The Danger Of Marketing Isolation

I’m starting this post with my usual standards of responsibly opining on fast-paced marketing events. But I must admit on this one I’m playing a bit of a hunch. It has to do with Extraordinary Measures, the Harrison Ford-led story about a father racing against time to cure a rare disease killing his kids. The film had a great digital campaign, exceeding traffic expectations as it asked viewers to create a “digital quilt” through the film’s website. But all I saw of the movie outside of that was marketing on CBS outlets. That’s a mistake.

Now, it’s a CBS Movie and it will lead a six picture slate from CBS Movies. It bombed at the box office. Was that a failure to drive foot traffic because the movie was limited in marketing scope? I’m going to bet that was a big part of it. CBS has a lot of properties that can effectively carry a marketing program. So does Fox. So does Disney. I have never seen either one of those companies limit a film to internal properties. But to limit the marketing budget for an entertainment property is to limit the overall audience exposure. I don’t see how you can budget for a $50 million box office take, or even a $30 million box office take, if you’re not going to market the picture in a fashion that fits a hit movie.

Integration is key and maximizing exposure to as many different target audiences is important no matter what you’re advertising. It’s an important selling point for the digital marketing industry to understand. Every content property exists because it is attracting a unique audience and serving that audience. Synergy is cool and can be effective. But there’s a big divide between synergy and marketing isolation.