Get People Talking

To coax audiences into the theater this weekend, Fox is launching a wide range of promotions for items including a wide range of promotions for items including a Robots Pop-Tart. It's also making a heavy merchandise play, licensing the creation of some 10 children's books related to the movie, a coffee-table book on its making, action figures of Rodney and his friends, and a video game. Selling the movie, says Fox's co-president of marketing, Pam Levine, "is really about creating an event for the general audience and telling them how much we believe in the movie."

This quote is from Thursday's The Wall Street Journal article [sub. needed] about Robots, Fox's new animated film.

This stuff drives me nuts. If you think you have produced a good movie (book, album, product, service,...), the market is going to decide quickly whether or not it is good. Anyone who is going to see Robots opening weekend knew it was opening this weekend without the cross-promotion at Burger King and Verizon. Those folks are going to say yea or nay and that is going to determine the success of the movie. Scoble said at Blog Business Summit that he could see The Incredibles DVD was going to be enormously successful by looking at all the blogs they have talked about how great the movie is.

Word of mouth is the most important form marketing that exists now. I don't understand why companies don't understand that. Produce a compelling product, let your biggest fans experience it, and news will spread. Maybe, the problem is there is so much money invested in these projects that companies believe they have to spend lots of money to "make sure" the projects are successful.

We are going to see Robots today. You'll see word-of-mouth marketing in action (or not).

Comments

[Fred Faulkner]

Todd,

I agree completely with what you are saying. I also think that senior managers or CEOs are just not up to speed with the Web and what it can do...or maybe they are(?). Word of mouth marketing is a great resource in any marketers tool kit. It endorses, and propagates fast, especially online. The problem is that it can be the double edged sword and word of mouth can kill a project as well. I don't think marketers can take that chance so they have to make deals for for corporate sponsors and the such.

My wife and I are also going to see Robots. Can't wait to read your review. Also, I'll see you at LexThink! in April.
--Fred