The Oscar Files Part 2

We'll continue our look at the marketing efforts of Oscar nominated films with No Country For Old Men, the new film from the Coen brothers (Fargo, The Big Lebowski)

To date, the Oscar nominated film has grossed nearly $50 million in the domestic box office. This continues the trend for critically acclaimed films that do poorly at the box office.

While No Country For Old Men runs short on box office dollars, it does not run short on critical acclaim. This is an important element to any campaign for an Oscar contending film, and a technique that No Country uses often, particularly on the film's
website.

From a movie marketing standpoint, No Country doesn't do a whole lot that is out of the ordinary. The campaign features teaser posters, regular one-sheets , and a very professional and slick website. The site has film stills, cast and filmmaker info, and some external links to news about the film. The two elements that set the website apart, however, are the exclusive podcasts, and the option to download the script, free of charge. (As someone who used to read a lot of scripts, this is a rare occurrence for a recent feature film.)

No Country only dabbles in viral marketing. There's this great redband trailer, different from the standard trailers in that it's a lot more violent. Offering a trailer that can't be seen in the standard venues is a great way to drive traffic to the website and ultimately drum up interest in the film.

Here's the redband trailer - be warned, it is violent.



Here's the regular greenband trailer, for comparison.



No Country also created this coin toss facebook application. Considering the app only has 10 current active users, I don't think it could be considered successful.

Ultimately, the marketing effort for No Country was a good one, but it didn't go far enough to generate the kind of mainstream buzz needed to create a box office smash. No Country should have spent more time on the viral marketing, which would be reinforced by the TV ads and website.

For a differing opinion - and a great summary of the campaign, head over to this post at the always reliable Movie Marketing Madness.

Cloverfield Sequel?

According to the fine folks over at JoBlo.com, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves have included a hidden mysterious audio track at the end of the film. It's an interesting continuation of the previously mentioned viral marketing campaign, and possibly a launching off point for a new campaign if a sequel is in the works. Check out the post here to see for yourself. Be warned - spoilers abound.

The Oscar Files Part 1

Being that it is officially Oscar season, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the marketing campaigns for each of the 5 best picture nominees. I'd like to get a sense of how marketing an Oscar nominee differs from that of a more commercial film, and how those strategies might be improved in order to increase the film's mass market appeal.

I'll begin by taking a look at arguably the most buzzed about (and highest grossing) film of the nominees, Juno. To date, Juno has grossed nearly $90 million domestically, almost double that of No Country For Old Men, the second highest grossing nominee. But still, Juno's box office take pales in comparison to other commercial films like National Treasure: Book of Secrets or Alvin and the Chipmunks, both near the $200 million mark. Why is it that a film with near universal acclaim fails to resonate as much in the box office as it does with the critics?


Juno's marketing campaign could be compared to Cloverfield's in that both films used a viral, word-of-mouth approach. Beyond that, I think the comparisons are weak.

Juno uses all the standard promotion tools for a film with a limited budget. A website, facebook and myspace pages, blogs, and a few television/online ads. Juno even got down to the nitty gritty with a fun guerilla marketing campaign where street teams attend various film festivals dressed as Paulie Bleeker, one of the films main characters and handed out boxes of orange tic tacs, Bleeker's favorite snack. For a complete breakdown of Juno's campaign, check out this post @ MMM, and this post at The Rabbi Report.

While the standard promotion tools are good and great, what ultimately sells Juno to audiences is what I like to call its charm appeal. Juno is without a doubt one of the most charming and witty films of the year. You can't help but feel all warm inside by the time the credits start rolling. I think this encourages movie goers to tell friends and family about the film, and what convinces them to see it. It's much harder to convince someone to see a depressing downer like Atonement then it is to see an uplifting charmer like Juno. And once that ball gets rolling, it's hard to stop.

Cloverfield

Welcome to the first post for Untitled! From here on out, we'll be taking a look at marketing for and in movies. I'll try to tackle a variety of topics, basically anything that is of interest at that moment in time.

A little background on myself before getting started. I'm a senior Integrated Marketing Communications major at Ithaca College. I'll be graduating in May to embark on a career in advertising and marketing. I spent my first two years at Ithaca as a film production major, so the film industry is a major interest of mine. It'll be interesting to analyze the industry from the marketing and advertising angle rather then from the production side.

To start the blog off, I'll be taking a look at the marketing effort for Cloverfield the new monster film from producer J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias) and director Matt Reeves (Felicity). Prior to its national release last Friday (1/18/08 - used as the film's working title when the initial trailer was released), Cloverfield had managed to generate significant buzz , primarily through a viral and online campaign that began with the film's first trailer, which premiered before the summer blockbuster, Transformers. At the time, the film was not using it's official title, instead opting for the working title, 1/18/08.

Abrams is no stranger to viral marketing campaigns. For evidence of his past work, just watch the first few seasons of Lost, and google the Dharma Initiative. The campaign for Cloverfield is very similar to that of Lost. The marketing team creates a series of fake websites and side stories that both enhance and drum up interest in the final film. According to this article in the Boston Globe, the campaign involved "unofficial - yet Paramount-owned - websites, including character MySpace profiles and home pages for the fictional Japanese companies Slusho, a soft-drink manufacturer, and Tagruato, a deep-sea drilling outfit." The side stories of Slusho and Tagruato helped to shed some light on the origins of the monster in the final film. Ultimately, seeing as how the film finished in the #1 spot its opening weekend, the campaign was a successful one.

That said, I do not think that a viral campaign like the one used in Cloverfield would work for every type of film. It worked so well for Cloverfield because the film had mystery and suspense embedded in its story line, piquing people's natural curiosity. This tactic would not necessarily work in something like a romantic comedy where the plot tends to be more straight forward.

For more information, check out a complete history of the Cloverfield campaign over at Movie Marketing Madness. Also check out this follow up article, also from Movie Marketing Madness