Marketing

Monday, 13 December 2010

Avatar- Viral Campaign

Avatar was a film that positioned itself as an industry changing epic and gave many hope that a viral campaign reflecting would also be as incredible as the much anticipated film. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Despite drumming up initial interest through websites like Avtr.com, Avatar’s viral campaign failed to live up to the hype created.

This may have been because the website was launched in September but went ‘dead’ for two months with no updates offering new light on the campaign.

However the campaign did have the potential to be successful, it offered users the chance to create their own avatar character by uploading their pictures, allowing for personalisation and interactivity. Premiering in September, Avtr.com offered a glimpse into the Resource Development Administration and presented clues about Avatar’s plot. satisfying users' needs for information and wants to be in-the-know about up-and-coming events and media. Furthermore, visitors were introduced to a transmission from Colonel Quaritch that offered great insight into his character and highlighted the tensions on the planet. This allowed them to see humankind's true intentions for the planet. The concept of this campaign was very strong, it engaged audiences with its interactive capabilities such as turning themselves into an Avatar character. Furthermore the ability to share this with others by making it a profile pictures on facebook, twitter etc widened who was exposed to the content. The website was sponsored by Coca-Cola, and special bottles and cans of the drinks allowed users to interact with 3D features on the website using augmented reality technology when these drinks were held in front of a webcam. This allowed immersion and escape from everyday life for its users, much like the film itself due to its extensive 3D graphics. There was also a quiz for users to see if they would be qualified to join Avatar's program, satisfying their needs for fun and relieve themselves of everyday stress.

The website was different to the boat that rocked one in the sense that it was interactive, it offered more than TBTR basic insight into the film with photos and a synopsis. Instead it presented this content in an exciting way as well as exciting new features. A video screen at the top shows the technology featured in the film in great detail such as the scorpions increasing the understanding of the film. The lack of interactivity and personalisation from the TBTR website meant the experience wasn't as immersive and involving to users so they were less likely to spend time on it and be intrigued to see the film. A key feature of avtr.com is that it is available in English, French, Spanish, German and Manderin showing that it a is a film intended for global success. On the other hand TBTR is exclusively in English highlighting the large contrast in the two films.
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It's not just about being viral but interactive/ pleasurable to audiences too. Thorough detail on this needed. Make sure you identify more specific interactive features of the website. This should be compared to TBTR official website to put it in perspective.

Avatar- Global and Online Campaign

Avatar's marketing budget was speculated to be in excess of $200 million although the exact figure has never been released. Aswell as the fairly unsucessful viral campaign on AVTR.com, 20th Century Fox also had a more traditional campaign which proved INCREDIBLY sucessful, utilising other giant media/ business conglomorates and social media to great effect.

McDonalds and Avatar

McDonalds and 20th Century Fox (two of the most POWERFUL GLOBAL businesses) partnered together to create a symbiotic marketing campaign which was mutually advantages to both sides.

PANDORAQUEST

"The fast food chain has developed an interactive game that explores Pandora, the world where Avatar takes place, via high-resolution, 360-degree views - among other sci-fi marketing touches."

The game called PandoraQuest was accessible on McDonald’s local Web sites around the world from December 18 2009. The games goals included finding hidden objects within three different Pandora landscapes. Retrieving all objects enables the player to advance deeper into Pandora and reach their goal of becoming a member of the “RDA Research Team” as seen in the movie.

A key component to the game was McD VISION, an augmented reality experience that immerses players in Pandora. In addition to this was PandoraROVR a vehicle which can transport the player all around the web version of Pandora.

From the Press Release:

“McD VISION: An augmented reality (AR) experience that uncovers characters and scenes from the film, and immerses players in the world of Pandora. Players use their "McDonald's Thrill Cards" available in participating

U.S.

restaurants (through Jan. 7, 2010, while supplies last) to interact within AVATAR's fantastic world."

“PandoraROVR: An online discovery experience where players can take their first steps on Pandora, putting them in the driver's seat for interactive explorations of Pandora's terrain. The players' mission is to roam freely, capture and share images of their exotic discoveries.”

