How Digital is Shifting the Way Consumers View and Consume Advertising

Our consumer is no longer engaged in the monologue that traditional advertising and marketing strategies drive because communication tactics have evolved and have made instantaneous conversation easy, cheap and ubiquitous. This very instantaneous communication has been facilitated by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the other array of social networking, blogs and other tools that have allowed for consumers to be connected across the globe. These technologies have facilitated the ability of like-minded consumers to share stories, discuss brand recommendations, and ultimately experiences. Further it has allowed for humans to interact in more meaningful and important ways (the Egypt political revolution for example), which allows marketers to more easily interact with and target niche consumer markets. What this technology has allowed is for firms to create marketing communication that is launched digitally first and foremost to facilitate the discussion already happening around the globe and allows for companies to engage, understand their consumers’ needs and be a part of the everyday conversation.

Take Threadless for example, which is a million-dollar apparel company that has virtually no design costs as their community develops designs that eventually become their products. They have a rapidly growing community because of the unique experience that his web site provides others. The company is so responsive to its community that it is able to react to feedback and redesign their website within hours of the feedback being surfaced– talk about instantaneous customer satisfaction! Also take Chipotle’s “Back to the Start” campaign which won numerous awards, including advertising awards at the Cannes film festival (currently sitting at around 8 million views on YouTube as it stands today). This was launched to YouTube first and was coupled with a website where you can learn more about how the company sources sustainable, organic food. What’s unique about it is that not only did it effectively leverage digital channels to engage users and to facilitate conversation, but it used traditional methods after launching on digital to extend the reach and impact of the campaign.

So what does all this truly mean for marketers? I think it means that consumers are looking to have conversations and interact with brands to know that their voice is being heard. The democratization that has been facilitated by technology means that it is truly all about the content that is created in the ad, how it facilitates conversation in your target audience, and how you create an impactful experience for the consumer. It also means that your content has to stay fresh, be unique, fit with your brand promise/expectations, and be remarkable or something that consumers want to discuss and talk about.

As I sign off on this blog, feel free to comment below on what you think about digital advertising. I’ve included a link to a few articles below if you want to learn more about how to effectively use digital to create content or want to learn more about the advertising campaigns mentioned above.

Chipotle Back to the Start

Chipotle Ad Campaign Buzz

Threadless Community

Movie Ticket Price Tiering

So I read this article that my buddy deutsch sent over to me the other day regarding an opinion piece on movie ticket pricing. I've got to say there's been a lot a buzz (it basically comes up with every big movie opening) about tiering the price structure for films based on their popularity and I agree with it. Before the whole 3 people that read this blog get all up in arms, this is pretty much a win-win situation for all involved.

First off, theaters have been bleeding money since the mid 90s and need to start differentiating themselves somehow and doing something different. Theaters have become sort of stale, not exciting and very similar to one another. To make my point, let's take a look at the industry. We have two major players in this market vying for the consumers hard earned dollars, AMC and Regal entertainment group. The way these two companies are trying to gain market share is through consistently building up the quality of their theaters...the problem, do any of you see an in-theater difference between these two companies? Another question are any of you loyal to a specific theater just because its an AMC or Regal theater? If you answered yes to either of those questions, chances are you need a better day job...Anyway, the point is let's shake up the theater industry a bit, huh!

Price tiering may hurt us when we want to see popular movies, but let's consider some other facts to this situation:

1. Price tiering allows theaters to charge less for less popular movies
Think about it...you may have to pay $15 to see Harry Potter (#1 film of last year), but think about going to see a movie like Cedar Rapids, Drive, Fright Night, or The King's Speech (Hey it won an oscar!) for $5. Many great movies aren't commercially successful until they hit DVD, so this won't affect you unless you're going to see huge franchises.

2. How much did that popcorn cost?!
Yes this is where the theaters get us, concessions...charging more for commercially successful films could open up the door to drastic price reductions in the ridiculous over-priced concessions at the theater.  $11 for a bag of popcorn and a soda! You can get a full meal with that (including a beer) at the Twin's game.

