A look at cult classics: where good marketing should go

What makes a film a cult classic?

First and foremost, it takes a good  screenplay/story. Second, a passionate fan base. Third, next to no box office profit.

When an un-marketed film hits the theatres

This third point is bothersome. No profits means studios will refrain from making more films of that fashion, regardless of how good it is. They often don’t receive sequels,or in the rare case that they do, it only happens later on in life due to post- release sales and the high praise the fan base has given it. Basically, if it’s considered a cult classic, it didn’t make any money upon release, which is obviously bad.

 

But how does this happen? I mean if it’s a cult classic, that must mean it’s good. So why isn’t it making money in the box office? Simply put, bad ,or even no marketing,advertisement and public relations. Some cult classics have a valid excuse.They were an independent movie and didn’t have a big enough budget to afford a decent marketing campaign. A great example of this is the movie Clerks.

Poster for the movie “Clerks”

For those of you who don’t know, Clerks is an independent movie by Kevin Smith that was released in 1994. The budget for clerks while filming in 1993 was a only a little over $27,500. Considering that it had about $3 million in profits, it did pretty good for itself, but is not considered a “successful” movie. In this scenario, we can’t blame Kevin Smith for not paying for a lot of marketing or advertising for the movie, he couldn’t even afford to film the movie in colour ( yes, it’s a black and white film).

Anyone who has seen this movie can tell you that the dialogue is on point and it can relate to anyone who has ever had a “clerk” type job. It is loved by its fanbase for a reason. But, is not as well known as it should be. Had it had more funding for promotion, it could have easily become a world-renowned movie. If you have seen it, then you know it should have made much more money.

Some cult classics don’t have such a valid reason to have been unsuccessful in the box office. A prime example is The Shawshank Redemption.  That’s right, one of the highest rated movies of all time is, by definition, a cult classic.

Famous scene from ” The Shawshank Redemption”

 

With a budget of $25 million, it only made just over $725 thousand its opening weekend in 1994. But with outstanding reviews and its gained popularity through VHS and DVD sales, its gross income, as of 2012, is over $28 million. Hard to believe such a popular and beloved movie did so poorly in the box office, but it’s true.

This is why marketing,advertising and public relations is so important in the film industry. These amazing movies didn’t make a lot of money at first, and this is cause for concern for the film industry. Especially when poorly rated movies make a killing at the box office. The production companies are only after making money, and when good movies like these don’t make any, then there won’t be any more movies like them made again.

With proper marketing,advertising and public relations, these movies can be successful. Once that happens, we won’t only have poorly written action movies with big explosions and plot holes in theatres, but good stories with depth and meaning.

These cult classics were lucky they got the recognition they deserved, but imagine all the great movies that no one knows about because of a lack of good promotion. Maybe you’ll never see your  favourite movie  because you’ve never heard of it, and never will.

Alex Belanger

 

3 Ways Disney Used Marketing for a Record Breaking Release Weekend

     The Star Wars series has been entertaining the masses since 1977, so it came as no surprise that the most recent addition to the series was met with a warm welcome from audiences all over the world.

     Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released Dec. 18, 2015 and is the seventh installment in the series. The film is the first of the sequel trilogy announced by Disney in 2012 and created high standards for the next two films to come. Reviews were very favourable and many critics made comparisons to the original first three films.

     With Disney’s deep pockets driving the marketing of The Force Awakens, it comes as no surprise that the film managed to break box office records in more than one category. The Force Awakens has become the fastest film to cross the billion-dollar threshold, hitting $1.09 billion in just 12 days. It also managed to have the biggest domestic opening weekend ($238 million), biggest domestic second weekend ($149.2 million), and biggest worldwide opening ($529 million), which are all massive accomplishments.

      How did Star Wars sweep the globe so quick and intensely you may wonder? What led them to those astounding numbers?

