Blogging for Frog

[tealin]

Hey there internet people!

Do you have any suggestions for internet marketing? What sort of things do you see online that make you excited for a movie? What would you like to see? What turns you off? If you belong to a fan community, what gets them going?

Inquiring minds would like to know! Your input could lead to a significant reduction in eye-rolling and shuddering in the near future.

Comments

[wizardelfgirl.livejournal.com]

It's such a coincidence you're asking this now, cuz at a Disney forum I belong to we've been discussing the, frankly, bad marketing certain Disney movies (*cough*Bolt*cough*) have been given. I can't speak for all countries, but in the case of Mexico, Disney animated movies are barely advertised. As an example, for Bolt, the only thing we got was the theatrical trailer attached to Wall-e in July, and a few posters about 2 or 3 weeks before it was released here. And it's almost February and there is not one single piece of merchandise to be found anywhere. Even now, many people don't even know Bolt exists!

Personally, after watching movies like Madagascar 2 having more success, I've been analysing this a bit comparing to the kind of marketing done in the 90's, what worked, what didn't, what could be done in the future. Having the smallest of insights into how things work due to my job, and comparing with the marketing of other highly successful movies (live-action or animated), I've drawn a few conclusions that might be useful (both for animatin and live-action. I don't want the Narnia franchise to go anywhere else).

1. Begin an early mouth-to mouth. As a Harry Potter fan, you might have noticed how WB keeps the internet audience interested. Every now and then they release (hi-res) images of the movie, which are posted at fansites like mugglenet and leaky. They also release different trailers. Even non-HP lovers have seen an image or two by now.
Now let's compare with, say, Princess and the Frog. How many official images have been released so far? About 3. How many trailers have we watched? One. AND that is only in the US. Over here, the trailer hasn't been screened anywhere. So it's almost Februrary, and NO ONE, except real Disney fans, is aware that Princess and the Frog exists. My advice: release more stuff on the Disney offical sites much earlier! sneak-peeks, images, videos, (well designed and creative) wallpapers, all is fair and good. Also, look for serious Disney fansites and contact them, and send them images to post and distribute. The trailers and sneak peeks can also be shown on TV (it worked with HSM3!). Go to comic conventions and give away printed versions of images, there's a whole fanbase there that can be exploited.

2. Merchandise. Like I said, it's almost February and I haven't seen one single thing for Bolt to buy. In the 90's one of the marketing tricks that worked best was having McDonalds sell toys related to the soon-to-be released animated picture. I know Disney doesn't have dealings with McD anymore, but there are other foods they can use, like cereals. Or they can simply start selling merchandise in stores a few months before the movie is released.

3. Posters and 3D displays are nice... if displayed early. While I thought this 3D display of Bolt I saw at the cinema was cool, it appeared like 2 weeks before the movie was released, whereas displays of Madagascar 2 had been put up months ago. Same with Kung-Fu Panda, really. Long before Wall-e was even mentioned at the movies, displays of Po adorned half the movie theatres of the country.

4. Other countries are your friends. whatever you do to advertise in the end, please don't limit it to the USA. Those cool Special Edition DVDs would be much appreciated in other countries too (adding their respective dubbing and/or subtitling to localize the product a bit). Those TV spots you might do can also be shown on TV in the rest of the world one or 2 months before the release (in each country).

Sorry if I wrote such a long comment, but your question came at a very crucial time, when I had been actually asking myself what made Bolt not do as well as it could have (sparkly vampires aside). I really want this return to 2D to work and be a huge success.

PS Hey, and if we can see Up at the Superbowl, couldn't we see Princess and the Frog at some other big event too?