Monday, 27 November 2017
Straight Outta Compton - Viral Marketing
Straight Outta Compton Viral
Marketing
In May,
rapper-mogul Dr. Dre called together a meeting with top-level marketing
executives from Universal Pictures, Universal Music’s Interscope label, Apple
and his own Beats audio company.
The release of Universal’s N.W.A biopic
"Straight Outta Compton," which he produced, was just three months
away, as was the launch of his first album in 14 years, Compton, a
companion piece to the film.
So he looked around the room and said: “What do
you guys got?”
During the past two weeks, leading up to today's
Aug. 14 release of "Straight Outta Compton", he got his answer: The efforts of the four companies resulted in
several attention-getting plays: When UFC champ Ronda Rousey knocked out
Bethe Correia in 34 seconds on Aug. 1, the "Straight Outta
Compton" label was right below her on the mat; there was an ad
for the film that played during the first Republican presidential debate on
Aug. 6; the “Straight Outta Somewhere” meme went viral with nearly 6 million
personalized labels being shared on the Internet; and the word “Compton” was
literally painted over the skies of Los Angeles.
"You very rarely see companies like this in a room together,”
Beats by Dre CMO Omar Johnson tells
The Hollywood Reporter. “But we were all super aligned with Dre’s goals
and he’s been a great maestro to conduct all of these brands working together.”
The “Straight Outta Somewhere” meme was the
brainchild of Beats by Dre, in partnership with Universal. After three junior
Beats employees were tasked with coming up with a campaign, they stumbled upon
a video of Dre talking about how the members of N.W.A named their debut album
"Straight Outta Compton" because they wanted to show they were proud
of where they came from.
“That is where the campaign took its form,” says Johnson. “It wasn’t
about Compton as a place anymore, it became about being proud of where you’re
from.”
Beats hired North Kingdom agency to create
the meme generator, which allows anyone to input their own hometown in N.W.A’s
signature black and white logo. The Aug. 5 launch of the site featured a
handful of Beats partners, including Dre, tennis star Serena Williams and NFL
player Richard Sherman, presenting their own “Straight Outta Somewhere”
stamps, and it’s taken off from there. Since its launch on Aug. 5, the site has had 7 million visitors and nearly 6 million downloads of
the meme (as of Aug. 13). It simultaneously trended No. 1 two days in a row
across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and, during that time, there were an
average of 15,000 #Straightoutta tweets and retweets per minute. According to
Twitter, there have been more than 400,000 Tweets mentioned #StraightOutta
since Aug. 6.
“We see this as just the beginning,” adds Johnson, who points to
celebrities like Jennifer Lopez who have created their own memes,
leading to big spikes in activity. “I think it has room to grow and we’re
seeing traffic increase day after day after day.”
Tweeted images of the word “Compton” peppered
across the sky all over Los Angeles also became a viral sensation.
Interscope
Records organized the skywriting as a promotional tool
for Dre’s new album. It was only on Aug. 1 that Dre announced he’d be releasing
Compton: A Soundtrack By Dr. Dre, and that the album, from Dre’s
Interscope label Aftermath Entertainment, would be released exclusively
on iTunes and Apple Music on Aug. 7.
Recording artist Dr. Dre performs at Beats Music
Launch Party At Belasco Theatre at Belasco Theatre on January 24, 2014 in Los
Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/WireImage)Frazer Harrison/Getty
“We really had six days to prepare for the launch,” says Interscope vice
chairman Steve Berman. “We wanted to make as much of a statement, especially in
Dre’s hometown, as we possibly could.”
The skywriting took over Los Angeles on Aug. 7
and 8, and also appeared in skies above the Outside Lands music festival in San
Francisco that same weekend. Plus, Interscope booked skywriting for Monday,
Aug. 10, to coincide with the red carpet premiere of "Straight Outta
Compton" in downtown Los Angeles.
“It’s a very effective tool in certain markets, especially the way
social network can create a buzz,” says Berman. “We definitely caught that wave
in this campaign.”
Interscope will also be tying their album
promotion to the film over opening weekend by running an album teaser in front
of screenings of "Straight Outta Compton."
“The synergy that was taking place between Beats and Apple and the film
company and the record company is something that was being orchestrated for the
past couple of months when everything started to crystalize,” says Berman. “The
promotions all complement each other going into the launch of the film, and
it’s created a huge amount of energy and excitement.”
