Toy Story 3 - Marketing

Viral campaign


        The viral campaign for Toy Story 3 involved 80s style retro advertisements for the toys in the film, such as the Lots O Huggin Bear.

They also introduced a series of videos based on 70s interviews with a new character, Ken.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTfxrnuCjdA

The film clip was originally released for audiences at the 2009 Comic-Con, before being released onto the internet.

Based on Ken again was the series "Ken's Dating Tips", published on youtube and watched by millions of people.
Ken's Dating Tips: Tip # 48

There was a horror movie style trailer that arose on the internet.
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/toy-story-3/viral-trailer-horror

Another technique used was to post flyers advertising fake jobs for Pizza Planet, the Toy Story equivalent of Pizza Hut, across hundreds of colleges in America.
http://www.slashfilm.com/toy-story-3-viral-pizza-planet-now-hiring-drivers/

As an indication to the success of the viral campaign, Pixar Planet released this infographic, comparing sales of Toy Story 3 and other Disney Pixar successes.

An interesting point to pick out is the difference between the expected merchandise sales and how much it had made to date; a figure almost four times the size.

Merchandise

This is a MUCH safer place to keep my coursework than evil Macs

Scene One

The scene consists of a view over the ocean [aerial shot, camera work] looking across towards the coastline of France.  The skyline is clear around us and stretching up towards the coast, but there is a large storm brewing directly over the castle on top of the cliff-face.  We move towards this castle, passing over several small villages and a sprawling port, getting higher up the slope of the cliffs the area is built on.  Our focus stays on the castle, but we pass over gardens and stables before zooming in on a particular window that is lit.  Finally, the scene ends with us reaching the window and appearing to enter the building.

(113 words/113 words total)

Scene Two

The ballroom we pass into is filled with dancing couples, most in golden tones and one central couple dressed in deep violet [deep focus, loosely framed].  The music is intensely loud and coming from a band to the far left of the window and there is a long table bearing food against the far right wall. We begin to circle the room, spiraling low to dance through the couples and round the room, lighting on a few details such as hands connecting or feet moving but not showing any faces [tight framing, deep focus maintained].  Having looked at these couples fleetingly, we alright more permanently on the couple in purple, wearing masks that cover almost all their features [shallower focus, other characters still reasonably detailed].  We focus on the woman (Aurelié), who is visibly uncomfortable and beginning to drip sweat, and zoom into her eyes.  We then switch to seeing her point of view and see a full shot of the man she is dancing with (Montague), who is wearing a mask with a long nose [maintains shallower focus]. He is smiling serenely, but manages to be creepy at the same time.  They begin to dance faster, and the background of the shot blurs into a solid gold [selective focus].  Aurelié’s vision appears to wobble. Montague’s face distorts and conjoins with the mask, creating a monster.  The shot drops to the floor, fading in and out [mixed shallow and no focus] before blacking out.  (244 words/357 total)

Scene Three
We open to a view of Aurelié lying prone on a sofa which is solid and made of very dark leather [props]. The room around her is dark and covered in cobwebs, with the only sources of light being the moonlight from the window and a solitary candlestick on the side table next to her [props, symbolizes one ray of light within life].  There is a breeze ruffling the ruffles of her dress and stray hairs.  We focus on her face, her eyes still shut, but they flicker open as we watch.  We cut back to see her sitting up suddenly, leaning on her left arm and placing her right palm over her eyes.  After a few moments, she puts her right arm behind her on the sofa and turns her legs off.  She is still in the masquerade costume from the previous scene [costume, purple shows royalty, mask signifies that she is perhaps hiding something].  The shot moves closer to her as she runs her right hand through her hair, turns her head to the left and begins to warm her hands against the flame.  She sees a book on the table and pauses, picking up the book as we look over her shoulder.  The book is bound in red leather, the title inscribed in gold but it has worn away [props]. As she turns it over in her hands, it falls open to a page that appears well-thumbed and looked over.  Scene cuts.  (254 words/602 total)