In David Ogilvy’s classic "Ogilvy on Advertising" the ad man says that good advertising does two things: Make good products sell faster, and bad products fail quicker. They should call this Ogilvy’s Law as it holds true regardless of marketing discipline or product/service. This weekend’s Cloverfield reviews provide a great example.
In fact, because so much of the strategy revolved around word of mouth and viral tactics, the law will provide an even quicker backfire. First, let’s acknowledge that the marketing was brilliant. Geeks and bloggers lined up to see the movie on opening day.
But there was a problem. The hype was great, the product was not. As a result, expectations were not met causing a huge outcry across many of the viral tools that helped create the interest. Twitter, blogs, Seesmic, on and on, the outcries of disappointment could be heard.
The end result is in sight: Lost customers. Usually situations like this have a full weekend to iron themselves out. The following weekend sees a steep decline in revenue. In this case, because the target buyer was socially enabled online, people have already figured it out.
Though the movie had a great start, Cloverfield will likely see decreasing revenue by day throughout the weekend. Next weekend the movie will likely struggle to make 30% of this weekend’s box office gross.
The lesson learned is with word of mouth products, Ogilvy’s Law works at hyper-speed. So while social media and viral techniques may be attractive, marketers need a good product. Failure occurs faster out here.
Here was my Cloverfield review:
Great vidcast ;-). I was not able to see it due to being sick from late week ’til today. But I will say this: the reviews have been absolutely split (some loved it, others hated it). And it did set a box-office record (see CNN.com today). So I’m not sure if this will be seen as a “failure”. Though I imagine/agree that revenues will fall. We’ll have to wait a few weeks to gauge full revenues and revisit. (and then see overseas revenues)
PS: I didn’t/don’t expect great things from this movie; I’m kinda over NYC being blown-up, but the public loves it. I just like the energy of movie openings ;-). But I’ll let ya know soon. Looking forward to more vidcasts!
Yup, $41 million. We’ll see if it beats 30% of that next weekend… Here’s the article CK referenced:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/20/boxoffice.ap/index.html