10 Creative Ways Movies Got You To See Them
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Hollywood runs on dollars and audience demand, without which there can be no movies, and the backbone of pretty much every successful movie is a strong marketing campaign. But advertising films is no longer as simple as putting the lettering up at the cinema, getting a poster on the bus or taking out a page in a magazine, as audiences since WWII have been adapting to a constantly evolving market that consistently seeks new approaches, integrates technological developments, and places innovation at the forefront of consumer activity.
No matter what, good movie marketing is there to create a need in potential audiences and connect them with a film they might spend their hard-earned cash on. And before films ever get to the big screen, studios have already put a lot of time and money into promotion. Whether it’s teasers, trailers, merchandise, billboards, websites, or other approaches, a creative knack is necessary to put bums on seats.
Staged events, branded tie-ins, fake adverts, and suspicious popcorn buckets have all been used to create audiences and ensure packed houses, driving the hype and motivating us to see a movie whether we really want to or not. As such, here are ten of the most creative ways movies got us to see them.
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10. Keeping Schtum – Cloverfield (2008)
While The Blair Witch Project is the obvious go-to for major (and majorly successful) viral marketing campaigns, found footage monster movie Cloverfield is an oft-overlooked contender. Those of us who were old enough to cop any of its in-and-out-of-cinema marketing will remember how the film used a tight-lipped approach to build a campaign with teasers and cryptic information that drip-fed small details of the movie and whetted all our appetites.
The very first trailers for Cloverfield provided snippets of handheld recordings of a group of New Yorkers, cutting between everyday revelry and vague glimpses of kaiju carnage on the streets of the Big Apple. Shockingly, and surely anathema to pretty much any marketing exec working today, this and other short trailers did not include the film’s title, only the production details (producer, studio, etc.).
Instead, audiences were left to chase up details online, as small details about the film were purposefully leaked to fuel internet users’ speculation and allow them to piece the details together on the run-up to a release that scored major box office success.