‘Cloverfield’ (2008)

The Marketing Campaign

Summarise what sort of marketing

campaign was used advertise the film

‘Cloverfield’

Cloverfield used a viral marketing campaign to promote their film. Marketing strategies were through an enigmatic teaser trailer, word of mouth and a widget. The first teaser trailer was in screening of Transformers. They carried out a viral marketing campaign to promote the film. The first teaser trailer was put together during the preparation stage of the production process. This teaser was a basis for the film itself and as they found out that transformers showed high tracking numbers before its release, the studio attached the teaser trailer for Cloverfield that showed the release date however it didn’t realise the title of the film. Later on in the year, Cloverfield released a second trailer which was attached to Beowulf. This confirmed the title.

What does ‘Cloverfield’s

marketing strategy have to do with

gaming?

Cloverfield’s marketing strategy related to gaming as a story which was related to Cloverfield was also being told through an ARG (alternative reality game). The ARG centred around a Japanese company which was Tagruato and its subsidiary which was Slusho. Direct connections were made to the Cloverfield plot. As the plot was connected to the game, this gave Cloverfield another marketing strategy as both Tagruato and Slusho had home pages which were online where people were able to see and look for further detail into it. This game which was mostly access through websites and voicemails portrayed scavenger hunts and even novels. These were produced to challenge the players in order for them to make a connection and solve puzzles which together created a ‘’distributed narrative’’

What did you find out about the title

of the film?

Through researching about the film Cloverfield, I have found that there were a couple of theories on why the film was named Cloverfield. These were:

Cloverfield is the street right around the corner from Bad Robots old offices on Olympic boulevard.

It’s the original name of the Santa Monica airport. This was where the first successful around-the-world-flight was launched.

The film was produced by J.J Abrams and Bryan Burk and the street around the corner called Cloverfield was near to J.J Abrams former production office.

What the film makers wanted to do was to keep the plot of the film a secret. They hadn’t thought of a name of the film and chose it because it hadn’t any relation to the actual movie however it had

relation to the people who made it. A few different names had been thought out during the making of it such as Slusho, Greyshot and Cheese.

What information was on the first

‘Cloverfield’ website?

On the first Cloverfield website contained a date (01.18.11) which was a release date. It has this date on the first website and also clues for the audience. These clues were highlighted through clips which had been put onto the website. The clips consisted of clues which related to the storyline of Cloverfield as it emphasized particular aspects. As the release date grew closer the amount of unexpected tensions increased from the audience; pictures were added revealing the time and date stamped on allowing the tension to build due to glimpses into the narrative.

How were widgets used in the

marketing of ‘Cloverfield’?

Widgets were used in the marketing of Cloverfield as these were clips that the company had released. They did this as a part of the build-up to the film. The widget was available from the website for people to download. In order for people to be able to download this, contact details had to be registered however it could then be attached to MySpace pages and blogs etc. Once they had registered, they were automatically entered into a competition. This was based on who managed to distribute the widget giving more advertisement for the upcoming film. This was a direct encouragement of ‘’word of mouth’’ marketing. The widget contained the first 5 minutes of the film with an introduction by JJ Abrams who was the producer of the film.

In what strategic way did the film use Facebook to market

the film?

The film used Facebook strategically to market their film. Knowing Facebook is a popular social networking site; they used it to their advantage and created profile pages which were from the characters P.O.V. By the film doing this, it allowed the audience to be able to keep up to date on any news or what was going on. There were tensions from the audience so this is where they were able to check for any updates.

What is ‘Slusho!’ and what is its

connection with the film?

Slusho was the company which in the film, the character Rob was taking a job with which was the connection it has to Cloverfield. Slusho is a business selling frozen soft drinks and this was one of the speculated film titles. Slusho ran an online competition which was for people to create an advert for the frozen soft drinks and the man in the teaser clips were seen to be wearing a shirt which a drink was on being a part of the campaign. From the official Slusho site, claims were made that the ingredient was ‘’discovered on the deep ocean floor, under amazing pressure and extreme cold. This ingredient could be giving relation towards the story of Cloverfield with the involvement of the monster.

What does Manga have in connection with ‘Cloverfield’?

Manga is a style of comic book and graphic novels. They are aimed at adults as well as children. Manga has a connection with Cloverfield as a prequel manga film was created and the storyline relates to the monster which makes an appearance to Cloverfield. The story which the prequel told was about the lives of two students who were seeking for shelter. This was from the chuai incident which was seen in the films viral marketing material. Their internal conflict is what potentially creates a connection to Cloverfield as it resembles the monster in the film.

I think Cloverfield was a success at the box office because the viewers had been enlightened by the way that Cloverfield had been marketed and it created a hype and excitement in wanting to find out more. They were being teased about the film keeping their interests in what the updates were which allowed time for them to talk about it to other people and get more people involved. The marketing strategy appealed to their audience as it made them predict the endings to what the teases revealed. It appealed to the audience because the audience like to feel that they know more and can guess already what is going to happen. It keeps them interested and allows them to try and solve a puzzle themselves before the film is out. The way the film was marketed through social networking sites such as Facebook kept the attention of the audience