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Advertising Marketing PR, Mobile, Movie Marketing, Movie Marketing Madness, Online, Outdoor, Social Media, Television

Movie Marketing Madness: Ride Along 2

ride_along_twoI was surprised a while ago when rewatching “Undeclared” to see a very young Kevin Hart on the show. Hart makes a half-dozen or so appearances on the show as someone on campus who is all about Jesus and is trying to get Jay Baruchel’s Steve to read the Bible as a way to fix all his problems. Looking at his fimography this was one of Hart’s first “big” roles and looks like it led to not only more gigs with Judd Apatow and friends but also to more roles and jobs in general for Hart.

7,346 roles later (and that’s just in 2014), Hart is reteaming with Ice Cube for Ride Along 2. Where the first movie has Ben (Hart) trying to get James (Cube) to like him because Ben is dating James’ sister Angela (Tika Sumpter), now Ben is working on becoming a cop like Ben. Not only that but he and Angela are about to be married. But an assignment takes Ben and James down to Miami to investigate a drug dealer who’s supplying product to the gangs in Atlanta. Hilarity ensues.

The Posters

There’s not a lot to the one poster design-wise. Hart and Cube are standing in front of a fancy sports car looking at each other, Hart with a goofy grin on his face, Cube with one of exasperated disbelief. In the background – and oddly in black-and-white – are palm trees and water which establish the location as somewhere in Florida.

It’s alright since it’s mostly just meant to make the audience aware the movie is coming. If you’re a fan of Hart, Cube or the first movie then this is all you need to know, that another installment is on its way and that it promises the same kind of humor and relationships as the first one.

The Trailers

The first trailer opens up with Ben interrupting an undercover operation James is running and ruining it of course. We then move to some setup about Ben and Angela’s impending wedding, which involves Ben trying (and failing because he gets hit in the head by a ceiling fan) to intimidate the wedding planner. Finally we move to the main story as Ben and James are sent to Miami to investigate the drug dealer, which leads to all sorts of mayhem and problems. The two, along with their local partner Cruz (played by Olivia Munn) go undercover at a party and more as part of their investigation, which threatens the timing of Ben and Angela’s wedding.

It’s not bad and, kind of like the poster, is just meant to show off the broad strokes of the movie to the fans who are already inclined to see it. If you’re a fan of Hart in particular then this will be right up your alley since it looks like the humor is absolutely in line with most of his other movies. Most of the gags come from him being the fish who’s out of water or from his diminutive stature and tendency to overcompensate for not being seen as cool.

The second trailer wasn’t too different from the first. It still opens with scenes about Hart’s upcoming wedding and how he’s getting more involved in being a police officer. The big difference here is we see some additional scenes from the mission in Miami, which doesn’t go too well for Hart’s character.

I’ll admit to genuinely laughing when Ice Cube pulls Hart back up to purposely use him and his bulletproof vest as a shield. Hart’s reaction to that is pretty great.

Online and Social

The official website opens with the second trailer playing in a pop up window and when you close that there are big buttons prompting you to either watch it again or buy tickets.

You can scroll down and see the collection of images, GIFs and videos – the site is built on Tumblr – or you can sort them by the menu at the top. The images at least have some movie branding if not some other text overlaid on them. And the GIFs most have text on them as well.

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The only other section is “About,” which has a short synopsis along with a cast list.

The movie also had a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Those profiles were smartly recycled from the first installment.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

There was a bit of TV advertising done with spots like this one that essentially condensed the trailers and pulled out what the marketers felt were the strongest gags. So they’re light on plot, just giving the barest of outlines about the mission to Miami and Ben’s upcoming wedding and sticking to Hart getting kicked, punched and otherwise punished.

I’m sure there was online advertising done as well though I didn’t see any of it myself.

In terms of cross-promotions, Lyft signed on and ran a contest offering a trip to the movie’s Miami premiere. That was about it.

Media and Publicity

There was a bit of press like this story where the two leads talked about how much fun they had working together again and so on, but that’s about it. The cast went on a brief tour to talk about the movie in local outlets that I’m sure generated coverage in those cities and which was promoted on the film’s social channels but outside of that and the Miami premiere I don’t see a big press push here.

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Overall

As I mentioned a few times above, the point of the campaign is not necessarily to sell anyone on any particular plot point or story element. It’s not even to sell the target audience on there being much of a story at all. No, the main point of the campaign is just to make the audience aware there’s a new movie and promise that if they enjoyed the first one this new installment will feature much of what they liked a couple years ago. Hart and Cube are here to make sure everyone has a good time and let’s not pay too much attention to the thin drapings of a plot.

With that in mind, the campaign sells the movie well. It promises lots of jokes at Hart’s expense, Cube acting like a hardass cop and all of that taking place in beautiful locations. My guess is there aren’t very many surprises in the movie itself since the trailers play so broadly I can’t imagine they don’t telegraph 80% of the story. It’s not bad if this kind of comedy is your thing, and like I said I laughed at a couple of the gags in the trailers. If you’re inclined to enjoy broad action comedies like this the campaign makes a strong case for you to see it in theaters this weekend.

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