Paranormal Activity has Paranormal Box Office Results

Paramounts’ “Paranormal Activity” is a good example of how simple marketing works when you have an fresh concept to promote. The movie was made for around $15 million, and has grossed $64 million in one weekend, and that number is expected to exceed 100 million. How did this happen to a movie with a marketing budget of $10 million, which is paltry compared to most films?

Paramount relied heavily on advanced midnight screenings, and viral buzz on the Internet. It’s been a trending topic on Twitter for weeks. It also helped that a big name celebrity declared he was spooked by it: Steven Spielberg said that when he saw the movie, strange things happened around his house. He thought his DVD was haunted. More than the clever, low-budget marketing, the success of the movie tells us that consumers want new, fresh and different ideas even if they come in a primitive, low-budget package. Corporate execs think they want the familiar or maybe they are just comfortable giving us the familiar because it has helped pay their salaries in the past.

Most studios in town passed on Paranormal Activity, so kudos to Paramount for some risk taking. As the LA Times wrote, studios with Harry Potter-style franchises are less likely to risk a long-shot bet. “It’s a studio like Paramount, about to lose its wildly successful Marvel franchises to Disney, which is most open to making an audacious gamble.”

U2 and the 360 Tour: How a Bad Experience is a Lesson for Marketers

Yesterday I wrote that sometimes bigger is not necessarily better; sometimes bigger is just a fat Elvis in a jumpsuit. Last night’s U2 show proved that the band has embraced the jumpsuit. No one wants to blame them, but I will. They are the brand, the company, and I’m sorry, but when you make your product more about the spectacle than its founding mission, good music, you deserve to be boiled down to a brand and you deserve to be shamed.

I’ve stated it many times before: rock and rolls stars are either artist who also happen to be marketers or they are surrounded by a team of marketers or both. It’s one thing to produce good music; it’s a business to get that good music heard, bought, and adored by millions.

U2 did a few things right: they promoted heavily, they did a a great promo with Blackberry, and they advertised on You Tube. What they did wrong was forget that the people there, in the flesh with them and paying hundreds of dollars for so-so seats, belonged to that experience.

The promoters, the City of Pasadena, the Rose Bowl management, and U2’s management all share in this blame. This reviewer does a good job of describing the vices, namely that they hyped this show up so much that people were panicked to get there early, take the shuttles, tailgate (i.e, drink heavily prior to the show) and in general, brace for WWIII. The lines for the shuttle to the stadium were long and took an hour. The lines getting inside the stadium were long and it took a half hour just to get to your seats. The t-shirt lines were a joke, crammed with pushing people, and the credit card system went down so fans had to pay cash only, and the vendors quickly sold out of every over-priced item. I don’t need to comment on the lines to the ladies room. They are always long for any show. After all this, the worst thing in the world happened: they sold out of all the good wine, except for the crappy white zinfandel.

And then after the show, it took an hour and a half to get back to the shuttle, another thirty minutes to get out of the garage. The sweetest part of the evening was the freeway, somehow, proving there is a Rock-n-Roll god, and he likes a quick trip, free of traffic.

So here I am, a marketer who preaches the value of giving the customer an experience, and I realized that in my entire career, I neglected, we all neglected, to really stress the obvious: if you give customers a bad experience, they won’t return.

Hey U2, those folks who bought tickets, you know, the ones you call “fans”? That’s not what they are called in the real world. No. We call them “customers.”

I’m told by the smart folks who sat at home and watched the show on You Tube that it was a great performance. I would not know. I was too busy trying to block out the drunk bimbo behind us who sang off-key at the top of her lungs the whole show. Hey lady: the lyrics are “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” not, “Some day valley some day.” And the drummer’s name is Larry, not Harry. If you don’t know him, why scream his name?

Okay, U2 cannot be blamed for her, but maybe said Bimbo wouldn’t have been such an annoyance if she hadn’t been at the show since noon, drinking her way through the boredom of sitting in a parking lot. Again, U2 didn’t make her drink, but, they are the brand, and hence, I blame the brand.

I will never again do a stadium show, unless it’s Bruce Springsteen, who understands that you can do stadium shows over a period of five nights and have a pleasant experience free of over-hyped media, and you don’t need to perform inside an octopus-space ship because a) you look like a geek and b) it’s about the music, not the spectacle.

