FilmPlug

Yikes! Box Office Mojo reports a weekend gross for SoaP of only $13,850,000. What does this say for the Internet marketing, social media, consumer-generated-content, new marketing darling? Well, as with most things, it depends how ya look at it.

My first take is that all things being equal, it comes down to the quality of the film. You can't polish a turd, right? How much of any marketing could get people out to see this film? I laughed until my stomach hurt reading Chuck Norris Facts, I must've IM'd and emailed 100 friends about it to share the laughs - but you couldn't pay me to see a Chuck Norris movie if one came out. I sent a few buddies the Samuel L. Jackson ecard/phone thing but do not intend to see SoaP in the theaters because no one has told me once that it's worth my time and money. Fun campaign tho, eh?

Looks like the L.A.Times saw the writing on the wall last Friday with this article of impending doom, and Joseph Jaffe has already posted a warning of sorts against jumping to any conclusions just yet.

Let the Monday morning quarterbacking begin!

I hope that studios will learn from SoaP's tactics and incorporate them into larger strategies on film's of a higher caliber. There's already a knee-jerk reaction going around to "do what SoaP is doing" and while this weekend should put a definite damper on that, I think the SoaP campaign should be thought of as another experiment in a series of successes and missteps as we all learn how best to harness the power of the Internets.

IM'ing a good friend tonight, I said SoaP could be the best and the worst thing to happen to social media/new marketing and then asked if he thought that the high level of buzz was mutually exclusive to the film being of a low caliber? Or is it possible to create that kind of fever over a quality film? He answered simply: "yes to the first question." I hope time and more experimentation will prove him wrong.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 9:56 PM | Permalink

Thought I'd "live blog" the Transformers Webcast on Yahoo this morning. Cool idea that I think the fanboys will eat up (yes nearly all the questions come from males).

Promoted as "Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci reveal which Autobots and Decepticons will appear in 'Transformers' live on Yahoo!," it's a really great pre-buzz and I think exactly what the demo ordered. Good use of the Internets to feed the core. Questions have been what you'd expect: from "Why is Bumblebee a Camaro instead of a VW Bug?" and "Who would win in a streetfight? Megatron or Optimus Prime?" (pls excuse me if I got the names wrong - I'm not a fanboy).

I wish they could list how many fans are watching live dynamically. And the WMP keeps skipping and stuttering. At least the audio keeps going to hold your interest. Overall, I'd say a good online experience. I hope they offer it for download (as a "podcast," I'm sure).

They're ending the webcast by doing an "SoaP" tactic by asking fans to submit lines that Optimus Prime will actually say in the film. Nice touch. I'm sure they'll get flack for copycatting, but I'll bet they'll get lots of submissions anyway.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 11:23 AM | Permalink

My good friend, Chris Thilk has wrapped up Snakes on a Plane - possibly the most blogged about, buzzed about and written about campaign ever. Good thing too, because instead of thinking "what more can be written on the subject?" (like me) he does a great job pointing out why and how it has worked.

They didn't get in the way of the identity being built for the brand through the ongoing discussion. They let people define the how, why and what of what was being said. So many marketers still, in the age of blogs, YouTube and MySpace, convinced that they and only they should be allowed to communicate any sort of marketing message. They think word-of-mouth is useless unless it's one of their budgeted and planned programs that started the WOM. New Line? The only thing they had to do to start buzz happening was green light a movie with the name Snakes on a Plane. They knew they weren't in charge of the campaign for this movie, that the net denizens would be in charge.

Amen.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 6:38 PM | Permalink

An interesting 5-part series of articles on "The MySpace Generation" kicks off today in the L.A. Times with analysis of a recent Times/Bloomberg Entertainment Poll.

So far, old media is proving old media still reigns ... how convenient.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 5:02 PM | Permalink

In a compassionate move by Paramount, the WTC site offers a warning of sorts to survivors and/or anyone who might be upset by the marketing - that the trailer and TV spots are being played nationwide. The studio could have just as easily not consulted with family and survivor groups, so I applaud this extra step.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 11:25 PM | Permalink

...Or rather, mixed feelings about the how the campaign is evolving from reverent to outwardly commercial. On one hand, the early TV spots with their Adagio for Strings-like music and the official website, with its In Their Own Words feature feel very reverential but then comes the MySpace page where as Defamer points out, Paramount is obviously targeting the youth market. The latest TV spots I'm seeing now are cut to a Coldplay song which gives it a much more commercial feel - but (for me at least) really removes the sanctified vibe.

I think the studio has received a bit of flack for the MySpace move, but really, isn't MySpace by the people/for the people? And therefore a perfect place for healing? At first the comments were a tad immature, sure, but since then they've become more touching and genuine. It will be interesting to see how the youth targeting will work here. Will they respond to it or reject being so obviously targeted?

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 6:59 PM | Permalink

The Metaverse is ripe with movie marketing opportunities as more and more "residents" are joining Second Life (336,332 as of today).

Real money is changing hands, conferences are being held there, the mainstream media has noticed and now they even have an online business magazine. So which film will have the first major presence or campaign there?

I'm sure there are plans in the works if not actual campaigns already launched that I'm not aware of yet. Leave a comment if you want to share some inside info. I'm excited to see how we'll all approach this.

UPDATE: I knew this would happen. I'm driving home tonight, listening to C.C. Chapman's Managing the Gray podcast and he mentions in passing that X-MEN 3: The Last Stand had a red-carpet "premiere" in Second Life "live from Cannes."

So I guess that answers my question! Unless of course... I discover otherwise on my morning commute.

BTW - if you come across "Harvey Weinstein" in Second Life, it's me.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Old news to anyone paying attention at Comic Con, but Iron Man Director, Jon Favreau is plugging into his fan base and even taking casting recommendations (since April, currently 108 posts), among other things - on his MySpace group.

Great move two years in advance of the May '08 release and even if Marvel/Paramount are looking at Cruise for the lead, it's fun to speculate with the friggin' Director, ain't it? Can you imagine this conversation between filmmaker and audience even 5 years ago? So rad.

Posted by Kirk Skodis at 8:22 AM | Permalink