Universal Thinks "Inside the Box" to Advertise Jurassic World
It's no secret that it's become much more difficult to do traditional awareness marketing. Audiences have become fragmented across so many different channels that it's difficult to reach any significant portion of the general population. Meanwhile, online ad blocking software has become prevalent enough that some online publications are literally begging their audiences not to block ads.
As advertisers, we bear a lot of the responsibility for this behavior. We took advantage of the situation when we had captive audiences and are now paying the price when they're no longer captive.
The good news is that good advertising and marketing strategies still work, just like they always have. It's the hum-drum strategies that are feeling the pain.
As a case in point, I wrote several years ago about the dangers of unskippable DVD trailers. In short, movie companies had taken movie trailers -- a very effective and beloved form of advertising -- and forced people to watch them every time they played a DVD. The result, in my opinion, was an overall devaluing of the movie trailer itself. Fortunately, that practice seems to be less common these days, but the damage may be done.
Movie companies are having to get more creative to build awareness of new films. Recently, Universal Studios has done a great job with marketing the upcoming Jurassic World release. Not only have they partnered with companies like Dairy Queen with some co-branded marketing, but they also put a huge dinosaur crate in London's Waterloo Station -- which is certain to grab people's curiosity and attention.
Those sorts of marketing ideas have always been effective, but they're even more important now that consumers have become cynical and even hostile toward mundane marketing messages.
When thinking about your own marketing strategies, be sure to look for creative opportunities that might fall outside of the typical marketing channels. And above all, make sure that you're not wasting everyone's time with something boring and predictable.
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