Fox Searchlight Sends Severed Ears to Promote 'The Hills Have Eyes'
Marketing horror films has always required a mix of creativity, brashness, and the occasional gross-out. Fox Searchlight followed the latter to a tee this week when they sent out fake severed ears in a clever styrofoam clam-shell to promote the upcoming release of 'The Hills Have Eyes'.. You can check it out here, if you dare.
Before you congratulate the marketing team at Fox Searchlight for their originality, however, you should know that the guys at Lionsgate sent severed hands out to journalists when they promoted 'Saw' a year and a half ago.
Three times a marketing trend makes, and we're waiting to see what the Weinsteins do with the next Dimension release...
Found via the incomparable Adrants
Napoleon Dynamite's Marketing? Sweet!
I have yet to see Napoleon Dynamite, but I am impressed with the creativity of the guys and gals at Fox Searchlight's marketing department. If you've been Reading the Movie Marketing Blog this year, you've seen lots of innovations in the marketplace. Well, Fox has followed some of their own best practices and added a few new and interesting marketing tactics to boot:
1. New scenes -- with this Friday's expansion, Fox has added a 5 minute epilogue to entice fans to come back for a second showing. Straight out of the DVD playbook, this technique worked well for Fox with last year’s '28 Days Later'. The difference? The scenes were shot just 4 weeks ago...
2. Fan Club Competition -- Fox has heavily promoted the "Napoleon Dynamite Fan Club," and now has 20,000 people competing in a contest to select the club's president. The competition winner gets a free screening and other perks, and helps the movie by virally spreading the word among the target demographic.
3. Napoleon Dynamite Mixers -- Special pre-film events held in "tastemaker" cities to turn out the fan club base.
4. Audience Participation Script -- Ever heard of the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'?
5. Iron-On transfers -- Over 40 different designs that can be printed out and made into t-shirts. Branding, anyone? And no cost to the marketer?
All of this effort would be moot if the film was a dog, but the reviews have been pretty good. I did read somewhere (don't remember where) that the film is "like watching a Wes Anderson cover band" or something to that effect, but In my opinion, Fox Searchlight has done an incredible job of making the film into a unique viewer experience.
Related Links:
Official Site
Fan Club
Rotten Tomatoes Review Page
Pushing Releases -- The Fox Searchlight Blog
It's no secret that Fox Searchlight out-marketed all of the other Indie shingles last year (with Newmarket being the only real point of contention). From Bend it Like Beckham to 28 Days Later, they've proven that they can "open a picture and give it legs."
My intuition tells me that they have a highly methodical structure to keeping and maintaining press buzz, and my recent discovery of their Corporate Blog adds some credence to that.
Think about it -- how many times have you gone to a studio, film or other film site looking for press releases, only to find out that the last update was months ago? If you're media, are you really going to make an effort to make frequent visits?
With their blog, Fox Searchlight has turned the drudgery of mining for releases into a press-friendly pastime. And they update it SEVERAL TIMES A WEEK.
I have one small recommendation though -- they should really add an RSS feed so journalists can easily configure their feed readers.
[The Fox Searchlight Blog]
