"Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." - God
The story of movie Noah is one of a ship, a bunch of animals, and a lot of rain. It doesn't work out too well for mankind.
Anyway, it's getting released on March 28th in the USA and in the UK on April 4th. It's already been pretty well-received in Mexico, but it got me thinking: How did they market the movie?
In London, I've seen the odd movie trailer and some posters, but nothing exceptional. It got me thinking: Did the marketeers miss a trick?
NOAH AND THE RELIGIOUS
The story of Noah should be a banker for Paramount Pictures, if only with the religious folk. Why? Because it keeps two of the biggest religious groups in America happy: The Christians and the Jewish folk.
Noah is a B.C. story. God floods the world before Christ is a speck in his Father's eye, and only Noah, his family and the animals two-by-two survive. The people that laughed at Noah while he was building the ark don't get so lucky. In fact, it's one of the more terrifying stories in the whole Bible.
Anyway, although the movie 'Noah's been banned in Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Indonesia and Pakistan because the local government feels it contradicts the teachings of Islam, it's been pretty well-received by Christian and very-religious respondents to the Nielsen survey.
Now, whether the Christians will really like it, who knows? This isn't a story about a particularly loving God. This is a story about an angry God who is fed up with mankind ignoring his laws and 'doing things his own way'. You know, until the dove flies out and comes back with an olive branch, the floods receive, and humanity's saved.
IS NOAH TALKING TO ITS JEWISH/CHRISTIAN AUDIENCE?
- 73% of Americans identified themselves as Christians in 2012, with 60% of those polled saying that there are 'active members of a congregation'.
- There are 5.3m Jews in the USA, with 40% of them having one member of the household is a member of a synagogue.
With the amount of rage a movie like Noah is likely to cause amongst the Islamic community (and other communities) all over the world (don't think for a moment that this movie won't be called 'controversial' by a newspaper by the time this is all over, because of the annoyance of Islamic/non-religious/sinning folk), Noah can win by marketing to faith groups.
In the same way that 'The Passion Of The Christ' marketed to churches and religious leaders, couldn't 'Noah' do the same?
BRING ME TO YOUR LEADER
- Noah should actively market to churches and church groups. This isn't just by sending out trailer clips to specific websites, but it's by doing targetted advertising. Paramount should be inviting the likes of Rick Warren (pastor at Saddleback Church, one of the biggest churches in America) to its premiere in LA. They should be doing premieres or advance screenings all over the States in the Bible Belt, but especially in highly-religious areas like Texas. They should also ensure that they invite rabbis, too. Strange? It won't be strange when the excited leader speaks/emails/tweets his congregation and says what a brilliant film it was, driving hundreds if not thousands to the box office.
- Such is the nature of Hollywood that it's forgotten how important and influential religious leaders are in this world. Warren's book "The Purpose-Driven Life" sold 30 million copies by 2007. Joel Osteen's TV ministries is seen by 7 million people and 20 million monthly in over 100 nations (according to his website), and his books are read the world over. Now imagine what it would like like if Osteen said to his congregation: "Noah's a great movie. You should check it out"
LOVE YOU, SYNA-CHURCH!!
- Also, if I'm Paramount Pictures, I ensure that I send the trailer of 'Noah' to every youth group from every major church and synagogue from Alaska to Florida (ie all over the US), as well as doing a deal with a theater group like Cineplex, offering groups - specifically theirs- 20-35% off attendance in the first month of 'Noah'. Sure, it's going to hurt some financial figures in the short-term, but if the youth hit up Twitter and their Facebooks and say: "LOVED THE NEW NOAH MOVIE #ARKSGREAT" then it's a financially viable proposition!
- For DVD/online sales, also team up with Amazon or iTunes and offer religious youth groups leaders money off vouchers to buy the DVD of 'Noah' to show their youth group.
POSITION YOURSELF WHEN THEY COME AND LEAVE
There's never going to be a 'Noah 2', unless you want to film what happened to Noah after (Genesis 8 20-24 tells us he got wrecked on wine and fell over naked), which isn't a pretty tale....So you're not exactly going to go: "Hey! I can't wait to see the sequel!
- In London, Holy Trinity Brompton, the biggest church in the UK is near South Kensington and Knightsbridge Underground Stations. If I'm Paramount, I'd be buying up Underground signage on all the lines (Piccadilly and District). This can replicate itself for other churches in London
- If I'm in America, then there should be signage bought for the biggest churches in certain cities so as soon as congregations leave their morning/evening service, they a big advertisement for the religious-friendly 'Noah' hits them, and maybe inspires them to go. This can be replicated for the UK and all over the world, too. In the same way as you want an advertisement for a concert to greet concert goers as soon as they leave a venue, why not an ad for a religious movie to greet the religious upon exit from their movies?
PARTNERING WITH MARCH MADNESS
Frankly, we're shocked that we haven't seen much 'Noah' advertising at March Madness (or the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, to give it its proper terms).
You could do wonders with a line like: "On April 4th, the teams will go in 2 by 2" to partner the movie with the Final Four (or the semi-finals).
Or to make it cheaper, you could use the 2 by 2 line with Twitter or Facebook. It's certainly one that should make a bunch of people smile.
Anyway, here's my bit for the Noah movie....the trailer
POST SCRIPT: Noah was a massive failure.
