Conversation with a Creative Director of the 2004 Marketing
Aug 30, 2021 21:38:46 GMT -5
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Post by tsmefford on Aug 30, 2021 21:38:46 GMT -5
Hey everyone! In my research, I came across Eric Alan, the Nickelodeon Movies Creative Director that was involved in the television marketing campaign of the 2004 film.
He got back to me and was very generous with his response. We were able to hop on a phone call and I was able to talk with him about his experience on the marketing and ask questions about deleted footage, the tone of the campaign, and more!
Below is my write up based off my notes from the call. I hope you all find it interesting and enjoy it. I greatly thank Eric again for being so kind with his time and talking with me! I really didn't expect it and it means a lot.
It a very interesting chat. He painted a picture of how different things were then for Marketers without Youtube and Tik Tok and Twitter. It was very enlightening for me and he gave me some personal advice as well for my career pursuits, but I'll keep that to myself.
He got back to me and was very generous with his response. We were able to hop on a phone call and I was able to talk with him about his experience on the marketing and ask questions about deleted footage, the tone of the campaign, and more!
Below is my write up based off my notes from the call. I hope you all find it interesting and enjoy it. I greatly thank Eric again for being so kind with his time and talking with me! I really didn't expect it and it means a lot.
Eric worked as a Creative Director at Nickelodeon for over 7 years. For the most part, Nickelodeon encouraged him to be innovative and surprising with his work – doing marketing the ideal way: to disrupt and delight. While working at Nick, he was part of many campaigns, such as the rollout of SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron, and others. He also pivoted over to Nickelodeon Movies, where he worked on campaigns for Snow Day, Rugrats in Paris, and of course Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Lemony Snicket would mark one of his final campaigns at Nickelodeon Movies. At this point, he had a good grasp on how to market for the network: talking to kids and making things look "fun and exciting." Advertising for studio films, however, differed greatly in how they sold trailers and TV spots comparatively. Despite this, he approached the project using what he’d learned at the network.
Initially, Lemony Snicket was “a very difficult nut to crack,” he says, calling it an "unusual” book series. The interesting part for him was working with a copyist of Daniel Handler’s writing style, who was hired to do incidental writing (I assume, for marketing purposes). After reading the first three books, Eric approached the copyist, having figured out what made the series tick, essentially coming to the conclusion that: It was mainly the mystery and the idea of the man behind the curtain that they were selling. After a moment, the copyist replied, “until Book 4.” Eric goes on to explain that the original sell to the publisher for the Lemony Snicket books was that they were going to sell the mystery and there really was no ultimate goal. When the series became a hit, however, they began to flesh out the mystery and put “meat on the bones.”
Initially, Lemony Snicket was “a very difficult nut to crack,” he says, calling it an "unusual” book series. The interesting part for him was working with a copyist of Daniel Handler’s writing style, who was hired to do incidental writing (I assume, for marketing purposes). After reading the first three books, Eric approached the copyist, having figured out what made the series tick, essentially coming to the conclusion that: It was mainly the mystery and the idea of the man behind the curtain that they were selling. After a moment, the copyist replied, “until Book 4.” Eric goes on to explain that the original sell to the publisher for the Lemony Snicket books was that they were going to sell the mystery and there really was no ultimate goal. When the series became a hit, however, they began to flesh out the mystery and put “meat on the bones.”
A reel of Lemony Snicket TV Spots from Nickelodeon
After this realization, it opened the door for him to envision the “short form content,” as he calls it, hesitating to use the word “ads.” When he delivered the first piece of the campaign, Paramount got excited. The studio was having trouble making a piece of audio/visual content that made sense of what the IP was. They ended up passing it around, not only to the advertising agencies that were working on the film for the studio side of things, but all the way up to the filmmakers. Suddenly, Eric was then also hired by the film’s producers to make some material to go into the movie itself. He made character introduction pieces for Count Olaf, Uncle Monty, and Aunt Josephine similar to the introductory pieces he made introducing the Baudelaires. Nothing like that had ever happened to him before. Ultimately, he went to a screening of the film that included his sequences and afterwards a producer quickly dismissed the idea and inclusion: “We don’t need that.”
This shows, to me, the state of experimentation the film was in at the time. They were clearly still working on the tone and trying to figure out, creatively, how they wanted to present things. Honestly, I couldn't imagine the film with the graphic approach or what I assume were graphical montage interludes, but it's interesting that they gave it a shot and experimented with it.
