Revealing Movie Trailers – Part 2

Continuing from the last post….

What impresses me about these upcoming movies is that they’re marketing directly to comic book fans in a way that hasn’t been done before.  For the big blockbuster comic book movies like Spiderman, Superman, and Batman, it was easy to market to the general public.  Everyone knows who those superheroes are.  For the lesser known comic book movies like Aeonflux, 300, Ghost Rider, The Punisher, V for Vendetta, etc the comic book basis for the movie wasn’t necessarily touted to the public.  Most of those movies were promoted rather traditionally.

But with these new comic book movies, studios and marketers seem to be embracing the fact that only hardcore comic book fans know and appreciate the real basis for the movies.  They’re essentially speaking directly to comic book fans openly declaring “this is a comic book movie that we know you’ll appreciate in a way most movie goers won’t.” 

Watchmen in particular seems to be feeding into the exclusivity of the comic book culture, creating a buzz for the film that’s already finished shooting but doesn’t come out until March of 2009.  The web site for the film features, the trailer, pictures of characters, downloadable wall paper and icons, a timer counting down the release of the film, even a production diary to give fans tid bits of what’s to come.  The production blog is one place that video blogs are posted, showing an insiders look at the making of Watchmen.  12 video blogs were created in total, to be released one each month for the entire year leading up to the release on March 6, 2009.  

Even the design of the site seems to have been created specifically for those familiar with the original graphic novel by Alan Moore.  The loading page mimics the cover of the graphic novel, using a smiley face with blood on it – a symbolic representation of the main character’s distinct vigilante attitude. 

Check out one of the original covers for the graphic novel. 

And here’s the landing page for the site. 

Warner Bros. was also smart to have a strong presence at Comic Con – the annual comic book Mecca, just held July 24-27^th at the San Diego Convention Center .  The event gave those in attendance access to new posters, exclusive footage, as well as the opportunity to engage with cast members.  The creators even showed up for a surprise signing one of the days, apparently creating the longest line on the sales floor. 

It’ll be very interesting to see how ticket sales for this movie do, considering the new marketing strategy being used, and the success it’s had in creating a buzz in the industry this far out from the release date.