Opinion: Fox’s Marketing Campaign for ‘Dawn Treader’
By fantasia_kitty
There’s been a lot of feedback on our forum and news story comments on Fox’s marketing campaign for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Mainly, how poor it was based on how the movie is doing in theaters. But is that really Fox’s fault? I’ve typed up my own thoughts on Fox’s marketing campaign.
Positives:
The Dawn Treader at Cleveland Point - Picture sent to us by ellz_bellz
There were a few things that Fox did I thought were truly brilliant. First, when they opened up The Spit and the Cleveland Point filming locations in Australia to the public eye. Watching the Dawn Treader being built on the opposite side of the world, and even though I wasn’t there, getting to see the daily progress of the sets being built and then filming on them was just so very cool! This was easily when I was most excited about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
The second superb thing they did, and in my humble opinion the best piece of marketing anyone has done for any of the movies, was Operation Narnia. It may not have been the best draw for the movie perhaps, but the concept of it was truly Narnian — reaching out to children in need. Fox did Lewis proud here I think!
My third favorite thing they did was transforming The Matthew into the Dawn Treader and sailing her around England with children from several countries on board! icarus was lucky enough to get to see her, and Paul Martin at NarniaFans.com got to sail on her! Really very cool!
Other things I felt they did well. I felt the timing in which they released their individual marketing pieces (ie posters, trailers) for Dawn Treader was good. It certainly wasn’t like the Prince Caspian marketing fiasco when Disney started building excitement and anticipation really early on and then dropped off the face of the earth for a few months, and the blasted everybody in the face with an overabundance of news two months before the movie came out. For those following the Dawn Treader news, there was a good, steady build of excitement.
I felt worldwide advertising for Dawn Treader was superior to Prince Caspian. I don’t remember getting very much in the way at all of worldwide spy reports on that movie’s marketing, but we got quite a lot for Dawn Treader. The Regent Street Christmas Lights celebration was especially fun.
Mixed:
Advertising to the faith community. Better than Prince Caspian, not as good The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They tried, but I’m not sure the faith community responded.
I’ll give the online marketing an ok in my book. The official website was fun. Towards the end Fox did pretty well putting out trailers and video clips on various movie websites. IMDb got some very nice advertisements for that site. But I’m still waiting for the production to do an official website that releases NEWS. It’s been a long time now but does anyone remember the official Lord of the Rings website? The Narnia movies desperately needed (and still need) a site like that one.
After filming wrapped up at Cleveland Point, Fox really clamped down on the news. You may have noticed the lack of exclusive interviews from the fansites this time around? Well it wasn’t for a lack of trying. We simply weren’t allowed to post anything. On one hand I can understand that because you don’t want film details too early, but on the other hand, you start to get the feeling that the production isn’t excited or doesn’t care about their film.
Negative:
Well I really felt like there were a few places Fox missed some golden opportunities for marketing. The number one thing that stood out to me was missing Comic-Con 2010. Why was there nothing there? I just didn’t get that. Especially when they showed up at some other place (I forget where now) with some kind of display a couple weeks later. Could they have not had something ready for Comic-Con just a few weeks before?
And then the two killer things: Merchandise being the first. Oy. I understand that Fox doesn’t do as much merchandising as Disney. And maybe the Prince Caspian merchandising failed so miserably at bringing in money that Fox didn’t even want to try, I don’t know. But after claiming to return to making a movie for kids, there sure was a lack of stuff to draw children’s eyes — and in turn beg the parents to take them to see the movie. And I know so many people that would have killed for a Dawn Treader replica.
And then finally, the quality of the marketing pieces. The first teaser poster aside, I don’t know what they were thinking? I mean, I just didn’t get it. To release so many official posters of an obviously incomplete Dawn Treader. And the international poster has the sail backwards. Billboards with one character’s clothing overlapping onto another one’s head. Very, very sloppy. And I just did not understand why as those are fairly easy fixes to make. But they didn’t, and in bookstores in Europe you can purchase The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with an incomplete sail printed right on the cover.
