Solo: A Marketing Disaster Story
After Scott Rhodie received a $77 ticket to watch Solo: A Star Wars Story three hours before anyone else in Australia, he was more than a little disappointed after he realised 400 of the 500-strong crowd were paid actors.
Disney launched Solo: A Star Wars Story in cinemas yesterday. The night before launch, I had the misfortune to attend a cluster of an event.
I’m a massive Star Wars fan, and have been ever since I saw my first film in the cinema as a four-year-old in 1978.
I’m always excited for a new Star Wars movie, and a good friend bought me a ticket to a special Falcon Formation event at Fox Studios. For $77 you got to take part in “something spectacular” and be part of 500 “specially selected crewmates to bring the iconic Millenium Falcon to life” and then watch the movie before it launched anywhere around the world.
I should add that the movie is great. It’s a space western with a strong cast.
So it’s firefly with a massive budget and no chance of failure because it’s star wars
And Firefly is basically Star Wars with a garbage budget and bad guys who are no longer British, but rather German and run around in WW1 German uniforms.
As for the strong cast?
Clarke cannot act. Ehrenreich cannot act. Glover is laughable. And that was it.
Not sure what movie you watched but this was the worst Star Wars movie ever conceived. Just an unfulfilling mess.
Considering the longest running Star Wars fan club in the world is based in Australia and we weren’t even told the event was on…it’s a huge joke.
One email and we would have supplied all the eager fans they needed to fill a few falcons…and they would be REAL fans…not paid extras.
PS…the movie IS awesome.
Worth pointing out that one of those Star Wars ‘fans’ in the resulting video (0:29) was a Bachelorette contestant.
What a balls up. I just about would have driven down from Newcastle to be part of such an event and, in turn, would have gone ballistic on social media.
That’s just really poor planning. The day you can’t find people to fill a cinema for free is the day pigs fly. If they’d teamed up with Nova or 2day, they could have sent out in invite to their lists. Or with the Telegraph to offer to digital subscribers. They would have filled it and saved a small fortune.
When did Mumbrella become a soap box for tedious complaints like this? All events involve paid actors / influencers / rent-a-crowd. So what, Scott? So what…
That’s a pretty broad brushstroke – all events involve paid actors, influencers, or rent-a-crowds?
Giving people an experience they can’t refuse will always drum up more a more engaged audience than some cashed-up rent-a-crowd.
Whichever agency ran this event clearly didn’t tap into the right channels to build their audience – a missed opportunity and a learning for our industry.
Influencers at least have a chance of liking the thing. Your events must be unbearable.
+ 1 for the sentiment from FFS.
Yeaaah the movie being “good” is subjective. It is not a bad movie but is it a good Star Wars movie? Nope nope nope. And that’s why they had to pay people to go – no true fan wants to see it.
‘No true fan’ = no entitled 30+ white person who gets their jimmies rustled that films aimed at current younger generations don’t pander to them.
I’m under 30 and white. Comments like this are total garbage and are the equivalent of “if you don’t like this movie you’re just a hater”. Maybe if Disney pumped out Star Wars movies that relied on interesting and original stories, instead of just replacing characters with women and people of different ethnicities and recycling the same boring played out stories, your argument would have any weight. Relying on inclusion and diversity to sell someone on a movie is boring.
Yeayyy Someone who can see the obvious… Thank you for that. Sooo Many Damn Shills… Good LORD!!!
Are marketers losing touch and teching people for granted?
Sorry but no – it’s not a marketing disaster by any stretch. it’s just a Star Wars fan disaster. For one middle-aged guy.
This misplaced criticism shows why marketers struggle to get a seat at the Board table – they focus too much on their ‘art’ and too little on the core value it’s intended to provide to a business – and in this case, Scott has failed to recognise and/or manage his own biases, allowing them to steer what should be a dispassionate analysis.
Essentially, the only thing that matters is whether the stunt achieved its reach targets and informed or reminded potential movie-goers that Solo had been released. This might be compromised slightly if a tiny (max 100) number of fans were sufficiently irked by the arrangement that they’ll badmouth the film itself. But it’s doubtful.
As Scott’s reaction showed, a few people might complain about the rent-a-crowd – but that’s different to complaining about the film.
Ironically, had the crowd been authentic and the event well-organised, Scott wouldn’t have whinged about his poor value free ticket on Mumbrella, and reach might have been lower.
When it’s never been harder to cut-through, this example simply supports the old adage that, in the right circumstances, all PR is good PR.
