More Cloverfield News

By Ryan 'The Rican with the Irish name' McLelland on July 18, 2007

Is anyone sick of Cloverfield yet?  Trailer doesn't put the name on it and suddenly it is all everyone can talk about.  It's like the episode of The Simpsons where Gabbo showed up.  All they did was flash Gabbo's name on the TV and everyone was talking about Gabbo.  All Gabbo turned out to be was a wooden doll that everyone forgot about a few weeks later.  Is Cloverfield Gabboesque?

The people at Advertising Age have an article about Cloverfield and how its Gabboesque entrance into our minds has gotten everyone talking and about the secrecy:

Who cut the "Cloverfield" trailer? Paramount isn't saying. Execs at and spokesmen for the studio did not return calls seeking comment. But a person at a postproduction house that works closely with Paramount on all its trailers told Ad Age that the trailer "came out of left field for all of us" and that the consensus was Mr. Abrams had cut the trailer himself.

The trailer-house insider was puzzled by the lack of clear branding on the untitled film. "We try and push the title of the movie [in a trailer], so people will associate the 'Wow!' experience with the movie. I don't know if this will backfire or not."

Whatever the case, "Cloverfield" is clearly an initiative that will require constant feeding with new, related websites -- such as, perhaps, Slusho.jp. The Slusho name appears on a T-shirt in the "Cloverfield" trailer. Whether it's a fluke or germane is anyone's guess.

And so, rival studios are also watching "Cloverfield" -- if that is, in fact, its title -- with abounding interest.

Said Doug Neil, senior VP-digital marketing at Universal Pictures, "We like our materials to always be on-message. There's always a risk if fans are discovering that [message] on their own."

Whether viral marketing grants Hollywood immunity from clutter or becomes a pox on its house remains to be seen, but one thing seems clear: Even in an age of media overload, Mr. Abrams' latest message is anything but "Lost."

Click here to read the entire article.

Source:Adversting Age

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