3. The Twilight factor
Here comes the grand slam...it's going to be LEGEN....(WAIT FOR IT) DERY! If you want to go see a movie besides Twilight the weekend of its release comes, you're basically going to see that shit for free! Boom...at least we can thank screaming 12 teens and 42 year old cat ladies for something. Any big movie that has a huge opening would theoretically change the price structure of any other big film coming out this weekend. If you're wondering how that works...it's a little thing called supply and demand...

Anyway, I could ramble on for an hour about this issue, but I'll open it up to you guys. What do you think? Should theaters start tiering their prices for more popular movies?

Rent this Not That

In time for the weekend, here is my first Rent this Not that, which will now be a Thursday staple.
So new on DVD this week are two intriguing films both of which I haven't quite seen yet, but both of which look pretty good.

Rent this:

Contagion
This movie has an all star cast that includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, and Jude Law (unfortunately) and the storyline follows a husband (Matt Damon) who loses his wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) to a mysterious disease that threatens to end human life as we know it. I'm sure the movie will force us to reflect on our society and how fragile our very existence is and what's scary is the very fact that the world health organization has publicly stated that the human populous is over due for an epidemic. I've heard great things about this movie and is critically acclaimed, coming in at an 84% on RottenTomatoes. For more information on the movie check it out the trailer below:

Contagion

Probably Not this (unless your me or my friend Deutsch):

Shark Night 3D

Actually...you might want to rent this on one condition....that you have at least 12 beers in your fridge to enjoy the ridiculousness that is about to ensue. Now if you're thinking to yourself, "MinneyFilmster are you telling me that this movie is about Sharks attacking people in 3D?", you would be absolutely correct! This movie's got it all...teen drinking, partying, hot girls, boobs, and of course digitally enhanced sharks that rip people limb from limb.  Anyway unless you plan on drinking quite a bit during this movie, you'll probably enjoy Contagion much more than this one, but if you're adventurous check out the trailer below:

Shark Night 3D

New Segments Coming Soon!

So I'm starting a few new segments this month, the first of which is rent this not that. Check back later this week for some of my new segments, which will included the following:

Rent this, not that
I will post a few comments regarding newly released on DVD movies and recommend what to rent this week.

Retro Reels
I'll be doing brief reviews of some older films and I haven't decided what I'll start with...I'll be starting a poll on FB/Twitter to see what the users want first!

TheMinneyFilmster's Top 10 of 2011
Check back later this week to check out my top 10 films of 2011

TheMinneyFilmster's Top 12 of 2012
I'll be posting some previews of upcoming films and what everyone can look forward for 2012...obviously you should all know what number 1 will be on this list...

TheMinneyFilmster's Movie Drinking Game of the Month
With the esteemed Mr. Bergman moving in with me for a couple of weeks, its time for me to post the first movie drinking game to my site. This will be a monthly segment, starting this month with one of four options:
The Ninja Turtles Trilogy
Wet Hot American Summer
Robin Hood (The Kevin Costner version)
The Mighty Ducks Trilogy (Since I live in Minnesota, this one will cap off with a trip to the St. Paul dinner featured in the movie!)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Runtime: 2 hr 8 min
Rating: PG-13
Sherlock Holmes 2 Trailer

I know a lot of people absolutely love these movies and to be honest I never saw the first one in theaters, mainly because a lot of critics didn't give it very good reviews. When I finally saw it, I felt like the first one was mediocre at best...I mean don't get me wrong, Robert Downey Jr. is simply fantastic in the role of Sherlock Holmes, but I found the storyline and special effects to be very mediocre. However, I put all my misgivings about the first movie behind me and went into the sequel with an open mind.

The Story:
The follow-up to the first movie pits Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) against his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty, played by Jared Harris. Sherlock joined by his sidekick Watson, played by Jude Law, travel around the world eventually meeting up with a band of revolutionary gypsies that will ultimately help them end the Moriarty's nefarious plot to start the first world war. To be honest there isn't much of a deep storyline here...there's a lot of action followed by Sherlock picking up on clues left behind by Moriarty, but it's still kind of a fun ride.