……
But at the end of the day, looking back at the full marketing campaign, I have to give Fox full marks for at least doing everything they needed to do. Not high marks for quality no, but they told people the movie was coming. I may have a lot of people disagree with me perhaps, but in my middle-of-nowhere town, I saw posters, I saw a theater stand, I saw books and magazines in bookstores, and I saw a couple of commercials on TV. So outside of NarniaWeb and the internet, I knew this movie was coming.
To address something I’ve been seeing all over this site that I know is going to come up again…
“Yeah, but my brother/sister/mom/kids/uncle/cousins/best friend/pet monkey had no idea this movie was coming out til it was in theaters!”
… to which I sit back in my chair and smile wryly. Really? My family and friends knew Dawn Treader was coming out the moment it was greenlit and I never stopped babbling about it til it hit theaters. I still haven’t, actually.
So I think that speaks volumes, if the top fans of the Narnia movies, who visit this site, are not talking about the Dawn Treader movie with their closest friends and family. Yeah, I think that says quite a lot. And I don’t see how the blame for that can be laid on Fox’s marketing department. That ball would be in the filmmaker’s court because they’re not making movies that people find worth talking about.
So there are my thoughts, and we would love to hear yours, so feel free to post in the comments section below or on the forum here.
Yeah, I felt like there was a lack of merchandise as well as there being no appearance at Comic Con 2010.
As others mentioned, there was no video game! That would have helped people realize the movie is coming out. However, I am really sick and tired of low quality video games based on every movie that comes out. So I'm glad they didn't make it.
Overall, Fox did… ok, I guess. Considering how the movie turned out, it got the marketing it deserved I suppose.
Do trailers count as marketing? There were around 4 trailers. As far as the trailers go, that may have been the worst part of their marketing, mainly because they were false advertising. They made you think Peter, Susan and the Whit Witch were a more important part of this movie. It would have been better had they kept it a surprise for people. What I hate the most is the posters. Oh MAN were they horrible. Too many characters and too much going on all on one poster. And it had Peter, Susan and The White Witch on it! Of all things to show, they showed the White Witch! They really played up the fact that she was in this movie. And that's why I feel less positive about their marketing. But it's the movie that counts. In the end no one will remember how it was marketed. They'll remember how good (or bad) the movie was.
i don't think it was marketed well in the US. We heard that there were billboards and buses advertising the movie and a whole bunch of other marketing news in other countries, but it didn't seem like we heard a lot about the movie in the US. the only way my parents knew about it was because i kept reminding them. My mom didn't really see anything reminding her it was coming. All we got was the trailers and it was only the newest trailer that really got me excited about the movie. theaters kept showing the first trailers which i didn't like. Looks like word of mouth is the way to go now
1. Tracking surveys have already shown that interest in this film was almost evenly divided between men and women and between adults and children. When I saw the film there were actually significantly more adults in the audience than children.
2. I'm an adult and I liked Lucy in LWW (better, in fact, than Lucy in PC or VDT).
3. The people who like that silly cartoon of LWW better than the theatrically released film are very far and few between. Most people have a bias in favor of what they grew up with. That's why so many like those cheap, slow BCC films too. Your brother is merely showing a common tendency to prefer the familiar from childhood over the new. I can't see how anyone who did not see the cartoon when they were young could possibly prefer it to the movie version.
4. If LWW was so dreadful, why were the DVD sales so good? Wouldn't word of mouth have killed DVD profits? Why was its run in the theaters so long? I agree that LWW could have been a better film than it ended up being and I was never terribly impressed with Adamson or the actors. However, I like that adaptation significantly better than the most recent two. And, importantly to me, they were much more accurate to the events and the mood of the book. I think they would have done well to cut back on the big battle a bit though and to cut the overall run-time too, since it did drag on a bit.
5. Why should every film be made to appeal to teenagers? I'm absolutely tired of it. I would like more family-friendly films, regardless of whether some 15-year-old boy would find it "cool" or not.
6. I actually hope they don't raise the budget for the next film. Not only would it be harder to make money on it (insuring a likely premature end to the series), it would probably cause the film makers to focus more on SFX than the story. I think the ridiculously large budget for PC is one of the reason's why Lewis's story got lost in the actual film.
7. I, as an adult, thought that LWW with it's crucifixion scene and general violence was darker than Toy Story 3, which was a great cartoon, but still more cute in my opinion than "dark" or profound.
