With the burgeoning growth on India’s online population, Bollywood movie marketers are ramping up their online marketing efforts, according to The Hindu Business Line.
According to the article, over 38.5 million Indians have Internet access, and although broadband penetration is in its early stages, over 1.5 million homes already have high-speed access. There are also an estimated 20 million Indians living abroad who are interested in keeping up with the latest Bollywood productions.
Indian film marketers have noted that young, tech-oriented professionals with disposable income are highly likely to use the web to discover movies to see in theaters:
Says Rajnish R., Head - Digital Marketing Revenue and Strategic Business, MSN India: "People who use the Internet are twice likely to go watch movies in multiplexes (than those who do not). Indians abroad go online to read movie reviews before they book a ticket or buy the DVD. So, the adoption of online media is attractive to new-age producers, who themselves are Net-savvy."
Online promotions on large portals such as MSN India typically cost between 800,000 and one million rupees ($17-25K dollars). Promotions on Indiafm, Bollywood's #1 movie portal vary from 50,000 to 1.2 million rupees ($1100 -$26,100) depending on the targeted regions and audience.
Individual film sites are also become more common, and traffic has been booming – Hungama, a top online promotions company for Bollywood, noted that some of their larger sites attract up to 12 million page views a month. Online interactive contests are also becoming popular, and are now sporting major corporate sponsors.
The migration to more sophisticated online marketing methods mirror’s Bollywood’s increasing marketing savvy in other channels. Recent calls for more integrated marketing have increased lately, even culminating in top talent calling for the emulation of Hollywood-style marketing.
The Indian film industry sold more than 3.8 billion tickets in 2005, grossing over $1.14 billion dollars, according to a recent article on Bloomberg. By comparison, Hollywood grossed nearly $9 billion dollars during the same calendar year.
In an effort to keep you abreast of the latest trailers, clips, posters, ads, websites and more, we're kicking-off a daily round-up of new movie marketing collateral releases. To get your collateral mentioned send an email to news@indiescene.net.
'Casino Royale' -- New Flash leaderboard ad on Adverlicio.us
'Fearless' -- New Flash leaderboard ad on Adverlicio.us
Other Collateral and Ads of Note:
Heavy 'Jesus Camp' PPC ad placement on liberal blogs, to include Google video ads. Here's an example of a text ad (scroll to the end of the article.) Looks like they also did a banner buy on the same site.
Big Blogads buy for 'The Ground Truth' across liberal blogs -- see an example at Dailykos. Also note the 'Jesus Camp' ad.
This morning, MySpace and Twentieth Century Fox announced the launch of the Black Carpet Screening Series, which will enable MySpace registered users a chance to see early previews of films before they hit theaters. The move is the biggest studio social networking promotion to date, and also marks MySpace’s first foray into a worldwide exclusive event.
The first advance screening will kickoff on September 20th, which will showcase 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,' a full two weeks ahead of the film’s November 3rd premiere. Members in Canada, Germany, the U.K., Ireland and 20 U.S. cities will have a chance to attend local screening events. Users will have to add the Black Carpet profile to their friends list, as well as the film they are interested in seeing, and they will then receive bulletins with details on cities and showtimes.
This looks like an exceptionally smart move by Fox to harness the viral effect of social networks. In effect, it is a brilliant marriage of the proven word of mouth Generating capability of advance screenings to MySpace’s 40 million member social network, and this move will enable the positive word of mouth to spread faster than face-to-face contact. It will be interesting to see which films they choose beyond ‘Borat;’ After all, we have seen how much of a double-edged sword instant word-of-mouth can be.
Nonetheless, this move furthers the synergy between MySpace and News Corp., and looks like a broadening of the studio’s recent efforts to court the youth market with the launch of their Fox Atomic label. It will be interesting to see if further synergies between MySpace and Fox Atomic develop, and also how the other studios will react.
Clickstar will make Morgan Freeman’s latest drama '10 Items or Less' available on the web just two weeks after its release in theaters, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article.
The company also announced that the film will be available for purchase and rental on DVD in tandem with Thinkfilm’s theatrical release. ClickStar, Freeman’s joint venture with Intel, will handle web distribution. Thinkfilm announced theatrical distribution rights earlier this week at the Toronto Film Festival.
Directed by Brad Silberling, the film follows a washed up former A-lister (Freeman) who, while prepping for a role in a low-budget movie, strikes up a friendship with a fiery-tongued checkout clerk (Paz Vega) at a local market. According to the Los Angeles Times, Clickstar produced the film for under ten million dollars and shot it guerrilla-style in under three weeks with handheld HD cameras.
Thinkfilm has yet to announce the theatrical premiere date.
Guba, the online video sharing site, today announced that their month long price reduction experiment yielded a 1000% increase in sales and a doubling of their site traffic.
For the last 30 days, Guba has offered new release movies priced at $9.99, catalog titles at $4.99 and TV episodes for 49 cents, though the offerings cannot be burned to a DVD. These prices are at a substantial discount to the current pricing structure at Amazon's Unbox service ($14.99 and up for new releases, $9.99 and up for catalog titles) and the forthcoming Apple download store, which is likely to bow new release movie downloads at around $15 dollars.
Guba currently has deals with Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers, offering 500 and 200 titles from each library, respectively. In all likelihood, Guba is serving as a low-risk pricing test bed due to its lower profile and smaller user base, which is probably enough to keep Wal-Mart from getting nervous. As of late, the mega-retailer has been annoyed at the prospect of downloads being priced below their DVD wholesale pricing of $17 for new releases, and has used their muscle to influence online pricing moves.
So what is the optimal download price for a burnable, DRM-managed feature-length movie? Take the poll below to give us your opinion.
Netflix, the online DVD rental service, announced a new feature that enables their subscribers to watch a stream of movie trailers personalized to their movie tastes.