     Here are three ways that Disney leveraged marketing and PR to boost the hype around the latest Star Wars episode:

Photo from Official Trailer

1.      Start early and stay constant :

     The very first trailer released for the film came out over a year before the movie itself was released. The first trailer only lasted about 88 seconds, and was considered a ‘tease’ to the audience. The 88 seconds amassed 58.2 million YouTube views within its first week. Later, in April of 2015, eight months before the release date, a second, slightly longer trailer was released. Again, this trailer was released as a bit of a tease before the third and final official trailer was aired in October of 2015. The early start that Disney got on marketing the film gave them an edge over the competition because a slow and constant drip of information had the established fan-base of Star Wars lovers begging for more info. Since the teaser trailers and official trailer didn’t give too much of the plot and storyline away, it was extremely effective in drawing people to the theatres.

Official Logo (resemblance to past logos)

2.      Brand strength and recognition :

      As I mentioned previously, there has been a strong connection to the original trilogy from the very beginning, which has helped Disney form a positive brand association to the already large Star Wars fan base, as well as those that may have been lost along the way and were brought back by the nostalgic connections. Disney used events like Comic-Con and Star Wars Celebration to further strengthen their brand. The Star Wars San Diego Comic-Con for example, wasn’t just a panel, it was a celebration. The release of the first trailer wasn’t a normal release, Disney decided to live stream it at a Star Wars Convention, after which social media exploded with joy. Straying from the norm, Disney launched toys, and other items before the movie release during the holiday season and attached itself to Black Friday by referring to it as ‘Force Friday’, creating a marketing event of their own. Strong partnerships with Amazon, Toys R Us, and Target were a key factor in their success over the holiday season, and surly helped in the film becoming the biggest Christmas Day box office in history with $49.3 million.

Cast on Jimmy Kimmel

3.      Disney’s collective effort :

     Disney is a huge conglomerate that owns companies across many different business sectors. One way that Disney did really well in the marketing for The Force Awakens was that there was synergy across all of their divisions. The third, official trailer for the film aired during a half-time on an ESPN’s Monday Night Football segment  in October. The Force Awakens has been mentioned at least 111 times on ESPN and 449 times on ABC. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was also featured on noteworthy talk shows such as Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel, all due to the strong synergy that Disney has displayed across the board. Another portion of the collective effort shown by Disney is in terms of making the film into a global phenomenon. Social media and its far reaching grasp has been a large factor in allowing this marketing campaign to go worldwide. Each trailer release was a global event rather than a singular event in theaters. A well-managed social media platform was hugely beneficial in contributing to worldwide success. Disney’s release strategy also kept in line with the global phenomenon. It released the movie in many theaters simultaneously in many countries, becoming a global event.

     All in all, Disney has set the bar for big budget films, and the marketing and PR process going forward. The success that Disney received was due to the fact that many people were on board, and had bought tickets for numerous shows prior to release of the film. The marketing and PR shown by Disney has proved to turn the hype up to a notch that set the film in a league of its own, breaking numerous records.

     How will the following two films of the trilogy, set to be released in 2017 and 2019, respectively, compare to The Force Awakens? Will Disney surpass itself in leading the charge for changing how the industry markets its films?

     I hope you look forward to it with as much anticipation as I do.

Cocktails and client meetings, or public relations?

Mad Mens infamous starting screen

For many years, advertising, and public relations, have gone hand in hand. Mad Men – the Emmy-winning cable TV series following a fictional advertising firm on New York’s Madison Avenue in the 1960s – premiered its final seven episodes on AMC in May 2015. Mad Men is also available for playback on Netflix.

That means it’s the last time we’ll ever get to talk about Mad Men and its impact on the advertising field. Now, I’m sure some of you read that last sentence and laughed to yourselves a little. You’re probably saying, “What could public relations professionals possibly learn from a show about a fictional philandering creative director?”

