Teasers, like all forms of advertising, are difficult to get right. The Marketing Department has the tough challenge of drawing in a huge audience with the smallest amount of time and/or space possible, but inevitably budgets for such "teasing" appears to be rising, as teasers become smarter and intriguing. Personally, I love film teasers because they have the power to either make or break an upcoming production. Get it right, and a film could be the next big selling, but get it wrong, and a company could lose money in two directions: firstly from the cash spent on the film, and second on the cash that they wasted on poor marketing.And that is why I've decided to celebrate the Top Six film teasers that got it oh-so-brilliantly-right!
6. Cloverfield
Back in the depths of 2008, J.J. Abrams was probably best known for hit US TV show: Lost, and seemed to really be revelling in the notion of intrigue, the unknown and keeping secrets from the audience. So, when cinema goers went to see blockbuster robot-busting flick Transformers, a year earlier, they were treated with one of the most intriguing teaser trailers, perhaps ever created.What was so great about it? In 2007, hardly anyone knew anything about this film other than the connection between J.J. Abrams and Lost. And from the trailer, most people learnt practically nothing about the film, and that is what made it so intriguing. It played on that brief peak of curiosity and it played on it enough to encourage cinema-goers to want to find out more. It raised so many (at the time) unanswerable questions:
What is this film? At the time, no title was given, only a date.
What is it about?
What's going on?
Did the film live up to the hype? For me, personally, no. The film seemed to be all gimmick and nothing to show for it. It was a great deal more predictable than the teasers, and this was a typical case of the trailers drastically outshining the overall product. Nevertheless, despite my not being a fan of Cloverfield, it still grossed at over $170m across the globe.
5. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
In 1999, when Mike Myers prepared to launch the second film in his successful spoof series, he found himself with an impossible task: promoting a film that had no hope of beating its biggest rival: Star Wars The Phantom Menace. So, how do you even attempt to draw a crowd away from the biggest selling series known to man? Easy. You don't. The key to advertising was to accept that they were never going to win, and play their rival at their own game: by pretending to be the rival and even encouraging the audience to go see Star Wars.What was so great about it? The teaser basically starts out as if it is Star Wars, and then once it has drawn you in, you realize that it isn't Star Wars at all. It was a success because it subtly tricked you into thinking "ooh yes, a Star Wars trailer", and then mocked you for thinking it, in a way that only Austin Powers can get away with. It had that cheeky charm that we already loved.
Did the film live up to the hype? On a personal level, the teaser showed off that funniness that was definitely present in the film. On a wider scale, the second Austin Powers film was the tenth highest grossing film of 1999.
4. The Dark Knight
In May 2007, the marketing department behind The Dark Knight film had a field day with their Why So Serious viral marketing campaign that teased fans with snippets of information, encouraging them to solve riddles and find little gems relating to the films predominant villain, The Joker.Unfortunately, things took a very unexpected turn of events in the January of 2008, when Heath Ledger who was playing The Joker sadly passed away, and Christopher Nolan and his marketing team had to make tough decisions revolving around their campaigns in the build-up to the film's release. As a result, The Joker's presence on the internet took a different angle, with tributes being made to the late actor, out of respect.
What was so great about it? When Heath Ledger was first announced as the actor playing Batman's foe, there was a great deal of negativity regarding his suitability to the role. Nolan's response was evidently to prove that his choice was most definitely the right one, by teasing how awesome this bad guy was going to be in a way that represented the messed up and complicated villain that was being built-up.
Did the film live up to the hype? For me, The Joker at least lived up to every ounce of the hype that was built up around him, as Heath Ledger proved that he was more than capable of taking on a very different role to ones that he had become known for. I honestly believe, that if Heath Ledger hadn't passed away, The Dark Knight would have been the start of an amazing career for the actor.
3. The Hunger Games
Sometimes the way to "tease" an existing fanbase isn't to give them a trailer, but instead to give them something to interact with. With The Dark Knight, it was to play the fans in the game that a specific character (The Joker) would probably have played on them, by getting them to solve riddles. However, that kind of tactic perhaps wouldn't have been so successful for The Hunger Games.Instead, Lionsgate drew fans more directly into the world of Panem, by offering them the chance to become citizens of an assigned District, through their Capitol.pn website. Once assigned to their District (I was District 9), citizens were encouraged to participate alongside their fellow citizens across Social Media websites Facebook and Twitter.
