the thought

I’m grateful that within a week, regardless of who your chosen candidate is, the political advertising will be behind us. This election process is unlike any other I’ve witnessed. I’m a registered independent, which means that I get phone calls and the postcards from both sides, constantly. I dread picking up home voice mail messages because I know that the bulk of them are candidates spewing venom about how the other has wronged me. Between the smear campaigns that Betsy Markey / Marilyn Musgrave and Mark Udall / Bob Shaffer are running, the issue campaigns that pretty much let us know that everybody is lying, and the Presidential campaigns that just speak in circles, I’m over it.

Here’s when it hit me. There was a television commercial on for a pharmaceutical that “helps” with a particular STD. I quickly flipped the channel. On the other channel there was a commercial for one of the political candidates. I flipped back even more quickly – shocking myself. The fact that I prefer to watch a spot about STDs and cures rather than politicians really says something, doesn’t it?

04:12 PM | Permalink

What happened to the good old days, where commercials had catchy jingles that you would happily sing all day long? The mere mention of certain products can trigger people to start singing the catchy, and for the most part, nostalgic tune – always with a smile on their face. Take these classics for example:

Oscar Meyer
“I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner”
Or
“my bologna has a first name”

Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum
“double your pleasure, double your fun – double mint double mint GUM!”

U.S. Army
"Be all that you can be…."

Did you catch yourself bobbing your head and singing along? Commercial jingles have come a long way since the simple and catchy songs we grew up loving. Now we have jingles like Subway’s “5 dollar… 5 dollar foot long….”- monotonous, repetitive and impossible to get out of your head. The minute this song comes on the TV, I lunge for the remote and hope that I didn’t absorb too much of the song, for fear that it will be stuck in my head for hours, taunting me. It reminds me of a quote from David Muhlenfeld of the Martin Agency "Repetition alone will make something stick in a listener's head. The question is, once your song is in their head, will they want to stick that head in an oven?" hmm….

Despite my distaste for these commercial’s songs, one cannot deny its success. The genius behind the ad is the same thing that makes us crazy – stubborn and consistent repetition. The jingle plays on repeat in my head all day long, reminding me of the brand, the product and the deal, whether I like it or not. Trust me I will never forget that Subway now has $5 foot longs.

09:29 AM | Permalink

‘Do you want to play a game?’ words that were previously reserved for boredom struck children on a rainy day are now famously, and possibly forever linked to the overwhelmingly successful suspense/horror movie franchise SAW, much in the same way no one’s looked at a hockey mask the same way since Jason Voorhees worn in Friday the 13th.

As a huge fan of the Saw movies, and with the fifth installment only hours away this was one of the first items to come to mind when I sat down to blog. I wanted to show how successful a franchise that started out so small has turned out to be, as well as to showcase the brilliant marketing ideas used to further its success. However in my research I was shocked to find out it was an even bigger jump to stardom than I thought!

The idea for the original saw film was written as a short film by two Australian film school students, Leigh Whannell and James Wan. The 7 minute film began circulating and was eventually found by Twisted pictures and brought to the then up-and-coming Lionsgate films. I was surprised to find out that although the excitement and appreciation for the story was high between these companies and the writers, SAW was originally slated as a “straight to DVD” movie and was written with no real sequels in mind. However due to its overwhelming reception at Sundance they made a last minute decision to take a big chance on it, and turn the small budget film into a theatrical release.
The budget for SAW was only $1.2 million dollars in comparison to your usual high-budget suspense films, such as Se7en ($30mil) or Hannibal ($87mil), however the pay off was HUGE. In its opening weekend of 10/24/04 saw grossed over $18 million dollars, by the end of its theatrical run it had grossed over $103 million worldwide! Talk about a return on your investment!

Due to its success and the overwhelming response from fans wanting to know more about the films key character ‘Jigsaw’ the studio almost immediately green lighted a sequel, daring to make a difficult promise that the sequel would be written, produced, and ready for release by Halloween of the following year!
By the time 10/28/2005 rolled around everyone was crazy with anticipation for Saw II. With only a $5mil budget they were staying true to their modest roots. Where could the story possibly be going? Who else would suffer the difficult yet necessary lesson of learning to appreciate their life? We were all dying to know.
The movie ended up more than earning its keep by not only earning back its initial budget, but also more than covering its relatively small marketing budget of $20mil when it brought in almost $32 million in its first weekend, followed by a total gross of nearly $153 million worldwide.

