Fox Raises Curtain on Five-Film Promotion

The movie studio will use interactive broadband video technology from Maven to deepen its relationship with fans.

Twentieth Century Fox will promote five upcoming films using an interactive broadband video channel, which was developed with rich media technology player Maven Networks.

The first promotion, which launches today, is for Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven”, starring Orlando Bloom. Promotions for “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and “Fantastic Four” are planned for this summer. Two additional promotions are slated for early 2006.

The broadband channel allows users to view full-screen video trailers, behind-the-scenes video clips and interviews with the actors. Users can share clips with their friends, purchase tickets in advance and view a full-screen, interactive photo gallery or check out other trailers for upcoming movie releases from Fox.

“Today’s promotional campaigns have to combine traditional and online awareness methods in order to reach target audiences,” said Jeffrey Godsick, EVP of marketing for 20th Century Fox. “The content is so compelling that it commands strong pass-along among fans and drives more impulse purchases of movie tickets online.”

Because it is a five-film deal, Fox will be able to re-market to users with whom it already has a relationship, driving deeper relationships with its customers. Also, because of the duration of the deal, Fox will be able to market DVDs for this summer’s movies to users through the same channel.

“This is proactive marketing, bringing the experience to the user,” said Hilmi Ozguc, Maven’s CEO. “It’s a way to continue reaching out to them, on their schedule, that creates a visitor experience akin to television.”

The experience is more interactive than television, in that marketers can add a layer over the video with links to more content within the application or on a Web site, he added.

Instead of streaming the video as it’s being watched, the content is downloaded over a period of time while the user is doing other things. Once all the content is saved to the user’s hard drive, a window pops up to alert the user that the latest content is available to view. Maven’s software is fully DRM-enabled, so a marketer can choose to allow users to save or share content without limits, to limit by time or number of shares, or to fully restrict saving and sharing.

Maven’s technology can provide marketers with analytics like time spent with the application and pass-along, as well as detailed data on clickpaths and where the user’s mouse rested.

Fox previously used Maven’s technology to drive exposure for last year’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” a promotion that led users to return to the desktop channel an average of 3.6 times to view video trailers and behind the scenes footage that was automatically delivered over a three month period leading up to the film’s release.

For the “Master and Commander” promotion, Fox found that nearly 22 percent of visitors clicked through to check local showtimes, while 12 percent purchased tickets online through the desktop channel. Users also spent an average of 15 minutes watching behind the scenes footage or listening to interviews with the movie’s stars.

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