Blockbuster Social Media

As an admitted movie freak, I love summer. As a not-so-closeted lover of all big-budget, terribly cheesey, shoot 'em up badass popcorn action flicks? I adore summer. Right around Memorial Day the best of the blockbusters start to roll through theaters. This summer was the summer of the "threequels," with Pirates of the Carribean, Ocean's 13, Spiderman 3, and Shrek the Third all landing in theatres, along with the fourth Die Hard. Movies this big often hardly even need a marketing campaign (I didn't know anyone who wasn't planning on seeing the last Pirates movie); they practically did all the marketing they needed to when they left the end of the second film as a cliffhanger. But what about social media? Which movies, "summer popcorn movies" or not, launched some of the better social media campaigns?

I picked a few movies and set out to rate their social media savvy in terms of marketing. Who do you think did a great job luring the 2.0 community out of their mom's basements (I kid, I kid!) and into theater seats this summer? Who did the worst?

My take:

The Simpsons Movie: A+

As I wrote in a post on Blogstring earlier this month, I've hardly seen such a clever effort to win over fans with social media. The show's writers and creators clearly had a hand here, not that marketers can't be funny and clever...but some of this stuff has a certain panache.  Simpsons took a relatively traditional and mundane marketing tool, the promotional collaboration with fast-food companies or other sponsors, and turned it into sheer (hilarious) entertainment. You're telling me you haven't gone to the Burger King "Simpsonize Me" page yet? Or, if you don't have a usable photo, you can build your own Simpsons character right on the movie's homepage. Even more delightful, the show's menacing Mr. Burns "hacked" JetBlue CEO David Neeleman's blog, ranting about JetBlue's low prices and friendly customer service.  I'm especially fond of his post urging Neeleman to "limit snack dispersal." The cake taker, however, is the Flickr gallery of photos of a "Kwiki-Marted" 7-11. While maybe not the most extensive campaign I've seen, this one accomplished best what the actual goal is: it made me want to see the movie more.

The Bourne Ultimatum: B

Speaking of airline promotions, ever wonder how many frequent flyer miles spies rack up flying all over the world (I always miss the Indiana Jones style maps showing the little plane icon moving our hero from Belize to Belarus)? Well, American Airlines has teamed with The Bourne Ultimatum and Mastercard to offer a sweepstakes. The grand prize being Jason Bourne's frequent flier miles. Guess how many he has correctly on their interactive map, and take them all home. When I first discovered this campaign (via some spammy mail due to a flight I have booked on American), I scoffed that it wasn't anywhere near as interesting as Mr. Burns "hijacking" the JetBlue blog. Digging deeper, the Bourne people seem to have their social media act together (the film's utter lack of a MySpace page notwithstanding). Other goodies include "Create Your Own Trailer" mashups (cool!), and a multimedia "Search for Bourne" contest, utilizing  a fancy-looking platform with special "surveillance" maps and video footage, "encrypted messages" and other tools to help you track down Jason Bourne. It actually all almost seems too complicated, otherwise their campaign might've gotten a little closer to an A. Again, as you'll see in my next example, sometimes "less is more." This campaign wasn't as far reaching, but it definitely assured my butt would be in a seat come August 3 (well okay, that and Matt Damon).

Transformers - C

First, major tip of my hat to Chris at Movie Marketing Madness, whose extensively detailed post on this movie was where I got most of my info. I also tend to agree with him that the marketing campaign here is so extensive there isn't even any point comparing to anything else, but I think pointing out that the campaign is somewhat lacking in the social media department has merit. Transformers started early, sponsoring a MySpace application a few months back, and of course hosting their own MySpace page (hardly a revolutionary idea) that includes various bells and whistles, content you can download to your own page, wallpaper, profiles backgrounds, etc. Elsewhere, I enjoyed the game available on the movie's sountrack site, matching up performers with the scenes in the movie their songs appear in, but it was a bit "meh" in the end. What's the point? The movie's online presence is extensive, sure, but it lacks the social media element: where's the interaction? Signing up to be either a Decepticon or an Autobot on MySpace doens't really cut it, and the multimedia available on the movie's official website is barely acceptable. There is some good stuff out there from the movie's heavy promotional ties to General Motors, and I was impressed by the "covering an entire LA skyscraper in a poster," but I definitely wasn't bowled over. Am I being too critical? It did seem from the beginning that the movie lacked a certain blogosphere savvy, as Paramount feuded with Movie Blog author John Campea. Oh well. None of this, of course, has hurt the film's box office take; I just hope Michael Bay isn't too upset when he reads this...

Ratatouille: D

I could be being too harsh here...but perhaps my hopes were too high. Disney got a lot of ink this year for its highly anticipated new website design; it used a lot of widgets in some of the earlier promotions for both this film and Pirates. Disney CEO Bob Iger has a close relationship with Steve Jobs. Would a few shiny objects have been too much to ask for here? Maybe Jobs didn't want to help becuase the film premiered the same day as his long-awaited iPhone. The movie's official site has a lot of content, games for kids, photos...but it's all the same stuff you see everywhere (I do admit to enjoying the "Remy Recipe a Day" downloadable app, however, so all is not lost). The MySpace page? Same deal. They do offer a "podcast" on the page (it's really a vidcast) available through both MySpace and iTunes (there you are, Jobs!) that seems to amount to little more than what you could find on DVD extras. Interesting, for sure, but definitely left me wanting more.

So, what do you think? Am I being too harsh, too lenient? What are some of your favorite social media elements as some of the summer's biggest movies launch?

Comments

[Chris Thilk]

"...but I think pointing out that the campaign is somewhat lacking in the social media department has merit."

No, you're absolutely right, that's completely worth mentioning. Personally it's something that's so consistently missing, though, that even I forget to mention it. Thanks's for picking up the spare on that.

[Sarah Wurrey]

No, thank YOU for such a detailed post on that particular movie--this post took forever to craft as it is, without your post I could have been here all night!

:)

I agree that social media is consistently missing. Considering how much I enjoyed their other online campaigns, I was blown away that Jason Bourne doesn't have an official MySpace page--there are a couple fan pages, but that's it. Adn the Transformers and Ratatouille MySpace pages are basically just extensions of their official sites; nothing really all that interesting.