The feature, called “Previews,” consolidates all available movie trailers in one area on their site. Netflix's recommendation engine selects the appropriate trailers and calculates the order in which they are shown based on a subscriber’s rental and rating histories with the service. The previews run sequentially and without interruption. Subscribers can then add movies to their rental queues directly from the "Previews" page.
Netflix will launch with 1,000 trailers in the "Previews" section, but it plans on increasing that number to between 5,000 and 10,000 trailers by the end of the year.
Yesterday evening, Universal launched a newsreel-styled promo video on YouTube for their upcoming release ‘The Back Dahlia’', reports Adrants.
In addition to using recreated footage and archival crime scene clips, the four minute piece also utilizes vintage clips of other early twentieth century crimes to help set the tone. Exopolis, a creative shop specializing in design and development for broadcast, print and interactive, produced the promo.
This video furthers the vintage aesthetic of the film’s marketing campaign. Earlier this week, a special promotion with the Los Angles Times featured a special wraparound which included vintage clips. The Black Dahlia is an adaptation of James Ellroy's 1940s-set novel about two Los Angeles detectives heading the hunt for the killer of newbie actress Elizabeth Short. Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson and Hillary Swank, the films hits theaters on Spetember 15th.
Warner Independent Pictures has made the first 24 minutes of 'A Scanner Darkly' available as an online exclusive at IGN FilmForce. You can watch the extended preview, - nearly the first quarter of the film - at this link.
While the studios have been releasing clips under ten minutes on a fairly regular basis, this is without a doubt the longest preview released by a studio or specialty division to date. This shrewd marketing move is undoubtedly meant to drum up interest preceding the film's expansion onto 190 screens this weekend, up from 17 during the opening weekend. In its first weekend of limited release, 'A Scanner Darkly' earned over $392K, averaging just over $23K per screen.
According to a joint release, Fandango, the web’s largest online movie ticketing site, has been selected as a Preferred Partner by rich media ad developer PointRoll. The partnership will enable Fandango to serve dynamic, location-targeted rollover ads that will enable users to search for and purchase movie tickets within the ad, when the consumer’s intent to purchase is at its highest.
PointRoll has been a major developer and ad server of rollover and other highly interactive flash-based ads for the film industry since 2000, and with the steady increase in broadband penetration, they are now delivering up to six billion ad impressions yearly on top-tier destinations like Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. The partnership comes amidst a robust growth period in the online movie ticketing business, which, according to Jupiter Research, is projected to grow at nearly twenty percent a year for the next three years.
With the advanced tracking capabilities of the PointRoll system, studio movie marketers will be able to measure the actual return on investment for their rich media campaigns, which will give them similar tracking capabilities to text-based advertising systems like Google Adwords.
Indie distributor Echo Bridge Entertainment recently launched an "adults-only" pinball game to promote their upcoming theatrical release of their comedy 'Beer League', according to Adotas.com.
Created by Soap Agency, an Australia-based interactive firm, the game features graphics and content matching the movie's racy themes. The film, with a production budget of $2.8 million according to IMDB Pro, stars Artie Lange (The Howard Stern Show, Mad TV) as an unemployed slacker who inspires his softball teammates to improve so they can remain in the local league. In the tradition of "New Dude Cinema," the film is liberally laced with gross-out humor and sexual innuendo, and Soap's effort matches the tone by peppering the game with "unsafe for work" action to boost its viral appeal.
'Beer League' is slated for a limited release on September 15, 2006.
According to Digital Bulletin, Twentieth Century Fox is launching a viral site that will use user-generated content to promote the U.K. release of 'Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.'
Located at worldwidewhiskers.com, the site enables users to create a special "cat profile," which allows the user to pick attributes like color, food favorites, and pastimes. Users can then scour the globe to find other "cat buddies" that share similar interests.
The site, which is available in nine languages, was designed by Substance, a U.K. based interactive agency. 'Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties' is slated to open in the U.K. on August 18th. The film has grossed $11.05 million since its U.S. release on June 16th.
According to Clickz, Technorati, the blog search engine, is scheduled to announce a multi-year movie marketing agreement with Paramount Pictures today. The article states that Technorati will aggregate relevant blog posts about Paramount films for use on the films' websites, and will provide ads and custom content as well. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The first film to get the Technorati treatment will be "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's new film about global warming:
Posts will appear today on the film's promotional site, Climatecrisis.net, which was created by Paramount. Aggregated information will discuss the film as well as the general topic of global warming. Paramount editors can highlight interesting or controversial posts on their own site. The site also features RSS feeds on global warming-related topics from major news sources.
The aggregated content will not contain full text posts, according to David Sifry, Technorati founder and CEO. "It's to drive people back to the blog. [Bloggers will] feel empowered. It's kind of like 21st century letters to the editor. It's setting the agenda. And for the studio, it's showing the power of the people formerly known as your audience. Rather than ask people to blog on their site, which has proven somewhat difficult for many film companies, they're collecting it."
From a movie marketing standpoint, Gore's film is the perfect choice due to the sheer size the democratic and activist blogger pools. However, it may be more difficult to promote films that have a less easily segmented audience, so it will be interesting to see which films they decide to promote on the site in the future.
Another interesting angle is that this partnership may spur individual bloggers to write posts about a given film for a chance at getting traffic from the film's official website, something we haven't seen before. We're also assuming that the aggregation will have to be hand-culled, since an automated system could lead to spam, or worse, a situation where a Fox or Sony related-post could appear on the Paramount site.
DVD Distributor New Video launched a viral game called the "Silly Walks Generator" to promote their recent DVD release of "Monty Python's Personal Best" for A&E Home Video. The releases are six new DVDs featuring the best bits from all six Pythons plus new content. The game, which has a pretty slick interface, lets you pick a famous Python character and animate them into a "Silly Walk." Our favorite is the knight with the dead chicken, of course.