The Film:
To be honest as the film progressed, I was starting to get disappointed as I felt that this movie was pretty much going to be the same as the first one, with Sherlock Holmes quickly figuring things out as the movie progressed and then just explaining the entire plot of the movie at the very end. My main gripe with the first one is that I felt that Sherlock was never really challenged throughout the movie...he was pretty much ahead of the game and then he revealed how he was a step ahead at the very end of the movie, leaving nothing for the viewer to figure out or piece together. What's different in this film, is the fact that Moriarty actually challenges Sherlock and forces him to make mistakes. These mistakes actually are very costly to the Sherlock posse, innocent bystanders, and powerful politicians; ultimately leading to death and serious injury (even to the main characters themselves). The other aspect of the first movie that I liked was also present in the sequel, where Sherlock would dismantle his opponents in his mind prior to actually taking them down. This did leave to a pretty cool and somewhat shocking ending to the movie, but I felt like this was a bit overused. I think Guy Ritchie could have done this a bit more sparingly, saving these mental take-downs for more challenging opponents. I will say that there is a lot more action in this film, epitomized by a scene in which multiple enemies are firing artillery shells at our protagonists as they flee towards a speeding train.

The Dialogue:
As usual in any Guy Ritchie film, the dialogue is fantastic. It's reminiscent of a lot of his earlier films like Snatch or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (if you haven't seen these, you should rent them!). My favorite scenes involved either of the three main characters (Sherlock, Moriarty, and Watson) bantering back and forth in very witty, intelligent and humorous conversation. I'm kind of a sucker for really good dialogue, which is why I enjoy Quentin Tarantino films..."You know what the call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris? A royale with cheese..." Anyway, this movie has some pretty god damn good dialogue, so I do recommend it from that perspective.

The Acting:
I hate Jude Law...I'm not going to beat around the bush about this one. I really haven't really enjoyed any of the movies that he's been in save Gattaca. It might be because he used to do a crap ton of rom coms or because of the fact that he cheated on Sienna Miller with a nanny...seriously dude, come on?! I will, however, admit that he wasn't bad in this movie, particularly the scene where he gets drunk before his wedding. Also, what can I say about Robert Downey Jr., other than the fact that I'm starting to believe that he's a mix between Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Sherlock Holmes in real life: making him one of the coolest people ever. Downey steals the show and plays the quirky Holmes to a T as well as delivers his dialogue with the utmost perfection. The one thing that bothered me a bit about the film is Moriarty. Overall I felt that Jared Harris did a good job, but I felt that there were other actors probably better suited to play this role. I actually thought that someone like Edward Norton would have done a fantastic job as Moriarty. I mean Moriarty is supposed to be able to challenge Holmes in every aspect of his game, which means both physically and mentally. I didn't find Harris' Moriarty that intimidating, especially towards the end when Sherlock starts to gain a clear upper hand.

Overall Rating:
Overall, I have to say that this movie is definitely an improvement to the first installment, but still could use some work especially considering the directing and acting recipe that is in these movies.

2.5/5 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: The Feel Bad Movie of the Year

Runtime: 2.5 Hours
Rated R

So when the teaser trailer came out for this film featuring Karen O and Trent Rezner's take on The Immigrant Song, I thought wow this movie looks great! In fact it was this teaser trailer that inspired me to actually read Stieg Larson's entire Girl with The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (If you haven't seen the teaser, check it out at the bottom of the review and . All I have to say is that the teaser did it's job and I didn't waste my time reading all three books and committing to this 2.5 hour movie.