8. I'd also like to see another director, who is a bigger name and who has more experience with live-action fantasy films. Del Toro would be great, but he's already said he won't do the Narnia films because he doesn't like the Christian elements in them. Since they seem intent on not filming C.S. Lewis's version of these stories anyway, I would love to see someone truly innovative like Terry Gilliam take the helm. He can make a good film on a small budget too (he did The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus for only a little over $30 million I believe). If they are going to go with a more conventional, less innovative director anyway, then I hope to God they actually stick to Lewis's story, because it's bound to be better than what they can come up with.
9. I agree with your assessments of what needs to be done with Jill and Puddleglum.
10. Overall, I as an adult liked the first film significantly better than the last two, though PC and VDT are not bad films in and of themselves.
I agree with most of your points.
Though, a big name director doesn't equal success.
Ang Lee, an oscar winning director, directed "Hulk" and it was a horrible movie. We need a director (as well as good script writers) who have read the books, understand them, love them and want to adapt them faithfully.
We need someone like Zack Snyder. His films may not be perfect, but they stick to the source material, which is key for a film adaption.
I am also tired of film makers trying to conform every movie to the usual formula that every blockbuster movie has been doing for the past 5+ years. If they will just make a faithful adaption, it will appeal to most everyone.
The problem is, Narnia isn't Harry Potter. What I mean is, Harry Potter is popular right now, because the books are popular. Narnia isn't popular right now. Most people today, especially young people, haven't read the books, or care to read them. And reading LWW in grade school doesn't count, cause most everyone's done that.
One more point I want to make. "Dark" does not guarantee success. It works well for marketing right now, but once they see the film, it will still fail if it's not a good movie. Just because LOTR or the Dark Knight were successful, doesn't mean every movie right now has to be dark to compete with other movies today.
LOTR wasn't successful because it was dark. To say that would be very narrow-minded. LOTR is a masterpiece, a great piece of film. It's very exceptional, because it took years to make and luckily it was implemented wonderfully. It wouldn't be fair to compare almost any film to LOTR, because it's so unique in that aspect. That's why it was so successful.
And in response to something thesithempire said, Narnia shouldn't capture the magic of LOTR, because it's not LOTR, it's Narnia. If you want LOTR magic, you watch LOTR. This is a common problem filmmakers make. They want to mimic other franchises, but they should bring out what is original, unique and special about Narnia.
They needed the movie companion… LWW and PC both had them, why couldn't VDT have one too? It builds excitement and brings the fan into the movie production.
And they definitely needed to do something to get people talking…
On the whole, I feel like the marketing department did a good job in the sense that people knew the movie was coming out. (When I went to see Toy Story 3 back in the summer, the gigantic Narnia ship display with spinnable wheel/rudder/thing was already prominently displayed in the theater.)
However, I have yet to see a poster that I like; all the ones that have come out have at least one of the following: poor coloring/contrast, pics of Peter and Susan (even if you remove my purist-ness, they were in the movie for all of…60 seconds?) pics of the White Witch, cliche taglines, and snow (a pet peeve, both because of my purist side and because there's only 30 seconds of snow in the movie). But they were there, and they were visible, and I guess that's what counts.
As for the faith community, I'm in agreement that it was poor marketing compared to the other two. But really, what did they have to offer? A cliche temptation theme (that overwhelmed the movie in ways Lewis never intended) that was more about overcoming temptation yourself than needing the help of a 'Higher Power', a blink-and-you-miss it redemption scene by said 'Higher Power' and a cliche line to boot, some 'true beauty' lines, and one powerful-moment-lost statement about Aslan being in our world by another name. The movie is family friendly, but as for being the allegory-filled wonder that the movie versions of LWW (and, to a point, PC) were…it wasn't happening.
Also, to a point, I think the behind-the-scenes on Disney Channel were vital to the other two and the lack thereof probably contributed to VoDT's failure at the box office.