The viral component comes in when a walk is sent to a friend. I played around with it for a while, and I have to say, it's pretty cool. It took me a second to figure out that the space bar moved the character around, but I tried the animated tutorial, which explained all of the controls. The game comes from a company called Transmote, which, according to their profile, has developed some pretty sophisticated Flash Games for the cable networks (most recently Court TV).
This is the first viral game we've seen dedicated to a DVD release (please correct us if we're wrong) -- what's interesting is that they drive purchases to ten different retail partners - perhaps that's a way of generating "good mojo" with their distribution channels.
Without an announcement, New Line has pulled the sexually-themed portion of the flash game on the 'Running Scared' website, according to Variety. The move comes amidst pressure from the National Institute on Media and the Family, who had made several requests to pull the game. While the game generated considerable buzz throughout the blogosphere (as can be seen here) those conversations didn't translate into box office dollars for the Paul Walker action vehicle -- 'Running Scared' generated a paltry $3.4 million during its opening weekend.
The LA Times' Calendar section had an interesting feature on documentarian Robert Greenwald, the filmmaker behind last year's smash indie DVD releases Outfoxed and Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. So how did Greenwald find an audience for his docs? According to Ralph Tribbey of the DVD Release Report, DVDs have created a market where niche films, especially those covering hot-button topics, can readily find an audience:
"DVDs are where the money is," he said. "If just 3% or 4% of 75 million DVD households are into a social message, selling a couple of hundred thousand units isn't unreasonable. It's always hard for independent filmmakers. But home video, the Internet and [news-hungry] 24/7 cable news channels help.
Another point to take away from the article is just how early you can begin marketing issue-based, participatory films:
The Web, Greenwald found, is a powerful tool for fundraising and information gathering. So far, he's raised $750,000 -- of which $50,000 came from donors. (Anyone giving $30 or more gets a free DVD.) The director also used the Internet to sign up 600 field producers, novices as well as professionals, and elicit footage, photos and tips about Wal-Mart. The title of the movie was the winner of an online popularity contest.
"This is my universal studio," said the 61-year-old filmmaker, pointing to a computer in his Culver City office... "Through our website we've reached hundreds of thousands of people without a multimillion-dollar marketing push."
The combination of issue-fueled publicity and savvy online marketing is the one-two punch in overcoming a lack a traditional advertising-based release push. Fostering a passionate community is also important -- One look at the film's website illustrates just how integral this notion has become in all stages of an indie film's production, distribution and marketing:
The main feature on the homepage is a call to action to get involved in the filmmaking process:
Individuals have the opportunity to post opinions, stories and photos relating to their personal experiences with Wal-Mart.
They have a funny, participatory sub-site featuring the film's mascot, the "Evil Smiley." Incidentally, co-opting and modifying this universally recognized image has provided this film with arguably one of the best logos since Ghostbusters.
Based on an early look at blog trend tracking sites like Blogpulse, Icerocket and Technorati, the chatter in the blogosphere is just starting to pick up. But once the amplifying effect of thousands of linking blogs takes hold, expect this film to generate massive grassroots level buzz as the November 13th release date approaches.
According to a recent article on The Deadbolt, 20th Century Fox has pursued a number of initiatives to solidify it's position in the christian marketplace:
According to Director of Marketing Jeff Yordy, Fox wants to expand its dominance of the DVD market by becoming the number one provider of filmed entertainment content that "blends entertainment with positive messages." To this end, they're joining forces with Word Distribution, a Warner/Curb company who "creates, markets, and distributes recorded, print and video products for Christian entertainment and edification," to get their family friendly products into as many stores as possible.
Here's a partial list of some of Fox's major movie marketing initiatives to date on this front:
They had a heavy presence at this year's Christian Bookseller's Association conference, promoting the "family-friendly" film Midnight Clear.
They've launched a website targeting the Christian market: Foxfaith.com
They've relaunched the 'Strawberry Shortcake' line of DVDs to be Christian themed, and have packaged their DVDs with a Bible study packet in some retail outlets.
The studio has committed to develop 13 "values-driven" movies, and are developing relationships with born-again actors to star in them.
Given the runaway success of 'Passion of the Christ' last year, these moves seem inevitable. But was that film's performance an anomaly? Mike Dunn, Fox's President of Home Entertainment, seems to think differently:
According to Dunn the "faith based consumer is underserved" and represents a significant part of the 26.6 billion dollar DVD industry. If the opening of Joel Osteen's 16,000 capacity mega-church in Houston is any indication, the faith based market is also expanding exponentially.
While Fox now has an early lead among the big five, the others will undoubtedly be entering the fray soon enough.
According to Adrants, a tongue-in-cheek viral game for 'The Wedding Crashers' urging the use of the Purple Heart medal to score chicks has angered Veterans' groups:
Part of the promotional website for the Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn movie Wedding Crashers and a scene within the movie makes reference to the Purple Heart, a military medal of honor. The movie, which, remember, is a movie and not real life, pokes fun at the medal by claiming it gets a guy attention if he wears one with the line, "Carrying a Purple Heart in your jacket guarantees you attention, admiration and plenty of free booze."
Update:The Washington Post is now reporting that New Line has pulled the offending section off of the film's web site. Apparently, the notion of impostors using fake medals to score favors is a sore point in D.C. right now:
Wearing, manufacturing, buying, selling or trading a Medal of Honor is a crime. [Congressman] Salazar's Stolen Valor Act, introduced Friday, would expand the law to include more medals and would allow prosecution of anyone who falsely claims to have earned a military medal or a Purple Heart.
His office drew attention to the Web site. On Monday, he claimed victory.
"If any movie-goers take the advice of the 'Wedding Crashers' and try to use fake Purple Hearts to get girls, they may wind up picking up an FBI agent instead."
Kinda harsh. New Line did the right thing by pulling the section though. Given the lack of vets working in private industry these days, its not hard to see how something like this could slip by without a proper vetting. Adrants does make a point that in a time of war, sensitivities are indeed higher, and an extra level of scrutiny needs to be applied to all things military-related.
