Marketing, marketing everywhere…
: Fox is signing deals with malls to market its movies, says the Wall Street Journal.
In a typical campaign, shoppers will be bombarded with advertisements for the latest Fox movie on everything from huge banners in the garage to tray liners in the restaurants. In some cases, characters from the studio’s movie will wander around the malls; in others, retailers will give away premiere tickets to loyal customers. Teens will be one of the main targets.
Fox’s “I, Robot,” which opens tomorrow, is the first movie promoted under the partnership. Four-by-six-foot banners of the star, Will Smith, are dangling from mall ceilings. Double-sided stickers adorn store windows, posters hang in elevators and alongside escalators, and various ad placements appear in food courts.
Smart: going to where the people are to market. I’d do a similar deal with airports; I spent five hours in one yesterday and would have considered trailers an entertaining distraction.
I’ve actually come to appreciate the Captivate screens now in elevators everywhere. It’s hardly a reliable place to get my news. But it gives me the weather and the Dow and a few headlines and most important, it gives me a place to look and something to do rather than accidentally ending up in a conversation with an elevatormate.
So there’s a marketing strategy: Grab my attention when I dread the attention of human beings: on commuter trains, in airports, in the DMV?
: Speaking of movie marketing, one of the interesting things Jerry Yang said yesterday (he pretty much reminisced and rambled) was how Yahoo helps movie studios market movies, taking the data the service collects on trailer viewership and advising them on distribution, marketing, and even DVD release.
