Finally a Movie Promotion Idea that Makes Sense
I promise this will be the last post about movie promotions for at least 2006. I wouldn’t have more than one right now if it weren’t for personal connections. The reason I’m writing today is that a nameless buddy of mine directed some promotional shorts for the new Ben Stiller movie, Mannequin, I mean Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, I mean Night at the Museum. Yes, that’s it.
Regardless of my feelings about the originality of this movie, I really like the promotion their using to raise awareness, and not just because my friend was involved. In fact, I worked with him on a couple outlines he presented to them, but they didn’t recognize my obvious brilliance, so I should just take my ball and go home instead of complimenting the contest.
But out of some combination of trying to be big enough to handle rejection and needing something to post about, I highlight A Night at the Museum‘s MySpace page.
Here’s the concept of the promotion: the movie’s about historical figures coming to life at night in the museum. So people are encouraged to shoot their own reject casting videos of historical figures trying to get a part in the movie.
That means that:
a. the contest is related to the movie
b. they’re not asking people to give testimonials for something they haven’t seen yet
c. they’re reaching a good number of people in the demographics likely to see the movie and in a medium (social networking, e.g. MySpace) where those people communicate with one another
d. I’m old. I know this because I don’t get the humor in the sample shorts that my friend directed. Well Marie Antionette’s wasn’t bad other than the awful “Let them have cake”, which I believe is actually attributable to one of the King Louies. In my defense, though, all of my buddy’s film work is unable to make me, or for that matter children on nitrous oxide, crack a smile.
e. altogether, it’s a good, relevant promotion that can get people excited about the new movie. Well played.
Regardless of my ancienticity, I can still appreciate this contest from a marketing perspective. It’s a good way to use social networking sites like MySpace to reach people before a movie premiers and get them excited about it.