That’s not to say that this was “good marketing”. It’s just to say that Scott’s analysis was bad.
Nope, he’s spot on. A good marketer would have known that they could save their client thousands by putting out a call to fans, guaranteeing not only better visual representation but dedication and enthusiasm aimed at the target audience.
There’s an even older adage in the business – if you’re spending money you don’t need to in order to get a substandard result, you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.
I don’t get how it’s a good result that the only genuine people involved in this (ie, the super fans) came away thoroughly disappointed/upset.
sorry, I must have missed three things, Short-sighted:
1) the research/vox pop that backs your assertion that the ‘super fans’ who attended came away upset. We’ve got a data-set of 1 – Scott R. We don’t how the other 99 felt.
2) the campaign objective being that the super fans came away ‘happy’, as opposed to a campaign objective being that a certain number of target audience received a message that the film was out. If you’re a marketer and define campaign objectives in nebulous qualitative ways like this, keep your head down at budget time
3) evidence that any supposedly disappointed ‘super fans’ failed to distinguish between the quality of the film and their emotional reaction to a promotional event, conflating the two and inadvertantly shit-canning a movie they liked
‘better visual representation” for the night-time overhead shot, you mean? er … riiiight…
“guaranteed”? really? what exactly is guaranteed by enlisting another 400 Star Wars fans who can come from any one of 3 generations, and who are generally discerning and know a good star wars flick from a bad one and aren’t afraid to call it…..we commercial people call this an unmanaged asymmetrical risk, and would rather a truly “guaranteed” crowd to crossing our fingers and praying to Yoda
Sadly, Dame has doubled-down on my myopic marketer remarks…treating the subject matter with dewy-eyed optimism and revelling in silly assertion rather than any type of analysis
No, it’s a poor outcome for the event.
If at a Board table the events manager had to report:
– that instead of generating 500 x $77 a ticket for a promotional event of a hot company product, they only managed to move 100 tickets and then had to pay 400+ people from central casting PLUS the costs of running the event
– the event generated negative coverage in the media that highlighted how fake the event actually was, thus tainting the idea the product is popular enough to stand on its own
– that the event was poorly organised, with not enough materials to cover the expected number of people
– that the outcome was a video (35k views at this point in time) and some photos to advertise the product with it being arguable how viral the event actually was, which goes towards the aim of such an event
… then its a good point that that the events manager wouldn’t be asked back to the Board table on purely performance grounds. Art has nothing to do with it.
If the event was always planned to sell only 100 or so tickets, then I can only imagine a conversation that worried that 500 Star Wars fans might not be photogenic enough for the event, so let’s get some models / actors in to make sure it looks good. Which is stupid, because cosplay is stock-in-trade these days for fans at such events.
The analysis was spot on. If the event had:
– 500 actual Star Wars fans invited to a special, free / low cost event
– been appropriately organised (e.g. let’s have enough forms to go around, let’s make sure everyone knows some idea of event timing and weather conditions)
– actually invited (uhh, I hate this concept) influencers with a wider reach than 35k views to take part in, then share, the videos
… then there would have been a lot more cut through to the event.
So yes, if the event was well organised and genuine, Scott’s article would have been very different.
What you said CLEARLY stated is all that mattered was whether the “Stunt” (Love That word for something that was promoted as Genuine) Succeeded in misrepresenting actual fan interest to sucker people into theaters. You said it… All that mattered was whether it succeeded in Lying to the public. On principle… F!!!! U!!! Fans aren’t as stupid as you think and are DONE being Lied to Corporate execs and Company Shills like you.. The Turnout is far less about disinterest as it is a blatant move by fans to send a clear message. Knock off the Lies; BS contemptible marketing tactics, Social & Gender Politics; Insults to Fans; Decimation of Loved Characters & Make QUALITY MOVIES with well formed characters people can relate to, plots that aren’t retarded, & LEAVE Social-Political Agendas the Hell out of it. Everyone is just sick to death and have joined together to send Disney a very clear message. You sir are a sorry scumbag & I don’t wish you well. Sincerely a member of “The Fandom Menace”
Does FFS work for the agency involved? It’s patently false to suggest every event uses paid actors/influencers. Most I have worked on have little to no budget so can’t even consider it. This event clearly had a good budget but just wasn’t planned well in advance.
Extra points for assembling a Millennial Falcon.
No, I definitely don’t have any association with it or anyone involved.
Spot on Dame Edna! Gorgon Zola, your rationale is as smelly as your nomen.