But I wouldn't blame the movie's failure to succeed monetarily on the marketing department (not like we could in PC). I'd blame it on the movie. It's confusing if you haven't read the book; it's a huge disappointment if you have. Either way, no one's going to go home and rave about it. :/ 🙁
that was strange no actors on talk shows- except ben who is on stage in london. but liam neeson was on The View today 12/17 watch it on abc,com
I know, that is such a basic thing!!! I wonder if Disney is interferering-
that's stupid and childish for narnia fans to jump to negative conclusions so quickly. to snobby if u ask me- they should at least give the movie a try before slamming it. very closedminded.
I agree, it seems like everything about this movie has been confused- from the production issues to Fox's handling of it, to the advertising, the merchandising. I mean, Disney already laid out a successful battle plan with LWW, why not follow it to the letter instead of half-@ssed like they did? If I hadn't been a fanatic, i certainly wouldnt'' have been persuaded by the 2-3 commercials I saw. I think the most advertising came from Carrie Underwood's involvement. And why was Liam Neeson on The View TODAY promoting the movie instead of 2 weeks ago? I am just baffled.
I feel like it's the opposite situation, like they are freaking out Liam said that , and so now they are trying to do damage control by giving glen beck tickets and merchandising to make up for how Neeson offended the faith community, because they watch glen beck alot. like they bribed glen beck with free stuff to put it on and defend it.
I was only joking about Johnny depp cause his new movie opened against VDT. i was being facetious- no, i really want andrew adamson for glumpuddle LOL . actually, they are into casting unknowns mostly, which i appreciate.
I talked to a famous director on a radio show (i forgot his name, sorry, im not a real movie buff) and he said the main problem with the narnia movies was hiring a animated director for a live action film. he was not impressed with AA at all and thought they could have been handled way better.
I know, i've only seen it once so far. the first 15 mins. i was kinda in shock i was finally seeing it. Then the rest is a blur, and I've had to come to grips with the fact so many of the most famous scenes weren't in it. I was so looking forward to seeing a better produced version of the BBC series and when the gov. gumpas scene wasn't even there i started to get confused , then every scene was so rushed, then this gross, long sea serpent scene would not end, then I started I tune out, and when i tuned back in it was the waterfall scene that abruptly ended. I kinda walked out of there going , whoa, what just happened? same thing happened with PC, i walked out more shell shocked than anything and it took repeated viewings to get used to the screen version.
now that's an idea…
I honestly was not suprised at the poor numbers, mainly because the marketing was so poor. Whereas Disney made the mistake of marketing to the wrong audience (teens, etc) to the point of losing the family audience, with Fox I thought the issue was the complete lack of marketing all together. I saw nothing around where I lived to alert the casual moviegoer that VDT was coming out at all.. no billboards, no posters,etc. I also noticed there were no features about the movie at all in the holiday movie previews in entertainment weekly and other magazines I subscribe too. At least HP had several covers and when PC was coming out there were articles on it as well. VDT has absolutely nothing except one or two footnotes at the bottom of the articles if at all. It was also absent at comic-con. There was also no US premiere so I am not surprised it is doing so poorly here. It's such a shame. How much did fox even spend on marketing? Aside from a few TV spots, I didn't see anything else in terms of advertising.
yeah, that was penny wise and pound foolish, same with the burger king toys.\, Any toys for that matter. Comeon. no dawn treader model? No calendar?no buttons? no reep stuffed animal? after she asks to finally hug him? wouldn't every little kid want a reep plush to hug after seeing that? No t shirts until after the movie's opening? I woudn't ever have thought of a Fox webstore to find merch, that never told anyone where to get stuff, And no IPOD game app? Come on. that would have promoted the movie more than a silly website game.
they do have one, but, once again, it is only being marketed in europe. I saw that on narniaweb or another narnia site. I wanted one too, i think you can get it through the web , europe amazon or somehting-
anyone know if they promoted it on fox tv?
and why weren't georgie and skandar on a million tv shows while they were here promoting the zoos? and i never heard about that either, until afterwards on here.
me too, High Queene Shelly Belly, first viewing seemed like a blur experience abit like your one with similar things contributing to that as they did for you -and i grabbed on to the Eustace arc which was the strongest impression to hold on to first time around -i mean turning into a dragon is hard to be blurry even on first viewing! But the second time i saw it(which was also a 3d), was a real joy/great time and everything i'd been excited of in my anticipation of the first viewing experience. And then each one after been top too although 3d been my fav. times.
