Cesar's Marketing in the News

 

For my marketing blog, I chose to write about the marketing techniques used in a new horror movie that's out in theaters called "Smile." The reason why I chose to do this movie is that I've seen some new marketing techniques that I haven't seen in movies before. It captured my attention and many more, and it became a social media trend for what paramount pictures did to promote the movie. 

In the article, Paramount Pictures Smile movie had already racked up $22 million and $37 million in ticket sales at the North American and worldwide box offices days after its September 30 premiere. The movie has become the number 1 movie in America. With its $17 million budget, it undoubtedly made its money back and is still going. But a major reason why the numbers were so great was because of their promotion tactics. Of course, they had ad's on YouTube, tv commercials, and billboards, just like many movies, but what made them stick out was another way of promotion. In preparation for Smile's release, Paramount hired "smilers" to show up at random public places, like the Today Show and a Yankees v. Red Sox game, and deliver their most haunting smirk. The creepy marketing stunt quickly reached popularity on the internet as clueless onlookers captured and posted the startling promo happening before their eyes.

Paramount Pictures value proposition is for customers to enjoy a great horror film in theaters to prepare them for Halloween. In the article, the relevance explored is the new marketing technique Paramount Pictures is producing for its film "smile" and the sales strategy to cause attention through the media and pursue people to see the new film "smile" especially with Halloween being 1 month away from the premiere of the movie. Paramount pictures know that people are preparing themselves for Halloween and the spirit of Halloween, so why not watch a scary movie to get you ready. Also, they know they're in competition with many more well-known horror movies like Michael Myers in "Halloween" going into October, so they thought of a better marketing tactic to capture many eyes and start a media frenzy.

The challenge Paramount Pictures faces with their movie "Smile" is competing against other horror films or other films in theaters. As I mentioned in the previous text, there going to be competing against a well-known horror film series called "Halloween" and also an anticipated and popular Superhero villain from the DC comics produced by Warner Brothers called "Black Adam" both films are set to be released Later in October. I believe Paramount Pictures goal was to release "smile" before those movies and to get audiences to go to the movies before those movies drop instead of the audiences waiting for the other movies to drop.

What captured my attention in what Paramount Pictures did and what made their marketing unique was trying new promotion tactics that not many companies have done in the past or at all to promote a product. Paramount Pictures was willing to spend an amount of money on hiring people to wear shirts with the movie title "smile" and have a creepy smile the entire time. Also, they were willing to spend an amount of money on front-row tickets for MLB games in points of view where cameras would always be pointing to.

The approach to the marketing tactic was very well delivered and thought of by the marketers at Paramount Pictures, which made it hard to critique their wrongdoings. They hired excellent "smilers" that stayed in character the whole time and reached their goal of standing out and causing attention. If I was the marketer for the movie "smile" I wouldn't have done anything different other than possibly get "smilers" into other major events like other sports or television programs, but I also understood why it would have made it much harder because many sports cameras points of view are switching from camera to camera and not many tv programs do live recording with having audiences in the background.

I've learned to always try and stand out in unique ways never done before in any sort of way, even if it seems risky because the results could be astonishing, especially in a competitive space. What Paramount Pictures did was very unique and stood out to many audiences and will most likely lead a new wave of promoting tactics in the future.