The big picture
- The Cloverfield the franchise is known for its unique and diverse films, with each installment being different from the last.
- Marketing strategies for Cloverfield the films were groundbreaking and unlike anything that had been made before, using viral campaigns and online scavenger hunts to engage viewers.
- While marketing for The Cloverfield Paradox was a bold and unprecedented move, the film itself was not well received, making the strategy less impactful.
What’s funny about Cloverfield the franchise is how different each of the films are. 2008 Cloverfield is a found footage monster movie, followed by 10 Cloverfield Lanea psychological thriller released in 2016. The Cloverfield Paradox is a science fiction horror film, released in 2018 on Netflix, which serves to explain the myth that links the three disparate films. Whether this was successful is a debate for another time, but what they did faire share is a story of media-driven marketing strategies that were unlike anything that had been done before. And like the films themselves, each campaign was unique.
“Cloverfield” dropped an untitled teaser
The big film to beat in the summer of 2007 was Transformersbut even Michael VeryThe grandiose spectacle of Autobots versus Decepticons took a backseat to the trailer that preceded it. There was no title or explanation. It all started with a handheld video camera capturing a house party, but sounds of total chaos send the partygoers outside. What the camera captures next is one of those rare moments in cinema that becomes instantly iconic, with the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty rolling down the road, stopping in front of the filmmaker. The images stop there and a release date, 01/18/08, appears on the screen.
This had never been done before. Every trailer had to have, at the bare minimum, the title of the film, right? It was disturbing, not only because there was no context for what happened in the trailer, but also because the events of 9/11 were still very fresh in people’s minds. Speculation was rife. Some have proposed that it is a new Godzilla filmmarried with The Blair Witch Project. One source speculated that it was a Voltron movie. It will be months before the film’s title is made public, with a second trailer released before Beowulf. The trailer, however, was just the beginning of a viral marketing campaign for the ages, an online scavenger hunt for the tech-savvy generation. Clues about the film can be found on several websites. There were MySpace pages for the characters, fake newsletters about problems with a Japanese oil rig, and websites for fictional organizations and products, including Slusho (which was recently revived, suggesting that ‘a new film could be on the way). It all added up to a kaiju film that threw viewers right into the action with the protagonists, who became more than just victims along the way.
Cloverfield
A group of friends venture into the streets of New York on a rescue mission during a rampaging monster attack.
Release date
January 15, 2008
Director
Matt Reeves
Notation
PG-13
Duration
90
Watch on Paramount+
“10 Cloverfield Lane” replicated the success of its predecessor
Image via Paramount Pictures
January 2016. Another Michael Bay film, 13 hours. Another trailer. Unlike its predecessor, this trailer was not in the found footage style. It opens with a jukebox playing “I Think We’re Alone Now” before cutting to three people at a table. We see the trio doing various normal things: playing games, doing puzzles, and making sandwiches. Everything seems idyllic until an earthquake shakes the house. The music slows down and it is revealed that events are taking place in an underground bunker and at least one of the three is there against his will. The cause of the earthquake is unknown, as the word “Cloverfield” appears briefly before the film’s full title, 10 Cloverfield Lane, appears. Against all odds, J.J. Abrams and the folks at Bad Robot surprised moviegoers for the second time.
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The film took the marketing plan from the first film and kicked it up a notch, as described in detail by Deadline’s. Haleigh Foutch. Long-inactive websites associated with Cloverfield were relaunched, with the website of the fictional drilling company Tagruato serving as a starting point. Tagruato happens to be the parent company of Slusho, and their deep-sea drilling aims to extract its secret ingredient: nectar from the seabed. Another revelation shows that after opening a drilling station off the coast of New York, they launched a satellite, thus starting their space program under its subsidiary Bold Futura. Another environmentalist guerrilla group website, TIDO Wave, documented their efforts to find out what Tagruato was actually doing through a series of video blogs, including the fact that they weren’t actually drilling for oil, but the aforementioned “seabed nectar”.
Emails were sent to the fictitious company and responses came back signed “Employee of the Month: January 2016.” This led to another website, where this employee is identified as John GoodmanIt’s Howard Stambler. Now things were getting Really interesting. More websites, more links, evidence of Stambler’s growing paranoia, and voicemails continued to fill in the backstory before the film. The marketing even extended to the real world, where people were tricked into burning cell phones into Eiffel Tower bags, and a briefcase filled with survival gear and a pair of USB sticks, on which to found audio files of a satellite launch. When the film finally hit theaters, moviegoers were treated to a top-notch psychological thriller, with an ending that – SPOILER – placed 10 Cloverfield Lane in the context of the first film.
10 Cloverfield Lane
A young woman is held in an underground bunker by a man who insists that a hostile event has made the Earth’s surface uninhabitable.
Release date
10 mars 2016
Director
Then Trachtenberg
Notation
PG-13
Duration
105
WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+
“The Cloverfield Paradox” dropped right after its Super Bowl commercial
Image via Netflix
The first two films of the Cloverfield The franchise used a groundbreaking marketing campaign that began well before their respective releases, which is why The Cloverfield Paradox‘s strategy turns out to be a huge anomaly. There were no websites or hidden clues, and the film was nicknamed “God Particle” during production, which discouraged those who were on the lookout. Instead, there was one, just one, promotional campaign, and it took place during Super Bowl LII. It’s no secret that commercial breaks during the Super Bowl are the most coveted in the advertising market, with a 30-second ad during the 2018 game between the Patriots and Eagles costing more than $5 million . Netflix used one of these places to advertise The Cloverfield Paradox. Not just advertising, mind you, but announce that the film would be available for streaming immediately after the match.
This was a bold and unprecedented move, which could have potentially revolutionized the marketing of films from that point on. It was successful in attracting viewers to watch the film, with the previously cited Variety article putting the audience at 785,000 on its premiere night and around 2.8 million views in the first three days. But what about changing the marketing game? Like the Patriots that night, The Cloverfield Paradox lost. In fact, it had already lost before it even aired. It was originally produced by Paramount, who, sensing a dud, dumped it on Netflix. It wasn’t meant to be a Cloverfield film, with the plot modernized to make it work. And his greatest sin was that it just wasn’t a good moviewith CNET Matt Goldberg giving the film a D, one of its many negative reviews.
It is likely that if the film had been better, the strategy would have had much more impact, but it’s something that hasn’t been tried again since. Overall, the marketing of all three films will never be duplicated. (Well, unless we get another one Cloverfield film.) It has become much more difficult to keep film “secrets” from the public, and the commitment to scouring the Internet as part of a sort of treasure hunt has diminished. Why take the time when there are several websites that pay people to do this work? But even if the Cloverfield Franchise marketing strategies no longer work in the same way, but that doesn’t change their revolutionary nature. Cloverfield pioneered the use of the Internet to promote films and proved that taking risks with a marketing campaign can capture the imagination of thousands.
The Cloverfield Paradox
Release date
February 4, 2018
Notation
PG-13
Duration
102 minutes
Genre principal
Science-fiction
Watch on Netflix
2024-01-01 18:05:46
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