ST Viral Marketing for Episode VII

Oh yes it does. That is not true at all. SW may be powerful but it needs marketing. The thing is the general public does not sit there and salivate on forums. I have people that still don't know when a big film is coming out 2 weeks prior to it's release. And the PT may have given some lumps to the franchise as well. On top of that there is massive competition anymore especially in 2015. Comic Book movies are now the norm making over a billion dollars quite easily. You need to show people what they are getting for the product. The PT had to do this as well, SW is powerful but regardless you need marketing, especially in today's very very crowded blockbuster world.

EDIT: Sorry for the DP I thought I hit edit on my main one but it did not do so. My bad.

 

No it doesn't. There are enough Star Wars fans in the world that we tell those not as interested in what's happening. I do it all the time. When the movie comes out people will hear what the "fuss is all about" and it will draw in the not so hardcore fans. It doesn't need marketing at all.

 

This is just plain false. Yes it does. Look at the money Episode I made in it's original run, and what Episode II did in it's original run. To sum it up AOTC made almost 300 million less than TPM......and some because of quality but a lot because of Spider-Man took a lot of it's business. You need marketing. If you said that to LFL they would laugh until the cows come home. It's not even a debate...they need marketing. All big films do. No matter what. Yea they can do it your way but they will make 1/3 of what they could make.

 

No they don't. They don't need marketing. SW is HUGE! Everyone and their brother knows about it now. The SW fan in people's lives is enough. I'm NOT saying they won't have marketing and tie-ins etc... they just don't need it.

 

LOL yes they do. You can try to believe that but it's just false. If they really did not need it they would not do it because trust me one thing studios don't like doing is spending money. So if they did not have to. they would not spend money on it. Yet the PT had the most expensive marketing campaign ever.......so yes I think the pros at LFL know what they need to do. They don't spend money on marketing because it's fun. It's because it's needed plain and simple.

 

I don't agree. I think SW transcends marketing at this point. You can argue til your blue in the face but they don't need it. Like no one will show up in May 2015 because there was no marketing. LOL Get outta here. That's absurd. Marketing for SW is a waste of money plain and simple.

 

I want you to email that to LFL and tell them that. I bet they will disagree. You can sit there and believe that Santa Clause still exists, but it does not make it so. Why did AOTC make 300 million less than the other two prequels then? I'll tell you why it was because of competition of Spider-Man. It does not transcend marketing, nothing does, if you stop marketing the brand will fade away.

 

You keep making the same failing point -- Spiderman was more interesting to people than SW at the time. NOT because people didn't know SW was coming out. Your point is completely invalid. LFL did the marketing and STILL MADE LESS MONEY. So how does that prove you need marketing?! It doesn't and you keep failing with the same point.

People who wanted to see SW still saw SW. People who are not huge fans of SW were truned off the TPM and didn't support the next 2 films as well. Simple as that. Marketing had nothing to do with. LFL would have made the same amount of money without the markleting.

 

Well yes it did. Why was Episode I the most expensive Marketing campaign up to that point? Episode III spend tons of money on marketing as well. So did Episode II. Spider-Man was a bigger film, but it's marketing was better, and it helped it along. That's what marketing does....creates interest in something. So if there is not as much interesting in Episode VII everyone will go see TA2 instead and it will lose a lot of money. Will some come and see it? Of course, but you still would be making 40% o what they could be making. They have the top people in the world that they spend a lot of money on to figure these kind of things out. Studios again don't spend money on stuff they don't have to. You are making no point is the problem. I'm making a point. You are just saying "Nuh uh cuz it's SW!" Trust me it needs marketing they spend millions on all of this stuff for a reason not just for fun. They again would not spend the money, if there was no point to it.

If you convince the GA who is the biggest part of BO sales that one film looks awesome and the other they know nothing about, they will go for the former. People need information about things even the new Star Wars films.

 

This franchise needs no marketing all it needs is a reliable source in the media to announce the release date and "bam"... Free publicity. Problem solved!!!

 

Marketing isn't about making people aware a brand exists, it's about keeping them hyped about it, making them think about it. Viral marketing is the perfect example actually, because they're all about intriguing people. Way more work than just slapping a poster somewhere, but they're more than that. The Tron Legacy viral campaign (which was honestly better than the movie) added mystery and a sense of inclusion through the 'Flynn lives' group, a plot line that carried into the movie in the beginning.

In fact, when a viral campaign tries to hide what it's about it usually fails. Like an I Am Legend one that involved wierd graffiti. It wasn't until after the movie came out that people were like 'oh, so that was the point'.

So basically yes, Star Wars needs marketing, and viral is perfect for it.it could turn 'oh hey, that Star Wars movie is out. Whatever, the series is ruined already/random popular negative opinion/I'll watch it later' into 'hey, did you see that Star Wars 7 site that was that computer system for an abandoned imperial post? Dude, did you see the entry on Han's illegitimate kid? I have to see what happens with that!' We'll I hope it's more interesting than that, you get my point.

The most in-depth ARG I've seen is the one for Tomorrowland. Mailing in for Records wit secret messages that lead to real secret rooms in Disneyland and it's crazy, loo it up.

 

How would you viral market Star Wars?

FWIW, the new TRON had the best viral marketing IMHO.

 

I know it may seem like that when you're surrounded by Star Wars obsessed fanatics who are going to see the movie no matter what, but fact is there are plenty of borderline types who maybe saw 1 or 2 of the prequels, didn't care too much for them, and can easily be swayed one way or another to see E7 based on how good it looks in the previews.

We'll have trailers, we'll have commercials, we'll have the actors and actresses making the usual rounds on the late night TV shows and magazine covers, etc

 

I imagine it could go one of two ways.
1. A series of websites set in the SW universe (which seems to be how the current Rebels viral campaign is working)
2. A campaign that highlights fandom/ pop-cultural aspects of Star Wars in our society (the approach used for ST09)

 

I have a brilliant viral marketing campaign - Star Wars branded apples.

They can have stickers which say "Eat your bloody apple and see Star Wars 7"

 

Sort of a shameless bump of this thread but I wish there was a more creative way of teasing us than just dropping twitter bombs. Twitter images are fine but I think it would be cool if they did slow release of images through some kind of campaign or game. It doesn't need to be in universe like Super 8 or Cloverfield were but more like what they did for ST09.

 

The boy has no patience!!!

 

Star Wars markets itself. There will be a huge campaign of course but there is a long way to go until they start with that. It's still a year and a half away

 

Sure it's early but official information and photos will start to be released eventually and some people enjoy interesting ways to receive that info, as evidenced by the Hyperspace thread. I'm not singing "I want it now" I'm just saying it would be cool if they did something different for this Star Wars film.