7 of The Cleverest Marketing Campaigns For Films
It might seem like a film's success is solely due to its artistic quality and the talents of the writers, directors, and actors. But if we take a look at the insane marketing stunts pulled off by some of the most successful productions, the marketing team start to seem like artists themselves.
Cloverfield (2008)
Cloverfield’s claim to success as a franchise didn’t begin with a terrifying found footage film about an alien invasion, but with a genius marketing strategy. Before the film was released in 2008, footage from a home camera was released at the end of the Transformers trailer. It showed a party being attacked by something, with people screaming and the camera shaking. At the end of the clip, a single, shaky shot of the statue of liberty collapsing onto the street was shown with a release date - without the name of the film. This blew up on the internet, with people trying to figure out what film the clip belonged to. Eventually, people found websites of fictional companies trying to figure out what this monster is. The audience were eager to satisfy their built-up curiosity, so upon the film's release cinemas became packed; earning Cloverfield 171.3 million dollars at the box office as well as two sequels.
👉 Watch Cloverfield on Amazon Prime
👉 Buy Cloverfield as DVD on Amazon
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Given the success of the previous two films, a complex marketing campaign wasn’t needed to fill seats - but it certainly didn’t hurt. When youtube was at its peak, a random youtube channel appeared called MyCrazyCommertials. It showed real commercials from the 80s, which made the single commercial of a non-existent toy peak the internet's interest. The commercial was for Lots-O’-Huggin’ bear, a purple soft toy from the film. The commercial was modelled in a way that gave it an authentic 80s look, appealing to adults who would find it nostalgic of their childhood.
👉 Watch Toy Story 3 on Amazon Prime
👉 Buy Toy Story 3 as DVD on Amazon
The Dark Knight (2008)
Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated film is another one that didn’t need to go through the lengths it did with its marketing, but it certainly punched up the buzz around the film and offered passionate fandoms an immersive experience. Before the film’s release, the agency 42 Entertainmeant released the “Why So Serious?” campaign in which they created an online and offline “The Dark Knight” themed world. In order to avoid any negative conversation about Heath Ledger playing the Joker, rather than Jack Nicholson, the marketing team began the campaign by releasing images of Heath Ledger in Joker make-up online - in the most creative way possible. First, they created a campaign website for Harvey Dent called IBelieveInHarveyDent.com. They started placing Joker cards that said “I believe in Harvey Dent too” in random places in the world's biggest comic book shops. Eventually, a picture of the Harvey Dent poster that had been tagged by the Joker was found on the fictional campaign website, which said “Hey…if you want to make your vote really count, give me your email.” With every email given on the website, a new pixel would start to reveal the first image of the Joker. The team released even more scavenger hunts, and the campaign ended with the climax of jets writing a phone number in the sky which called a recording of a fake hostage situation.
👉 Watch The Dark Knight on Amazon Prime
👉 Buy The Dark Knight as DVD on Amazon
Jurassic World (2015)
In order to keep the interest of fans of the original films and to garner new audiences, Jurassic world concocted a marketing strategy that would do just that. The marketing team created a promotional website for Jurassic World - as in, for the actual fictional theme park - that had maps of the park as well as dinosaur facts. The clever thing about the website is that every click that brings you closer to buying a ticket to the theme park, actually brings you closer to buying a ticket for the film. It certainly proved to be effective, seeing as they smashed at the box office with 1.6 billion dollars.
👉 Watch Jurassic World on Amazon Prime
👉 Buy Jurassic World as DVD on Amazon
Scream (1996)
The secret to this horror flick's huge success is due to Drew Barrymore not being cast as the lead. Originally, the creators wanted Drew Barrymore to play the lead since she was a big name at the time, but she thought differently. She didn’t like the trope of the ‘hero’ in horror films surviving at the end, so she asked if she could play the character that gets murdered in the first twelve minutes. Scream was marketed as a film with Drew Barrymore as a lead, resulting in fans flocking to the cinema when it was released. It might seem a little deceptive and tacky on the marketing team's end, but it made the viewing experience far more enthralling. As well as having a huge twist at the end, it also had one in the very beginning - and there is no genre better suited to have a twist than horror. The marketing gimmick is one of the reasons the film got so much praise from critics, since the cheekiness of it is fitting to the film's satirical and tongue-in-cheek nature.
👉 Watch Scream on Amazon Prime
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)
Using social media as a marketing tool for a film is nothing significant, but Pitch Perfect 2 was the first film to be promoted on snapchat. The cast of the film would post pictures of selfies on set, garnering 300,000 followers. The reason this was so successful is because the marketing team knew their audience were mostly females in their teens to early twenties - the predominant users of snapchat.
👉 Watch Pitch Perfect 2 on Amazon Prime
👉 Buy Pitch Perfect 2 as DVD on Amazon
Deadpool
During production, Fox cut the film's budget which left little for marketing - but that didn’t stop Deadpool’s marketing strategy from making it trump Captain America and Ant-Man’s box office numbers. They started by creating cheap billboards, advertising the film's name with skull-poop-L emojis. Billboards usually have quick snappy slogans so that a general audience can read it while passing, which is what make’s Deadpool’s billboards so unique, as it leaves people questioning what film is being advertised. Since the film was released around valentine's days, a lot of billboards marketed the film as a rom-com, with a cheesy picture of a couple in a park. Duped couples would go into cinema’s thinking they were going to see some light-hearted, on screen romance when in reality they were going to see a blood-fest of violence. They even made a tinder profile for Deadpool, scraping the barrel of their low marketing budget. Just like Scream, Deadpool’s marketing strategy proved to be effective due to its cheekiness which is at the heart of the film itself.
