Advertising and marketing, journalism and publicity are all professional disciplines, which involve a wide range of professional fields, even if you study a doctoral program, you may not be able to call an expert, because the influencing factors in the process of practice are too complex and must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The industrial chain of Hollywood commercial films has gradually developed and matured, and the publicity system has also taken shape, but why can some works become popular, and some works fail completely? Of course, the quality of the work itself is a top priority, but is there any other reason for this?

The most intuitive case comparison, 2004's "Troy" and 2005's "Heavenly Dynasty", both works are epic masterpieces, and they are also led by top superstars, the former cost 175 million, the latter cost 130 million, both can be called high investment, ambitious, and the publicity stage is full of means and vigorous, but after the release, they both suffered fiascos, but the results are quite interesting, and the media comprehensive evaluation is only 56 points of "Troy" The North American box office is 116 million, while the North American box office is only 47 million, but the media comprehensive evaluation of the "Heavenly Dynasty" is 63 points.

Of course, it is not that there is a world of difference between 56 points and 63 points, but it is undeniable that the media reputation of "Heavenly Dynasty" is better than that of "Troy", but the North American box office of the two sides is really a heaven and a place, and the huge gap is unbelievable. In other words, the quality of the work is indeed linked to the box office, but it is not 100% proportional, which means that the impact of publicity and marketing on the box office of commercial films cannot be ignored.

But why did the "Trojans" and the "Saharan Cavalry" take propaganda to the extreme, but still suffered a crash-like fiasco?

Lance is not from a professional background, so naturally he can't answer. But in his opinion, aside from the quality of the work, the way of publicity and the content of the promotion are also crucial.

For example, the focus of the "Troy" promotion is Brad Pitt, so the audience naturally wants to see Brad when they enter, but it turns out that Brad's Achilles is not only a thin role, but all the heroic brilliance has been robbed by Hector.

For another example, the publicity of "Sahara Cavalry" focuses on the love spark between Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz, and the audience naturally looks forward to the chemistry between the two, but aside from the unkempt appearance caused by the dust in the movie, Penelope's scenes in the movie are pitiful, and most of the time is watching Matthew act as a hero alone, and there is almost no interaction between the two except for a few heroic scenes to save the beauty, so that when the ending is together, it seems inexplicable and confusing.

Of course, this does not mean that what the audience wants to see will be promoted, "Avatar" will promote visual effects, and "Troy" will promote how heroic Hector is. Propaganda is never so simple, first, some things may not be able to attract the attention of the audience even if they are promoted; Second, the balance between publicity and spoilers must be mastered, and how to promote it without revealing the highlights of the movie is crucial. But to say the least, studios need to steer audience expectations on the right path.

During the "Day After Tomorrow" promotion, in addition to visual effects, the keyword "going home" ran through it, awakening people's emotional resonance; During the Sin City campaign, artistic resonance was at the heart of the overall strategy, not only helping people understand Lance's intentions, but also complementing the characters and supporting the movie.

The last "Mad Max 4" can be said to have received rave reviews, from critics to audiences, but the box office is far from meeting expectations, why? This problem bothered almost everyone in the industry, and later "the style of the work is too cult" became the reason that everyone generally believed, but in Lance's view, "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" can also be regarded as an alternative cult movie, but it has created an insurmountable monument in the history of comic film - including box office, word-of-mouth and awards, so why can't "Mad Max 4"?

Perhaps, it would be a good idea to change the way you promote and what you want.

In Lance's memory, the "Mad Max 4" publicity focus has always focused on two parts, one is the cast led by Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult, emphasizing star effect; Part of it is live special effects, emphasizing the visual feast.

There is nothing wrong with this kind of publicity, but there is no novelty either, it is basically the same as the publicity methods of all summer commercial blockbusters. What's more, the setting of the wasteland world and the strong cult style in the movie were not mentioned in the promotion process, ostensibly to avoid losing ordinary audiences, but it also missed the opportunity to awaken the audience's interest in advance.

Sin City is the best example of this.

