What goes best with a summer blockbuster movie? If the movie is The Matrix Reloaded, the answer might be a Heineken—or a PowerAde for teetotalers. Watch the DVD on your Samsung flat-screen TV. Or chug a Mountain Dew with The Incredible Hulk. Or run out to the latest Lara Croft flick in your limited edition Rubicon.
This summer, as in recent years, it seems what’s going best with big movies are TV commercials. The Matrix Reloaded, The Hulk and the new Lara Croft film, based on the popular video game, are just a few of the big action movies with tie-in ads. Panasonic is running a series of spots out of Grey, New York, promoting Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, the sequel to 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, while Mitsubishi is running an ad out of Deutsch LA promoting 2 Fast 2 Furious, the sequel to The Fast and The Furious.
The challenge, say agency creatives who have worked on these tie-in ads, which sometimes feature film footage, is to produce a TV commercial that serves the client’s product, not the movie, and to do so within the context of longer-running ad campaigns and themes, while satisfying the producers of the movie as well as the client. "We’re not advertising the movie," explains Bill Bruce, executive VP/executive creative director at BBDO New York, referring to the Mountain Dew spot "Rage," which uses The Hulk character. "We’re not saying, ‘In theaters now,’ and tying in directly to the movie. We’re using the character and its heightened awareness at this time to promote our own brand."
Mike Emerson, senior VP/worldwide account director for FCB, New York, says keeping the focus on the client, in this case Samsung, rather than the movie, The Matrix Reloaded, from writers/directors Andy and Larry Wachowski, is the hardest part. "Warner Bros. and executive producer Joel Silver are very protective of their property, as we are protective of Samsung," he says. "There were a lot of very frank discussions of just how both could benefit. Samsung needed to be sure we could create advertising that could borrow some of the equities from The Matrix, but make sure that Samsung came through loud and clear, being careful that we didn’t get trounced by the hype of the film. I think Joel felt the appreciation we had for the property. For someone who wants to create visually stunning advertising, it’s a nice mix. Our guys jumped in feet first."
Of the advertisers cited here, Heineken has the greatest experience with movie tie-ins, having done ads with several James Bond titles, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and Swordfish. "Whenever a brand ties in with a third party, like a film studio, it’s always a challenge creatively because there is a struggle for control," says Julie Mulholland, senior VP/group account director at Publicis, New York, Heineken’s agency. "In the creative process on any of these deals, and Heineken has done lots of them, our goal is the same—to tap into the core equities of the film, the essence of the film’s characters, while simultaneously and seamlessly integrating the brand into that context, that storyline," she notes. "The filmmakers are looking to protect the creative integrity of their property and we’re looking to leverage the association with that property. You’ve got two people with different agendas which is why it becomes such a challenge."
Samsung
Samsung, the Korean electronics maker, has forged the most encompassing tie-in deal with The Matrix Reloaded, providing a key prop in the video cell phones used in the film and, in return, being the only advertiser allowed to use footage from the film in its spots. "The phone in the film was a dream of the Wachowski brothers before they talked with any phone manufacturers," says FCB’s Emerson. "When they talked to Samsung, they felt their design people could pull it off. That’s how the deal started. Being part of the film, part of The Matrix world, was what we felt gave us a little bit of an edge."
Jim Mochinsky and Luke Bailey, senior VPs/global creative directors on Samsung, immersed themselves in The Matrix world early on. "They knew every subtle nuance to the film, every detail," Emerson says. "We got the script, but had to read it in front of studio people. As more things were developed, we were brought into the editing room to see some clips that they would make available for us to use. They said at the beginning there was no way they could promise to deliver the talent. But we pitched the idea of using Laurence Fishburne’s voice and we were able to get that. We used one of the agents, a minor character in the film, as the star of our flat panel TV spots. We did a casting call and he was one of the guys who came in. He stood head and shoulders above the others and was perfect for it. It was a nice tie-in that he was in the movie."
The "Matrix Camera Phone" and "Matrix Rotating Camera Phone" spots show scenes from the movie as seen over a video cell phone, while in "Matrix 40" Flat Panel" and "Matrix 63" Flat Panel," the agent is stopped in his tracks by the quality of the TV pictures on the flat-panel sets.