Well, a lot actually. Mad Men is known for its obsessive attention to detail and accuracy, but that attention does not stop at getting everything from the sets, to the costumes in line with the 1960s. That special attention to detail continues in a public relations career, where you must consistently be concise, not only with clients, but everyday tasks.

A successful public relations professional should have the ability to see things from their clients perspective, and also consumers perspectives. This unique skill is essential when making educated responses about your clients, and always keeping their best interest in mind. Without seeing things from altered perspectives, your work develops a skewed bias, which ultimately will hinder your success, as well as your clients. As a professional, you cannot make impulse decisions strictly based off of your own opinion. You must take all mitigating factors into consideration before acting on it.

This is where SCDP was located in Mad Men

Season 4, Episode 1, is titled “Public Relations”. This episode accurately depicts the importance of public relations, and when it is used effectively, how significant a clients outcome can change; especially brand equity within consumers. Don Draper uses public relations as a tool to help his advertising firm overcome a difficult merger. Without public relations, Don would not have been able to convince the public, nor his clients that their business was in a state of stability. Ultimately, without proper use of public relations, their advertising firm SCDP would have fallen under.

Whilst this show was based off the 1960’s it sets the tone for a public relations professional, and the direct correlations between that, and advertising extremely articulately. For those interested in a public relations field, the job duties entailed, and the ambiance that comes a long with it, Mad Men can definitely provide accurate insight. Between press releases, client lunches, and interviews with journalists, Mad Men finally brought the public relations recognition that was long overdue to television.

In the future, it will be interesting to see what shows incorporate public relations concepts, and which shows do public relations justice. With this career choice growing in demand each and every single day, public relations will soon be a force to be reckoned with. Would you jump in on the action?

Does a public relations career, have to be correlated with advertising?

A public relations career definitely does not have to be associated with advertising. You can join the public sector, crisis management, or many other branches of public relations including: account managers, strategists, and analysts. Finding a public relations career that best suits you is important to determining long term success, and complacency within your job. If you are not happy doing what you do, it will be evident by your co-workers, as well as your clients.

Written by: Nicholas Frape

 

 

 

Everyone’s Favourite Children’s Film Conglomerate: Disney …. or so you thought ….

Everyone knows about Disney. Who didn’t grow up watching The Jungle Book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, or A Bug’s Life? The list of Disney movies that have been released over the years is endless, and those movies are recognized world-wide. Although Disney has released some really great children’s movies that both children and parents enjoy, there have been some movies that have had quite a controversial attachment to them.

This post will cover some of the controversial Disney films, and demonstrate how they were, or perhaps should have been handled from a public relations perspective.

1. Alice in Wonderland
   When this film was released by Disney in 1951, it was picked apart by its viewers. British critics were saying that Disney had “Americanized” what was originally an English novel written by Lewis Carroll back in 1865. These critics did not like the fact that the original components from the story had been modernized upon creation of the production. The movie was also criticized for its “technicolour” experience and funky vibes. Many people believed that the bright colours, offbeat settings and characters in the movie were supposed to be seen as though through the eyes of someone under the influence of hallucinogenics. They argued that it was not at all appropriate for the young viewers the film was aimed toward. Moving forward from the negative critiques, it has been argued by Disney and other movie-goers that the use of the vivid colour and dramatic characters was in fact a great sense of creativity and expression. Back when the film was released, vivid images were not often seen, so by presenting them in Alice in Wonderland made the viewing experience that much more entertaining. Disney was able to expand children’s imaginations through the film. As stated by a writer from the NY Times, “What we are saying is simply that Mr. Disney has plunged into those works, which have rapturously charmed the imaginations of generations of kids, has snatched favorite characters from them, whipped them up as colorful cartoons, thrown them together willy-nilly with small regard for sequence of episodes, expanded and worked up new business, scattered a batch of songs throughout and brought it all forth in Technicolor as a whopping-big Disney cartoon.”It was promised that no reference to any illegal substances was made during the kids film. By responding so well and timely to complaints, Disney was able to save their reputation and people continued to believe in and trust the company.
2. The Little Mermaid
   Upon the release on The Little Mermaid, many adults believed that the towers on the castle in the background were illustrated to represent phallic symbols. As soon as word spread about this assumption, people were up in arms about the situation, complaining to Disney about how inappropriate it was. Disney responded to this accusation by ensuring concerned parents that the towers were never ever meant to look like anything other than towers. “This is the Walt Disney Company… Why would we do something like this?“The artist of the VHS cover clearly stated that it “was an accident due to time constraints”, but it was never intentionally drawn to represent such things. Upon the release of the next version, Disney had made it a point to change the drawing on the cover. By listening to the concerns of the consumers, and making changes based on those concerns, Disney demonstrated its commitment to its followers and its willingness to make changes in order to keep viewers satisfied. By gaining the trust of their consumers, Disney, and any other company, will be on the road to success.
3. The Princess and the Frog 
   
