Poor Marketing Bursts the ‘Avatar’ Hype Bubble
On one hand I want to feel sorry for James Cameron. The famed director has produced what looks like a ground-breaking, amazing and spectacular masterpiece in his sci-fi epic Avatar and yet thanks to hype and poor marketing his masterpiece is now suffering from a cloud of negative buzz.
On the other hand I feel there’s no need, for a softening of expectations might be just what the film needs.
The problems began, in my view, with Avatar’s production secrecy. It was first conceived of some 14 years ago and has been in development for some time, but virtually all aspects of it have been carefully kept under wraps. The result has been a growing sense of mystery that has fueled monumental amounts of anticipation and speculation.
There’s also no question that fan anticipation has been compounded with hype. Avatar has been billed as the movie to change the entire film industry, as delivering photo-realistic fantastical imagery virtually indistinguishable from real, as setting a new standard in 3D animation, as the most important film of the decade, as this and that and on the hype list goes.
Even the greatest thing in the universe has only one way to go when it is billed as the greatest thing in the universe.
For 20th Century Fox, the key to managing the hype resides in a well laid out marketing plan. The difficulty with Avatar is that it’s a film meant to be seen in a format that cannot be replicated on television, in standard theaters, or in online trailers. Until fans see the movie in 3D the way it’s meant to be seen, there’s no way for promotional footage and images to live up to the hype.
Realizing this, 20th Century Fox came up with the idea of ‘Avatar Day’, a day when selected 3D theaters would screen fifteen minutes of Avatar footage for free to anyone who wanted to see it. Though one could have argued that only fans who would see the film in its entirety anyway would fight over the free tickets, the idea sounded reasonable given the constraints of all other promotional mediums.
The problem with Avatar Day is that it’s a double edged sword. On one hand it was a marketing tool to address the issue of promoting the film the way it was meant to be seen, but on the other it was meant to be a tool to address the hype which, as I’ve said, already only had one way to go – down.
Assuming that, on a best case scenario, the hype behind Avatar could actually be met by screening footage from the film in 3D, the next step was to deliver the free footage in a well orchestrated, well co-ordinated marketing approach. Since those attending would primarily be existing fans, the trick was to keep them happy and it is here where the marketing of Avatar Day failed.
It began with a scheduled time at which fans would be able to log on to the official website to obtain their free tickets. A lack of foresight on traffic volume led to a server crash. Frustrated fans tried and tried again to get their tickets. Many gave up. A quick perusal of Twitter unveiled a number of fans expressing their frustration.
When the site finally came up, it turned out that only US visitors could obtain their tickets there, despite the fact that the overwhelming traffic volume was a world-wide phenomenon. It’s not really rocket science that when you market the campaign as a “global event” you need to think globally.
Suddenly international fans were out in the cold, and alternative ways to find tickets to local country specific screenings had to be found. By this time, many fans had already thrown Avatar Day into the “too hard” basket. Many more persevered, albeit frustrated.
Turn to Australia, where fans logged on to the official Australian Avatar website. No ticket purchase information there – it turned out the way to get tickets, at least as far as Australian’s could fathom, was via Twitter. But unlike in the US you couldn’t simply log on and select your theater and tickets, you had to follow tweets and answer questions and hope to be chosen as a result of your answers. There may have been another way but if there was it certainly was not well publicized for even now I’m unaware of it.
The idea to promote tickets primarily via Twitter was a very bad idea. It seemed good at the time as venues in Australian capital cities rapidly filled up. Problem was, they filled up with a percentage of people who were simply playing a game online to win tickets as opposed to those extremely keen to see the footage. The result? When screenings of the footage finally came around, many of the ticket holders simply didn’t turn up. One of the top venues, the giant Imax screen in Sydney’s Darling Harbour was reportedly a quarter empty. That’s a terrible result and I imagine very disheartening for James Cameron.
Add the poor international marketing to an additional hitch with online ordering. Those who were fortunate to have scored tickets shortly after the initial server crash received emails advising that due to technical difficulties associated with overwhelming demand they would have to re-select a screening time. They were told “you may not get the original time you selected”. At this point many more gave up whilst others perservered with frustration and hope.
So with frustration in the air, 20th century Fox decided to release the first teaser trailer a day before Avatar Day. A countdown to the trailer went up on Apple.com. Once again, anticipation began building. But when the countdown finally hit zero, there was a moment where nothing happened. Visitors began frantically refreshing their web browsers before it became evident that something was wrong. Suddenly the trailer for the film was displayed but as soon as it appeared all was good, fans discovered that the trailers themselves now wouldn’t load.
