Recently we have so many trailers coming all at once. I can smell the marketing competition
alongside my Christmas candles.
The major mistake of many is to immediately judge the movie
because of the two T’s: teasers and trailers. Just because the marketing
strategy of the film was not that good, it does not necessarily mean that the
movie is going to be awful. Sometimes there is a good marketing and a bad
movie; other times there is bad marketing and good movies. The challenge most
of the time is to have the marketing part and the delivery of the product match
each other. If you can’t market your product well, no one is going to care about
it or worse, they’re going release negative word-of-mouth. I’ve been studying
marketing for quite some time and I think now is the time to put those
learnings to good use by analyzing the marketing strategies of the following
movies; Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Captain America: Civil War.
Here we shall see what went right and what went wrong, and what has caused us
to think this way.
Warning: DC and Marvel comparisons are present in this post,
but only for the sake to point out their marketing strategies. Please do not
assume that I am saying that the other entity is better than the other. Both
fandoms are great. Now let’s leave it at that.
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| superherohype.com |
Ok let’s be honest, not everyone was thrilled with the brand
new trailer of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Comments say it was
overstuffed. It gave away the entire plot and it was just plain disappointing.
Now the people who say this are mostly DC fans. Mostly. First thing you need to
know about marketing is that once you have a product in mind—in this case, a
movie that’s soon-to-be-a-franchise—you need to know your niche.
Side note: Marvel has the upper hand on this part now
because they’ve been doing so much movies already, and they know their audience
fairly well by now. As for DC…well, not so much. The only DCU films movie-goers
ever gave a shit about, were the Dark Knight Trilogy and The Man of Steel.
That’s just it. And these films were presumed to be independent of one another.
Basically, the DCU still doesn’t have a clue who their target market was until
the first official trailer, which was shown during Comic Con. If you think I’m
saying that they’re starting from scratch, then that’s I’m trying to point out.
Again, let us be reminded they’re not following the Marvel Studio formula where
you need three or five independent movies for each iconic Justice League
character. Compared to MCU, DCU still needs a lot of work at this point if they
intend to make it big as well in the Box Office.
Now they managed to succeed in the first trailer release,
because I don’t think it was not that bad. It shows everything you need to be
excited about. But since it is released just for Comic Con—and eventually the
World Wide Web, then my best assumption for this is that this very first
trailer was obviously meant to target the hardcore comic book and DC fans. The
second trailer was definitely not for the fans. That’s right fans who were so
disappointed in the second trailer; this wasn’t for you at all. It is meant for
a much more general audiences who aren’t that knowledgeable about the DC
universe. Like seriously, re-watch the trailer with a Twihard and ask if he or
she knows who Doomsday is, I effin’ dare you. He or she might assume Doomsday is like
the Justice League’s version of the Incredible Hulk. Back to my point, they want more people to watch this. They
probably want to recreate the miracle that occurred in Marvel Studios where people
were oblivious to the world of comics and came out of the theaters as converted
fans (Haha, don’t deny it. You’re one of those people too.). Simple as that.
But hey, what’s the point of making a good trailer for the
general audience if they show all the good parts?
Now that’s where they got confused.
When you market something, it’s like saying a promise. When
you buy this shampoo, I promise you that your hair will no longer have ticks.
When you buy this car, I promise you that the gas consumption of it will be
cheaper. The title of the movie alone delivers not one, but two promises. The
first promise of BvS is well…BvS. It promises a good fight scene between
Superman and Batman. The second promise lies on the Dawn of Justice part, which
simply means that this will be where the journey of the Justice League begins.
Now here is where the marketing team of BvS struggled. After knowing what
promise you want to tell your target market, that’s where you show your best
features. In this case, they have two major promises for the audiences and they
need to feature each somehow. This unfortunately caused the trailer to be
overstuffed. Basically, they weren’t sure what message to tell to the
audiences. They were simply torn if they should only talk about the Batman V
Superman fights or the emergence of the Justice League, because these are very
exciting concepts. So they probably panicked and showed both. Shoehorning
Doomsday because that’s their best feature for the Justice League promise. Now
I agree, the trailer shouldn’t reveal everything. But in this case, their goal
is a very general trailer. Now I can’t help but notice that most of the
comments and critics for the second trailer came out like this:
“I just want Batman V Superman. I don’t care about the
Justice League. Just give me Batman and Superman fighting.”
