TREK XI - Marketing/promotion

[Stag]

I guess this post is geared more to the more ...ahem...tenured/seasoned members of the TREK fan community, like myself at 40+ years of age.

Do you remember any other TREK movie getting this sort of marketing/publicity push before the opening? I think the biggest was TMP with the McDonalds tie in but that was about it. This film currently has or will have...

The website (ok, product of our time vs. previous films)
The Burger King tie in
The models on display shown in another post
The props on display
The prequel comic
The Super Bowl commercial
Industry buzz (mention of TREK in trade journals and such)
Toy previews
The Tiberius cologne (ok that was a goof - but funny)

All this before the typical time when commercials and regular trailers will be shown.

I think the marketing effort, while seemingly had gotten started slow as we fans couldn't get enough info quick enough, has been surprising for a TREK film. Especially since I had lived through the previous 10 attempts.

Am I alone surprised at how much effort is going into the promotion of this film? I understand the reason is because of the investment in the film, but for a product that was considered dead and buried when ENT left the air, I am stunned at the resurrection.

 

[Gojira]

I guess this post is geared more to the more ...ahem...tenured/seasoned members of the TREK fan community, like myself at 40+ years of age.

Do you remember any other TREK movie getting this sort of marketing/publicity push before the opening? I think the biggest was TMP with the McDonalds tie in but that was about it. This film currently has or will have...

The website (ok, product of our time vs. previous films)
The Burger King tie in
The models on display shown in another post
The props on display
The prequel comic
The Super Bowl commercial
Industry buzz (mention of TREK in trade journals and such)
Toy previews
The Tiberius cologne (ok that was a goof - but funny)

All this before the typical time when commercials and regular trailers will be shown.

I think the marketing effort, while seemingly had gotten started slow as we fans couldn't get enough info quick enough, has been surprising for a TREK film. Especially since I had lived through the previous 10 attempts.

Am I alone surprised at how much effort is going into the promotion of this film? I understand the reason is because of the investment in the film, but for a product that was considered dead and buried when ENT left the air, I am stunned at the resurrection.

I am 45 and I have been a fan for 35 years and I don't remember this much excitement for a Star trek movie. I am not too surprised but I am very happy about the hype this movie is getting.

 

[Ktrek]

Well, I seem to remember a whole lot of hype for Generations before it came out. Heck...Kirk and Picard even made the cover of Time magazine for crying out loud! There was all kinds of related tie-in marketing too. I do think that the marketing team is doing a fine job promoting this film but so far in my life the only people I know talking about it are my Star Trek friends online. I have not heard one other person say they couldn't wait for the movie.

Kevin

 

[cbspock]

Star Trek The Motion Picture had the first McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in.


-Chris

 

[Squiggy]

NBC will be airing a "special sneak peak" of Star Trek during Heroes on Monday night.

 

[Stag]

^Thanks for the info

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Well, I seem to remember a whole lot of hype for Generations before it came out. Heck...Kirk and Picard even made the cover of Time magazine for crying out loud! There was all kinds of related tie-in marketing too. I do think that the marketing team is doing a fine job promoting this film but so far in my life the only people I know talking about it are my Star Trek friends online. I have not heard one other person say they couldn't wait for the movie.

Kevin

Well, GEN came out at the height of Trek's popularity and there was that whole killing off Kirk thing that was going on with that movie so it was Time cover worthy. But, I don't recall any promotions for that film other than the toy and model kit lines that were already in existence by license so please correct me if I'm wrong.

There was certainly no corporate sponsorship for it or any Trek film.

As far as the buzz for this movie is concerned, I haven't heard any of my friends say they couldn't wait to see this either but I also visit other movie and entertainment websites and this film is very hotly anticipated by other people besides trek fans.

 

[Therin of Andor]

There was certainly no corporate sponsorship for it or any Trek film.

Taco Bell glasses for ST III.

Kraft "marshmelons" and dispenser for ST V.

 

[Eddie Roth]

So, what am I actually getting if i order a Whopper at Burger King in May? A Whopper, I know... but will they be offering me action figures like they did with the Simpsons Movie? Collectible Coke glasses? Something like that? Do we know?

 

[Shikarnov]

'91 was a huge year for Trek, even if all the publicity was split between the 25th Anniversary specials/celebrations and The Undiscovered Country, it still made for one hell of a marketing blitz for the franchise.

I still remember seeing this teaser, which revealed nothing about the movie, for the first time (and attached to several films, iirc) and getting really jazzed up.

In spite of all the things I'm not particularly fond of about nuTrek, I have to admit that I haven't felt this level of anticipation for anything Trek since '91. The marketers today are doing an excellent job.

As an aside, a quote about marketing by Joshua Ferris, in "Then We Came To The End:"

[As good marketers] we understood what made the world tick -- that in fact, we told the world how to tick. We got it, we got it better than others, we got it so well we could teach it to them. Using a wide variety of media, we could demonstrate for our fellows their anxieties, desires, insufficiencies, and frustrations -- and how to assuage them. We informed you in six seconds that you needed something you didn't know you lacked. We made you want anything that anyone willing to pay us wanted you to want. We were hired guns of the human soul. We pulled the strings on the people across the land and by god they got to their feet and they danced for us.

JJ and his team clearly are cut from that same cloth. I tip my hat to their efforts.

 

[indranee]

thanks for that teaser... interesting to hear Christopher Plummer (Gen. Chang) narrate that one. also, not many know that Shatner was, in his youth, the understudy for Plummer in Stratford Theatre.

also, good to know that Heroes tonight will be carrying Trek stuff!

 

[EJD1984]

Didn't Abrams make a comment about a "full size" Enterprise for the marketing? An inflatable of some sort?

 

[indranee]

ooooh really?!?!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I was wandering around a shopping mall in San Rafael, CA a couple days back, and there was a big-ass STAR TREK free-standing promo thing spelling out the letters (which castmembers faces in the letters) dominating the whole theater area there.

One of the letters was a little off-kilter, I felt like pushing it back into place but I didn't want to knock the whole damn thing down.

Didn't Abrams make a comment about a "full size" Enterprise for the marketing? An inflatable of some sort?

They gotta make Enterprise inflatables (yknow like the gorillas and godzillas outside car dealerships) and tether them above every theater where the movie is playing. So frakkin' obvious.

 

[EJD1984]

ooooh really?!?!

I found the quote and article it came from:

"Oh, there's a whole crazy campaign that is going to ...," Abrams said, trailing off. "It's insane. We have a life-size Enterprise, but I'm not allowed to talk about it."

LINK

 

[CaptainHawk1]

There was certainly no corporate sponsorship for it or any Trek film.

Taco Bell glasses for ST III.

Kraft "marshmelons" and dispenser for ST V.

That's not corporate sponsorship, that's a fast food tie-in. (I have two sets of the glasses and the Marshmallow dispenser BTW).

And sponsorship is a bad word, marketing partnership is more accurate. Kraft and Taco Bell did not help to actively promote those films. Esurance and Intel are doing exactly that... without toys or glasses.

 

[Devon]

There was certainly no corporate sponsorship for it or any Trek film.

I am not too sure about that. Remember that there were two or three name brand products mentioned in "Star Trek: The Voyage Home," Apple, Michelob, and maybe the Yellow Book company? I would imagine money exchanged hands there, which would be "Corp. Sponsorship" to an extent I guess in the disguise of product placement. Also in "The Final Frontier," Levi Jeans and Kraft did get special mentions during the credits, which could also be some underwriting possible in that area, though I am not entirely sure.