A week or so ago, I blogged about video and physical previews of new works and unknown performers. Why do we expect people to spend money on classical music they’ve never heard, I wondered, if most other things in our lives offer us some kind of product sample? You know, like ice cream.
Soon after I wrote that post, I came across this trailer for the Royal Opera House’s production of Anna Nicole [yes, Smith: that’s the one!]. My first thought was, “Fantastic! Look at the cool thing they made for the ‘MTV Generation’!” It’s professional, stylish, and catchy. It was probably expensive, and it’s certainly refreshing to see a company investing in creative marketing. Let’s take a gander together:
The problem, of course, is that this is neither a trailer for a movie, nor is it music video for the (uncredited) Scissor Sisters-esque ditty playing in the background. The YouTube page has the disclaimer:
If it were a music video, it would include the actual music. It’s appealing, but it’s not what you’re potentially paying money to see, or additionally, to hear. Was there nothing captivating enough in composer Mark-Anthony Turnage’s score to use for this? Similarly, did they think professionally-shot production footage wouldn’t sell tickets? Compare the above with the Metropolitan Opera’s trailers:
So the Anna Nicole trailer includes none of the production footage and none of the music. Is this false advertising or effective marketing? Clothes don’t look the same on me as they do on the mannequin or the model in the ads; why should we expect truth in advertising from opera alone?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love that iPad ads–print and television–simply show what the device can do, without a gimmick or a hot person in sight:
And of course, that one Google ad did the same:
So how much truth do we want in our advertising, readers? Clothes on a mannequin or (elegantly done) reality?
Just a guess: could this be a problem of copyright infringement fears, that someone might take the soundtrack from the video and… put it on BitTorrent? Armida is in public domain, after all, whereas Anna Nicole is not.
…except the Met also has a ‘Nixon in China’ trailer on their site. -AA
I think Constantine Vetoshev is right. It probably has something to do with copyright. Besides, the Anna Nicole team didn’t want to give anything away beforehand, probably to heighten the hype about it. It is kind of ridiculous to suggest nothing came out because they were ashamed of what they’ve produced. I think the trailer was great: Anna’s life in a nutshell.
A similar thing also happened sometime ago in England. There was a poster all over London with a photograph of a completely naked girl on it (can’t remember if it was for the Royal Ballet or Ballet Rambert).A man went to the performance and there was no naked girl in the performance, so prosecuted the dance company under the trade descriptions act. And he won – the judge ruled that the poster was deliberately misleading.
Most advertising tries too hard. They actually makes me *less* inclined to buy or try the product.
This wouldn’t work for every industry, but whenever possible I prefer direct, no-gloss, no-subtext advertising. I think my favorite ad of all time was 15 sec. of black screen with the words buy.com in the center, aired during the Super Bowl several years back.
1. The video is not quite as good as this one: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4qrah_the-prodigy-smack-my-bitch-up-uncen_music
2. Larry King in an opera? Awesome.
I like the copyright comment, but here’s the main difference of sighting Nixon In China in your response:
the music for Anna Nicole hadn’t appeared anywhere yet? When do you ever see the music from a new work before its world premiere? So, how could they have used the music in this video prior to the opening? I get the point of using as a selling point, but how can you use it when it hasn’t been performed yet?
The Met posts video from their dress rehearsals. Now that it’s opened, why isn’t there music from the actual anywhere, even just audio? -AA
That’s true, but in your response to your original premise, have you ever seen a company offer music/video prior to a world premiere? though, as I believe all the concerts are sold out, what else do they have to sell?