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| Image Courtesy Screen Crave |
The original Hangover film was made with a modest budget of $35 million and ended up netting around $467 million at the box office; which ultimately ranked it in the top 10 grossing films of 2009. Very impressive stuff, but the crazy thing is that the film became EVEN MORE popular when it went to DVD and a cult following developed.
This set the stage for a HUGE amount of audience anticipation for the sequel and I was absolutely right in the mix.
As soon as I heard that they were making The Hangover 2 I began searching forums, looking for trailers, ANYTHING to try and find out more about it without even realising I was playing right into their marketing teams greasy hands.
Official The Hangover 2 Trailer:
This article isn't so much about how The Hangover 2 was marketed to us, nor is it a movie review, but rather the formula for the film to ensure that we'd all go and see it, tell our friends about it and more than likely buy the DVD.
Marketing Principles We Can Learn From The Hangover Part 2:
The Producers Listened To Their Audience
It's no surprise that in part 2 Zach Galifianakis' role of Allan Garner gets a LOT more exposure. He was the stand out character in the original Hangover and the producers capitalized on this. Judging by the foot stamping and belly laughs all around me in the cinema whenever he said something, this worked like a charm.
Mike Tyson makes another cameo as himself and they also incorporated Ken Jeong's character of Lesley Chow with a more central role in the film.
The same strategy should be used in your business; listen to what your clients want and give it to them. There was no point in this film giving Justin Bartha's character Doug any more screen time than the original because in all honesty, that's not what we want (sorry Doug).
They Didn't Try To Reinvent The Wheel
The plot of The Hangover 2 is VERY similar to the original; bonus pictures during the credits of what we didn't see in the film and all (hint: stick around at the end).
Keeping to the same formula means that the audience doesn't have to process or analyze the film and it's very easy to re associate with the characters.
Your clients are not complicated people; all they want is results, so stick with what works.
Raised The Bar
Now that we've established that the producers have stuck to a winning formula and capitalized on what their audience wants to see, they took the film one step further and gave us more than we expected.
The Hangover 2 has more 'shocking' scenes, a few more twists and introduced a few new colorful characters.
Giving your clients what they want and then giving them a little bit extra is what will set you apart from your competition.
Don't be afraid to take a few chances, but stick to what works for you; just make it better.
There is BRILLIANT marketing around us EVERY DAY and this is just one topical example because I saw the film over the weekend. If a sign makes you turn your head, think about why. If you buy a new brand or product, think about what it was that motivated you to buy that particular product or service.
Companies pay people who are a LOT better marketers than us a LOT of money to come up with strategies and campaigns to make us buy. I'm not suggesting you carry around a notepad and write down every clever thing you see (you can if you like, I generally just text myself), but be aware of when you're being sold to and if they're any good; steal their ideas.
What do you think?
As always; if you enjoyed this article, please share it on facebook and twitter by clicking the icons at the top of the post and if you liked The Hangover - GO SEE The Hangover Part 2!
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Good times :)
ReplyDeleteYou have terrible taste in films, Ben.
ReplyDeleteAww c'mon Kyle! At least I learn't something while I was in there :)
ReplyDeleteI noticed when I posted a blog that had nothing to do with competing I'd fair pretty well with hits. But when I posted a blog with progress pics and where I talked about my week in preparation for my competition I'd get TONS of hits. Naturally this made me terrified to not compete again.
ReplyDeleteBut obviously I couldn't compete JUST because of blog hits. I mean, competing affects every aspect of your life, your brain and your physical body.
So now I'm playing around with continuing to do the progress pics and still doing a week-in-review because I think THAT is my winning formula.