According to Daily Variety, "Vampires have always represented a certain psychosexual allure that has appealed to women." I don't know about that, but I do know this: "Twilight," coming to theaters this November 21, based on the bestselling novel by Stephenie Meyer, has achieved a level of marketing and branding genius I haven't seen well, since Harry Potter.
The core audience, of course is female teens and young women.
"Since acquiring the film rights in turnaround from Paramount, Summit has carefully courted "Twilight's" core 13-24 crowd. In hiring director Catherine Hardwicke ("Thirteen") and scribe Melissa Rosenberg ("Step Up"), the studio is banking on two creatives who ostensibly know what young women want" reports Variety.
In doing so, they've very cleverly expanded the target market. "We've essentially taken the marketing tactics from a superhero film and applied it to a female property," said Summit marketing exec Nancy Kirkpatrick.
The site Twilight Moms connects moms and older women with the books and film hype, and now president-elect Obama is reading the series as well. What's next? Teenage boys, grown men and fathers flocking to this flick? Just you wait... I think there's enough action and suspense to keep them from rolling their eyes when their girlfriends or wives suggest the movie on date night. And then there's the whole "vampires as teenage metaphor" that Summit is exploiting in an effort to lure males under age 25. "A teenager, like a vampire, suddenly has a new kind of energy," says director Hardwicke. "They can drink, kiss and smoke. It's about how they control their impulses."
It's a coming-of-age theme that pretty much anyone over age 12 can relate to.
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