The promotional campaign for Ridley Scott’s latest project took began on July 21 2001 at the San Diego Comic-Con where images and footage from the film were released for the first time. The footage was presented by the writer of the film Damon Lindelof along with Charlize Theron and Ridley Scott with Noomi Rapace participating via satellite. This footage attracted attention amongst social media sites as the star Theron was seen doing naked push-ups, so the campaign began on a high. Then later that year, December 14, 2011, the first teaser poster was released with the tagline ‘The search for our beginning could lead to our end.’
The poster gives nothing away but alludes towards the head which had previously been shown in stills at the San Diego Comic-Con. It has the first look at Rapace’s character and the title work has a resemblance to Scott’s previous work on Alien. Around a week later the teaser trailer was released.
This trailer gives away very little of the plot, which is common in teasers, and sticks to the rules of teaser trailers by mainly showing different shots of the film in random order to see an audience reaction. This trailer sparked off a viral campaign which consisted of months with different websites querying whether or not this is a ‘prequel to Alien’ and generated a great deal of discussion about the film. The Alien resemblance discussion began as the lettering throughout the trailer appears just as in Alien and the spaceship featured resembles a similar spaceship in Alien. This shows how sharp-eyed fans are and how they really pay attention to every detail, something worth bearing in mind for our promotional campaign.
After months full of discussion, the viral campaign, campaign on the internet, grew larger as the first full trailer was to be streamed live via different social media outlets on March 17, 2012. The audience reaction to this via Twitter was very positive and the video received 3 million views in 3 days. The positive audience reaction for a first trailer is always good for the campaign as it means they have captured an audience and the wide scale of people whom have seen it, 3 million views, shows popularity and want towards it.
A big part of the film was Ridley Scott’s choice to release in 3D as there is many debates on whether 3D is another way of making a bit more money from a cinema ticket or if it does enhance the viewing experience in a way. On April 10, 2012 in London’s Leicester Square a 13 minute feature containing footage from the film was showcased. The reaction was again good and people even mentioned the good use of 3D visual effects and the great performances from the leads Rapace and Fassbender. This is effective for the campaign as it shows audience are reacting well to the 3D.
The international launch trailer was the next to be announced and it would take place on April 29, 2012 during Channel 4’s ‘Homeland’. This show had a large amount of viewers and the audience were asked to interact with the trailer by sharing their thoughts over twitter with the lead that their tweet may be shown on T.V. This causes promotion for the film without the companies having to spend money on focus groups as it all happens live and via the social network twitter. This is good for the campaign because less money is being spent on an already massive promotional campaign and they get to see the audience’s reactions who are the ones hopefully paying to watch the finished product.
The audience were able to interact at the premiere by sending their questions to Zeebox which would then choose a sample and ask the actors at the live streamed film premiere in London. They also announced Prometheus action figures are to be released which furthers the merchandising and both sides help with the audience connection.
Viral campaign
On March 6, 2012 the Weyland Corporation, a fictional company from Scott’s previous Alien franchise, released a link to ‘donate’ and receive new art from Prometheus. During the 2012 Wondercon business cards from Weyland were also released which if rung led to a viral video featuring Fassbenders character ‘David’.
This poster was also printed in many newspapers and came along with a video narrated by and starring Fassbender who commented on his character David and gave an insight into what he was and could do. This was associated with a twitter account for the character where people could ask him questions and receive a response. Including the audience is very helpful for this promotional campaign as it helped turning the audience who are not fully aware with the release of Alien almost 30 years ago and the use of social media creates a new kind of audience. In France the Saint-Martin ghost train was transformed to show architecture from the Alien franchise and the Prometheus Facebook page gave a virtual tour of the ship.
The British magazine Empire got the first world exclusive on the highly anticipated film and as the magazine has a high readership it was helpful during promotion. This then led to many magazines having articles relating to the film but always asking ‘is it a prequel?’ Director Ridley Scott furthered this speculation by saying ‘it depends what you define as a prequel’ which left an unanswered question which was the driving force of the campaign.
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