+ 1 on Bucks comments. FFS is definitely from Disney or agency. So is
‘How is this the top feature in the daily email?’. Its interesting to see the importance of great execution, as something like this seems impossible to get wrong. But it did go wrong. Respect your audience!
Everyone has missed the point. Why invite fans who are going to the movie anyway? Why preach to the converted? You want to reach a new audience so you invite social influencers.
Dominique, I didn’t see any social influencers there. I’ve worked with social influencers and did t see any.
What I saw was a rent-a-crowd who didn’t care much for the brand nor the event and a few were vocal about that.
Also I wouldn’t ever use your strategy. You need a balance and grassroots support.
What does a “social Influencer” actually look like? A Bachelorette? Barista? Cook on Masterchaef?
No, Dominique, you’ve missed the point.
Firstly, The event tickets cost $77, so firstly, that’s a higher cost than an average ticket that a genuine fan may have purchased at a cinema. The client paid for the event regardless, so you may as well sell as many tickets as possible.
Secondly, by the sounds of Scott’s article, people were paid to show up and take part, not to create and distribute social content about their experience.
Thirdly, even if people were asked to create and distribute social content – if the “influencers” were a bunch of people who have absolutely no interest in Star Wars, would their content (a) have reached a relevant audience via their existing channels, or (b) have been in any way authentic? My guess is no. A bunch of instagram photos of good looking faces in the dark with a “#solo” hashtag isn’t useful marketing.
Finally – it’s clear from the article and a number of the comments that if the PR/marketing team responsible for this event had done any planning, they would have been able to contact and mobilize a huge fanbase, sell every single one of those 500 tickets, generate a significant amount of authentic earned media and ultimately do something meaningful for the launch of the film. If they found a simple way to surface and distribute all the content that was being created by fans across their owned channels, then they would have had an opportunity to really engage with Star Wars fans outside of Sydney who couldn’t make the event, and generate some additional hype around the release.
It seems like simple stuff, but they obviously didn’t figure this stuff out ahead of time.
Well said Mark. I’d also add that Star Wars fans don’t interact exclusively only with other Star Wars fans. If they’re passionate about something and sharing an interesting experience with their friends and family, you’re definitely still going to reach some new audiences.
Apple targets their fan base with product launches, Nike has built up a huge engaged community of brand advocates. Why try to bypass your engaged fan base to go straight to a bunch of people who don’t care?
The biggest market here is Star Wars fans. The biggest problem these movies face is that fans will think they will be crap and not go. The best way to sway that is to have fans tell fans, “it’s good” or “it’s not so bad”.
I would imagine alot of social influencers are not Star Wars fans (broad I know, but I think accurate), and therefore would miss what makes it good and what it means to the narrative of the franchise.
Also, are Star Wars fans following influencers? And is an influencers tick of approval enough to make the average person dive into a franchise prequel?
The millenium falcon lights look a bit naff to me, but the video is short, well produced and has been viewed some 34,000 times and counting – myself included. And it is rather hard to tell whether they are rent-a-crowd or ‘true fans’ from a drones eye view.
Arguably you’d get more social collateral with folks there of their own accord and maybe the price was a tad ambitious – but you only need a few star wars schmucks to show up willing to shell out seventy smackers and you can hire some genetically photogenic people for the camera close-ups, boost numbers and offset the full on wookies in attendance. Let’s face it, all the carbonite in the world wouldn’t prevent a certain type of star wars clone from seeing this film. It’s the increasingly large number of uninvested / disinvested people that this clip would hope to engage with and perhaps even elicit an ever-so-slight stirring of the force in.
Considering the longest running Star Wars fan club in the world is based right here in Australia…and wasn’t even told the event was on…it’s a major stuff up.
Star Walking could have sent out an email to it’s members calling for fans to get there and help out with the formation and we’d have the place packed with real fans.
What a joke!
Huw Hepworth – not sure whether you’ve ever worked in marketing but an event manager does not and would never in a million years report to a Board – for the very reasons you’ve drawn out.
The points you’ve raised are peripheral, not germane to calculating the event ROI.
A Board would not care about whether ticket sales paid for the event, whether the event started under cloudy skies or at 7.30 instead of 7.15pm, whether yellow plastic ponchos were handed out.
They are interested solely in risk and reward, and would figure it’s a better trade to pay for a photogenic crowd to do what you want rather than risk a legion of wookie super-fans shitting all over the film.
What you’re proposing is blind faith, and corporates don’t allocated capital on that basis.
