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Next Up In Universal's Board-Game-To-Feature-Film Category

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You Had Us At “Dana Precious Wrote A Novel”

Dear Edwina,

So, a former marketing executive at Sony, Dana Precious, wrote a novel called BORN UNDER A LUCKY MOON. At Sony, she worked under Josh Goldstine, who is now the head of marketing at Universal.
Here is the cover of Dana's book...
And here is the onesheet for a new Universal movie...
Coincidence?

If you can’t judge a book by its cover, then it stands to reason that you can’t judge a movie by its poster.

At least that would have been our conclusion had not another one of our readers found Ms. Precious’ own blow-by-blow account of how the cover art was created by her husband Martin Gueulette and photographer Pete Tangen.

They're Planning To Kill Print And Bury It In Farmville

AdWeak’s article on how Zynga games are being incorporated into DreamWorks marketing has this quote from Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing for DW Animation: 

"We've continued to shift probably from the most traditional media, which I guess would be print, to digital which is probably up to 10 or more percent of our budget now."

Read the full article on AdWeak

Marvelous!

FROM NIKKI FINKE: Everybody is trying to keep this secret. But I’ve learned that yesterday Disney canned Dana Precious, EVP of Worldwide Marketing for Marvel’s LA Studios (she had replaced Doug Finberg at the end of last summer); Jeffrey Stewart, VP of Worldwide Marketing (he’d been brought in by Dana); and Jodi Miller, Manager of Worldwide Marketing. That’s essentially Marvel’s entire marketing department. 

Read all about at DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD  

MGM: In Like A Lion, Out Like A Light

From Nikki Finke:  ... new management at MGM Theatrical is looking to outsource all marketing and distribution for its movies… EVP of Marketing Mike Vollman decided not to renew his 3-year contract, which ends August 15th. Vollman, who witnessed the studio's implosion from the front lines, told Finke: "I tried, but I just could not do it. I need something more hands-on. I'm going to take the rest of the summer off and then figure out my next step." Vollman  

Too Bored To Notice

If you’re like us, you never cease to be amazed at the crackbrained choices clients make. We flipped right past this print ad in The New Yorker thinking it was an ad for T. Rowe Price's new exchange-traded funds.  It’s like HBO is practically begging us not to watch.

It'd be interesting to see what concepts were passed over in favor of this timid turd.

Click on image to enlarge.

Marketing Weenie Watch: Strong Gusty Winds Likely To Continue

Dear Edwina,

This was sent to a friend (who shall remain nameless) from a small production company (also to remain nameless) by a big time marketing firm in UK. Can anyone tell me what it means? Not sure either of us knows what to do with this "direction":

 Click on image to enlarge

"I Don’t Know Why You Can’t Do This For Free. It’s Not Like It Costs You Anything."

Dear Edwina,

Here's a funny tumblr site I stumbled across. Some comments just don't seem real but, then again, I have some clients that don't seem real. 

Clients From Hell

A Reader Asks: WTF?

Dear Edwina,

How's this for a whimper - "Bromance" branding. Serious?

Chiocchi Ankles Post

Universal's Frank Chiocchi is going to head up Walt Disney Studio's creative advertising, reporting to marketing czarina M.T. Carney. 

Read about it on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood.

And They Lived Happily Ever After

Oren Aviv has been named President of Domestic Theatrical Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer for Twentieth Century Fox (TCF). Aviv will work alongside Tony Sella, who is President, Domestic Theatrical Marketing, and Chief Creative Officer. Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairmen and Chief Executive Officers Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos, to whom Aviv and Sella will report, announced the hiring today.

Creative Guy Meets Media Gal. Creative Guy Loses Media Gal. Creative Guy Gets Replacement Media Gal Probably From Outside Of Fox.

If you're like us, you'll find the comments to be a delightful little Christmas stocking stuffer gift in this item from from Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood: 

I've just learned that Pam Levine, co-president of domestic marketing with Tony Sella and a 16-year veteran of Twentieth Century Fox, is leaving. She moved to New York four years ago which has been her base of operation since then. But my sources say her replacement will be hired, probably from outside the company, for a position in Los Angeles to work with Sella. "The bifurcation of having co-heads in different cities just wasn't effective, whether she stayed or not," an insider tells me. Actually, Levine quit the job when she moved to NY but Tom Rothman convinced her to stay. "People have called her the left brain to Tony's right brain: "He's the creative guy and spots guy, and she was the research gal and media buys gal, the yin to her yang. It worked when she was out here, but when she moved to NY it just didn't work anymore," a source tells me.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Worn Out Franchise

Och, mon! Looks like M.T Carney has stepped in a big pile of steaming haggis. Jerry Bruckheimer says it wasn’t his idea, but Disney is putting marketing chief Carney in suspended animation and bringing in veteran marketeer Valerie Van Galder to steer the campaign for "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides."

Could this unfortunate turn of events have anything to do with the fact that our wee Scottish lass Miss Carney had nae previous experience in movie marketing?

Bienvenido! Willkommen!

If you're like us, you like your clients to have the word "executive" in front of their titles. It somehow mitigates that whole screaming thing they do. Which is why we are delighted to hear that Lynne Frank has been named Executive Vice Presidente de la Internacional Marketing at Warner Brothers Pictures.

Frank's boss lady Sue Kroll says it's a "newly created position" and we aren't going to argue with that or anything else Sue says. Frank will be working with the studio’s international marketing division to create campaigns in all those silly little countries we don't care about. Unless we're invading them.

Meanwhile, On Page 384...

"When posters and other key art were created, [Michael] Bay - who categorically hated everything he was seeing - wouldn't approve them, causing further delays. He told the L.A. Times that the in the poster for The Island, [Scarlett] Johansson looked like 'a porn star.' And though it was Bay talking, he didn't mean it as a compliment.

The situation between the director and [DreamWorks] marketing became more combustible when Warner Bros., which was handling the international marketing, entered the picture.

In one meeting, after Sue Kroll, head of Warner Bros.' international marketing, showed Bay a mockup of a poster for The Island made on specially treated silver paper (which was later deem prohibitively expensive), the director went wild. Turning to the DreamWorks executives in the room, he said, 'You guys don't know what your doing, but Warner Bros. is the best! DreamWorks - you suck!'"

The Two Stars Go Here

Tony Sella, Last Century Fox’s co-president of marketing says, “Blame me, not Tom Cruise” in this LA Times article bemoaning the fragile world of movie marketers.

Apparently, among Knight And Day’s other problems, moviegoers were confused by a print campaign devoid of photos of Cruise and Diaz:

Sella contends that the silhouette-style representations of the film's stars weren't meant to hide the actors from view. "I was doing an homage to [fabled title designer] Saul Bass," he explained. "It was a way for us to signal that this was a different, adult kind of movie. The whole campaign was designed to evoke a film like 'North by Northwest.' It wasn't in any way us trying to hide anyone, simply to make the film look unique, so you didn't just look at the billboards as if they were designed to say, 'The Two Stars Go Here.' "