Saw III took another step up, with a $10 million dollar initial budget and $20 mil in marketing, It opened to $34 million the first weekend and $164 million over all. Saw IV was the first of the films to take a dip in ticket sales. With the same budget as Saw III it opened to a first weekend gross of $32mil and overall sales of $135mil. Not forgetting DVD sales for those of us wanting to re-live the experience over and over again, these two films combined brought in over $78 million dollars in DVD sales!

Now, with Saw V opening this weekend I’ve been more interested in the lead-up and marketing ploys of this franchise than ever. However that’s the extra shocking part about things. The Saw franchise seems to subscribe to the ‘less is more’ idea of marketing. When I asked my fiancé yesterday how many Saw commercials he’s seen on TV lately he couldn’t think of a single one. And while the poster image and trailer are flashing all over the pages of Yahoo, MySpace, and IMDB, as of yet I haven’t heard a single radio ad for it either.

The most effective marketing exposure I’ve received has been from the fans posting on forums and message boards all over the place with up to the minute theories, ideas, and just plain excitement counting down the time until we get the next piece of the puzzle. The producers and the film studio have amped up the fan factor in two ways:
1. They have previously always set a dollar amount for opening weekend. Saying “if it doesn’t gross more than X amount we will know the fan’s are bored with it, and we’ll end the series”
2. They have made many statements in commentaries, interviews and the like letting the fans know that they listen to our ideas and theories. It’s been said before that the writers and director frequent the fan sites and message boards reading up on all of our wonderful theories. They’ve even suggested that by doing so we the fans have crafted each of the films alongside them. That they’ve altered and applied some of our ideas, and/or scrapped some of their own based on our input.

Now, there is really nothing new about either of those ideas. It’s well known that most well performing movies will spawn sequels (i.e. most recently the High School Musical franchise, ironically opening its third installment the same weekend as Saw V) whether they really should or not (i.e. the hills have eyes 2, and in my opinion Hostel 2). However they add uniqueness in the fact of being very upfront about these things. Giving the fans a feeling of control, and a sense of recognition.

That being said it’s no surprise that having a hand in crafting the story that has become so overwhelmingly addictive would also be a huge draw. Overall it appears they’ve capitalized on word of mouth, one of the best, yet hardest to achieve marketing ploys. While also managing to give themselves an endearing (let hope also enduring!) way to keep the story fresh and interesting!

(P.S. Stay tuned for Part II of my Saw blog….feel free to apply the above methods and e-mail me with ideas, questions, or appreciation for the movie (or my blogs! ). Those of you reading who are also fans, I’d love to hear which trap so far has been your favorite at Ciara.Foremski@thayermedia.com)

04:53 PM | Permalink

Comcast is currently running a comparison TV spot featuring a fictitious game show where the contestants need to answer the question: Does Comcast or Direct TV have more HD programming at this specific time and in this specific city? There is a voiceover while the contestants are debating their answer that says something like: "the contestants should know that Comcast has more HD programming than Direct TV, no matter where you are, or when you are watching."

The contestants answer incorrectly by stating Direct TV. (I know, what a letdown, I was really pulling for them.)

Comparisons between brands and even comparisons between specific models within brands seem to be more and more common on television these days. Some of the creative used does an excellent job engraining the brands message and competitive advantage. Other creative, like this Comcast spot, does not. They mention their brand and the competition so frequently, and in such proximity to their brand, that as soon as the commercial ends, I can’t remember who has more HD programming. I know that one of them has more than the other, but which is it? If it wasn’t for this blog and my trusty pen and paper, I still wouldn’t know the answer.

When comparing your brand to another brand make sure you actually have a competitive advantage. Once that has been established, make sure your creative supports this advantage and creates separation, otherwise you will confuse the issue and the brands that were intended to be distinguished.

03:32 PM | Permalink