the elevator pitch

Yesterday marked the release date of the very first official movie trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland feature film due out next March. Although a lot of people out there already knew of this project, the folks over at Disney decided to make a big online push a few weeks ago. In an effort to generate as much online buzz before the big trailer release at Comic-Con yesterday, the marketing team behind the film decided to run a Facebook contest. They created three fan pages for the film. One was for loyal subjects of the Red Queen, another for loyal subjects of the White Queen and a final page for Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter. Facebook users were encouraged to become fans of these pages and the whichever page gathered the most would present the trailer for the new film before anyone else.

The results were astounding as the Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter ran away with the contest by gathering over 28,000 fans in a very short period of time. Although both the White and Red Queen lost, they too still managed to gather over 5000 fans themselves. Disney and Facebook came through with their agreement as fans of the Mad Hatter were treated to a sneak peak at the Alice in Wonderland trailer moments before the rest of the world.

From a marketing tactic this was quite brilliant. Although the film won’t even be released until March 2010, it is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated films of the year.

It really all boils down to strategic timing. This week marked the first day of Comic-Con where hundreds of thousands will be available to soak in all of the entertainment news first hand. Knowing this, Disney marked the date as one of huge importance. If you want to get the word out early, launch at an event that already has an established mass of fans.

Tweet This Post 

Indiana Jones is a survivor. In the heroic sense, yes, but also in the political and cultural definition of the term. Filmdom’s favorite whip- and wise-cracking archaeologist should have gone the way of Gremlins and Goonies, other silver-screen phenomena of the 80’s that could never seem relevant today. Indy shot out of a Peruvian jungle and into the cinema in 1981 hauling a gilded idol and the sagging set of shoulders of a perpetual victim of circumstance wary of the next obstacle ahead.

We found him likeable because he was fallible — a bright man who made foolish decisions in pursuit of glory. In an era of epics dominated by archetypal heroes like Skywalker and Superman, Indy stood out because of his escape acts that were more Keystone Cops than Errol Flynn. We could laugh at Harrison Ford’s Indy and still take him seriously, something we could never do with a Jedi.

It’s the character’s human frailty that allows him to re-enter our lives 27 years later and why we are eager to let him despite the disappointments his creators have made us endure. While “Raiders of the Lost Ark” will forever stand up as a Hollywood classic and a triumph of teamwork by cinematic masters Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, the sequels were gimmicky and rife with the worst of the 80’s tendencies to peddle recycled mediocrity as works of original art. “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” was a film tinged with more than a little racism and a plot with the solidity of gauze. The third film, which co-starred Sean Connery as Indy’s father, was given a pass by fans because it allowed the character to at least recover some of his dignity lost in the “Temple of Doom”. But “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was full of sentiment and the kind of self-adulation for its franchise that usually turns off audiences.

(more…)

Tweet This Post