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

[mgafm.livejournal.com]

Depends on the product. Massive amounts of information and ease of access to other people who are interested usually get my attention.

Facebook can be really good for that. Start a fan group, make sure you get some people in it, get someone maybe involved with the film to post a thing or two and get some behind the scenes art or pictures. That draws me in to things I'm not even that interested in.

As for not liking? Anything with sound on the webpage or ad.

[caliypsoe.livejournal.com]

I remember the internet marketing for Dark Knight being really creative and cool. (Definitely got me excited for it.) It began with these random web pages for different aspects of Gotham City. (Elect Harvey Dent, newspaper of Gotham etc.) And then the Joker started "hacking" these sites to spread his message. And then things started happening offline too. \http://www.superherohype.com/news.php?id=5710 Eventually the Joker websites convinced fans to go out and basically advertise for the film by doing his bidding.

Here's some of them:
http://whysoserious.com/
http://ibelieveinharveydent.warnerbros.com/
http://www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com/ (Highlight the page)
http://www.seeyouindecember.com/

Here's more about the marketing: http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/mar/30/entertainment/chi-0330_knightmar30

I think that if the marketing is interactive and presents a mystery for people to solve, it will have more success. :)

Lol Spam and "pay to see" previews turn me off.

[ledygrey.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you watch LOST or not. During the summer of 2006, the creators launched this Alternate Reality Game (ARG) which expanded LOST mythology by hiding clues all over the internet. The three countries that "hosted" the ARG were the US, UK, and Australia. I've never been quite so excited about anything on the internet before. Corporate sponsors jumped in, so monster.com, jeep, and sprite helped hide clues on their websites, which was fantastic marketing for them. The wiki page has a list of all the "in-game" websites.

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lost_Experience

[ledygrey.livejournal.com]

.... which is basically everything caliypsoe said right before me ...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's good to get the same ideas from a number of people, that just proves how popular they are. :)

[phonixa.livejournal.com]

I thought the marketing that Coraline is doing is rather interesting. They chose 50 people to send trunks to, full of props and information about the movie.

http://fashion-piranha.livejournal.com/40454.html?mode=reply

And they each received a password unlocking little featurettes about how the movie was made. I think almost all of them have posted their passwords online, so everyone has access to them.

While i doubt Disney would do the same, it is a very interesting idea, and I thought quite novel.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

I like easily-available trailers and promo materials, on a well designed website. On the other hand, interactive games and contests that let fans work towards uncovering photos or other promotional tidbits give the build-up an exciting, interactive feel. See the commenter above me for a recap of the amazing Dark Knight campaign. HBO's "True Blood" also had a pretty good one, with mock-advertising posters for an in-show blood drink being plastered on the streets, and then "vandalized" by anti-vampire zealots.

Interviews and production diaries from the technical staff, not just the actors, are always amazing. It's fun to see how all the parts of the movie come together, and how an individual department can interpret or put their own spin on a certain part of a feature.

[linda-lupos.livejournal.com]

Don't like: being bombarded with always the same stuff, 'lazy' advertising (= always the same pictures, always emphasis on the same actors/characters).

Like: interaction! :D Like The Dark Knight, interaction with the world (websites by/about characters) or Coraline's boxes. Things that make it seem REAL, not just a movie. Also interaction in the sense of puzzles to solve to get extra snippets (TDK's trailer clues: solve the puzzle, go to a location and see a new trailer, some of which were even more unique that others (Jokerized); Lemony Snicket's online puzzles to get clues about the next book (that didn't really tell you anything of course!)), but of course with the caveat that you don't HAVE to solve the puzzle to enjoy the film/book. I also loved Dr Horrible's later idea that you could send in a video job application for the Evil League of Evil. It encourages fans to join in the fun!

TDK's viral marketing was one of the best I've seen since.... ever. :)

[raddishh.livejournal.com]

I agree with mgafm; I go NUTS when I see concept art! I can think of at least 3 movies I didn't care at all about until I found some concept art online that completely changed my mind.

Also, Phonixa mentioned Coraline, which I TOTALLY agree with. That site also has this little treasure hunting game where you click around the site to find keys, and even though it's a little elementary I didn't care and played around with it a little.

Also, free clips on iTunes. If it sounds even vaguely interesting, I will download anything that's free on iTunes. I really liked the one about the making of Hellboy II; it wasn't that spoilerish, and we got to see the costumes and sets (which were obviously cool since it was Guillermo del Toro, but I think I'd be happy to see any costumes and sets for anything since I find it so interesting.) Watchmen has also had some cool internet stuff up like the contest on Youtube to make a Veidt commercial (I watched all of the winners and had a lot of fun with that) and a production diaries that showed the level of detail going into the movie.

