Snakes on a Plane Redux

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It’s been a while since we’ve talked marketing, and what better subject than movies?

So the manufactured Buzz of SOAP failed to translate into box office dollars. Does that mean that the model itself was a failure, or just that you can’t market a bad product? The film Borat was released last weekend, and featured similar buzz. FOX, who released Borat, nervous about what happened to SOAP, cut 1700 theaters from the initial release. However:

[…] it turns out that Borat really did have an audience waiting for it. It opened to a huge $26 million, taking the No. 1 spot over Santa Clause 3, which opened on more than four times as many screens as Borat. Borat did great again this weekend, still holding the No. 1 spot even though its dollar-per-screen figure tumbled.
From Once Snakebitten, Twice Shy at Freakonomics Blog

So, IMHO, the moral of the story is that you can manufacture all the buzz in the world, but it’s still a prerequisite that you also manufacture a product that people want and will recommend to their friends. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tool, and if the initial buzz kills the product after it’s release, then you’ve lost the battle. Good marketing means letting your customers and clients do the hardest part for you: convince new people that what you say is true.

Speaking of good movies, I have to mention “Stranger than Fiction“. I’ve never seen a Will Ferrell movie that I liked before…

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  1. Ross Johnson 11.13.06 / 9am

    I think there are two different types of buzz’ that actually happened between these two movies. The SOAP marketing let a lot of people know that the movie was being released, and had a lot of people talking about the marketing techniques, but it really didn’t do anything to get people to want to see the movie.

    Borat on the other hand, had a buzz about all the different people that Cohen tricked and humiliated along the way of developing the movie, generating a lot of interest and buzz towards seeing the movie itself.

    Just my humble pennies!

  2. Matthew Anderson 11.13.06 / 3pm

    Case in point. I didn’t see Snakes on a Plane. I did see Borat.