What was so great about it? The idea of theoretically being a citizen of Panem, assigned to a District that we had absolutely no say of, was an excellent way of making us feel like we really were part of something, in a way that was verging on as oppressive as Panem really would be. Some people took to the idea behind it quite seriously, with role playing and even hints of rebellions cropping up.
Did the film live up to the hype? Ultimately, yes, because it kept fans intrigued and interested in the film over the months leading up to the release of The Hunger Games, and offered instant access to various information, news and trailers relating to the film. However, in another sense, I can't help feeling that it was slightly flawed.
One one hand, it was great to feel like I was a part of Panem, but at no point did I feel like I was really a part of District 9 and I have to confess that I really have no idea who the Tributes were for "my" district. Instead of supporting my own district, I think that because of the books, most of us were always going to not be able to truly play along, because even if District 12 wasn't our District, then we were always going to support Katniss and Peeta. But, then, on another hand (I evidently have many hands!!), anyone who has read the books will probably be aware how much faith all citizens were probably putting on Katniss anyway.
2. Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace
There are some films that really don't need very much promotion, purely because they have a reputation that very much proceeds them. The Phantom Menace was always going to be one of those films, because the interest in the film was already there, and had been pretty much since the announcement from George Lucas of his intentions to finally make the hotly-anticipated prequels.So, how do you promote a film that doesn't need it? Prior to the power of social media and the internet, the majority of marketing circulated in the form of the essential trailer and teasing posters, and for me, the best part of Lucas' plan wasn't the teaser trailer that had fans drooling, but rather was the Anakin/Darth Vader poster.
What was so great about it? The poster successfully teased the point of what the films were ultimately leading to; Anakin's transition from sweet young boy, to becoming Darth Vader.
Did the film live up to the hype? A lot of people would probably say "no". Critics and fans alike accused the film of being messy and tried to fit too much into a space that wasn't long enough. Nevertheless, despite the panning, The Phantom Menace still becoming the number one grossing film of 1999. And, from my point of view, Lucas did a fair enough job getting from A to B, setting up what was needed in order to read the second prequel. In hindsight, if any of the prequels were going to be bad, it was always going to be this one, and at least the second two films were never going to be anywhere near as bad.
1. Transformers
Imagine the scenario. You're sitting in a film theatre, waiting to see a film (what the film is, doesn't really matter, because needless to say I can't remember, or should I say that I'm opting to forget!!), and a trailer starts playing. On first look, it looks like some fact-based/documentary-style film based around the real events of the 2003 Beagle 2 Mars Rover, of which apparently the British Government lied to the whole world about what really happened on Mars. So of course, it holds very little of my interest, being a person who isn't really that interested in films like this. But, being in a cinema, you keep watching, and my next thought was that it was going to be some kind of Sci-Fi space film, that yet again held no interest whatsoever. And then, this happened....:
And now you have my absolute and full attention!
What was so great about it? I'd known that Michael Bay was putting together a Transformers film for quite some time, but this was the first time that I'd actually seen anything relating to it, and boy was this the meanest form of teasing ever created. Why? Because it offered me evidence that this film really was happening, and then as soon as I thought that I was getting information about the film, and what it might be like, they whipped it away, right from under my feet, with the haunting look and sound of the films logo, a date and absolutely nothing else. That is how to tease someone just enough to draw their interest in, and leave them begging for more. Of course it's mean, but boy does it work.
Did the film live up to the hype? Erm, well what does seeing it at the Cinema four times tell you?? For me, it most definitely, times a million, lived up to the hype. I have to say that I spent the first half an hour or so initially convinced that I would never want to see this film ever again, and then Optimus Prime arrived and from that moment I fell in love with the film. It had action, it had humour, it had bloody awesome robot, it had emotion (sad face for when Bumblebee gets captured), it has hot male (Shia LeBeouf) and er....yeah, Megan Fox *cough* but we won't talk about that last one....!
The reason this made number one over the others: Is because this is the only trailer that I've ever seen, that got me truly excited about a film, on its own merits. I wasn't expecting it to be what it was, I didn't know that there was even a Transformers trailer doing the rounds, and there it was, apparently boring the hell out of me, tricking me into thinking that it was going to be another one of those generic films that I hate. And bam, it was actually a film that I was already looking forward to. Was this a classic, and very clever, use of the bait-and-switch technique? Oh definitely, and beautifully played, I have to say, because Michael Bay got me good!