I didn't really see a lot of commercials for the film on TV. When Caspian came out I saw a ton. I heard they'd aired something during a Harry Potter Marathon. Which is good. I also saw the piece the 700 club did about it. But there just didn't seem to be a lot of tv spots. At least from my point of view.
Queen Shelly Belly, I DIDN'T know you said that! I had NO idea who said it. I had just seen the idea mentioned before etc. and thought 'wow… disaster!' I was speaking as I know it's an idea, but don't know whose idea.
I'm really sorry and hope I didn't offend you! I certainly wasn't speaking that against you! I'm SO sorry! 🙁 Forgive me?
hey, I hope I didn't offend you by saying that about Johnny Depp. I had no clue who said that. I saw it *so* long ago, and I hadn't paid attention to the name. I'm really sorry. I hope I wasn't too much of a jerk. Forgive me? 🙁 Again, I'm very sorry! I open my mouth and get myself in lots of trouble 🙁
I agree with many of the comments here. Before LWW I had never read anything by Lewis. What caught me was the LWW teaser trailer and then going to the web site and seeing the mini-documentaries. They were excellent. I then really wanted to see the movie. We are talking about a few months before the release. LWW had a excellent marketing campaign. I have since read all the Narnia books many times. PC did not do the same thing.
On VDT the web site has been very poorly used. I have enjoyed the game and have done very well on the game. The game can, at best, be only a small part of a successful web site. The web site had almost nothing else. This can still be corrected. With what me are now finding out about the FX of VDT, they should have had a documentary out this last summer. They could have had documentaries about Georgie Henley and Will Poulter. When production wrapped we had a few letters from Ernie Malik, but they stopped. There was no sustained campaign to engage the fans except for the two major fan sites. Fan sites do not have the resources to mount a major campaign, and that is not their purpose. NarniaWeb and NarniaFans did very well. Fox did almost nothing. Go to Foxmovies.com. A very poor web site. Narnia.com is poor. What is Fox doing to engage people enough to want to see this movie? Walden is trying, but they do not control advertising. The Fox distributors in each country do the advertising.
we are cool, future queen! : )
liam neeson was on the today show, today, along with the view
columba, that's a good point to bring up to them. please contact them .
hey, pepper, no sweat! : )
I agree that the website was not good for visitors. Some people just want to visit the site and enjoy the news and trailers. Even if they are interested in a game or two there should be no obligation to have a facebook or twitter account, which annoyed me.
I think the product quality translates into a dropoff AFTER opening weekend if the quality isn't there. The word of mouth talks people out of going, and repeater type viewers don't go again. The first weekend i think is composed more of hardcore fans who have been waiting for it, and people who were media-blittzed into trying it out. (LIKE WHAT DISNEY DOES- brainwashing you into going from massive promotions everywhere in all areas, toys, happy meals, books., posters, etc.) i really get the feeling no one knew about it. To have almost NO ONE there on opening weekend was very weird. Esp. from a franchise that has made 750 + 450 million before.
Spoiler alert—
Just saw it for the first time.
I can't believe how good it was !! Yes, annoying plot changes ( what do you expect ) yes, it was 'dumbed down ' for younger kids, but—
It was soooo good ! It kept the spirit of the book way more than the other 2 movies, which frankly, I like far less now. I will buy a copy of the dvd for all my friends.Finally, a Narnia movie I can really be proud of representing Narnia.
LOVED the illustrations from the book at the end, dragon tears, Caspians remarks about Reep not shutting up, but that look that said he loved him.
The de-dragoning was satisfactory.
Duf's were perfect in every way.
Just wish it was longer. I hope for an extra half hour on dvd : I sneezed and missed half of it. More, more ! I still not satisfied !
I think the blurry, dark colors of the posters were more artsy and adult looking. young people want bright and colorful. with clean lines. I think it made the movie look more serious in tone than a young people's movie. This movie should have been promoted more like an indian jones feeling campaign, i think. a happy lark on the high seas- adventure! not with lucy looking like a 30 year old, somber zombie in the poster- look at the dark circles under her eyes- they should have aged her down- not up. the whole poster looked BLEAK- not inticeing
In all sincerity, I can now say that the only reason a critic could have for really disliking this movie is the allegory; which as far as I'm concerned was the best part of the movie.
