Prometheus: 'When Movie Marketing Goes Very Right'

Any major studio film these days is going to have a marketing campaign that includes some kind of online element. Often that means a trailer. Sometimes film clips are thrown in there too. But what every studio exec would really like is something about the film that goes viral — that has people passing it on to friends. With Prometheus, the upcoming film from director Ridley Scott, Fox has scored a major viral victory.
First there was the TED talk from the future. The short video showed Guy Pierce, as fictional Weyland Industries head Peter Weyland, giving a TED talk in 2023. The piece was first screened at the real TED conference in February. According to the LA Times TED organizers helped to make the film look like what they envision a TED talk will really be like in the future. (See previous post.)

Now Fox has released a second video. This one is about David, a robot who understands human emotions that he does not feel, and who is creepily life like. Actor Michael Fassbender plays David in this short made to look like a corporate video about a cool new product. The latest video is almost a little movie into itself. We learn a lot about David and the world he lives and works in and the video is just incredibly entertaining.
(See previous post.)

On top of all of that there’s this website for Weyland Industries. The movie promo site could easily be mistaken for an actual corporate website. My favorite bit is the “about” section. It includes the standard corporate information like number of employees: 837.53 MILLION. Secondary locations: 160 countries and 63 colonies. There’s a corporate time line that includes facts such as in 2042 Weyland Industries donated $5 billion to Little Explorers, a charity “dedicated to the education of troubled middle school students.”
There are several reasons this marketing is proving to be so effective. The movie (which is likely a prequel to Scott’s Alien) has been shrouded in mystery. Sci-fi fans have been chomping at the bit to get any information they can about the film’s plot. The current marketing campaign provides lots of tasty tidbits.
The promos are also good enough to pull in movie lovers who have never seen Alien. This summer is going to be crowded. Prometheus will be up against a new Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers. Those franchise films are based on well-known heroes. Prometheus doesn’t have that advantage so the film makers (and the studio) have had to be smarter about their marketing. Mystery + well done promos = marketing gold.
Will it help at the box office? That remains to be seen. The film hits theaters June 8th.
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