   This movie is one of Disney’s more recent films, having been released in 2009. That being said, parents were more judgemental towards the film since it was released in a more modern time. Parents were upset about this movie because the Prince that Princess Tiana falls in love with has lighter skin than she does, which adults thought was very old-age stereotypical. Why couldn’t the Prince be African-American as well? Also, there was controversy around the fact that the movie was set in New Orleans, not long after hurricane Katrina devastated the homes and lives of thousands. New Orleans is home to a large African-American community, so viewers deemed it to be insensitive to have the movie take place in that area so soon after the hurricane. Lastly, there are glimpses of “voodoo” in the movie, which viewers also saw as stereotypical toward African-Americans.When the movie was first thought-up, the main character’s name was supposed to be Maddy, which people argued was not a suitable name for an African-American princess. After hearing these complaints, Disney changed her name to Tiana to better suit the character. They also changed her occupation from house maid to house chef to be more pleasing. Before the movie was even screened, Disney made changes in hopes of pleasing everyone and avoiding the criticisms, but “most creative ideas face challenges and criticism.” Disney was trying to teach young children a valuable lesson about “believing love even in tough circumstances, the struggle of moving up from one’s social standing, and the idea of beauty being skin deep.” They have continued to do so in movies released after The Princess and the Frog; they continue to rise above the criticism and turn the comments into positive ideas for future films.
4. Bambi
   Bambi is another old Disney classic, released in 1942. Early on in the movie, Bambi and his mother are running through the woods when Bambi’s mom is killed by a hunter. Bambi is then orphaned and with the help of his woodland friends, he must learn how to survive on his own while dealing with the loss of his mother. For a movie designed for young children, people were, and continue to be, concerned about the gruesome nature of the film. Between Bambi and The Lion King, it is often a question of whether children should be exposed to such ideas at a young age.

How “accidental” leaked footage gave you Deadpool

The film Deadpool met with great success upon it’s launch February 12, 2016. This is in large due to the fantastic marketing, advertising, and public relations it had behind it, as well as the support it received from its fans. It has now become the second highest grossing R rated film of all time, while still in theatres none the less.

With such outstanding reviews, large fan base, and overall success of the film, it’s hard to understand why it wasn’t made sooner. However, you may not be aware that it was almost never made in the first place.

Producer and lead actor, Ryan Reynolds, had been urging 20th Century Fox for a deadpool movie for over a decade, alongside the film’s director, Tim Miller. Fox had shown some interest, but were reluctant to make the film. This could be because of the mature content the deadpool comics are known for, or for the fact that deadpool was a relatively unknown comic book character to the general public. It had been cancelled and re-instated more times than I could count.

Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller had filmed test footage years ago for the film, but it sat at Fox studios collecting dust. That is, until that footage got leaked online a little over a year and a half ago.This footage leak was claimed to have been an accident, but it has become clear from interviews that it was in fact a public relations stunt by either Ryan Reynolds or Tim Miller in order to get the public’s support to convince Fox to allow the film to be made.

