STID Marketing Success

[Kruezerman]

I just noticed that the Trekmovie page about the movie's synopsis hit twelve hundred comments in less than four days. I believe that it is more than possible that this small morsel of information simply proves that the secrecy was all about getting us hungry for this movie instead of "killing" our interest. Indeed, the internet will more than likely implode when the trailer comes out.

The synopsis whet our appetites, the trailers and the preview will more than likely make our tongues water.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

More like rumors and pre-production information for Star Wars was killing our interest for Trek. JJ admitted both he and Paramount like keeping the fans and public in the dark about the upcoming movie on Conan. Now after Disney's announcement of new Star Wars movies, the hush hush nature surrounding Into Darkness is falling down.

At least my opinion of the happenings. 1,200 comments in 4 days is roughly 300 comments per day. Less if you take in to account new posts from people who have already posted. Into Darkness isn't on anybody's radar except people who are die hard Star Trek fans. Hell not even since several of my friends who are big on Trek also hadn't heard of the synopsis release.

 

[Therin of Andor]

More like rumors and pre-production information for Star Wars was killing our interest for Trek.

"Our"?

I hope you're speaking for yourself.

 

[M'Sharak]

More like rumors and pre-production information for Star Wars was killing our interest for Trek.

"Our"?

I hope you're speaking for yourself.

Do we really need to go there again in a second thread right away, Therin?

I think not.

 

[StarMan]

Now after Disney's announcement of new Star Wars movies, the hush hush nature surrounding Into Darkness is falling down.

Unless Episode 7 has been moved to a Summer 2013 release without my knowing it - I doubt it. The marketing for STID has and will roll out as scheduled without any consideration of Disney's announcement.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Do we really need to go there again in a second thread right away, Therin?
I think not.

Sorry, I didn't even notice we were in a different thread. I was mainly responding to the Star Wars element, since any SW hype has no impression on me. Whether there's new Star Wars or not, my interest is with Star Trek. It's not as if new Star Wars will make me anticipate new Star Trek less.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Now after Disney's announcement of new Star Wars movies, the hush hush nature surrounding Into Darkness is falling down.

Unless Episode 7 has been moved to a Summer 2013 release without my knowing it - I doubt it. The marketing for STID has and will roll out as scheduled without any consideration of Disney's announcement.

Look at them objectively. What do we know about Star Trek Into Darkness?

We know it's a sequel to ST09
We know the protagonist cast
We know the writers
We know the director
We know the actor who only recently has been confirmed as the villain.
We know the synopsis of the film.
We know it's nearly finished production and it's release date.

What do we know about Star Wars VII?
We know it's a sequel to Ep VI
We know Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamil have all met with Lucas on potentially reprising their roles.
We know the writer
We know the director
We know Disney has the film in pre-production and has a release date set for 2015.

Besides already having and established production and head start on filming and casting, what else do we the general public know about Into Darkness? Nothing. Star Trek XII has been cloak and dagger throughout it's entire production. Even though we have known it's coming down the pipeline for about 4 years now all we know is vague details. In one month Star Wars has been able to generate bigger waves through Hollywood and across the internet than Trek has.

You can't deny and even TPTB couldn't deny that they've been feeding tidbits and crumbs to the general public. Unlike something as big as DKR or Avenegers where the general public en masse was excited for there release and they were given trailers, and pictures about the upcoming movies. Also the actors and directors didn't shun people in to the quiet zone (Like JJ did to Karl Urban when he talked about Trek prior to comic con this year). Hell the actors, and directors were as forward as the could be without spoiling their movies. Meanwhile only people keeping Trek's speculative fire alive are we the fans. General public isn't pining away for the next Star Trek film like they are for say The Hobbit for example.

The synopsis dump seemed like Paramount was worried they'd fall in to obscurity since they've been so coy with their upcoming feature. The Star Wars sale to Disney and announcement of more films caught everyone by surprise. Paramount releases the synopsis as a red flag to a bull "HEY DON"T FORGET ABOUT US!!!"

 

[F. King Daniel]

Or it was, you know, the six month mark when they'd plannned to start hyping the film.

This isn't like the first Star Wars, making Paramount decide to drop the Star Trek: Phase II TV series and rewrite the pilot episode "In Thy Image" as Star Trek: The Motion Picture. SWVII is a film which *may* be competition for the NEXT Trek film after Into Darkness.

Also, like Therin, I don't care about SW, it has no effect on what Trek I watch. And even for fans of both, it's not like they make moviegoes choose one or the other.

 

[Kruezerman]

The entire point was that we were not giving everything, we were only given small tidbits so as to make us hungry for more. It's kinda like a shot instead of a keg of beer, you'll get twice as drunk without as much drink!

 

[JarodRussell]

Well, you know how it is. You don't talk about STDs until you got one.

 

[M'Sharak]

Or it was, you know, the six month mark when they'd plannned to start hyping the film.