WHEW. Sorry for the novel!

[phonixa.livejournal.com]

(i meant more about the sending of props and such to random people. WHILE ID LOVE to have concept art from lets say Princess and the Frog, its doubtful that they would send real copies around lol)

I still have a tiny piece of Lion King reel that was in this animation kit i got when i was ten. LOL. (Banzai laughing, its not too interesting lol)

[poisonedwriter.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite things before a movie comes out is behind-the-scenes stuff for people to share with other. I really liked some of the Pixar promos for Ratatouille where Brad Bird talked about the story line and the inspiration for the film. It was accessible and easy to share with others through embedding it in your blog, so that was very nice. It was a nice way for people who were probably going to go see the movie anyway to get involved in the more detailed and passionate parts of the film before more material of that nature was released.

[tony-cliff.livejournal.com]

Good reviews.

Apologies for being flippant. :P

[aspectabund.livejournal.com]

Ah, you neglect to mention some of the other fascinating marketing Coraline is doing! Like a random house having Coraline keys stapled all over it, and how you could possibly win one of a thousand custom Coraline Nike dunks from entering a password you get by watching it in the theatre. My favourite is that I've heard tell of parts of subway walls being painted so that, as the subway goes by, it animates. I assume that the bars inbetween windows act as natural shutters here. That would certainly be interesting to see!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They've got a series of screens between Hollywood/Highland and Universal City Station on LA's red line that do the same, and it is pretty neat. I saw a Wall-E ad there. Somehow actual physical paintings (or even prints) is more impressive, though ...

[aspectabund.livejournal.com]

Interactivity is grand. Even if I personally am not interacting, the idea of it is pleasing to me. Video-making is a good one, like the auditions for the Evil League of Evil, or like making adverts to actually appear in the Watchmen movie.

Of course, by far the best method is to simply have a REALLY good trailer. Like Iron Man, or Dark Knight, or Watchmen. Just get a good editor on the job, stick it online, and the internet will take care of the rest, haha.

[(Anonymous)]

YES THIS. The "alternate reality" thing was exactly what I first thought of when I read your journal. So I second, or maybe third this suggestion.

-salamandersoup, who is being sneaky at work

[pressrecord.livejournal.com]

When advertisers use little one question polls as ads on sites I have to answer it. Even to that Bride Wars movie that I will never ever go see, but I think it definitely adds some interest. Who knows, that question might enlighten someone about the film.

Ads that are centered around one aspect of the film like the "Pedro for President" shirts and ads from Napoleon Dynamite, or when I'd see random Team Edward/Team Jacob stuff from Twilight before I knew anything about them or got obsessed. I'd keep seeing stuff online like on a facebook group and think "who the hell are edward and jacob?"

Also ads involving information about elements of a film or such. Like if it's a movie about cats, an ad that includes a fact about cats or a kind of cat then goes into the ad, then has a different fact each time is very attention grabbing.

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Things I like: Animated cursors, loud noises coming from nowhere. I REALLY like those ads that take up a big part of the screen when you mouseover a smaller add and move over other parts of the screen when you are trying to read the other part of the screen. Oh, oh, and "close" icons on those moving things that DON'T WORK. I love those.

I HATE behind the scenes videos like the ones from "Princess and the Frog." Particularly when they feature people who think they are cool. Like Directors who think they have all the neat ideas and don't listen to other people.

The "Bolt" site was really cool because it had this great front end but was refreshingly content-light.

You know, actually releasing, like, merchandise before the movie is released, or even soon after it is released is a terrible idea too.

[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?

[fani.livejournal.com]

I always like it when Disney actually markets their movies like they're just movies. Beauty and the Beast promo comes to mind. It may be a Disney movie but it's still a movie. It's not like as if Pixar markets their movies like YET ANOTHER PIXAR MOVIE. They may say, from the makers of so and so but they treat each movie like its own entity. You don't see live action movies going, HEY GANG, IT'S (insert studio name) 'S NEW ILM!

What I don't like is that whole promo effort where they say "Brand new DISNEY MAGIC!", "Brand new DISNEY CHARACTERS!", "Brand new DISNEY SONGS!" you get the idea. Those are OBNOXIOUS. And the Disney trailer voice guy is a bit too cheerful IMHO. A new trailer voice guy would be nice.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It's not like as if Pixar markets their movies like YET ANOTHER PIXAR MOVIE.

Um ... actually ... I thought that's exactly what they DO do. Both the Wall-E and Up teasers spend at least half the time reminding you how much you like Pixar movies. The Cars teaser, if I remember correctly, consisted mostly of the logos of past Pixar movies fading in and out to the sound of racecars. Their biggest selling point is their track record.