And it worked even better than anticipated. The leaked footage went viral almost immediately, and everyone who saw it wanted this movie to be made. Some fans even reached out to Fox asking for them to create it.  Within 24 hours of the leak, Fox gave the green-light for Deadpool.

The fact that the fans reached out and showed support also allowed for a deadpool movie that was true to its inspirational source. Fox has been known to make certain changes to Marvel stories and characters that are not appreciated by fans, and this was a concern at first. But, because Tim and Ryan wanted a proper adaptation, fought for it, and had the fans support, that concern was quickly dismissed.

In fact, as an April fools joke, before the rating for the movie was released, there was a rumour that the film would be PG13. This caused quite the upset online, and had many complaints and petitions fighting it. The reason being that one of deadpool’s many charms is that he is a violent, foul mouth anti-hero that kills, a lot. For the film to be PG13, it would mean the deadpool on screen would not be the same character as the one in the comics. Thankfully, it was only a prank.

This can also be seen as a public relations stunt, as it created a lot of talk about the film, due to anger mostly, but also a good laugh once it was clear it was a joke. And as deadpool himself stated, “Deadpool will obviously be rated R”.

Now Deadpool has become a massive cash cow for Fox, has had a cultural impact,and is more than likely to receive a sequel. A brand new film franchise, all thanks to a public relations stunt.

 

 

Alex Belanger

 

Academy Awards Boost Film Numbers

The Academy Awards have been around for nearly one hundred years, making it the longest running awards show. Since the awards debut on television, it has transformed into a public relations tool for the industry. Many of the Oscar winning performances and best films over the years have been handed down mixed reviews from movie critics and moviegoers alike, yet somehow manage to take home achievements for cinematic excellence.

Let’s take this year’s Academy Award for best picture, “Spotlight”, for example. The film was nominated for a total of six Oscars at the 88^th Academy Awards in 2016, but only managed to take home two. The movie follows the Boston Globe’s special investigative team, spotlight, as it uncovers the Catholic Church’s cover up of a child molestation scandal that plagued Boston for decades.

Following the Oscars, the film saw a massive jump at the box office and nearly doubled the amount of screens it ran on. To be more precise, Spotlight saw a 140 per cent jump at the box office, taking in $1.77 million the weekend after receiving the best picture. Senior media analyst for comScore, Paul Dergarabedian, said “”I can guarantee that without the win, Spotlight would not have added 542 theaters in Week 18. Much less would it be prospering.”

This years telecast attracted 34.3 million viewers. Although an eight per cent decline from last year, potentially attributed to the #Oscarssowhite controversy, everybody that tuned in, tuned in to one of the longest running PR products in entertainment history. I, for one, was not one of the 34.3 million. It wasn’t for any particular reason, I wasn’t boycotting the Oscars by any means. Award shows have never really been at the top of my list. However, I recently have become aware of how much power the shows actually have. The day following the Oscars always revolves around who won what, what everyone was wearing, and how good the host was.

I can never answer any of these questions, although, I do try to catch some of the films that won big awards so that I can at least participate in conversations down the line, knowing full well that the movies that win big awards will see a spike in viewers everywhere. Which takes me back to Spotlight. Last week I got together for movie night with a friend of mine. While rhyming off the potential movie titles that we could watch, one in particular caught my attention. Spotlight. Although I had no idea what the movie was about, or who the cast was, I immediately decided on it saying, “That’s the one that won the Oscar isn’t it?”

The Academy Awards have earned themselves a high reputation in the film and entertainment industry and they have far-reaching effects within the industry and within our society as a whole. Whether it be people who watch so they can feel included in the conversations on the following day, or those who tune in to check out what their favourite stars are wearing. Everyone finishes the Academy Awards with a new desire to watch the films most talked about over the few hour span, which boosts the industry every year around the same time in the millions. As for myself, I don’t think I’ll be following the crowd just yet, but I will look out for next year’s best picture. If it’s anything like Spotlight, I’m sure to be pleasantly surprised.