Ding!

Rather than a conspiratorial "hush hush nature surrounding Into Darkness is falling down," I think Daniel's right: this is just things happening right on schedule - the same schedule to which TPTB would have been adhering had there been no purchase of Star Wars by Disney and no Star Wars film announcement at all.

J.J./Bad Robot isn't keeping a secret so much as just not giving away anything too soon. All will be seen in good time.

 

[The Wormhole]

Bad Robot is being a bit too secretive this time around. All we have is a vague plot synopsis, a couple of leaked photos and we're waiting for a trailer and preview clip due in a couple of weeks. And we don't know who the villain is. We know who's playing him and that he's either a one mann weapon of mass destruction or a renegade Starfleet officer who has "detonated the fleet."

December 2, 2008 we had a teaser trailer, a proper trailer, clips of four scenes, several officially released photos, and an Entertainment Weekly article. Not only did we know who was playing the villain, we knew he was named Nero, he was a Romulan with a wife, his ship was a Space Octopus and that he served time in a Klingon prison. And just a day earlier we got pictures of the Kelvin's crew.

Just why have they been holding out so long this time?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Just why have they been holding out so long this time?

Because love is worth waiting for.

 

[StarTrek1701]

Just why have they been holding out so long this time?

Because love is worth waiting for.

picardfacepalm.jpeg

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Funny thing is that JJ says that he blames the poor marketing and advertisement for the underperformance of ST09 in overseas.

Man Of Steel, World War Z and Iron Man 3 all have trailers, all have screen shots and are all slated to compete with Star Trek XII. Paramount seems kind of late to the party. They need to do more if they want to top that $360 million bar the last movie set and beat out the competition.

 

[Melakon]

Because love is worth waiting for.

I'm guessing they'll use that for one of teaser posters.

 

[M'Sharak]

Funny thing is that JJ says that he blames the poor marketing and advertisement for the underperformance of ST09 in overseas.

Did he? You wouldn't have a link to that, would you?

 

[StarMan]

The idea that Paramount is lagging behind and jeopardizing the success of STID is predicated on the notion a marketing campaign of ... say, half a year at the very least is required.

As far as the ravenous minority that we here are a part of - our continued interest is self-sustaining. JJ doesn't have to drop his guts too early for our benefit because - regardless - we'll still be here on our self-aggrandized platforms predicting and judging the fate of the film and letting it be known that if we don't get something soon it's going to irreparably harm the film. Hey, we're a given! We can get irritated and bemoan the veil of secrecy all we want, but the moment that trailer hits the Net we'll be on it like a heroin junkie scrambling for a fix.

Why does Joe Public need over half a year before deciding whether or not he'll see it? Is there any correlation between the success of a movie and the length of it's marketing campaign? Ok, so other movies being released around the same time have started their build up - so what? It doesn't amount to a meaningful head start. For all we know Paramount have a massive world wide marketing campaign in store for STID sustained over a shorter period of time. And by shorter period of time I'm still talking enough time to saturate the public consciousness.

Knowing everything about a film beforehand is not a prerequisite for success. The entire script for ST: Nemesis was online months before it's release, and it still got pipped at the post by J-Lo's godawful Maid In Manhattan.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

Funny thing is that JJ says that he blames the poor marketing and advertisement for the underperformance of ST09 in overseas.

Did he? You wouldn't have a link to that, would you?

I searched and searched but I couldn't find the article or quote. So I will retract my statement since I can't prove it definitively. However I will say that Paramount's other 2009 summer movie G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra grossed higher than Star Trek 2009 overseas by about $30 million dollars according to Box-office mojo. In all measurable sense Star Trek was a superior movie, but G.I. Joe made more money with it's terrible plot, acting and ludicrous special effects. Logical assumption would lead us to believe the overseas marketing crew for Joe did a better job promoting the film than the Star Trek crew. Rick Berman maintains that LOTR and Harry Potter had nothing to do with tanking Nemesis because overseas it wasn't positioned to face them in theatres.

Overseas marketing for Trek appears to be a fickle thing. Just check out the posters for the foreign theatres. Here in the US we got a poster of Kirk, Spock, Uhura, The Enterprise and Narada on one poster. Foreign theatres got the Narada's laser beam firing into San Francisco Bay from above the clouds. You don't see the ship just clouds swirling and at the bottom all it says is "Star Trek".

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I believe that it is more than possible that this small morsel of information simply proves that the secrecy was all about getting us hungry for this movie instead of "killing" our interest.

That was obvious long before now. It's still too early to start spending serious money on marketing a movie not due out till June, but why not amp up the social media stuff? It's virtually free.

The main thing is, you don't want to frak up the real marketing (the stuff that costs millions of dollars) later by releasing important info or content too early.

Virtually nobody has been the marketing for the movie to date, in comparison with the vast numbers that the real campaign will reach when it kicks into gear. This is still the playing around phase.