At this point, they should’ve listened to their niche and
stick to just Batman vs. Superman snips. Or maybe just released their 50-second
teaser. But again, I understand why they released this trailer, because it is
for an audience who know not much about Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman. And
to make this work, they could’ve just stuck to at least until the roar of
Doomsday and then cut the tape. That is, if they want to execute two of their
promises in one three-marketing material. I guess at this point the DCU is
pretty much desperate to look cool in the superhero trends. They want everyone
to know they can have a cool team-up just like the Avengers.
But let me tell you guys that this does not define DC
altogether. I think the best marketing for DC so far occurs in the TV Universe,
and that is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. The TV Universe has more ground, thanks
to Arrow and The Flash and they are fully aware that the side characters
featured in this spin-off series are well-loved by the audience, so to keep
them hooked a crossover/team-up series with no filler arcs is the best way to
go to keep up their numbers. And they need to get through to Arrow first if
they want to see it. Good move, CW. But please work on your teasers.
Now for the Civil War trailer. Yes, I can smell the Marvel
fans expecting me to praise this trailer.
Ok, personally I thought the trailer was good, and it already showed
what I needed to know about. It already spoke of its promise, which is, “Expect
Captain America to fight Ironman and the entire world for Bucky. Because...Bucky. Bucky.” Then they
execute the scenes that make it look like a Civil War.
I like how they give a reason for their fight, which is
Bucky. The reason why it’s been given so much praises is simply because Marvel
does have the upper hand. They’ve been making one movie after the other, and
they know their fans will still watch because they are fully aware that
everything in Marvel is connected somehow. It is a tiring yet effective plan.
Because of this non-stop movie-making, they’ve become aware of their target
market, and they were also able to research them, which is something the WB
marketing team can’t do at the moment due to their scarce source materials
(like I said, DCU is just starting, chill guys and have faith). Marvel Studios
knows what makes us tick. And after Avengers and the Winter Soldier, they know
perfectly well that anything that has to do with the friendship of Tony and
Steve, and a bit off Bucky will make us shut up and allow them to take our
money. Because…Bucky. Bucky.
Just looking at the scenes makes you wonder what is going to
happen and how in the world will this conflict end. For the hardcore Marvel
fans out there, you probably already know.
The best features of their promise are three things. First
is the tension between Ironman and Captain America. The next is Bucky. And the
last how this simple conflict is going to cause Civil War. That’s all the trailer shows. That’s their
marketing strategy. Let us make Bucky the source of this conflict, because
everyone seems to care about Bucky. Because as implied in the trailer, Captain
America won’t let anyone hurt Bucky, who is perceived as this man that must be
killed. And it is going to cause a lot of problems. So hurrah, Marvel fans.
Your marketing team is not so bad. Because…Bucky.
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| anniesepicblog.blogspot.com |
Bucky.
That is how you market a movie, my friends. Tell us the
promise and only show portions of your best features. Whether it is the
characters or the conflict itself, just showcase it somehow. But don’t expose
all the parts of your best features/ And also, it is best if you can come up
with a target market, especially when you are starting franchise like DC. If
you want a general audience, then give them an education of the characters who
they probably know about and let them know what these characters are getting
into. If you want to target an audience is very knowledgeable about fandoms,
then tug at their hearts and research on your freakin’ audience. Know what
makes them tick and use it against them. Isn’t marketing just plain beautiful?
And that concludes my long post about marketing approaches
and how it must be done. As I mentioned on my Facebook page, December is the
most convenient month for me to watch some Anime. And yes, I will be posting a
brand new Anime review pretty soon. Just give me a couple of more days to
finish the show until I can construct my thoughts on it. It will probably not
be the last since I have time to review some Anime movies and series. So expect
more Anime in this post. If you’re on the holidays, then congratulations and I
wish you the best time of your life. If you’re still on a Holidaze due to your
upcoming exams and workload, then I still wish you all the best. Till the next
post~
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