According to a joint press release issued today, Sony Pictures is teaming up with Maven Networks, a company that specializes in broadband content, to provide high quality streaming elements to promote the upcoming release of 'Stealth':
Sony Pictures Digital's video content will include a series of trailers, games, and exclusive behind-the-scenes video content directly to consumers who opt-in at the film's Web site. With Maven's technology, Sony can reach consumers directly online and build a powerful, ongoing, and measurable relationship with movie fans.
Entertainment companies are now able to offer full-screen, highest-quality video content to promote their films. With more than 58% of U.S. online households(1) now accessing the Internet via broadband connections, former barriers to receiving high-quality, full-screen videos -- such as download time and illegal sharing -- now can be surmounted technologically. Movie studios are among the first to embrace broadband video to showcase their products.
With all the debate surrounding the box office performance this year, there's little doubt in everyone's mind that actual attendance numbers are down. Because of the myriad of home entertainment choices and rising ticket prices, consumers are more apt to explore movie websites in order to choose what films to see -- providing the highest quality of marketing materials is part of this equation.
Warner Brothers has purchased massive takeover ads on the Yahoo homepage, which includes heavy flash animated bats and sound effects. If anyone else spots a major 'Batman Begins' online ad buy, post where you saw it as a comment.
After securing 15 million in venture capital, upstart British online DVD rental company Video Island announced a 6 million increase in marketing spending:
Saul Klein, chief executive of Video Island, said that the majority of the 6m marketing push would be spent within the context of its partnerships, which include companies such as Boots, Currys and Times Newspapers.
The company, which also owns ScreenSelect, said it would look at testing other forms of above-the-line advertising, including television. It has already run some radio, outdoor and print advertising, created in house, but Klein said the focus would remain on performance-based advertising and partner marketing.
Video Island is the biggest online rental service in Europe, with a selection of over 33,000 titles. The company recently partnered with ITV and MSN UK to offer co-branded rental services.
According to a comScore Media Metrix press release, the release of 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' was a huge boon for websites selling movie tickets:
Star Wars fanatics turned to the Web in droves to secure quickly selling tickets. Nearly all of the top ticket merchants saw increases compared to last May. Category leader Moviefone, which was partnered with StarWars.com, drew 15.3 million visitors, an increase of 29 percent compared to a year ago. With 12.5 million visitors, Yahoo! Movies jumped 26 percent compared to last year, while Fandango.com and MovieTickets.com were up 65 and 75 percent, respectively.
With more pressure on movie marketers to measure ROI, expect to see a greater emphasis on measurable actions like online ticket sales. We also wouldn't be surprised if a "premium seating" or "assigned seating" trend emerges to further drive pre-sales.
According to a joint press release, online ticketer Fandango has partnered with the IMAX Corporation (Nasdaq: IMAX) by creating a co-branded portal showcasing IMAX theaters. According to the release:
The IMAX portal on Fandango's web site will be a one-stop destination for IMAX fans to discover movies playing at IMAX theatres in North America and will provide consumers with a seamless way to purchase tickets to select IMAX theatres. The portal is the latest advancement in the strategic Fandango-IMAX marketing partnership, first announced on December 9, 2004.
This is good timing for both parties, with demand for IMAX versions of summer blockbusters heating up. Fandango's user base is a great match for IMAX's premium version of the theater-going experience. This is just one more reason we expect IMAX to have one of their biggest summers on record.
Chris Thilk has posted a great interview with Perry Wang over at his Movie Marketing Madness blog. Wang is from Media Revolution, a web design firm that does work for the majors.
If you've ever wondered how a the process works at that level, this is a must-read interview. One revealing segment explained why we see so little innovation in regards to special content like podcasts, blogs, webisodes, etc:
Another bottleneck for content is the budget for the film's site. Good content costs money to produce. The teams that support the web updates also need to be paid. Only the most organized, integrated studios are able to align their decision makers and budgets to create and post new content like webisodes and other featurettes prior to a film's release.
There's plenty of tidbits like that -- check it out...
In a statement released at Cannes today, European culture ministers and film industry execs claimed that the web will be a critical component in freeing Hollywood's grip on their domestic film industries:
"The advent of film online offers immense opportunities for the film industry both with regard to access to new audiences and with regard to wider circulation of European films, including on international markets," they said in a statement.
"Audiences are often currently deprived of access to certain films -- either for geographical reasons or because more artistic or experimental films have difficulty in being screened widely."
Personally, I think this statement reads like its the "world wide web" circa 1996. Online distribution is not a panacea, but rather just another form of "bucket" that content is carried in, just like DVDs, VHS Tapes, and 16mm prints that preceded it. The studios have become adept at using technology, and their adoption of the internet as a marketing channel hasn't been any different. Okay -- I admit, they were initially slow in "getting" it (and a few still haven't), but it would be hard to deny that their online marketing skills are getting better by the day. Realistically, if European countries wish to compete in the digital film distribution arena, they need to be more effective and innovative in finding online audiences than American movie studios. A proprietary content delivery system and quality content are paramount as well...
According to Digital Bulletin, Universal is supporting the U.K. launch of the 'Meet the Fockers' DVD with a new broadband ad format:
It is a new format that capitalises on broadband connection by delivering full-screen, high-quality video streaming, run from any fixed-position ad.
Film distributor Universal is using the format to stream the television ad through the Lycos homepage and within an ad placement on the FHM homepage. It could also be used to stream movie trailers or other content.
Overlays will also stream the TV spot on sites including The Sun Online, Virgin.net and NTL World.
As broadband penetration continues to gain a greater foothold both here and abroad, video ads will become the norm rather than the exception on high-profile releases. However, I think that these ads will also be an important tool for smaller films where audiences would be much less likely to be exposed to a trailer.