For those of you that are not familiar with the mythos that is the Girl with The Dragon Tattoo series, the 1st novel, which is the basis of David Fincher's film, centers on a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist who works for a Swedish magazine by the name of Millennium. After being sued by a wealthy industrialist for libel, Mikael is enlisted by another rich Swedish industrialist named Henrik Vanger to investigate the 30-year-old murder of his niece Harriet Vanger. Through the novel we are also introduced to the infamous character known as Lisbeth Salander (or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). She is a computer-hacking, semi-psychotic woman who assists Mikael in his quest to ascertain the true identity of the murderer. Other than the great murder mystery, it's her character development and relationship with Mikael that is intriguing to watch as the film/novel progresses.

David Fincher's take on the film doesn't disappoint. He sets up the tone of the film quickly, again using the Immigrant Song, to create an opening montage similar to Seven; using this montage, Fincher draws the viewer into the crazed dystopia of Lisbeth and Mikael's life at the beginning of the film. Throughout the movie, you can see Fincher's brand through his dark, non-saturated imagery and investigative-style cinematography that is very reminiscent of one of his earlier works, Seven. To be honest, it was like Fincher was in my mind when I was reading the books. He captured the buildings, especially Henrik Vanger's Hedestad home and the Millennium offices to a T. In fact the Millennium office was so similar to how I had pictured it in the novel, that I had to do a double take as I was watching it. He also captures entire scenes and events almost identical to how it occurs in the novel. There is one key difference that occurs towards the end of the movie, but I won't reveal that here...you'll have to watch it to find out! Of course, as in almost every Fincher movie, there are a couple of scenes that are pretty intense and not for the feint of heart (I'm talking about rape here people!). Yes there is one rape scene that is a little intense, but this intense scene only makes the reprisal much more enjoyable.

Since I'm listening to it as I'm writing this review, I have to comment on the soundtrack to this film. It was fantastic! If you liked The Social Network soundtrack, then you will absolutely enjoy the sophomore effort of Trent Rezner/Atticus Ross with David Fincher. The soundtrack adds a sense of urgency to the suspenseful moments in the movie that really put the viewer on the edge of their seat and make them can't wait 'till the next scene of the film. It also adds to the mood of the film and really meshes with the source material that Fincher is pulling from.

Now to the acting - Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara steal the show in this movie! Daniel Craig plays the perfect Mikael Blomkvist, which is to say that he is like Humphrey Bogart shaken with a little James Bond. A man who is driven solely to get to the bottom of a case and will stop at nothing to get there. It's hard not to like Daniel Craig as an actor and even if you don't really like him, you will be forced to in this movie. Rooney Mara, what can I say...other than the fact that she was the best part of the movie. She played Lisbeth Salander absolutely perfectly: the anti-social personality, her rapid-fire dialogue, and of course the awkward mousiness with a hint of "I will kick your assitude." In the words of Jules (of Pulp Fiction fame), she was one bad ass motherfucker. Lisbeth in the movie is always going a mile-a-minute and can remember even the slightest detail just by looking at it briefly. All in all, she was fantastic and if you're not intrigued by the plot, then you should definitely check out the movie just to see her performance.

In conclusion, this movie was by far one of the best movies that I've seen this year (for sure top 5...but more on this when I post my top films of 2011 next week) and I highly recommend this especially if you enjoyed the books.

4.5/5 Lightsabers. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA

Welcome to The Minney Filmster!

Well folks I've finally done it! I've been thinking about starting a movie website where I review recent movies and of course just talk about movies. I am the MinneyFilmster! I know...awesome right?!

Every week I'll try and post a new review on a movie that I've seen using the true time tested 5 lightsaber method. I'll also be starting a segment that I like to call awesomely bad movies...where I review movies like Killer Clowns from Outer Space (Yes people get killed by popcorn and cotton candy in this movie...I know, hilarious!). Anyway, I want to start this blog off right by of course posting about what will be the greatest movie of 2012...The Dark Knight Rises!

If you've been living under a rock for the last 2 years, The Dark Knight Rises is the follow-up to the phenomenally successful second film in Christopher Nolan's take on the caped crusader, The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen The Dark Knight...get the hell off of my blog right now and watch it damn-it! Honestly if you haven't seen it, I have no words for you, but Aziz Ansari does...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oQCL4okGxQ. Sorry for the rant...back to The Dark Knight Rises.