When asked what they get to see and work with when developing campaigns, he says that usually, you get the whole film. Through a top-secret process with lots of security, you literally get versions of the film. In the case of animated film campaigns, like what he worked on for Pixar (such as Cars and Ratatouille), you'd start with something that has very crude animation as they are figuring out the story and it would get updated throughout the process. He also mentioned some of the camera test footage they used of Violet and Klaus. Because he was working at Nickelodeon and was “deemed the expert” at marketing on the channel to the huge audience of kids (which were extremely important to the film's success at the box office), they were very inclined to open the doors for him to production materials and assets and gave him access to the filmmakers. In his words, “there was not a lot of gatekeeping.” Eric emphasized how unusual that more open relationship was compared to typical situation where the studio would purposefully keep the marketer quite separate from the filmmakers.
Speaking more on his relationship with the filmmakers, Eric said it is so much more fun to sit down with the creators and see what they're thinking. He mentioned that he would write material and give it to Brad Silberling, who would then get it recorded for him. Producers emphasized the importance of these requests, putting them at the top of the list so to speak. This is how Eric managed to have Jude Law do the voice over for his earlier spots.
Recalling the screening he had mentioned, I asked Eric about the state of the film when he saw it at that time. He couldn’t really recall what state it was really in but remarked that the film didn’t test as well as the studio would’ve liked. Essentially, studios often look at the surveys they get back and start immediately beginning to wonder how they can change it. In the case of Lemony Snicket, he mentions that the film may have had some confusion about the plot. Mostly, he thought that “parents were afraid of it” due to it being marketed as a kids’ film for the holidays.
Eventually, Paramount also hired him to cross over and do advertising on the studio side. It was then that he realized how different their process was, along with their messaging. Of course, this is all based on market testing: hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of testing and research. After testing many different messages, Paramount decided they needed to “lighten it up.” It was a holiday film after all. The main gist of their marketing ended up being a story of “these kids are searching to get back home,” a marketing trope that was sure to be the kind of message that mom’s would respond to. Eric, however, says that was not his approach at all on the Nickelodeon side. His goal was to help kids understand what the story was and to represent the feel, tone, and “the throw of the story.” He wanted his pieces to feel more like the film itself, as opposed to an ad for the movie.
This shows, to me, the state of experimentation the film was in at the time. They were clearly still working on the tone and trying to figure out, creatively, how they wanted to present things. Honestly, I couldn't imagine the film with the graphic approach or what I assume were graphical montage interludes, but it's interesting that they gave it a shot and experimented with it.
When asked what they get to see and work with when developing campaigns, he says that usually, you get the whole film. Through a top-secret process with lots of security, you literally get versions of the film. In the case of animated film campaigns, like what he worked on for Pixar (such as Cars and Ratatouille), you'd start with something that has very crude animation as they are figuring out the story and it would get updated throughout the process. He also mentioned some of the camera test footage they used of Violet and Klaus. Because he was working at Nickelodeon and was “deemed the expert” at marketing on the channel to the huge audience of kids (which were extremely important to the film's success at the box office), they were very inclined to open the doors for him to production materials and assets and gave him access to the filmmakers. In his words, “there was not a lot of gatekeeping.” Eric emphasized how unusual that more open relationship was compared to typical situation where the studio would purposefully keep the marketer quite separate from the filmmakers.
Speaking more on his relationship with the filmmakers, Eric said it is so much more fun to sit down with the creators and see what they're thinking. He mentioned that he would write material and give it to Brad Silberling, who would then get it recorded for him. Producers emphasized the importance of these requests, putting them at the top of the list so to speak. This is how Eric managed to have Jude Law do the voice over for his earlier spots.
Recalling the screening he had mentioned, I asked Eric about the state of the film when he saw it at that time. He couldn’t really recall what state it was really in but remarked that the film didn’t test as well as the studio would’ve liked. Essentially, studios often look at the surveys they get back and start immediately beginning to wonder how they can change it. In the case of Lemony Snicket, he mentions that the film may have had some confusion about the plot. Mostly, he thought that “parents were afraid of it” due to it being marketed as a kids’ film for the holidays.