According to a Disney press release, the company is buying a massive "roadblock" on broadcast, cable, online and other media to launch the 'Chronicles of Narnia' trailer. Touted as the "largest audience ever for a theatrical trailer debut," the ads will reach an estimated 200 million+ viewers in 32 countries, 13 languages, across five continents and spanning over 12 time zones.
Here's more from the release:
The worldwide "roadblock" will be anchored by the U.S. broadcast debut of the "Chronicles of Narnia" trailer on Saturday, May 7th during ABC's network premiere of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (available in over 106 million households) along with online visitors to America Online Web sites (including AOL Welcome Screen, AIM, Moviefone, etc.), and Verizon Wireless V CAST customers. The trailer will also air simultaneously on Disney Channel, and on four channels across the Starz Entertainment Group network. Verizon Wireless customers will also be able to access the trailer through the company's V CAST wireless multimedia service.
Within a 48-hour period surrounding this domestic launch, the international "roadblock" (dubbed in over 11 languages) will similarly introduce the trailer around the world, with simulcasts on popular programs in such countries as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Korea, and Latin America. In addition to the broadcast launches, each territory will partner with print and online outlets to maximize exposure.
If the comments surrounding Paris Hilton's promotional podcasts for 'House of Wax' are any indicator, Warner Brothers' experiment with the format has been poorly received by members of the podcasting community.
According to the message boards on Podcast Alley, a leading source for podcasting shows and info, people are finding the rambling musings of Paris as she wanders around as "boring celeb-spam." Here's an example from one post written yesterday:
I started listening to podcasts in January, and I gotta say that, after hearing the first Paris Hilton "podcast", I am really impressed with how fast the whole thing appears to be going right down the tubes...The Paris Hilton "podcast" is exactly the kind of drivel that drove people to take broadcast content into their own hands in the first place. *This* is what the podcasting community should boycott, and if it is on Podcast Alley only because of the cash involved, P.A. is in real trouble..."
Backlash from insiders is one thing, but are these podcasts going to get anyone interested in the film? After having listened to the show, my verdict is a resounding no. The production values are embarrassing, Paris' unfettered ennui is tiresome, and the grating theme had me reaching for the mute button on my keyboard.
So what have we learned from this experiment?
1. Poor production values -- If you're going to do a commercial podcast, do it right. Hire professionals to record, edit and mix the audio.
2. Boring content -- They should have structured the content to complement the film and build interest in it. We're not talking hiring a crack team of writers or anything -- but even a little bit of structure would have been nice.
3. Wrong audience for the film's demographics -- podcasting is still in it's infancy, and is largely a tech-savvy audience catering to hip, literate men and women in their mid to late twenties. Paris Hilton, awash in disinterest and perpetually disengaged, is about the worst person you could pick to reach out to these people.
So what kind of film would have benefited from a podcast? I can think of two:
Seems like big-budget sci-fi fans are the perfect demo to consume podcasts -- for example, imagine how popular one for the upcoming 'War of the Worlds' film could be, especially if it was a 2005 version of the famed Orson Welles broadcast...
Or maybe a studio could use a podcast to cheaply add web value to a preexisting franchise -- think "Shrek" or "Napoleon Dynamite". Perhaps you could have Napoleon run a fictional Idaho radio station, playing his "flippin' sweet" tunes...
These are just off-the-cuff examples, but I can see something in line with these ideas having a greater impact and the potential for a "viral effect."
You can catch the first two 'House of Wax' podcasts here.
In their latest issue, Brand Republic covers the online movie marketing push for the Amityville Horror remake. Sam Ball of London-based Lean Mean Fighting Machine, the agency behind the ad, described their approach:
It was important that the flies looked and behaved realistically to create an impression of a plague of disgusting flies infesting your computer. By giving each fly its own simple artificial intelligence the illusion was made possible despite the tight file size restrictions.
Horror marketing campaigns are becoming quite the playground! We would really like to see this ad -- if anyone has a link, please forward it to us.
The "Seed of Chucky" Sperm Bank: Gross or Brilliant?
Posted on Thursday November 11, 2004 Filed under Online Marketing
I was on Yahoo! Movies today when I stumbled across a tower ad that took me to the "Sperm Bank," which just happens to be the "Official Seed of Chucky Fan Community."
With lots of tongue in cheek humor, the Sperm Bank enlists Chucky fans to engage in various viral and promotional marketing activities that earn them "sperm," which they can later cash in for Chucky swag. Some of the activities include:
Paint the town Chucky!
Chucky is getting ready to paint the town red this weekend. Click here and help him get started by printing out stickers from the "Killer Stuff" section and hanging them all over your town! Take a picture of your handiwork and upload it to the Delivery Room for 200 sperm. (Limit one).
Opening Weekend Photo Challenge
When you rush to see Seed of Chucky this weekend, don't forget your friends or your camera! Take a photo of you and a group of your friends in front of a Chucky poster, upload it to the Delivery Room and you'll get 200 sperm! (Limit one).
Interesting idea, but it the user interface is crappy, and you would have to do a hell of a lot of free promo work to get a free Chucky doll. I might try to get the Chucky condoms though -- they're only 200 points.
Sci Fi Channel U.K. Promotes The Grudge With a Microsite
Posted on Wednesday November 10, 2004 Filed under Online Marketing
From across the pond, Brand Republic noted that the U.K. Sci Fi Channel promoted the launch of the supernatural thriller 'The Grudge' with a custom microsite, on-air promos and horror-themed weekend programming:
The microsite contains editorial and promotional information about the film, which stars 'Buffy' actress Sarah Michelle Gellar and is a remake of a popular Japanese thriller.
There is also a viral email competition that shows mysterious footage of the Sci Fi office. Promotional trailers and behind-the-scenes footage support the movie.
