My latest on The Drum covers the recent trend of celebration days being used to promote upcoming releases, particularly big tentpole franchise movies:
Recently, though, those studio marketing teams have focused efforts on some sort of “Day” that helps to promote the movie as well. These events usually have a few things in common: They take place in or around Los Angeles, they’re streamed live on YouTube, Facebook or both, they involve some sort of big stunt involving the cast and activities for those who are watching from elsewhere around the world.
The idea is to celebrate the property that has a movie about to hit theaters. The studios want to turn the upcoming release into something so huge it must be celebrated. By doing so they hope to create fan buzz and excitement as well as entertainment industry press coverage, all of which combines to more awareness and, hopefully, interest for the movie being promoted. These “Days” are stunts just like those pulled off by countless consumer products brands over the years when they have, to much fanfare, bought William Shatner’s kidney stone, announced Barbie had broken up with Ken and many, many more.
Source: Making a ‘day’ of movie marketing efforts | The Drum