So anyway, I won an online contest last Friday to view the first 6 minutes of the upcoming Dark Knight Rises. So my friend Zach and I drove a half hour to the closest IMAX theater and waited an hour to watch six minutes of a movie. This sounds ridiculous, but The Dark Knight for me was the perfect movie: it was created by my favorite director, stars my favorite actor, and as my friends know, I quoted the Joker for like 6 months after the movie (okay let's be honest, I still quote the Joker). Anyway back to my story...so my friend and I finally get into the theater about a half an hour before the movie starts, both of us with free Batman t-shirts. At this point I'm completely satisfied with the trip...free t-shirts, fuck yeah! But now, I'm starting to notice all the people around me and I realize a few things: that I can pretty much count all the girls in the theater on one hand, that I am waiting an hour to see 6 minutes of a movie that I won't be able to see until July, and the fact that there is most definitely a who shot first debate going on somewhere in this theatre... Just as I've realized that I've hit a new nerd low, the theater starts to get dark and the clip starts.

All I have to say is the first 6 minutes were...actually there is no word in the english dictionary to describe how awesome it was...so I'm forced to make one up...scrumptulescent. The first 6 minutes were absolutely scrumptulescent!

*Spoiler Alert - Don't read on, if you don't want to find out about the first 6 minutes...*

So the movie starts out with Jim Gordon, played by the outstanding actor Gary Oldman, talking about the death of district attorney Harvey Dent, who was played by Aaron Eckart in the last film. As the clip fades to black, we're suddenly whisked away to the Scottish highlands where a plane is shown landing on a runway. Here we're introduced to Dr. Pavel and a CIA agent. There's a few moments of meaningless dialogue and three hooded men are dragged onto the plane along with Dr. Pavel. The CIA agent then begins to interrogate one of the hooded men, trying to get the man to give up details about Bane, the new villain in this movie. A heavily muffled voice is heard from the background, speaking in what sounds like a semi-russian/spanish accent. The CIA operative then begins to question the hooded man, ultimately tearing the hood off to reveal a bald complete with breathing masked man who is none other than Bane himself! Bane proceeds to break out of the handcuffs using brute force, while his henchman (in another plane mind you) zip-line down onto the plane and rupture a hole in the back of the plane, causing it to plummet towards the scottish landscape. Bane proceeds to grab Dr. Pavel, execute some sort of blood transfusion in midair and escape the free-falling plane leaving one of his henchman behind to take the fall. From there the film fades to black and the 2nd trailer for the film starts off showing us images of Anne Hathaway in her Catwoman costume and Joseph-Gordon-Levitt as John Blake, but it's the final image that leaves me a little breathless: Bane walking away holding the crushed mask of Batman! As soon as my nerdgasm is about to climax, the lights in the theater slowly rose and it was over. Great...blue balls for the next 6 months!

*End Spoilers*

Watching this clip in IMAX was amazing and I've got to say this is making me incredibly excited for this film. Christopher Nolan's track record speaks for itself and I know that this movie will be great! I mean Christopher Nolan making a bad movie is like Ghandi punching a guy in the face...it'll never happen! My only gripe so far is the fact that Bane's voice was sort of hard to understand. I'm not sure if this clip just had bad audio in it or the fact that the scene was filmed with IMAX cameras (IMAX is pretty notorious for being loud, which can sometimes distort dialogue), but the mask muffled and distorted his dialogue. Overall though, this action scene rivaled that of Joker's attack on Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight, which made me wonder what other crazy action Mr. Nolan has in store for us. With this kind of action and the amount of acting power in this movie, I feel that it is on pace to be a better movie than the Dark Knight. I'm really intrigued to see how Tom Hardy's Bane will challenge Batman and to see if Mr. Nolan will do the unthinkable...kill off Batman.

Overall, I give the clip 4 out of 5 lightsabers.

Be sure to check out my review of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo coming on Tuesday.

In the meantime...

You stay classy Minneapolis,
MinneyFilmster