This marketing campaign crucially helped to connect online advertising with in-store purchases. For example, interactive toys in Happy Meals and AR ‘Thrill Cards’ with Big Macs, targeting the gaming demographic, that become part of the experience in the online Pandora when held up to a webcam.

A 3-D film, Avatar 'sets the bar high for customer engagement tie-ins,' McDonald's U.S. chief marketing officer Neal Golden said. But according to Cameron, the restaurant chain has delivered with its tech-heavy, futuristic look. "When I set out to write this movie, I knew that the [computer generated imagery] was about to create a situation where we could do anything that we could imagine," he said.

"McDonald's has stepped up and met that same level. I don't think anyone has seen anything like what they're doing with these tie-ins, the McD vision augmented reality in particular."

SOCIAL MEDIA

McDonald's also ran a Twitter campaign, asking followers to be the first 10 to decode daily word scrambles. The grand prize was a private screening of Avatar over a Big Mac lunch with producer Jon Landau (Source: Promo Magazine.)

Stats released the week beginning Monday 25th January 2010 showed that:

Total global receipts of the film had reached $1.858 Billion
This is $16 million ahead of the $1.842 Billion earned by Titanic, but Avatar hasn’t even finished yet.
Avatar has a shot at topping $750 million at the US box office and $2.5 billion worldwide.

Many people believe that the films huge earning were due to the global marketing campaign and social media proliferation.

To further exacerbate this point:

Avatar on Facebook had

1,149,471 fans as of 28th January,2010
1,518 fan photos
3,235 links

Avatar on MySpace had 796,182 friends

Avatar on Twitter had 24,800 Followers

In addition to this the 'Blogosphere' was inundated with posts about the film, trying to post spoilers, images, any and every tiny detail of information on the film shrouded in secrecy and enigma to the extent that many knew of the film the previous autumn! (That is one hell of a buzz!)

If that wasn't enough the Avatar YouTube page drew in millions of fans in their drones, loaded with behind the scenes information and fake videos by the character Dr Augustine.

Thursday, 9 December 2010

The Trailers

Avatar - Teaser Trailer

Released end of August, months before the film's release to create even more excitement and hype about it.
Only one line of dialogue - International appeal, nothing gets lost in translation. Emphasis on the visuals, the beauty of it and the amazing graphics. Understated, minimalistic orchestreal music.
Doesn't give anything about the plot away - Intriguing. Most people will already have heard of the film, so this is just to whet audience's appetites. A very good example of what a "Teaser" trailer is for.
Most shots are short clips, featuring camera movement to show scenery or characters, dissolves or fade-to-black between each shot. Not choppy or fast-paced, more slow-moving at the beginning. Towards the end of the trailer the transitions get faster and the tense atmosphere builds, more shots of the action-packed, exciting scenes.

Avatar - Official International Launch Trailer

The Boat That Rocked - Teaser Trailer

'From Richard Curtis, creator of Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually'
Short clip of each famous actor, then their name
Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing in the Street, 1964

American Trailer

'Until one American DJ' - Completely re-telling the story to appeal to American audience
American voiceover
'Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman'

iPod/iPhone Apps

The technologies that have been introduced and have grown in popularity over the past few years have helped market both films to their target audiences. iPhones and iPod touches have become massively popular in recent years, along with Apple's domination over the market. This proliferation has allowed almost anyone to create and app and put it on iTunes for users to download, either for free or a small price, and the marketers of both TBTR and Avatar have utilised this system to help get awareness of their films out there and available to a mass market. These apps are examples of technological convergence, and both allow complete portability and interactivity with the user.

The Boat That Rocked

Free iPhone/iPod Touch app
Official Top Trumps game with 1 or 2-player mode
High quality movie trailer, a good use of cross-media convergence to promote the film, as people download the app for the game and also get the advertisements for the film itself.
Movie image gallery
Created by Universal Pictures, the film's distributor which allowed a higher budget and reach of the app due to its large ownership spread
Developed by Golden Gekko on behalf of Hyper
This app may not have been as successful as intended, as the film's core audience of over 60s aren't as likely to own iPhones or iPod touches so a large segment of their demographic will be missing out on this particular marketing strategy.