As did the other partners, Samsung used director James McTeigue, who was first assistant director on all The Matrix movies, including the third installment, scheduled for release later this year, for the spots. (McTeigue is signed with bicoastal/ international @radical.media for commercial work.) "We used many of the same professionals that worked on The Matrix Reloaded. For the code, which The Matrix is so famous for, we used the same production company out of France, Buf Compagnie, Paris," notes Emerson. "McTeigue helped us to understand the subtleties of the camera positions and how you do the moves. He has a great eye for the camera and was terrific with the actors. He was kind of hand-picked on the Joel Silver front, but for us it was an easy sell."
The logistics of working with a Korean advertiser, a French effects company and Hollywood were challenging at times, but Emerson says the production went surprisingly smoothly. "Looking back, it seemed that Warner Bros. took a liking to a couple of the people on my team," Emerson says. "They spoke every hour of the day. We made sure they spent a good amount of time in the pre-approval stage as well. Early on, they said ‘Show us the edit.’ We said, ‘C’mon guys, can’t we take you through each board?’ "
Mountain Dew
The most obvious link between Mountain Dew and The Hulk from Universal Pictures is the color green, says BBDO’s Bill Bruce, who’s clear that the spot isn’t too close to the movie. "The two share a character and are true to the comic book," he says, "but we are not beholden to the movie in any way. The way I look at it is, they have a product that’s going to be out for, if they’re lucky, six weeks and we have a product that’s going to be out for years. We have to be true to our brand but utilize properties that can help support our message. Both are benefiting, but we didn’t want to do a movie trailer."
The ad, "Rage," features a young man—named Bruce, as in Banner, the scientist who changes into the Hulk—who seems to be making progress in an anger management therapy group, but when his Mountain Dew is knocked over, he becomes The Incredible Hulk in a rage. "We said we should somehow maintain what the brand Mountain Dew is about, which is energy and exhilaration and irreverence and all those sorts of things," Bruce says. "We went into it trying to bring those elements and use the Hulk as a character. The idea that this guy is in anger management seemed to be funny to us. We don’t know what his story is at first, but he’s seeking help and we find out that he’s achieved control over what mostly drives him over the edge, but someone knocking over his Dew is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. We get into the idea that Dew is an important drink."
Unlike some other tie-ins, the Mountain Dew spot doesn’t specifically plug the movie and Universal didn’t take a controlling role in the project. "There were certain character discussions about what the Hulk would or wouldn’t be," Bruce says. "We presented the work, a number of different spots, to Pepsi. We all decided to do this one and then we shared it with Universal, but there was no offering of the script."
Aside from a close-up of an eye changing into that of the Hulk, the spot is all original footage directed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher Films, Santa Monica. The agency didn’t consider asking the movie’s director, Ang Lee, to do the spot. "We wanted to remove ourselves from the film as much as possible, not to be beholden to it," Bruce says. "The only thing we needed to do was have the two Hulks be the same. That’s why we went with [Industrial Light + Magic, San Rafael, Calif.] on it. The Hulk is entirely CG. We wanted to make sure he looked the same as he does in the film."
Jeep
Jeep hadn’t done any movie tie-ins before its deal with Paramount Pictures for this summer’s sequel to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, both starring Angelina Jolie. The DaimlerChrysler brand and its agency, BBDO Detroit, Troy, Mich., had done ads that tied in with HBO’s World War II series, Band of Brothers, where Jeeps were a genuine player in the war. For Bill Morden, agency vice chairman/chief creative officer, Tomb Raider was a similarly appropriate partner for Jeep. "We were looking to make sure there was an organic, natural fit for us," he says. "We just felt that this property, character and story fit Jeep, more than just slamming in a product that the star was driving in the movie. We didn’t do it just to look trendy." In fact, he notes, the deal really started more as a product placement. "We made contact with them and developed a Wrangler for the movie," he explains. "We’re also going to offer what we call a ‘buzz vehicle’ during the summer, a Tomb Raider II version." The resulting Jeep: a Tomb Raider Limited Edition Rubicon.
