McCann-Erickson, L.A. LA - advertising contrac for Sony Pictures' Godzilla movie

Brandweek, May 24, 1999 by Alan Frutkin

In marketing Sony Pictures' 1998 summer blockbuster Godzilla, one of the biggest challenges that McCann-Erickson, L.A., faced was overcoming the audience's perception of the monster as cheesy, stemming from the original Japanese B movies of the 1950s and '60s. "When you'd think of Godzilla, you'd think of those somewhat poorly crafted films, with a gentleman in a rubber lizard suit," says Terry Powers, McCann senior vp, group director. "It was like saying that you want to make the Studebaker the hottest car of 1999."

But after a massive TV and out-of-home campaign, the movie opened to the year's biggest box-office numbers ($55.7 million). And for that, the team at McCann has been awarded Mediaweek's Plan of the Year in the $25 million-and-up class.

Powers was quick to acknowledge the role that Godzilla's creators, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, played in generating early buzz. After all, as a follow-up to their 1997 smash Independence Day, Godzilla was one of the most highly anticipated films of the year- long before McCann entered the picture. "Having the pedigree of those filmmakers was something that really helped in making it an event," Powers says. "They have a reputation and an awareness in the field that brought the movie to another level."

Still, McCann raised the bar even higher. The first leg of the campaign-referred to as "The Egg Hatches"-began on New Year's Eve 1997. Five minutes before the ball dropped in New York's Times Square, a spot for the movie ran on stations across the country that made it appear as if the monster were interrupting the real countdown (delivered by Jeopardy's Alex Trebec) and knocking the ball off with its tail.

It was an easy laugh for viewers, but scheduling that spot was no simple task. "It was very hard to set up that road- block, so that no matter where you were, you'd see it," says Dana Precious, Sony senior vp, creative advertising. "McCann was incredible, and not only about cajoling every single network to get a time slot. It was really important that the spot air in the first pod coming out of any program, because it had to fool you into thinking it was the countdown."

Denise Quon, a vp and associate media director at McCann, credits the firm's New York office with making those buys. "Our buyer, Steve Sachett, is tremendous," she says. "He's got great negotiating skills. And he uses his clout and leverage to get clients what they want."

Traditionally, the Super Bowl is the first vehicle on television in which studios announce their summer fare. But by going three weeks earlier, McCann got a head start-at a fraction of the cost. "We got all segments of the industry-from our competitors to movie theater owners-aware and excited that this was a serious picture the studio was behind," Powers says.

Over the next 24 hours, McCann blitzed the airwaves with a spot an hour on programming that included most New Year's Day college bowls, thus reaching the film's all-important target male demos.

Then there was silence-for several months. Why? "We didn't want to overhype this thing," says Quon. At the same time, the strategy piqued moviegoers' interest in the film even more. And when the campaign's second phase-dubbed "Stomp!"--hit in April, it made a big splash, something befitting the monster's immense size.

To paraphrase Sony's slogan for Godzilla, size really did matter in the marketing of the movie. According to Powers, one of the campaign's primary goals was to communicate to moviegoers the monster's dimensions. However, a decision had been made early on in the campaign to avoid revealing to audiences what the monster looked like before the film's May 19 opening-the Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend. The reasoning was twofold: first, to suggest to moviegoers that the 1998 version of Godzilla must be seen in theaters, and second, to generate enough curiosity to get people into the theaters.

Although the objectives of the campaign may appear to have been at cross purposes, it worked to the film's advantage. "What seemed to be a drawback turned into a great solve," Precious says. "Captivate the audience by capturing its imagination."

And captivate the audience they did. 'At first, I kept explaining to people that the monster was 22 stories tall, and they'd turn away with this ho-hum look on their face," says Precious. "But when I'd give them a visual reference point, that's when they started listening." And after creating tag lines such as "Its tail is as long as a 747" and "It's as tall as the Statue of Liberty," three teams inspected the country's top 15 cities to research outdoor media, ranging from tall walls to billboards to bus shelters.

It was a grueling and intricate process that took five 10-hour days-in Los Angeles alone. In the end, however, a stunning out-of-home campaign was created that supplied a direct correlation between site-specific landmarks and the creature's size. And McCann played an integral role in matching up the campaign's creative to the proper outdoor media. "On every great campaign, the planets have to align," says Precious. "The filmmakers have to like it, the studio has to budget it, and there has to be team that's able to do it."