Sony to air Extended 'SpiderMan 2' Trailer during 'The Apprentice'

Posted on 6, 2004
Filed under New Releases

The extended preview trend continues. Following the recent 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Taking Lives' previews, Sony will air a 2 1/2 minute version of the 'Spider Man 2' trailer approximately 40 minutes into this week's installment of 'The Apprentice.'

Sony's VP of Marketing commented by saying:

"We've got to look at unconventional ways to get our message across," says head of marketing for Sony. "Running your trailer in a theater is a great place because you've got a captivated, movie-going audience. But if you want to reach a broader, more general audience, you need to go beyond the theater."

So how is this a bigger audience than the typical movie trailer?

TV certainly has a wider draw than a theatrical trailer. Last week's episode of The Apprentice drew 22.8 million viewers. By comparison, a movie trailer attached to this week's No. 1 movie had an audience of about 4 million.

In a media environment where getting a message to the consumer is becoming increasing competitive, we've seen several major approaches:

1. Saturation marketing of DVDs featuring extended clips and behind the scenes footage. ('Hellboy').

2. Online releases of extended clips. ('Taking Lives').

3. Long-length ad buys featuring an extended preview ('Dawn of the Dead,' and now 'Spider Man 2').

On top of that, several other new approaches have been:

1. Studio-sponsored Production and fan blogs

2. Pay Per Click keyword buys (Adwords and Overture).

It will be interested to see which actions have the greatest ROI in terms of box office performance and ancillary sales.