MARKETING OF INCEPTIONBY SIAN LYNES

STEP 1 – HAVING A SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE

• When the idea for Inception was created by Christopher Nolan in 2001, he produced the idea of dream stealers and by 2009 he had finally finished the script.

• The target audience of the movie is initially aimed at 16-30 year old males because of the frequent action scenes but the plot can appeal to both genders.

• However the complexity of the storyline would only appeal to an older audience; as it varies from each dream inside another and younger audiences may find it difficult to cope with this developed plot.

STEP 2 – FIRST LOOK AT THE TEASER TRAILER

• An element of secrecy was kept behind the Inception by the studio Warner Bros. as Christopher Nolan said he preferred people watching his films in theatres rather than beforehand, reported by Senior VP of Interactive Marketing, Michael Tritter.

• The first teaser trailer was released in August 2009 which created a huge media interest. The website at this time also featured an animation of Cobb’s spinning top (a vital prop in the film) until December when the spinning top fell over and let fans enter the site. Curiosity was generated about this spinning top and the relevance to the film.

• This revealed the film to be an science fiction action film.

STEP 3 – AUDIENCE MATCHING THE MARKETING CAMPAIGN

• The marketing of Inception was designed to suit its more intellectually challenging audience.

• This targeting of their audience allowed their marketing to evolve into clues and instructions for the audience to decipher.

• Although there was enough clues to still remain an element of curiosity and did not reveal the plot too much so an element of surprise and shock was still present at a theatre viewing.

STEP 4 – DRIP FEED INFORMATION TO GENERATE CURIOSITY

• As previously seen, the communications online to drip feed clues about the film was very important. The clues still needed matching up. After targeting the online community the marketing reached outdoors with posters that warned its audience about the crime of dream theft and its illegality.

• There were still unanswered questions about the film which were to then be slowly unveiled by the means of internet ARG, phone apps and clues to be deciphered.

STEP 5 – BUILD AN INTERNET BUZZ

• All these limiting clues created a wide spread interest in the film and its unknown quarters.

• The internet buzz reached its peak nearing the days of its release as no full storyline was yet defined. The intriguing movie posters and mind boggling ARG games and apps still enabled the audience to want to see the movie.

• With the theatrical and teaser trailer both available it was uniquely designed to still enable a buzz as it did not reveal the whole concept.

STEP 6 – SET UP OFFICIAL WEBSITE

• An official website was premiered and was seen to be a not so typical website formatting that is so previously common in movie websites.

• The site had a simple but prompt “Enter Site” which then invited the online audience to watch footage relating to the film and its premiere.

• A synopsis was also given, which seemed to reveal more in a short paragraph than indeed the trailers had done which created more attention.

• Cast and filmmaker information was provided and downloadable PDF notes were also available.

• An extra trailer (along with the teaser and theatrical) was embedded on the site called ‘The Characters’ and introduced the characters more individually. This gave the audience background information about the film, but still the main plot was not sussed.

• The “Mine Crime Game” made players either take the role of Architect or Extractor and allows them to create mazes or play in them. Extractors could wander through the virtual world collecting clues and trying to avoid being noticed by pedestrians around them (an element involved in the film). It also encourage the audience to create their own film poster and share it.

• A facebook page was also set up for the film, although was a typical page in a marketing sense, showing photos from the film and allowing them to be downloaded. It also linked to the film’s premiere and other events.

STEP 7 – CREATE A VIRTUAL WORLD

STEP 8 – HAVE A DOWNLOADABLE APP

• In June 2010, an App for iPhones or Androids was developed called SCVNGR [scavenger]. It required people to check into locations in 100 cities to unlock exclusive movie content and special badges as well as being able to share their progress.

• A 15 page preview comic premiered on Yahoo! Movies that gave the audience a lead into the movie’s storyline.

• Still, no full storyline was defined, but enough curiosity was created for the cinema experience.

STEP 9 – RELATED STORY THROUGH ARG

• The official site led visitors to another click through site called ‘YourMindIsTheSceneoftheCrime’ where after completing a maze built by themselves they were given the first poster of the movie.

• Another site called PasiDevice was also made available at Christopher Nolan made an appearance at WonderCon inside a goody bag which contained a code to access the site. The game contained a video of scientists/researchers talking about REM sleep and taking part in other people’s dreams PasiDevice user manual, contained mysteries about the device used my DiCaprio’s character in the film. The PasiDevice was then sent to WIRED Magazine who publicly posted pages online asking for their readers to decipher the instructions and clue it contained.

• This way of marketing to make their audience think about the movie and its concept generated interest among themselves; these clues also created media attention who knew the film would be one of a kind.

STEP 10 – TRADITIONAL MARKETING

• After the first glimpse of the Inception Poster was made available to the gamers of their ARG, it was shortly made public afterwards.

• TV commercial shots were also produced, showing 30 seconds clips that made the audience aware that Page’s character would be the way the audience will also gain knowledge about the dream weaving world.

• Traditional posters of DiCaprio in the world as well as varying images of buildings peeling or having water gush through them were also shown.

FINAL AUDIENCE REACTION

• The focus of secrecy as well as an intellectually pushing plot which was created through traditional and online marketing made their target audience build their own idea of what the film was about.

• The marketing was effective as it did not reveal a full formed plot that may have prevented their audience; but instead draw them into seeing it in cinemas.

• The audience’s desire to construct this weaved plot for themselves was enough to see it for themselves. The fact that, unlike many film releases in the summer of 2009, Inception was not a franchise but was, and appeared to be, a completely unique and one off plot that was not to be missed.