 

 

 

Adam Sandler’s famous apology

Do you personally see racism as an evident societal issue within the film industry? Do you believe any actor or actress regardless of ethnicity, religion, or race should be allowed to star in a film if they are credible, and possess the required talent? If you answered yes to these questions, you are not on the same page as Adam Sandler.

Whilst Adam Sandler has had his share of failed blockbuster attempts, he is unfortunately correlated with one negative attribute: his crude, racist sense of humour.

Approximately one year ago, Adam Sandler’s project, The Ridiculous Six flooded entertainment news for all the wrong reasons. The film, a Western comedy and the first of four Netflix originals that Sandler is contracted to make, proved so offensive to a dozen Native American actors on board that they ended up storming off of the New Mexico set.

Spokespersons for the Native American community found the jokes and script to be grossly offensive while Netflix stuck up for Sandler’s humour. Everyone had something to say about the matter. Everyone, except Adam Sandler. Well now he is finally putting his two cents in on the matter, and it’s exactly what you’d expect based on his controversial past.

While attending the world premiere for his new film Pixels, The Associated Press prompted Sandler on the red carpet about The Ridiculous Six controversy, to which he replied, it was a big misunderstanding. Another publication Screen Crush got him to expand:

“I talked to some of the actors on the set who were there and let them know that the intention of the movie is 100% to just make a funny movie. It’s really about American Indians being good to my character and about their family and just being good people. There’s no mocking of American Indians at all in the movie. It’s a pro-Indian movie. So hopefully when people see it — whoever was offended on set and walked out, I hope they realize that, and that’s it. It was kinda taken out of context.” Said Sandler.

Example of how deep the racial profiling was in Ridiculous 6

Needless to say to Native American cast members were not happy. Many cast members reported that the make-up made them look like an entirely different tribe than the one they were raised into. Offending people is not a new trait for Adam Sandler. He certainly likes to push buttons with his scriptwriting. But this particular Western spoof had problems long before Netflix even adapted to the idea. About 11 months ago Warner Brothers abruptly bailed on the project, and it is speculated that it was because it was just too controversial.

Why is this a problem for Adam Sandler?

From a public relations perspective, Adam Sandler’s comments after the matter could have been handled with a concise level of professionalism given the issue at hand. Not only did Sandler avoid the issue, he tried covering it all up by saying it was all a misunderstanding. Sandler is going to need to backpedal on these actions if his illustrious film career is going to continue to flourish. Sandler should have taken responsibility for the comments, as well as the crude jokes embedded in the script, and made amends with the Native American cast members.

Could this hinder Sandler’s career?

In today’s society, regardless of socio economic status, or public perception, no one is allowed to scrutinize another person based on any perceived irregularities. Since this is not the first time Sandler has run into trouble because of his mouth, this could be a major blow to his film career. Sandler can still dig himself out of the hole he’s in, but it will take a lot of mitigation, sincere apologies, and ultimately an epiphany that leads to self change.

It will be interesting to see if Sandler acts on this issue further, or proceeds on as if nothing has happened.

Would you act on it?

Written By: Nicholas Frape

 

 

 

Batman and the Hype Surrounding Each Successor

Attention all superhero movie lovers!

As of March 2016, the long anticipated Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice was released in theatres. This movie is claimed to be a “requel“, which is a combination of a reboot and a sequel. The movie was created in the hopes of reinventing a universe of follow-up movies. This “requel” trend was also seen in 2015 with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Since the release of Batman V. Superman, the movie has generated a large amount of conversation and hype, not to mention revenue, but the conversation started long before the movie was screened.

Who will be the next Batman?
Will he be able to live up to expectations?
Who played it best?