Is 20th Century Fox Hedging Its Bets With A Reserved Apes Campaign?

By David Finnigan

From Brandweek, 07.16.2001 vol 42 n 28

20th Century Fox's summer tentpole film Planet of the Apes opens July 27, hampered by early boasting. Fox senior executives talked too much too early about Apes. Now Fox is reserved, tip-toeing up to its Apes promotions with a public nervousness suggesting insecurity, not quiet confidence.

Such timidity contradicts earlier assurances of Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman. February's Toy Fair in New York included a well-attended Fox fest for Apes, where actors dressed as gorillas marched through the audience (Brandweek, Feb. 19).

Back then, Rothman said director Tim Burton's Apes remake represents, "the most aggressive and largest marketing campaign in the history of the studio."

Really?

It has no announced beverage, fast-food, auto or airline partners. Promotions include a Musicland Stores sweepstakes. MTV will give Apes visibility Reebok is running billboard and print tie-in ads but has no retail activity except for a Just For Feet buy-shoes-get-free-Apes-tickets tie-in in a single outlet. FAO Schwarz and Toys "R" Us are hyping Apes in windows and aisles.

Apes is expected to enjoy a strong box office. But as of last week, Apes has received less major market street advertising than a typical summer tentpole.

Has Fox's hype matched this film's promotions and product potential? Or is Fox now mimicking other 2001 hit films by conservatively promoting and then successfully over-delivering at the box office (Miramax's Spy Kids, Dreamworks' Shrek, Universal's The Mummy Returns) in order to avoid promo/publicity overkill and box-office underperformance (Disney's Pearl Harbor)?

Early hype has led to Fox's present Apes shyness--a premature Pearl Harbor blowout scaling back now, hopefully, to a more humble approach, such as Warner Bros.' solid Cats & Dogs.

Apes has been a hard sell. Last fall, Burton's "reimagining" of the simian sci-fi classic was considered too dark for some partners.

Fox showed off ape-clad actors at the annual Saban Consumer Products meeting in October with licensing and promotion partners (Brandweek, Oct. 30).Apes licensing style guides offered brighter, desert-style colors for Apes products; style guidelines later went darker and more minimalist as it became clear that Burton was creating Apes in a darker vein.

Adding to that Apes rebranding was this spring's downsizing of Fox Licensing & Merchandising; word of which reached licensees as early as last December, creating some uncertainty

Other storm warnings: in January, Hasbro said it would split the film's master toy license with Applause, signaling the toy giant would provide only a modest collectible line (Brandweek, Jan. 8).

Finally, Apes star Mark Wahlberg is not in Reebok's campaign. And in a July Premiere cover story on Apes, Wahlberg appears in accompanying photos wearing not Reeboks but swoosh Nikes. Why wasn't Fox more closely monitoring that shoot?

Reebok print and Los Angeles-only billboard ads have an Apes gorilla-clad actor posing as part of the black-and-white "Classics' campaigns. (Fox may expand Reebok to top 10 market bus shelters and some New York billboards, Reebok said last week.) That tough-to-get link was secured this spring through Fox feature film promotions director Rita Proysak.

Hampering her diligent efforts was the unchecked bragging of more senior Fox executives, including Rothman; an apparent miscalculation now banging into this summer's tough, cautious retail culture. Plus, Fox executives internally have been miscommunicating. On the same pre-Fourth of July weekend that Reebok's billboard campaign began, Apes dolls at a Wal-Mart in Southern California comprised the left side of one end-aisle. A senior Fox executive said Wal-Mart was "supporting to the extent that they felt was appropriate."

In fairness, collectible marketing is well-suited for the Apes CD cards targeting Internet-hip teens, who will most likely fill theater seats. "We feel the film has discreetly delivered with an unparalleled style," said David-Joseph Brown, president of cardmaker Serious USA, which is selling a seven CD-card Apes set, and co-promoting it with sci-fi/fantasy collecting magazine Wizard World.