The agency worked closely with Paramount, which is credited as the spot’s production company, and Aspect Ratio, a bicoastal movie marketing concern, to produce the commercial. Simon Crane, second unit director on the film, shot original footage of Jolie delivering the ad’s tagline, but most of the spot was culled from the movie. "We had four or five concepts, developed by Mike Stocker and Robin Chrumka, who are our CDs on Jeep. They went to London, shared concepts, went back and forth, and picked a concept that gave the idea that Angelina was after something, the Jeep. We had her say a line, which she finally agreed to do, which was ‘They can’t catch us now.’ "
There were hurdles in getting the spot done. Jolie rejected taglines that seemed to her to convey a personal endorsement of Jeep, and when the film’s director Jan de Bont was injured in an accident, production fell behind schedule, subsequently delaying original shooting for the spot. The tagline couldn’t be shot on set. "We ended up shooting Angelina on blue screen doing the line, and embedded her with CGI into the Jeep," explains Morden. "It’s seamless. It was shot as if she were sitting in the driver’s side of the Jeep. The ad is very trailer-like in its execution, which adds to that movie mystique. "
PowerAde
The six-spot "Drink More PowerAde" campaign was not only the Coca-Cola brand’s first movie tie-in, but it was the first such project for its agency, Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. Mark Fitzloff, the copywriter on the campaign, says the deal originated with Coca-Cola, which was looking for ways to compete with Gatorade, which positions itself as the athletic sports beverage. "Coke was looking for other popular culture outlets," Fitzloff says.
The campaign evolved out of parallels between PowerAde’s basic message and one of the themes of The Matrix films. "What turned out to be to our benefit is that the basic product premise for PowerAde is when your body is low on energy, it replenishes key vitamins and minerals. You get recharged," notes Fitzolff. "In the movie, the idea is that computers have taken over the world and suck the energy out of human bodies for power. When we first got the assignment, we went to Hollywood to talk with Joel Silver. It hit me right there, it would makes sense that the bad guys in the movie, the machines, would want you to drink more PowerAde because they want to suck more energy out of your body."
Initially, the agency was, at best, lukewarm to the idea of doing a movie tie-in. "A lot of these partnerships make sense in the deal process, but when you get to making the spot, there is no connection. We were a little fearful that it would just be borrowed interest and we wouldn’t be able to give our client anything that was uniquely theirs," Fitzloff says. "That’s what we were able to find and that’s why the spots work really well."
The campaign features an actor who resembles the evil Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). Smith—who is always out to get Neo (Keanu Reeves), hero of The Matrix films—addresses the camera directly in an Orwellian Big Brother manner, instructing all who see and hear him to drink more PowerAde. The campaign purposely takes a low-key approach. "The idea came to us fully baked the first day," Fitzloff says. "Everything else was about making the character look exactly right, writing his dialogue in his unique style of speech that seems authentic to the most hard-core fans, making the set look exactly like it did in the movie."
The spots were directed by McTeigue who brought in the costume people, DP Kim Marks and prop people from the film, Fitzloff says. "We really wanted to nail the authenticity of the film."
Heineken
As with most tie-ins, Heineken’s Matrix ad, "Waitress," started at the client level. Pattie Falch, associate brand manager for Heineken USA, White Plains, N.Y., started talking with Silver and writers/directors Andy and Larry Wachowski two years ago about tie-ins that included everything from point-of-sale displays to Web sites. "We came back about a year ago and worked on creative for the TV with Joel, the Wachowski brothers and creatives from Publicis in a collaborative effort to come up with something that really integrated Heineken in the movie. It’s Heineken in the world of The Matrix." Mulholland of Publicis says adapting an advertising campaign traditionally based on humor to a serious, action-adventure movie was something the creatives struggled with at first. "We collaborated with Larry Wachowski to come up with the spot," she says. "He spelled out the core equities and how this person would act and perform in these circumstances."
The person in this case is a waitress in a Matrix-world saloon who uses Matrix-like stunts to deal with a groper without spilling a drop of the Heinekens she is serving. The production and approval processes were facilitated by having McTeigue direct, Mulholland says. "Not only did he understand The Matrix so well and have a relationship with Larry and Andy, but he was able to quickly assemble a team of people who worked on the film to help us make the end-product as authentic as possible," she notes. "We were able to shoot the spot in two days with McTeigue, where with another director it probably would have taken four." John Liegey and Steve Doppelt, group creative directors at Publicis (who have since left the shop), created the spot. Rikki Furman was executive producer.
