The latest on digital design trends and consumer behavior from Avenue A | RazorfishCloverfield Breaks Box Office Record Riding Wave of Internet Buzz
January 21st, 2008 by Marisa GallagherTags: box office, buzz, cloverfield, Digital Branding, Media + Entertainment, Social Media, Web 2.0
With an Internet campaign that rivaled “Snakes on a Plan”, JJ Abrams’ new movie Cloverfield — a low-budget horror movie — raked in $41 million this weekend and set a January release record surpassing the reissue of “Star Wars” in 1997.
In true Abrams’ style, months of highly calculated cross-media hype-building primed the pump and certainly Internet was the biggest factor.
The Cloverfield digital campaign embodies 2008’s most exciting lesson for advertisers and content creators:
Distribution channels are ripe for use and experiment: find your audience, do something unexpected, and go to town.
Here’s a list of some of the distribution channel hijinks:
- A maze of cryptic teaser sites, some with home made videos, others with teasers
- Several names, working titles, and a mysteriously shrouded plot description
- A fake corporation, Tagruato, that makes fake products like the Slusho! softdrink featured on Heroes
- Hints leeked through YouTube, countless seeded and organic blogs, and even a non-translated Japanese comic book
- Official and unofficial Facebook and MySpace groups and downloadable widgets
- Pre-screenings in a comprehensive cross-section of seemingly random towns (Denton, TX, Sacramento, Indianapolis)
- A full barrage of local radio promo tours
- Of course, the more traditional billboards and theater and web trailers
Get the full details here:
http://www.cloverfieldclues.blogspot.com/
One Response to “Cloverfield Breaks Box Office Record Riding Wave of Internet Buzz”
I think Cloverfield’s marketing is about much more than internet buzz. It’s about evolving story-telling into a multi-channel experience. The viral elements add great depth to the movie and even answer critical questions left unspecified in the feature.
Compared to most viral tactics which feel random and external, Cloverfield’s integrated story-telling is quite breakthrough.
I also loved the way Cloverfield embraced an increasingly important international audience by releasing videos and comics in foreign languages.