Straight Outta Compton - Questions on Marketing Regulation
Straight
Outta Compton
Questions on Marketing Regulation
1. How are audiences encouraged to align with
hip-hop artists in the trailer?
2. The names of actors or directors are
absent from the trailer and instead replaced with the real names of some of the
members of N.W.A. What is the effect of this?
Why has it been done?
Why has it been done?
3. Where have you seen the Straight Outta
Compton film logo before? Why have they used this format?
4. What does the BBFC do?
5. What does MPAA do?
6. Look at the BBFC Classification guidelines in
the shared drive? What rating would you give Straight Outta Compton?
7. Watch the trailers on the BBFC website and
rate them accordingly
8. If a film is given a 15 certificate, why is
it better for the producers than an 18 certificate?
9. Why do you think the film was banned in
Malaysia but given an age rating of 11 in Sweden?
10. Consider how film/film marketing is
circulated and distributed:
11. Where and how is film/film marketing most
likely to be consumed by audiences?
12. How has this consumption changed/been
impacted by the ubiquity of the internet, including YouTube and smartphones?
13. Are audiences now more likely to seek out,
for example, new trailers online as active consumers?
14. How does this impact the relationship between
audience and product?
I, Daniel Blake - Economic factors
I, Daniel
Blake
Economic
factors including funding are extremely significant
to this independent British co-production. The funding bodies are the BFI
(through National Lottery Funding) and the BBC.
1. Consider the ways in which this film is
funded differently from many mainstream films, exploring Public Service
Broadcasting and the respective remits of the BBC and the BFI.
2. Make brief notes from each of these
websites. How does the BFI help filmmaking?
3. Discuss why vast financial profits might
be less important for practitioners working in this genre of film.
4. Who is Ken Loach?
5. It may be useful to explore Ken Loach
and his significance as a practitioner in British and Global cinema - how Loach
has been able to repeatedly secure funding for social realist films and the
extent to which the genre itself exists in its current form due to his work.
6. Consider the extent to which I, Daniel
Blake can be described as a mainstream product. Loach is a well- known and
successful figure in the UK and Europe but is his work mainstream? Does the
fact he is challenging governmental policy mean he is also challenging
mainstream opinions?
7. It might also be interesting to consider
whether there exists a pre-sold audience of Loach fans who are eager to watch
his films and the extent to which this gives him license to make films that
might not otherwise secure finance.
8. The trailer references the BBC, BFI and
the Palme d’Or. Discuss the extent to which these references suggest an assumed
education and level of media literacy in the target audience.
9. The trailer explores specific
governmental policy which also may suggest audiences will have an awareness of
political and social issues in the UK.
10. The only specific “star” identified in
the trailer using intertitles is the director Ken Loach. Loach’s work whilst
having broad appeal sits firmly within the niche of social realism and
candidates may discuss the extent to which the fans of his work are pre-sold
based on his name alone.
I, Daniel Blake - Context Questions
“I, Daniel Blake”
PRODUCT CONTEXT
I, Daniel Blake
is an independent social realist film directed by
renowned filmmaker Ken Loach (Kes, Raining Stones, Sweet Sixteen etc.).
A UK/French
co-production, it received funding from the BFI and BBC Films.
It became Ken
Loach’s largest grossing film at the box office (taking over $8 million), was
highly critically acclaimed and generated much debate due to the contemporary
social and political issues addressed in the film.
I, Daniel Blake
was exhibited at many film festivals, won the Palme d’Or
at Cannes, and was nominated for many awards including several BAFTAs.
1. What issues
does I, Daniel Blake address in the film? Consider both economic and political
issues, as well as social.
2. Who do you think is the intended audience for this film?
3. How much did the film cost to make?
4. What kept the costs down?
5. How can you tell that Straight Outta Compton was made by a major Hollywood studio and that I, Daniel Blake was not? Make a list of differences
6. Economic factors including funding are extremely significant to this independent British co production. The funding bodies are the BFI (through National Lottery Funding) and the BBC. Consider the ways in which this film is funded differently from many mainstream films.
7. Exploring Public Service Broadcasting and the respective remits of the BBC and the BFI.
8. Discuss why vast financial profits might be less important for practitioners working in this genre of film.
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