Marketing grown-up films, such as the Full Monty, on a grown-up
medium, the Internet, may be child’s play, but how do you persuade
teenage males to visit what is essentially a site for a children’s
film?
Foresight, the marketing company specialising in entertainment, leisure,
IT and fmcg markets, faced precisely that problem when it was asked by
Buena Vista International to create a Website for the film,
Hercules.
Child audiences for the Walt Disney film were guaranteed but BVI wanted
to tempt an older, predominantly male, audience into cinemas via the
Internet.
The company recognised the need for more than just competitions to
attract the target audience. Gerald Scarfe, the political cartoonist and
a selling point to the target group, features on the site,
www.herc.co.uk. Scarfe was approached by Walt Disney three years ago to
contribute to the film and Foresight persuaded him to be interviewed in
his Chelsea studio. The resulting Quicktime video can be accessed
online.
Kathleen O’Donnell, business development director at Foresight who
worked on the original brief, believes Scarfe’s involvement helped a
great deal.
’We wanted to bring in the largest audience possible for the film with a
fully interactive Website, and Scarfe was brilliant. He allowed us to
put his sketches and drawings on the site, which made it more attractive
to students and art schools,’ she says.
’Scarfe is a cult figure among students as the animator on Pink Floyd’s
film, The Wall. His appeal stretches from young to old and that was
something we had to make use of. We persuaded Apple Computer to sponsor
the site, and it donated a prize fund for competitions that encouraged
more people to come online to enter the competitions.’
Foresight was given its brief in March and created a teaser site in
July. The main site was running by September, a month before the release
of Hercules. BVI’s marketing director, Robert Mitchell, was involved
from the beginning and O’Donnell believes that helped. ’The Hercules
site was promoted via press ads and below-the-line activity, but our
main objective was to target young males. We ran competitions with
Virgin Radio and the site was featured on Blue Peter,’ she says.
Shockwave and Flash applications have been used for the animations and
Quicktime video.
A competition for students was devised requesting National Union of
Students membership numbers before entry. The prize for that was a
private screening at the winner’s local cinema for 50 friends. There are
also several competitions to win Apple computers and Hercules
merchandise.
The site has been visited by more than 300,000 individuals since the
film’s launch last month. Mitchell believes the site played an important
part in the film’s promotion, but refuses to reveal how much of the
marketing budget went on it. ’There were several reasons for doing the
Website.
The Internet is the ideal way to reach young males. It was also a
publicity opportunity for a very marketable movie,’ he says. ’Although
we can’t say what percentage of the film’s audience is young male, the
shows at 7pm and 9pm are just as popular as the matinees.’