The "Do you have a grudge?" themed weekend was developed by Sci Fi Brand Solutions and ZenithOptimedia and includes some of the best Japanse and Thai supernatural cinema, including the first back-to-back screening of 'The Ring' trilogy.
Does anyone know if this is a carbon-copy of the U.S. Sci Fi Channel's promo (or if they did one at all?)
At any rate, the "weekend saturation" approach appears to have taken ground in Europe as well.
With the torrid success of short political films on the web this year, many online film venues have emerged from their dot-com era time capsules and have begun to see a renaissance of sorts. According to Technology Review, audinece figures are finally matching the dot-com era hype:
How big a deal was the election for online films? Before the July launch of This Land, Atom Films was getting about three million unique visitors per month. As November 2 drew near, that figure reached 910 million. The political-themed Mock the Vote section of Atom Films tripled our traffic and sustained it, says ONeill. iFilms Harrison says that the political fare increased traffic to his site as well. iFilm now streams between 40 million and 45 million movies per month, up from 1520 million a year ago.
With the likelihood of political burnout from the most saturated election in our country's history, can the likes of iFilm and Atom/Shockwave hold their audiences? Here's their marketing strategies in a nutshell:
Harrison says iFilm will soon launch an action sports channel, hoping to capture the grassroots enthusiasm surrounding activities such as skateboarding and motocross. Atom Films ONeill says her company has learned a valuable lesson from its recent success: go topical. Were looking at the calendar for big events to figure out what we can produce around them, she says.
Cat a niche get any more niche? This is precision segmentation at its best, folks!
According to a Time Warner press release, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith will air its teaser trailer on AOL Movies/Moviefone one day before it reaches the theaters, and will then share exclusive use of the clip with Lucasfilm:
AOL(R) Movies and Moviefone.com(R), one of the largest online movie destinations, today announced that they will offer an online premiere of the highly anticipated teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith on November 4, one day before it appears in theaters. The trailer will be released in theaters on November 5, and will be available online only on AOL and StarWars.com Hyperspace, the subscription-only Official Star Wars Fan Club.
Apparently, they plan on adding other special content as well, including extended clips:
AOL Movies and Moviefone will continue to offer movie fans more online access to Star Wars video clips and images than ever before. AOL and Moviefone recently featured exclusive video content from the Star Wars Trilogy DVD, which was released on September 21, 2004 and has become the top-selling DVD box set of all time.
The hardcore fan subculture behind this film is a proven traffic generator, both online and offline. When the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace trailer was released in 1998, it drove fans to buy tickets to see the much maligned 'Meet Joe Black.' Time Warner is betting on an online equivelant of that phenomenon -- hopefully, with better results than poor Joe Black had - (people streamed out of the theater following the trailers...)
Fox understands the real reason for doing a fake site - to provide backstory that develops further interest in the film. unlike the Godsend Institute site from earlier this year, the Huckabee's site isn't just a quickie effort to gain publicity, and won't be mistaken for a "real site." Instead, it further develops the story and characters. Note that Jude Law and Jason Schwartzman are not hidden - they're prominently featured. There's also a little disclaimer link at the bottom that takes you straight to the film's page at Fox.
Blockbuster Officially Launches Online DVD Rental Service
Posted on Wednesday August 11, 2004 Filed under Online Marketing
It's official -- Blockbuster's online rental service is now live, and the press release just hit the net a few minutes ago. Although I am currently a Netflix member, I'll test out the Blockbuster service to compare the offerings, user interface, etc. to keep all you movie marketers up to speed.
As a cult/foreign/obscure movie fan, I am strongly considering Greencine, a niche competitor (and proud authors of the best damn film blog on the net) though the speediness of Netflix may have me spoiled.
The only one I have no interest in is the Wal Mart service. I'd rather stick with a "movie company," although Wal-Mart is arguably the single biggest DVD retailer in the U.S.
Ah, the old dilemma -- good, fast or cheap -- you can only have two of the three.
Just got this press release a few minutes ago. Looks like Twentieth Century Fox is increasing their online marketing footprint (the ubiquity of 'Aliens vs. Predator' banners on the top web properties lately should give this one away). By partnering with eBay, they're getting a broad-based online demographic similar to what they used to get with network buys. Here's a little excerpt from the release:
Fox is the first movie studio to have rich media ads on the eBay homepage linking to integrated promotional pages on an eBay micro-site; and the first film company to have movie trailers and integrated showtimes accessible on a micro-site linked from eBay.
"We are thrilled to be working with eBay, a worldwide community of more than 105 million registered users. The relationship will give us the ability to interact with eBay users, as well as gain access to frequent moviegoers," said Jeffrey Godsick, executive vice president of marketing at Fox. "We are always seeking exciting, non-traditional marketing opportunities, and this one with eBay fits perfectly with our goals to find new ways to reach new audiences."
I'm a frequent reader of political blogs like Daily Kos and the Juan Cole blog, and I noticed this weekend that Paramount's been advertising 'The Manchurian Candidate' on them. Given that the film portrays a corporate attempt to control the government, I'm guessing the ads are limited to lefty blogs (post a comment if you've spotted them elsewhere).
If you've been following the political blog arena, you know how politicians have been successfully using blogads.com to solicit donations. This is the first movie advertisement I've seen on their ad network, but it doesn't really surprise me -- look at these traffic rankings of the top political weblogs, and you can see why Hollywood is licking their chops. With a weekly ad on Daily Kos running at $325 bucks, and traffic at 136,000 users per day, you end up with a CPM well under a buck (you can plug the numbers into this calculator if you wanna get specific). Try to find a cheaper way to reach that many targeted eyeballs in print or broadcast!
With the kind of segmentation available with blogs, the movie marketers behind 'The Manchurian Candidate' are definitely on to something...
Very interesting press release from Claria, an online behavioral marketing company (You might know them from their "Gator" ewallet product). The company analyzed their 43 millon-strong user base to see what impact online marketing had on three big-budget summer releases...