Avatar

2 Versions: Avatar (full version) currently at £2.99, Avatar Lite for Free
You play a Na'vi character fighting off undesired species who are destroying Pandora
It begins with a prequel story and showcasing the events leading up to the movie Avatar
Satisfies the users' needs and wants to be entertained and immersed in the world of Avatar

Use the key concepts to explore this further and draw conclusions

The Boat That Rocked - Global and Online Campaign

Official Website

Interestingly, when directed to the official The Boat That Rocked website from an article about it, we were faced with this message:

This suggests that either they never created an official website, or it has now been deleted due to unpopularity or lack of updates.
If a website was never created, Working Title really missed a marketing opportunity there, especially when targeting the teenagers and young adults of the Web 2.0 generation who are online constantly. They may have decided not to create a website due to its core target audience being those who were alive in the 1960s who don't seem to consume online media as much, but as we have identified the younger market is the secondary target audience for TBTR so they definitely could have got more publicity with that age range with a proper website.

The did, however, create this webpage for the US release of Pirate Radio:

This would not have helped target UK audiences though, as it would only have been set up months later when the film was released in the US, and the title would have been unfamiliar. The page was part of the official Focus Features website, Universal's US distributor, so it didn't even have a stand-alone website. A proper website would have been a good example of synergy between the film and online mediums, and a great way for Universal to harness the recent proliferation in online hardware and content.

We found a really interesting article on the Brand Republic website about a potential marketing strategy for TBTR:

The tourism body said it was in the process of tying up a partnership deal with Universal Pictures. VisitBritain is believed to be looking at a promotion based on the film, offering holidays in the UK as a prize.

Additionally the promotion is also run likely to run in the UK offering breaks in different parts of the country. It will launch prior to the fillm’s premiere on 3 April.

A spokeswoman for VisitBritain confirmed the tourism body was in discussions with Universal about linking in with the film but said no decision had been made on the execution.

The Boat that Rocked is based on 60s and 70s pirate radio stations such as Radio Caroline and attempts by Government to ban them. The film stars Rhys Ifans, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy.

According to industry reports VisitBritain is set to launch a new positioning campaign emphasising value offers in the UK such as free access to museums. The move follows a review from the government that found VisitBritain needed to work harder to coordinate British tourism policy.

Full article here

Harnessing the films great soundtrack, The Boat that Rocked used the music medium Spotify to market the film, a great example of CROSS MEDIA CONVERGENCE and SYNERGY. Here's an interesting article by Aegis Media from April 2009:

The Boat That Rocked playlists on Spotify

This is a great illustration of how bands can use Spotify in their marketing. The Boat That Rocked, the new British film about pirate radio in the 1960s, has used Spotify to create playlists for each of the 9 DJs featured in the film. For example Dave, played by Nick Frost, has tracks from The Who, spencer Davis Group, The Kinks, The Troggs, and others.

Just go to the site, select a DJ, see their playist, and then click on one link to add it to your playlists on Spofity.

I'm really impressed by how well this works - it just takes one click and you've got the playlist.

The Boat That Rocks has also got a soundtrack album, and some of the DJs have playlists to buy on iTunes, but for my money this is the best use of music in promoting the film.

This is a great example of synergy between online media, music and the film itself. In 2009 it was revealed that in the UK, Spotify was more popular with the 50+ audience than teenagers, so the Spotify playlist may have been a step in the right direction to marketing towards the film's core audience of those who were alive in the 1960s. If the Spotify playlist had been advertised more so that these users were aware of it, this could have been a more successful marketing strategy than it was. The playlist could also have evoked feelings of nostalgia for the 1960s which would have encouraged listeners to go and see the film and enjoy these feelings even more, satisfying the audience's needs for escapism and development of personal identity.
Spotify is currently only available in certain European countries, including the UK, which targets the UK audience specifically as it is not currently available in the US. This allowed the playlist to be adapted to the particular tastes and consumer habits of the British audience.