U2, it was a nice ride with you for awhile, but I’m sorry, I prefer early Elvis, not the fat guy in the jumpsuit. Enjoy your rocket ride in your space ship. I’m getting off here.

U2 360 Tour and the Concept of Big

Sometimes bigger is not better. Sometimes bigger is just fat Elvis wearing a rhinestone jumpsuit. Today, in the early afternoon, I have to pack up a picnic basket, pack up the car and squeeze in with my U2-loving boyfriend and some friends, and go to Pasadena where, along with 96,000 other people, we have to navigate massive traffic, crowds, and wait it all out in some park because Pasadena is not meant to handle this many people, and some eight hours later, finally see U2 perform in a big spaceship-like stage.

If I sound skeptical, it’s just that I am not in love with their big stage. It’s an odd quirk on my part, I know. It’s U2, I should just be happy to have seats to this sold out extravaganza. I’m a fan of the paired down. For example, Apple has proved with their “Mac” and “PC” guys that a paired down ad campaign is great.

I have every belief that tonight’s performance will be one big WOW. I just like my rock and roll simple: a band, their equipment, some decent lighting and the music. What happens after that is usually magic. I think that the power and quality of their music is enough to draw people in and make the show a great one.

Tonight’s show will be broadcast, for the first time, live on You Tube. What does this mean, besides the fact that anyone with access to a computer and the Internet worldwide, can watch the same show I am, minus the hassles of traffic and a big commitment time-wise? It’s a fine convergence of social media and rock-n-roll. The finest, perhaps. Kudos to U2 for making the plunge. I just hope we can all see the band through the massive pillars of the spaceship-stage.

Big band. Big crowd. Big spaceship-like stage. Big coverage. WOW.

Global Banking Brands: Where Does the Middle East Stand?

This interesting and timely article brings to light the importance of brand value. When is bigger not better? When bigger is revenue without brand value. In recent years, Middle Eastern banks have been long on revenue, but short on global brand recognition. The graph in the article demonstrates that the global economic crisis has been a tad gentler on mature financial institutions with strong brand value.

The lesson from all this: never stop developing and reinforcing your brand, even when your company is in the black. Economic hard times being cyclical, you need a strong brand to keep you foremost in the consumer’s mind, and a reputation as the fail-safe, go-to place when product confidence is low.

Where Content is King

London is known for many things: The home of greasy fish and chips, Harrods, the Union Jack, great music, great writers, fog, and as a popular vacation destination for weary American marketers. I had the pleasure of spending a week or so across the Pond in the old stomping ground of the Tudors. While I did not lose my head, I did lose my heart to London. San Francisco is great, but my heart is back in London riding the Tube. No, I’m not that big of a fan of public transportation, though those Brits do it right. It’s just that content is still king there, and the poster ads on the Tube (and in other places) proved that. Every time I stepped out of Waterloo Station I felt like Don Draper, fresh out of a Lucky Strikes meeting with my Mad Men creative team. Rather than tell you about it, the following is a photo journey of some of my favorites ads in London. It was a bit hard taking photos on the Tube, but if you click on the images, it should take you to a larger view.

Here’s an effective ad for The London Times. They use the melting of polar ice pages as an introduction to the their Sunday Science section. Climate Change and other world issues come into play in a number of the ads I saw. This one was one of the most compelling. It uses a great shot and some concise copy to make its point. It ends with “Be a part of the times.” Note the punctuation, creating a play on words.

Be a part of the times

This one is another favorite. In fact, it’s the first photo of an advertisement that I snapped in London, and it wasn’t till that moment that I realized I would even want to blog about ads I saw. I love this one because it is a head-turner and has a line you won’t forget. My mind was duly opened and inspired.

The Opening of Your Mind

This next ad is all words. In fact, it’s flash fiction at its finest. The copywriter has taken on us a little journey that leads us through a fine department store, then right back to our computer where we will order the same wonderful product for much less.

Dixons

I tried several times to get a good shot, but on a moving train with riders walking past my view it was tricky, so if you cannot read the copy in red, it reads: “then head over to Dixons.uk.co to order it for much less.” If Shakespeare were alive today, he might have been a vital member of the ad team at Dixons.

The next ad reminds us that you can’t please everyone. Just ask the poor advertising agency for the London Transit System. They came close, though, and this ad proves the success of the poster ads in the London Tube.

9 Out of 10

Thanks, London, for the sights, and for the great ride.