Regardless of the reason that Apple.com failed to deliver the trailer at the time specified, whether it was overwhelming traffic or other technical issues, the issue led fans to scour the internet for an alternative. Twitter erupted with links to a standard quality version of the trailer in French that had been posted to MSN.
What was meant to be the pinnacle moment of 14 years of James Cameron’s work – the release of the first footage ever – ended up being viewed in lower quality than it should have with dialogue in French. Fortunately the only dialogue present in the teaser was one line, but nonetheless the failure for fans to see it for the first time in hi-def was a big, big marketing glitch. Subsequently fans learned the solitary dialogue were the words, “This is great.” Sadly, those words would have carried so much more impact if things had gone right.
Here’s the trailer again (yes, in English). You can also watch it in hi-def via the HD link and to be honest, I don’t recommend watching it any other way:
The upshot of the debacle is many people found themselves disappointed. Their anticipation had been built with secrecy and hype, but the experience had been soured by a great deal of frustration in the lead up and by footage quality not befitting a first viewing. Many people really appreciated what they saw, but many were quick to comment that it wasn’t as good as they expected.
It was at this point that I began to feel sorry for James Cameron because despite the hype I felt his film had really been let down by the marketers. In hindsight, however, it may in fact be the opposite. The poor marketing decisions behind Avatar may have actually helped it.
Avatar still has the potential to be the biggest and most ground-breaking film of all time, but with absurd levels of hype it has also carried the burden of being the potential biggest let down of all time. For many, the let down has already happened. With expectations softened, the only way for the film to go is no longer down.
Perhaps it’s a good thing that these hiccups have occurred months prior to the film’s release. Now we have plenty of time to get over it before we enter the theater and, who knows, find ourselves viewing something spectacular without all the hype baggage clouding our view.
Finally, it should be pointed out that whilst the hype bubble may have burst, that’s not to say Avatar won’t turn out to be an extraordinary film going experience. Despite the many issues surrounding Avatar Day, those screenings ended with rounds of applause.
Enough said.
Avatar hits theaters:
Australia – December 17, 2009
USA & UK – December 18, 2009
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:52 am
Hey, there is still a lot of time till its realese. Let’s just see how they change their marketing campaign to generate people’s interests.
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:41 am
The major let down in this case was logistic, all those servers failure for an event this big, I think that something’s gone horribly wrong, and that James Cameron must be really pissed off with all the technical problem, given that Avatar is supposed to be “the movie that will change our concept of movie”, and this is a goal quite hard to live up to.
To me the trailer was a bit of a let down not because of the images, because even with standard definition are really imaginative and amazing.
The problem is that to be a teaser, gives away too much of the story, or maybe it’s really misleading because if THIS is all what the movie is about , seems to me that is way too simplistic… human evil and technological against aliens good and primeval ?
C’mon !!!
August 23rd, 2009 at 12:23 am
My issues whether the movie can be released in 3D in enough countries. This will be the biggest problem when it is said to be the ultimate 3D experience at this time.
November 29th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO BE GREAT!!!!! YOUR ALL IN DENIAL!!!!!!
December 17th, 2009 at 7:23 am
and the hype was completely justified…
litterally MINDBLOWING!!
January 30th, 2010 at 9:04 am
My BF and I went to Sydney IMAX tonight to watch Avatar 3D on the largest screen in the world” (having travelled from Melbourne for the weekend). We booked the saturday midnight session online which seemed like fun and we were absolutely blown away for an hour, it was stunning, and it crossed my mind that I would tell anyone who asked that they must see it in Sydney if they can, (even though my well worn glasses were scratched up and greasy and hard to see through). So all great until a bright flash of white light in the corner that enveloped the whole screen: – white out and then black screen. The film tore or blew out or something. Some members of the audience went straight out to the foyer and were told 5 mins til back on.. We sat for a good 25mins before a staff member finally got on the PA to tell us anything official: “we are having technical difficulties and at this stage hope to have the film running again in about 40mins!! If you’d all like to come to the box office and queue we will refund your tickets, but you will need to produce your tickets for auditing”.. Lucky we still had ours but the refund queue went across the building and back again, (even though many people had just walked out and didn’t come back), and eventually we found out we could get our money back tomorrow if we return. We gave it about 30-40mins (total) but didn’t wait around longer to see if they would run it again. We left at about 2am. I assume they have one copy and it is now torn right through a scene so not sure how they will play it for subsequent sittings but we will be watching it in Carlton, Vic on one of the average, but functioning IMAX screens of the world! Very very disappointing and somehow, I don’t think we will get our flights refunded or our hotel bill for that matter, let alone our taxis there and back. We will get our $57 though we paid for 2 tickets. Should warn Perez Hilton who blogged that he MUST go to sydney to see it there. Good luck mate. And hold onto all your tickets.