Therefore, Lance plans to go off the beaten path this time and let the audience appreciate the charm of the movie "Fury Road" in an alternative way. While avoiding leaking highlights in advance, it can also show the magnificent setting of the wasteland world in front of the audience, so that those ordinary viewers will also be interested, and even the urge to enter the cinema.

Over the past two months, the weekly campaign to release information about one car has continued to awaken interest in the film among car lovers - it's a gold mine, and almost every man has an indescribable preference for cars, especially since this is the United States, where the average person has two cars. Awakening this part of the fans is basically equivalent to waking up the main box office force of the summer file.

Lance intends to continue this strategy and go one step further.

After James Corden hung up the phone, he sat in a chair, his right hand supporting his chin, and the shock in his eyes still could not dissipate for a long time, although he had long heard of Lance's reputation - now the six major Hollywood studios have set up special network teams in the publicity department, but only after actually working with Lance, he realized that Lance is ahead of the six major film companies by more than one position, far more.

Even if he thinks back to Lance's proposal just now, James still feels incredible, how many whimsical ideas Lance has in his head, and after filming one shocking masterpiece after another, he can still come up with such a publicity plan! Now James can't help but wonder whether Lance's propaganda plan is effective, and if it does, what kind of repercussions can it bring!

Viral video.

This is the strategy that Lance proposed. The so-called viral video is the use of email, vlogs and other video hosting websites, video clips spread on the Internet, and rely on the user's spontaneous word-of-mouth publicity to expand the area. Because the principle of propaganda is similar to the spread of viruses, it is called viral marketing in economics, and it is a very effective way in network marketing.

The concept of viral marketing was coined in 1997, but in 2006 it was far from being developed — James had heard the term for the first time, and Lance had to go to great lengths to explain how it worked.

Lance's idea is to make a series of viral videos, mainly depending on the quality of the videos produced, as little as three, as many as six or seven. Then, through the spread of viral videos, the style of the wasteland apocalypse was initially disseminated, and then the worldview of the movie was constructed with the next wave of publicity from the crew, and combined with the car publicity that has received enthusiastic responses so far, people can truly accept the fictional world of "Mad Max 4".

Although it is said that the most impressive thing about "Mad Max 4" must be the adrenaline-pumping chase scenes and explosive visual effects, Lance does not plan to announce these early, but as a surprise, leaving the audience to go into the cinema to dig into. On the other hand, Lance hopes to cultivate a loyal audience that is deeply interested in the culture of the wasteland world, just like "Star Wars", and at the same time, combined with pop culture, really radiating a powerful influence, allowing audiences to spontaneously go into the cinema to discover surprises - this kind of publicity is similar to "Star Wars 7".

Sin City's website to share photos and videos can also be considered a form of viral propaganda, but it is more focused on the participation of netizens. This time, Reims is more focused on communication, and achieves the purpose of information exchange through wide dissemination.

What's more, the viral video promotion strategy costs Chaos Pictures almost nothing. According to Lance's plan, the production cost of a viral video is between $10,000 and $30,000, which is too expensive, which also means that they only need to allocate a budget of less than $100,000 to complete the second wave of publicity for the film, and even if the publicity effect does not meet expectations, they have almost no loss, which is really ...... It's really too good and cheap, compared to the early publicity budget of "Superman Returns", which has exceeded 20 million, it is simply the gap between a beggar and a king.

James quickly retracted his chaotic thoughts and adjusted his breathing, now is not the time to be excited. Although the cost of the viral video is low, the production content is absolutely sloppy, and the video needs to be seen by Lance before it can be promoted, and his top priority now is to prepare a small team to produce the viral video. But...... How do you make this viral video?

After thinking about it, James dialed a phone number, "Dorothy, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we have an impromptu meeting here on Green Ridge Street, do you have time to come over...... Yes, it's about the 'Fury Road' propaganda strategy, and Lance just hung up...... Okay, I see, I'll see you ......" After hanging up, James thought about it for a moment, and then stood up full of energy, ready to try. (To be continued.) )