Are TV-Spots For Films Pointless In The Digital Age?

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Anyone remember the marketing campaign for the Amazing Spider-Man 2? Probably, as it certainly managed to push the entire film into the heads of the viewers before they even have seen it. This actually ended up hurting the film’s general box office and especially its revenue considering they invested almost as much into their marketing as they did their film. So what exactly went wrong here? The answer is quite simple. They spread their entire film throughout a plethora of trailers and TV spots. In the end, anyone who had followed or seen any of them actually ended up watching the entire film even with some of the most essential twists and turns revealed. Hell, even if you did not know the history behind Gwen Stacy could have pretty much figured it out through the TV spots. The question remains though where exactly has this marketing campaign truly gone wrong and is it the only one suffering from it?

Some would point out that both Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man suffer from this. Quite a lot of TV spots have been published featuring some spoilers that some might consider to be too much. While many people, who have seen the film pointed out that there is quite a lot they have not touched yet, it may take away a bit for the fanbase, as they feel there is no point to seeing the film. Yet, I have come to realize that the true problem behind TV spots is that they were never made for the Internet, they are still utilized for television, which is why we still to this day describe as a TV spots instead of Pre-rolls, which are commonly used on YouTube.

The usage of TV spots is commonly to catch people while they are viewing TV to surprise them, which is why exactly the spoilers are contained out of context. It cements curiosity in the viewer and tries to get them to see the film before opening weekend. You can’t blame a marketer who is forced to work with what he has, but maybe the frequency has been upped too much. Shortly after they are spread on TV it also lands online, which leads to an entirely new issue. Online we can watch every single released spot, which originally is spread throughout all existing channels. What was once only seen by pure coincidence can be easily found by typing in the title.

Is this showing that some classic marketing campaigns simply have yet to adapt to modern technology? Well, in a sense you could state that there are still some glaring issues, as we try to adapt old techniques to the modern age instead of trying to create new ones. On the other, I can still see that the TV spot is quite effective. If it didn’t work they would’ve probably started looking for a more effective alternative, so using TV spots to reach a general audience still seems quite effective. Especially film marketing or TV marketing in general has been adapting quite fast to the digital age. Take another Marvel example of using motion posters for Daredevil, which are quite effective of showing small visual keys with great implications for the show in general. Even Ant-Man used this technique early on showcasing Paul Rudd’s character Scott Long growing and shrinking in his costume, which was creative and fitting for the film.

I have even read some articles were people complained about the amount of TV spots, but others stated if you don’t want to see it, then don’t watch it. They are kind of right, it is our responsibility if we start the videos or not, but at the same time you have various websites that automatically play the TV spots and you have no control over it. This exact thing happened to me recently on Facebook as I was scrolling and suddenly it played a short TV spot with footage I was actually trying to avoid. Maybe you can’t completely avoid it? Considering that still only bits and pieces of footage are used you can still not completely put together the film, with some exceptions of course. So, even if you can’t avoid it, at least there will always be something the film or marketing team has yet to reveal.

In the end, there are always going to be difficulties that come with time. TV spots should dial down on the usage of footage or spoilers, or should simply be TV exclusive. Try to create the classic trailers and some online spots for the Internet that don’t give too much way, while hiding special footage to use on TV that people can scout out. In a sense, it is similar to the SDCC’15 debacle regarding the recent amount of leaks. If you publish it specifically for SDCC and it leaks, then accept it as such and tease out special trailers coming out. It is difficult to avoid in the digital age, either you simply adapt your entire campaign to always include online media coverage or you simply allow the Internet to do its thing. No, this article was not a way to have another jab at Warner Bros. handling of the situation, but it showcases the issue. You cannot hide anything from the Internet and maybe it is changing the film marketing landscape.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Agree to disagree? If so or not, leave your thoughts below and until next time!