Why Is Hollywood Going Crazy For Cartoons?

Written by Igor Beuker on June 28th, 2009 | 3 comments

The Dark Knight, Spiderman and The Fantastic Four, the list is endless. And one of the most successful franchises is Transformers. It was one of the big hits in 2007. And Hollywood wouldn’t be Hollywood if it didn’t shoot a sequel of a film that has been shit hot- in other words, Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen has recently hit screens across Europe!

But where director Michael Bay loves over the top explosions and full on action Paramount, the production company responsible for the film, has chosen for a very smart approach to promote the film.

Obviously there are the explosive trailers full of action and hot women, but there is a deeper layer hidden behind that.

For example, two of the characters in the film have real live blogs: Robo Warrior and Leo Ponce de Leon Spitz are two competing bloggers who are looking to convince the world of the existing of robots and their bad intentions.

As evidence they present various UFO spotting like videos and images, including this one in England which clearly shows a Transformer.

The campaign has been created to get the films fans more involved with the back story of the film. Heath Tyldesly, marketing manager at Paramount explains the campaign as follows:

“Extending the narrative of the film into the real world prior to a film’s release is a great way of building buzz and awareness amongst fans and viewers, rewarding them for their engagement with the first film. Directors are really embracing broadening the platforms of the films narrative to include the web and Michael Bay is no exception”.

The characters in the film are not the only ones who have taken up blogging. Michael Bay, director of the film has also joined the blogosphere, often giving his readers never seen footage, fun facts and a look in the kitchen.

We think that companies like EA and Paramount years will create massive online awareness the coming years, by launching game and movie trailers within the social media landscape.

Next the companies will identify game and movie influencers online. And start outreach programs to engage these game and movie influencers with new campaigns and new compelling trailers, that the influencers next will feed, seed and embed into their base of followers, readers and fans.

This will create a massive opt-in base of brand ambassadors for EA and Paramount. Next EA and Paramount will decrease their media budgets since they will have created their own media (opt-in databases) and they will not have to buy attention but enable themselves to earn attention.

This might push advertising and media agencies to the end of the marketing value chain and pull social marketing agencies and digital/ eCRM agencies up the marketing value chain.

Next EA and Paramount will prove and improve their viral marketing ROI and digital content strategies with technologies like ViralTracker and create even smarter consumer connectivity programs the coming years.

So entertainment companies will lead the next step of digital marketing, since they have what consumers’ do like so much: compelling and entertaining online video content. And this is what lacks at most brands and traditional agencies: the creativity, guts and content to engage online consumers.

Earning attention online is simply where most brands have failed completely the last 5 years. And I really doubt if they will be able to make a switch soon. Why do I not believe in this turnaround?

Since successful digital marketing is all about mentality and DNA. And that’s a very difficult change management process for many brands. Some will need years to change their current lineair thinking and traditional behavior. Some will probably not even make it in time…

Source: Sniper Daan Jansonius

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