And I also cried at the end.
That doesn't make me a queen!
On topic, the marketing for this movie SUCKED, I saw it friday night at 9 20, and we were FIVE in the audience to see this jewel of a movie
In Houston they had bill boards with just Aslan on them saying "He Returns." They did a fair amoount of TV advertising, which is expensive, and just tonight, a weel after the opening they are still advertising on TV and the newspaper ads are full color. For some reason the faith community did not attend this movie. Sjame on them. Maybe it is because fewer people read the book or they really do need a Disney like marketing blitz to get excited about a movie. Fox has plenty of marketing experience, but the early trailers looked pretty dull. None of this explains why it did average business in the UK of all places. That really is a mystery to me.
thanks a ton!! 🙂
I think plain and simple, PC was so bad, 'Peter an. Cas. were so annoying in it, many people just didn't want to be burned again.
So true! Why did they not send out Georgie, Ben, and skandar to do the talk show circuit? It makes no sense to have them show up to a zoo where it is not nationally televised. The 3 have great charisma and they really should have put them out there In the mass media. Also, where are the red carpet premieres all over the world? Usually there are premieres in other countries and pics of the cast always help. My guess is fox tried to save money and in so doing really killed any chance of the franchise turning around with Vdt. They turned an event movie into an afterthought that never registered with the casual moviegoer.
I saw a lot of adds too (And not just on Sarah Palin's Alaska). I saw adds on Cartoon Network, ABC Family, ABC, CBS, NBC, and more. (Oh, and by the way, the Sarah Palin show is not cheesy!)
It might been the city or Theater you were in.
Don't bother responding to my comments, Not of this world, I find your politically charged cracks arrogant, and irritating at best. You are the perfect example of 'the ugly American', and do not represent your culture, as you seem to think you do.
No offence, but I found you coment rude. I said nothing against you at all. And I'm not an "ugly american". I try to live my life the way God wants me to. I only represent my self. And I have no intent to offend anyone. If I had, I'd like to appologize. But be more carefull with your words please, Moonwood.
That’s crazy, my cinema is a small independent one, and we even got it (mind you i live in Australia so that could be the difference)
I saw one billboard briefly from a plane (the air port was IN the city)
I know what you mean Pepper Darcy, whenever i was chatting with my friends and there was a lull in the conversation, i would start on about Narnia AGAIN, thankfully all my friends respect me… and my ‘weirdness’ 😉
Matthew Vaughn should direct the next Narnia movies!
Stardust budget – 70mil
Kick-ass budget – 30mil
Wow, moonwood that was very mean and needless. Not Of This World was just responding to your coment about your veiwing of narnia. He said nothing mean or rude to you, then you blew up and were mean to him. That is not the Narnian way.
Please don't curse on this website, son of adam. This is nothing against you, but there could be little eyes reading these coments. Next time can you find other words to replace them? Thanks!
sorry, I was just thinking maybe this will help for the next Narnia movies……
You have a point, B. fan , but I was refering to several other comments he has made in he past, that it seems he decided to forget. He has been 'following me around', making subtle, and definately not-subtle cracks about the inferiority of certain countries.This has been going on for a while, and I wanted him to stop. Obviously, he can't take a hint. So here we are again.
I'm thinking maybe Walden Media will hire Matthew Vaughn, you know, he can do a great movie with such a low budget….
I heard VDT us B.O. not so well, maybe it would cause The Silver Chair not being made, then I think maybe Matthew Vaughn would help, if they can do the next movie with lower budget, Matthew Vaughn could be a good choice to direct……
Anyway, sorry……
That's okay 🙂 And I think I like your idea!
I am not "following you aroud". I don't even remeber your user name. And if you are talking about that one time that person said some rude things about the Rupublican party, I stated my oppinion. That's it. I've not made a political statement since. You are incorect with your acusations.
I hope words could reach Walden Media's ears……
its not better than LWW
That's good. keep it up, let all that bad stuff out of your system.But I fear if you keep going, your head may explode !
Why don't you just let it go