Prometheus: a lesson in creative marketing

If you’re amongst the people I follow on Twitter or one of my Facebook friends you’re bound to have seen one of the oblique online ads for Prometheus. Every time one of them comes out I see it Tweeted or posted by several people, then discussed to death on sites such as Mashable.

Here they are:

First, a fake TED talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YK2uKxil8

Then an ad for the android:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaJD8cGfZCQ

Then the last of several trailers:

And the meta-website.

For those of us who are interested in film and advertising, it’s been fascinating to watch the campaign unfold. I feel as if Prometheus has barely been off my online menu for the last six months. The idea of a future TED talk is a really clever one, as is the android ad, but the really smart thing is how well they fit with the film itself. I don’t think the same approach would work for just any movie, after all, it’s quite arch and knowing, something that would probably not suit a straightforward blockbuster, such as The Avengers or The Dark Knight Rises; nor do I feel that it would fit a smaller indie – that level of marketing power and knowhow would seem at odds with the reduced ambitions of a lower-budget movie.

So as an ‘intelligent’ blockbuster its marketing mirrors the (supposed) experience of the film itself, whilst giving an intriguing taste of what we can expect when we go to see it. Then people can feel all early-adopter about spreading the stuff around the net (for free).

Sounds like a big win for RSA.

(One small point: I’m still not convinced that I want to see it. As a huge fan of Alien and Aliens, I’d have thought I’d be salivating by now, but then my BFI Imax priority booking email came through last week and I did nothing about it. The trailer has left me unconvinced, so I’m waiting for the one piece of marketing Prometheus can’t do anything about: word of mouth.)