Eventually, Paramount also hired him to cross over and do advertising on the studio side. It was then that he realized how different their process was, along with their messaging. Of course, this is all based on market testing: hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of testing and research. After testing many different messages, Paramount decided they needed to “lighten it up.” It was a holiday film after all. The main gist of their marketing ended up being a story of “these kids are searching to get back home,” a marketing trope that was sure to be the kind of message that mom’s would respond to. Eric, however, says that was not his approach at all on the Nickelodeon side. His goal was to help kids understand what the story was and to represent the feel, tone, and “the throw of the story.” He wanted his pieces to feel more like the film itself, as opposed to an ad for the movie.
A sample of Paramount's approach to the Television Marketing.
The difference between these two approaches is very apparent. The earlier pieces from Nickelodeon are far more graphically driven and far more “on brand” for Lemony Snicket. Using Jude Law for voice over, as well as keeping the verbiage and idea consistent with that of the books. This contrasts greatly with the more whimsical, family-driven holiday story present in the TV promos from November and December of 2004 from Paramount. When I asked about the shift and when that might have happened, Eric says that there really wasn't much of a shift. Essentially, the studio didn't really care what Nick was doing. It was just something small that they would let them do however, reserving the big marketing budgets for what they “knew was right.”
Eric recounts a big meeting with around 50 people, a presentation of the marketing ideas for Lemony Snicket. He recalls showing his reel of materials and everyone liking them, but “it had nothing to do with what the studio was doing.” The marketing for films can be assigned to many different agencies for just one movie. He also had a feeling that Paramount possibly took his work and showed it to some of the other agencies to “make something like this.”
Eric looks back fondly on the film and the campaign and says he enjoyed being immersed in the material, as he usually is when he works on marketing for films. His perspective, he realized, was very different from the studio or even an external marketing agency. The studios, at least at that time, simply don’t do deep diving. Continuing to discuss the film, he recalled his favorite sequence - the beautiful animated end titles - as well as visiting the “insane” sets and how much money Paramount spent on the film. What it comes down to, he told me, is that there’s a certain amount of money invested and the main concern is how the studio would see a profit.
Revisiting the unreleased material featured in some of the trailers and commercials, Eric explains, when you’re working on the marketing for a film and you get your hands on good material, you just use it. Ultimately, if you use a shot in the trailer that gets removed from the final project, “no one cares.” Furthermore, as a trailer editor, you can call up the raw footage for things you might not have, like a reaction shot. He could call the studio, and the editor would pull a relevant clip. He's even had some experiences where it’s decided that they need material that isn’t in the movie to create a moment that could convince a parent that the film will be okay for kids. Lemony Snicket, he says, is a movie that is really about grief, trauma, horror, and fear. It’s a dark movie.
Finally, Eric says that Lemony Snicket and the character spots introducing Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are very close to his heart. He’s very proud of them even though they might be “outdated” now.
Eric recounts a big meeting with around 50 people, a presentation of the marketing ideas for Lemony Snicket. He recalls showing his reel of materials and everyone liking them, but “it had nothing to do with what the studio was doing.” The marketing for films can be assigned to many different agencies for just one movie. He also had a feeling that Paramount possibly took his work and showed it to some of the other agencies to “make something like this.”
Eric looks back fondly on the film and the campaign and says he enjoyed being immersed in the material, as he usually is when he works on marketing for films. His perspective, he realized, was very different from the studio or even an external marketing agency. The studios, at least at that time, simply don’t do deep diving. Continuing to discuss the film, he recalled his favorite sequence - the beautiful animated end titles - as well as visiting the “insane” sets and how much money Paramount spent on the film. What it comes down to, he told me, is that there’s a certain amount of money invested and the main concern is how the studio would see a profit.
Revisiting the unreleased material featured in some of the trailers and commercials, Eric explains, when you’re working on the marketing for a film and you get your hands on good material, you just use it. Ultimately, if you use a shot in the trailer that gets removed from the final project, “no one cares.” Furthermore, as a trailer editor, you can call up the raw footage for things you might not have, like a reaction shot. He could call the studio, and the editor would pull a relevant clip. He's even had some experiences where it’s decided that they need material that isn’t in the movie to create a moment that could convince a parent that the film will be okay for kids. Lemony Snicket, he says, is a movie that is really about grief, trauma, horror, and fear. It’s a dark movie.
Finally, Eric says that Lemony Snicket and the character spots introducing Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are very close to his heart. He’s very proud of them even though they might be “outdated” now.