[seancovernton.livejournal.com]

Good marketing is good content. Beyond the necessary trailers and poster campaigns, it's nice to see content provided for those people who have an interest in the process of the film, both to reassure the audience that what might be special to them is being treated with respect and to fulfill their curiosity. Newline did a great job of this with Fellowship of the Ring. Right off the bat they went out of the way to provide a real glimpse into the film making process and the genuine passion that Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor had for the project. For example in a Disney film. Good content is rough animation tests, talks with the animators and artists about the challenges of the film. REAL talks not clips of them talking about how the process of animation works. Bad content is poorly designed flash games and "Explore the castle to find cumbersome image galleries that take FOREVER to navigate through" features. Oh and a personal pet peeve, celebrities talking about technical aspects of the film about which they know nothing. The difference between the two is the art IN the Disney films, and the dreadful, gaudy, off-model, vacant-eyed renditions they have their marketing department produce for posters and DVD covers. One of the two has content.

I expect radical changes to take place starting tomorrow.

GO

[fani.livejournal.com]

...bad example ^^"

but you get the idea though...

[hyel.livejournal.com]

Movies:
If I'm bored and want to see what's going to be in the movies, I go to apple.com/trailers. This is because film websites are without exception laden with tons of Flash and not nearly enough info, and what they do have is difficult to access. (However if the website is as gorgeous and inventive as the one for The Golden Compass, I go mad for the film - but that's only ever happened with The Golden Compass.) If I'm browsing and see a banner ad for a movie, and I see spirals or something fantasy or witchypoo done in dark or earthy colours, I am intrigued. A fellow looking sternly at the screen with a generic title and black and white background - I always give it a pass.

Generally and for anything else:
I almost always hear about anything fannable first on Livejournal. And NOT in the LJ ads.

Any pop-up I of course always click shut without looking at it, because it's annoying. Any banner that asks you to "click on a monkey" or "win €2000" I give a pass to. Blinking banners, same thing. (Softly switching animation is fine.) Anything in my email is an instant delete. Other than that, banners are fine, and an eye-catching one I might well click.

Gorgeous stills do more to spark first interest than trailers, because you have to wait for a trailer.

[flamingbentley.livejournal.com]

i concur with the dark knight interactivity! i was really upset i missed out on the game while it was going on.

more generally, what i don't like in movie trailers - and what's bound to kill any enthusiasm for me - is when they give away the whole plot of the film in the trailer.. like the third mummy movie, or more recently, bedtime stories.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

I am a fan of world-building audience participation. Websites where you get, you know, "what would you do in this universe" etc. Some worlds are awesome enough that you just DO it, like World War Z - I know I'm writing my own damn zombie contingency plan. But the ones that don't jump in your face so much can still have something to make you imagine being an ordinary person in that story, an innocent bystander as it were - e.g. a cheery!version superhero movie could give you a chance to stick your own "eyewitness report" into a newspaper article about a hero/villain sighting/battle/rescue.

[caliypsoe.livejournal.com]

I thought of another example I enjoyed participating in. Before the NBC show Crusoe premiered, NBC fenced in an area outside of their studio, furnished it like an island treehouse and had a guy live there for a period of time. (Three days or so maybe?) They had him on a live webcam for the internet audiences and the internet could vote to make him do things. He also had a Twitter account which was updated often. (Twitter = good advertising. ^^) XD

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

You have spoken my mind for me.

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Content-light, like the "Frog" official site that now has one, ONE, *ONE* image in the "Gallery." Come on people, how about linking those interviews you've got on the animation site at least. And dudes, you don't put a long paragraph's worth of text in initial caps for goodness sake. CENTERED!

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Go to the official “Frog” site at: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/

First, no release date on the home page.

Take the survey at the bottom of the page. 34 pages! Wha???!!! Navigate to the box where they as you what you didn’t like about the site. Start typing. Whoops! You can’t even enter three lines of text. There’s a character limit for input, but the limit is far lower than the size of the box would lead you to believe and the error message you get when you exceed the character limit doesn’t tell you what the error is, just that there is an error. You just keep typing and typing and when you navigate out of the box, you get the error. VERY poor design. Who tests this stuff?

The survey asks questions such as “Have you seen this movie yet?” That screams “Big Corporate cookie-cutter mentality.” IT’S OUT NEXT CHRISTMAS, HOW COULD I HAVE SEEN IT?

The text in the Story box uses a sans serif font in INITIAL CAPS, centered. Holy cow, who makes these design decisions?

The official “The Princess and the Frog” web site is a poster child for bad marketing and poor web site design. It's as if someone needed to put a check mark beside the "Created Web Site" entry in their marketing checklist.

[(Anonymous)]

Thou Shalt Not Reveal Important Plot Details a la Children of Men