So, you’re saying that the event had two possible outcomes;
1) A bunch of uninterested people are paid to be there to make up the numbers and improve the average attractiveness of the crowd, or;
2) A bunch of terribly fugly fans turn up, shit can the film, post about how bad it is and go home?
Maybe the event just wasn’t a great idea, then?
I think the most concerning part of this is the divided opinion on whether this was a success or not. The fact that it is really unclear makes me uncomfortable, assume the client has poured $$$’s into this marketing event. Worst thing as a marketer is not being able to understand exactly what the hell my money did for me!
1977*
I saw it in ’78 as it was still in a small cinema in Glasgow at that time.
I was there. I am one of the 400. I like everyone I spoke to was an actor and was also very fannish – but not super fans. We were specifically told NOT to publish anything on ANY social media. CONFIDENTIAL was written on the emails very pointedly.
I’m not giving my name only because I want to do this sort of thing again. It was great fun ! None of us got to see the film by the way. We didn’t get the free gifts that were expected either. Also, the wrist bands stopped working when we got out of range of their WiFi. Very clever technology.
Yes, the overhead shot is remarkably poor though !
It would have been so easy to give us a sheet of paper with the map marked out in numbered squares where we could stand… just a thought. I’d have been annoyed to pay $77 for a film too !
I was there. I am one of the 400. I like everyone I spoke to was an actor and was also very fannish – but not super fans. We were specifically told NOT to publish anything on ANY social media. CONFIDENTIAL was written on the emails very pointedly.
I’m not giving my name only because I want to do this sort of thing again. It was great fun ! None of us got to see the film by the way. We didn’t get the free gifts that were expected either. Also, the wrist bands stopped working when we got out of range of their WiFi. Very clever technology.
Yes, the overhead shot is remarkably poor though !
It would have been so easy to give us a sheet of paper with the map marked out in numbered squares where we could stand… just a thought. I’d have been annoyed to pay $77 for a film too !
Sorry – I’m more gob smacked that they could find 400 non Star Wars fans to attend this event…
Seriously?
Buying your own products is classic investor fraud.
I had my say in a reply, that after posting does not show here. I would like to know why and I would really like to see that reply appear where I placed it. I also had my say when I didn’t go to see this movie, and now that the weekend is over, Disney has heard that message loud and clear.
$77 for a ticket to ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story?’ I presume it was a 2D showing. I thought I was a tragic, paying $31.50 for the Hoyts IMAX 3D version!
The actual movie was more nostalgia-milking, unimaginative, irreverent crap, by the way.
I don’t know what movie you guys watched but Solo is terrible. This is not the cool Han Solo I’ve loved since I was a little girl, and the “it’s an origin story” excuse doesn’t cut it.
This film is poorly made, written and insulting for real fans.
They even managed to make Lando, the main lady killer in Star Wars, a joke!
I was not going to see Solo, a SW story because of how I felt towards Lucasfilm and Disney and I will briefly tell you why. I am one of those 30+ long time Star Wars fans who walked out of The Force Awakens with mixed feelings. I think that marketing produced some really great trailers for TFA, but in the end the movie was a soulless disappointment! Though it had some great moments, good soundtracks and impressive visuals, the movie felt like a poorly executed “copycat take” on the original “Star Wars, A New Hope”. “Rogue One” followed next and over all it was a good stand alone Star Wars story that fitted well (in my humble opinion) as a prequel to “A New Hope”. The problem was The Last Jedi and much of the problems with “Solo” can be traced to Rian’s Johnson’s fiasco of a SW movie! Since a great number of fans were attacked (verbally attacked and otherwise ridiculed by Johnson and his cronies in Lucasfilm) on printed news as well as on social media, for not liking it (and some even “hating” that film), I am not surprised that the company marketing this event rented a fake Star Wars crowd. Disney and Lucasfilm have gone out of their way (in the last six years or so) to make sure that the Star Wars fan core is totally ignored and not taken into account at all cost (and it sadly shows). If you don’t believe me, go online and read the latest news on “Solo, a financial flop story”. It was not the Hollywood studios nor even George Lucas who made Star Wars a 40 years long financial success, it was the long time core fans that made it happen. So in conclusion I think that given the bad feelings and animosity coming from Lucasfilm towards the core SW fantom, this event was never going to go any different to how this movie premiered. It was a publicity stunt to promote a movie no many SW fans wanted to see! So in the end rather than risking poor turn out and empty theaters, they paid actors to pretend being exited for a movie as much as the real core SW fans used to be!