To promote the upcoming Ultimate Avengers DVD release, Lions Gate and Marvel Comics are ramping up the marketing efforts. Not only will comics shops get artwork-quality posters but there will be a massive TV/print/online/DVD effort. The DVD of The Fantastic Four will feature a trailer, as will other Lion’s Gate releases. Cartoon Network and other stations popular with young-to-older boys will be targeted with TV spots and, of course Marvel titles and other print outlets will have print ads. Additionally, sites that focus on gaming as well as the large portals will have ads for the movie. I’m assuming when the article says ads will appear on Google they mean through AdWords keyword buys.
Monthly Archives: November 2005
Narnia cereal tie-in
In the U.K., cereal boxes from Nestle will include figurines of the characters from The Chronicles of Narnia. Those figures turn colors to resemble stone when placed in the freezer and then turn back when taken out and breathed on, apparently mimicing an aspect of the movie/story. I agree with Mack, this is kind of a cool idea, but I’m not sure how much replay value this feature actually has.
Deep Sea 3D poster
I have numerous problems with the poster for Deep Sea 3D, the new IMAX film trying to do for underwater life what March of the Penguins did for…err…penguins. In no particular order:
- It would have been much more effective if it had used an actual shot from the movie and not a collage of images that look they were cut out of a National Geographic magazine.
- “Sea life…” meaning the same thing as “see life…”. That’s lame, sorry.
- Why not just go the full nine yards and put a clown fish on the poster to attract the Finding Nemo crowd?
- Kind of looks animated and not like real animals. That just bugs me.
MMM Quick Takes: 11/29/05
I may not have time today for a series of posts but there was some good stuff waiting out there that I wanted to pass along.
- Boston.com posted a slide show of the history of Aeon Flux that deals with not only the upcoming movie but the entire run of the character. (via Jeffery Wells)
- Speaking of Flux, the latest Netflix envelope ad was for the movie. Fellow WIN blogger Dave Zatz has more.
- Check out this “Image Roundup” at Cinematical for a whole bunch of neat trailers and images and such.
- That nine-minute Narnia preview that aired on Starz! is online at a New Zealand TV station’s site. Don’t ask.
- Check out these two new TV spots at ComingSoon for Wolf Creek.
- There’s a new teaser trailer available for Cars, the upcoming movie from Pixar.
- A second trailer has been released for Pulse, that horror/thriller from The Weinstein Co.
- I haven’t watched it yet, but if you want to see the trailer for Take the Lead, about mixing hip-hop and ballroom dancing, here it is.
- One final trailer for you today, this one for Luc Besson’s Angel A.
Ant Bully teaser trailer
Kind of funny teaser trailer for The Ant Bully, a new animated flick from Warner Bros. The spot shows a series of ants and other insects auditioning for the film, each with some sort of wacky personality or characteristic. Not bad, but the character design looks awfully similar to that in Antz.
Today's Narnia round-up
Anyone else suffering from Narnia marketing burnout?
First today there’s a story over at Cinematical on how Disney is playing to not only U.S. but also U.K churches to market Narnia. Just like on this side of the pond Disney is reaching out to church and religous groups with information on the film and it’s religous symbolism in order to tap into the now-powerful evangelical market.
Secondly, Constantin Basturea pointed me to this WSJ article about just how fine-tuned the grassroots approach has been for the flick. In addition to mass-marketing Narnia, Disney is reaching out to many tiny niche markets for support.
Both are good reads if you’re interested.
What's the point of all the Geisha tie-ins?
That’s the question adfreak is asking. Not only is the box-office future of the in doubt (I’ve heard it referred to often as “cold” and so slow-moving it puts you to sleep) but it’s also an adult flick. Tie-ins for adult movies aren’t quite as sure a thing as those for those appealing to kids, though those also have not been faring well lately. The point is that adults aren’t quite as likely to say “ooo, cool!” and run right out for a Memoirs of a Geisha-themed product since they have less disposable income and more entrenched buying habits.
Pulse viral site launched
Deep Focus has launched a viral site for the upcoming film Pulse from The Weinstein Co. Pulse is the story of a group of friends who begin receiving strange electronic messages from a dead friend. Eventually they discover the dead are trying to come back to life via internet connections and other electrical conduits. (I reviewed the trailer here.)
The site, titled you are now infected, is stocked with videos and pictures but has room for more. Ian Schafer, who dropped me an email about this launch and who is the president of Deep Focus, says the site will evolve between now and the movies launch date of March 3, 2006. This is a pretty cool site and hopefully will get a bunch of buzz for the flick.
By the way, the movie stars Kristen Bell, star of Veronica Mars which I just started watching on DVD. Fantastic show. I’ve only watched the first three episodes and I’m completely hooked.
Movie radio ads
Martha Fischer has a funny post at Cinematical about radio ads for movies. In general I think they work astoundingly badly and I often turn them off and switch to another station (or my iPod). Movies are visual, radio’s not. Do the math.
Day Watch posters
JoBlo posted a series of character-centric posters for Day Watch, the sequel to the as-yet-unreleased-in-the-states Russian fantasy flick Night Watch. I have little to no idea who these characters are or what the movie’s really about but I know a good portion of you out there are into the horror/fantasy genre so I thought I’d pass it along.
