That Escalated Quickly.

Good Evening Ladies and Gentleman. Welcome Back to Late Night Critic.

I recently watched Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, with some of my family. It was a pretty good sequel. But that isn't what this blog is for.

Anchorman 2 had one of the largest Integrated Media Communication campaigns ever. What Paramount was able to do for this movie was nothing short of amazing (whether it was helpful or hurtful is still to be determined). This grouping of advertisements went from the very ordinary (trailers, talk-show tours, etc.) to the new and unexplored (ice-cream flavor, sports interview, the list goes on). Its purpose was to take advantage of the growing interest in movie characters over the actors who play them. This comes from the interest of people today in blockbuster franchises over a single stand alone movie (this is the fault of the movie industry in my humble opinion, but I'll have to cover that another time).

A social media campaign of this size and depth was bound to work at least at some level. And it did work, even for the partners of Anchorman 2. Dodge saw a huge climb in sales by having Ron Burgundy promote their cars. Some have even said that Mr. Burgundy may just be the best car salesman Dodge has ever had.

While this campaign was able to grow sales for some of it's partners it also was a success for the movie. I think the purpose of the campaign was mainly to reach every single person possible and remind them of who Ron Burgundy was. And if that was in fact the goal, they succeeded, easily. People were constantly talking about the movie, or at the very least the man himself Mr. Burgundy. And word of mouth is a huge part of the industry according to numerous articles and just common sense.

The problem for films wanting to implement the methods of Paramount and Co. is the inability to replicate all that Anchorman 2 was truly able to do. Ron Burgundy was a newscaster and this allowed him to enter into numerous live television scenarios that characters based in other roles simply couldn't fill.

My opinion? This movie pushed the limits of social media marketing, but they pushed them to where they should be in today's tech-savvy world. Many people stated the flurry of advertisements was simply to cover for a lackluster film, however going forward big films will have to start marketing themselves in a similar manner. The bottom-line is it worked and it's what it takes to get a brand out into the world these days.

This week in BBB (Best Business Blunders): Microsoft and the Zune
Near the tail-end of 2011 Microsoft very quietly announced the end of the Zune product line and the production of the current model. Personally I grew up and still am a Windows man, but Apple was so far ahead of the curve Microsoft never had a chance. The portable music player was a huge market and looked like it would be possible for Microsoft to gain a small hold in but they didn't plan for the sole success that the iPod was. While it was a sad day for me to see Microsoft defeated by Apple, I feel there has been a lesson learned and the new Windows phone's could start to compete with Apple.

So what is the lesson learned? 

You can't plan for the success of your competitors, but you must do your best to predict it. Microsoft entered into a segment they weren't ready to fight for and lost.

Thanks for tuning in,

AO