoter” respectively and their approaches to the characters they play. Along those same lines was a look (LAT, 12/6/10) at how Russell was able to work with his pair of eccentric and serious actors.

Overall

In a lot of senses the campaign that’s geared toward the general audience is overshadowed by the buzz that has been following the movie since shortly after production that it could wind up a major awards contender, something that I don’t get into here but which has been pervasive. That has significantly added to the volume of buzz around the movie but, and this is the reason I didn’t write about it here, how much that is going to impact its box-office performance is probably marginal since much of that was industry echo-chamber chatter.

In regards to this more consumer-facing campaign, though, there’s a lot to like. The poster is simple but effective as is the trailer, while the two long-form TV spots that were run (in addition to any others that may have appeared) gave different aspects of the story the spotlight while not making it feel like they were advertising two completely different films. Add in a bit of positive general publicity and you have a nice solid campaign for a movie that will likely benefit most greatly from whatever appearances it makes on awards or year end best-of lists.