Here's the meat of the release:
More Moviegoers Skip Theater Lines with Online Ticket Purchases
-- Of the respondents who go to the movies, 24% said that they have
bought movie tickets online.
-- Of the respondents who bought movie tickets online, 71% made a
purchase 1-3 times in the past 6 months.
-- Fandango was the most popular site for movie tickets with 44%
of people saying they have used it to purchase tickets.
Movietickets.com and Moviefone.com followed with 36% and 21%,
respectively.
Online Advertising Increases Movie Buzz
-- 43% of survey respondents had seen a Spiderman 2 ad online,
followed by Harry Potter at 41% and Shrek 2 at 27%.
Film-Related Sites Also Find Success Online
-- Yahoo! Movies was the most popular general movie site among users for
information relating the three summer blockbuster movies. The Shrek 2
Yahoo! movie site captured 30% of total traffic to the top
general movie sites related to the three movie sequels, followed by the
Yahoo! Harry Potter movie site with 29% and finally the
Spiderman 2 Yahoo! movie site capturing 12% of total traffic.
-- 39% of total traffic to the three official movie sites came on
Fridays and Saturdays.
-- Survey respondents cited "watching trailers" as the most popular reason
for visiting official movie sites with 66% of respondents going
online to see the trailer for Harry Potter, 53% for Shrek 2, and
48% for Spiderman 2.
Movie Enthusiasts Are Likely to Purchase Video/DVD
-- Harry Potter movie enthusiasts are most likely to purchase the movie
when it comes out with 48% of respondents saying they will
definitely or probably buy the DVD or video. This number is followed by
41% who cited that they will definitely or probably purchase
Spiderman 2 when it's released and 39% for Shrek 2.
-- Of those who had seen the first or earlier releases of these summer
blockbuster sequels, more than half purchased the movies when they were
released on video or DVD:
* 58% of the respondents who saw Shrek 1 in the theater also
bought it.
* 63% of those who saw one or more earlier Harry Potter
movies, also bought one or more Harry Potter films.
* 56% of those who saw Spiderman 1 in the theater also bought
it.
Other Results Indicate:
-- 39% of total survey respondents go to the movies once or more
every 3-4 weeks.
-- Most respondents plan on seeing the movies within 1-3 weeks of the
movie's release:
* Shrek 2 -- 88% will go within the first three weeks of the
movie's release.
* Spiderman 2 -- 74% will go within the first week and 92%
will go within the first three weeks.
* Harry Potter -- 60% will go within the first few days, 91%
within the first three weeks.
With all of the press attention fake movie websites are getting these days, I thought it would be interesting to build a timeline of all of those that I could find. This timeline includes both "hoax" style sites (sites mimicking the look and feel of a real company/institution) and fake fan sites.
1998 -- The Blair Witch Project. The one that started the sub-genre and ignited the interest in internet marketing for films. Released by Artisan Entertainment, the film went on to gross $140,539,099 domestically.
January 2000 -- Finemann Films -- A fake film company website appeared in tandem with a major national print buy promoting the 30th anniversary of the company. The site was actually a promotional vehicle for the Jerry Stiller film 'The Independent.' Released by Arrow Films, the film grossed $238,000 domestically.
March 2000 -- Firstpiece.com -- A fan site rumored to be fake. Creation was concurrent with the publicity ramp-up of 'American Pie.' The film was released by Universal Pictures, and went on to gross $101,800,900 domestically.
June 2000 -- Watch Us Dorm -- A fake "webcam voyeur site" used to promote an indie horror film. The film never secured theatrical distribution.
April 2001 -- Bangalore World University -- One of many fake sites that sprang up to build buzz and backstory for the film 'A.I. - Artificial Intelligence.' Released by Warner Brothers, the film grossed $78,616,689 domestically.
May 2001 -- "National Blonde Day" -- A fake association site used to promote the film 'Legally Blonde.' It was updated last year to promote the sequel as well. Released by MGM, the film went on to gross $96,520,674 domestically.
October 2003 -- Lacuna, Inc. -- A fake medical facility that purports to erase unpleasant memories. Created to promote the film 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.' Released by Focus Features, the film has grossed $33,560,352 domestically so far.
January 2004 -- Kingdom Hospital of Maine -- A fake hospital website to promote the TV miniseries "Kingdom Hospital." -- The ABC show has recently fared poorly in the ratings, and will be cancelled after the remaining four episodes air this July.
February 2004 -- The Godsend Institute -- another fake medical facility, this time purporting to be able to "clone lost loved ones." Used to promote the film 'Godsend.' Released by Lions Gate Films, the movie has grossed $14,262,583 domestically so far.
February 2004 -- Katz, Cohen & Phelps -- a fake law firm site used to promote the film 'Laws of Attraction.' Released by New Line, the film has grossed $17,755,992 to date.
April 2004 -- I Robot Now, Inc. -- a fake technology company purporting to sell robots. Created to promote the upcoming release of 'I, Robot.' The film will be released by 20th Century Fox, and will be in theaters July 16th, 2004.
May 2004 -- "Eric Bruderman Webpage." Purports to be a "secret" site where war footage is leaked. Probably created to promote the release of the film 'September Tapes,' which is scheduled for release by First Look Pictures this fall.
Some of these may take a while to load since I pulled the links from archive.org.
This list is by no means complete -- especially in the timeframe between late 2001 - late 2002. if you have a site you know of or have a link to, let me know so I can add it...
Hollywood's efforts to recreate the viral marketing success of "The Blair Witch Project" have been lackluster at best. So it doesn't surprise me that an indie film company may have beat them to the punch. First Look Media, the company behind "The Prophecy" and "Waking Ned Devine," may have a word-of-mouth and internet-driven hit with their upcoming film "September Tapes."
The film, apparently a blend of fact and fiction, chronicles the efforts and subsequent capture of a documentary director in Afghanistan. Fake or not, their recent viral email campaign released a clip that looks more real than network news footage. Think "Blair Witch meets Saving Private Ryan."
First Look has combined this footage with a cryptic, shadowy website (obviously done for peanuts) that really lends to the intrigue. It seems like a viral email regarding the site and a "leaked" film clip is spreading like wildfire, too. Even with a bit of research, I still can't figure out what's real, what's fake and if the director was ever actually kidnapped while filming in Afghanistan. First Look ain't making it any easier, either. According to this article, First Look's keeping mum about the whole campaign. Here's their "official line" regarding the film:
"September Tapes" provides a rare and controversial look behind the scenes of war-torn Afghanistan, where documentary filmmaker Don Larson traveled to the troubled country six months after 9/11 and followed a bounty hunter on the trail of Osama bin Laden. Much of the films footage was held by the U.S. Department of Defense after Larson went missing in Afghanistan. It is the first non-Afghani film shot in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, and it is also the first feature shot in an active war zone."
If the rest of the film looks as good as the trailer, we might have a sleeper hit on our hands in August.
Metallica has come a long way with their tireless self-promotion over the years. Long before their "concert film," I remember sitting behind a guy in high school who wore the same Master of Puppets t-shirt for a whole semester.
If you're looking for that kind of relentless exposure, you might want to check out the upcoming weekly webisodes from their documentary 'Some Kind of Monster.'
As previously reported, the much-anticipated (ed. note -- Is this true? I missed it at Sundance. Heard it was a real-life 'Spinal Tap' for the cynical set...) $4-million documentary will initially expected to be released in small theaters in such cities as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with plans to show the movie in other U.S. markets by the fall. No word as to how long the webisodes are, but based on the article on blabbermouth.net, it looks like very little was left on the cutting room floor -- it's all going to end up in a megadeath-sized boxed set.
If we're looking at one minute long snippets, then we're talking a 15 minute teaser spread out over two months -- another variation on the big-budget, studio-sponsored teasers popping up on the networks. From my angle, it looks like a smart way to quickly build traffic for the website.
By the way, if anyone knows the general terms/percentages regarding the IFC service deal, let me know...
By the way -- if anyone on their press team happens to read this -- offer multiple formats for your press kit -- not just PDFs!
Movies.com recently announced their First Annual Movie Site Awards. Submissions are being accepted through June 25th. Here are the qualifications according to their site:
In order to qualify for award nomination, the candidate site must involve a movie, actor, actress, director, or screenwriter associated with a theatrical release in the last six months of 2003 or any time in 2004. Sites are considered "Official sites" if they are directly operated by a movie studio, distribution company, actor, actress, director, or writer, or their authorized and designated agency.
Nominees will be selected by Movies.com from all candidacy announcements received by Movies.com no later than 7/7/04 via the defined submission process. Candidates with demonstrated early grass-roots support on the Movie Site Awards message board will be more likely to be considered as final nominees.
Looks like Movies.com is trying to build some traction at their message boards. At any rate, it's free and linking from your pre-existing site can't hurt -- especially for indies. Surprising though -- no separate indie category....
Lions Gate Films has created a fake website to promote their upcoming Robert Deniro vehicle "Godsend." While not the first this year to do it ('Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' had their Lacunainc.com site) this new approach is decidedly more deceptive.
With a professionally polished look, bogus testimonials, an 800 number, and absolutely no references to the film, the "Godsend Institute" poses as a medical facility that can clone lost loved ones. To an unsuspecting visitor, the site looks tantalizingly real.
Wired quoted some of the false testimonials and commented on them:
The site features testimonials from satisfied customers. For example: "Our son's name was Michael, and when he died he was 5 years old. I was heartbroken, of course, but my wife was absolutely devastated. She had been told that she was unable to have children, and when Michael was born, she had taken it as a sign from God. When he died, my wife's faith died with him. Then we heard about Dr. Wells and Godsend. It's been three years since he gave Michael back to us, and all I can say is that if there is a God, his name is Dr. Richard Wells. -- Joe R."
The site also exclaims: "Death doesn't have to be an ending. At the Godsend Institute, we have the ability to make it a fresh start -- A New Beginning!"
"That part of it is kind of eerie for anyone who has gone through the loss of a loved one, particularly a child," said George Belch, chairman of the department of marketing at San Diego State University. "But we see so many bizarre things on the Internet."
With such a sensitive topic as cloning, it's easy to see the thinking behind this marketing approach -- It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this erupts into a controversy overflowing with press coverage. But if Lions Gate is subscribing to the "all press is good press" mantra that Hollywood has made famous, it might just backfire. Just one deceived parent who lost a child and falsely got their hopes up could cause some serious outrage. Movie marketing, as fast and loose as its been in the past, is not above ethical marketing standards. But in an environment where the ethics sections in marketing texts are an afterthought, marketers will continue to skirt the limits of acceptability.
Following Fox Searchlight's success with their extended preview for 28 Days Later last year, both Universal and Warner Brothers will be premiering lengthy previews of their own next week.
Universal will screen an uncut 10 minutes from the upcoming Dawn of the Dead as a special event on the USA Network (which is a division of Vivendi-Universal, mind you), which will air "sometime between 10 and 10:30 pm" on March 15th.
In me-too fashion, Warner Brothers will release the first 9 minutes of Taking Lives, although it will only be available online. The preview will premiere on the Taking Lives website on March 19th.
If these test cases work out well, we'll probably see additional budgeting for the creation of "prefaces" to films to be used as "special events," much like we see additional funds budgeted for DVD extras. So far, it looks like this marketing effort works best with horror and thriller titles, which by nature have provocative, spine-tingling sequences perfect for a few minutes of attention-getting advertising. Plus, horror titles are more resistant to bad reviews.
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.
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Fox Searchlight has taken the fake website marketing tactic to new heights with the 
