SPECTRE teaser poster
It’s been a rough year for Sony Pictures. It got hacked. A lot of its corporate secrets got exposed.
And it has shown Sony (and/or its James Bond partners) are not very good at basic public relations, at least where SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond film is concerned. It has trouble effectively communicating basic information such as release dates.
Here’s a step-by-step analysis.
July 11, 2013: The release date is first announced in THIS STATEMENT FROM SONY. It reads in part, ” The film is set for release in the UK on October 23, 2015 and in the US on November 6, 2015.”
So far, so good. But on Dec. 4, 2014, when announcing the movie WILL BE CALLED SPECTRE, Sony adds this detail: ” SPECTRE begins principal photography on Monday, December 8, and is set for global release on November 6, 2015.”
There is no mention of a separate release date for the U.K. Based on this release — put out by the studio releasing the movie — fans conclude there is now a worldwide release date of Nov. 6, 2015.
July 17, 2015: The announcement goes out the movie will have its world premier on Oct. 26, 2015. The movie will also be available for watching in the U.K. and Ireland the very same day.
That’s different than what was announced in December, but things change. However, the MI6 James Bond site put out this tweet in response to a comment this blog made on Twitter:
@TheSpyCommand Sony confirmed to us that the UK date was still Oct 23rd even though the ‘worldwide’ date was Nov 6th on all subsequent PR
— James Bond (@jamesbondlive) July 17, 2015
In other words, Sony was aware there was a problem, but did nothing publicly to deal with it.
But don’t worry. One James Bond fan site comes along and says Sony isn’t to blame. It’s the fault of those who read the Dec. 4 press release and took it at face value.
@TheSpyCommand @007dossier @jamesbondlive Obviously an incorrect conclusion as Sony never changed the original date for the UK until today.
— JamesBond007.se (@JamesBond007se) July 17, 2015
And to double down, the same fan site makes this remark, letting everyone know of its insider knowledge:
@dangooner1977 That’s a shame. You should have reached out to us earlier and we could have told you. @jamesbondlive @TheSpyCommand
— JamesBond007.se (@JamesBond007se) July 17, 2015
On top of everything else, some time back, the Canadian arm of Sony put out a tweet that gave out a possible SPECTRE spoiler. (Don’t click on the link if you don’t want to know.)
This may all be academic. Sony’s contract to release Bond movies ends with SPECTRE. It’s possible another studio may cut a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to release future 007 films.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Public Relations 101, Sony Pictures, SPECTRE |
The Spy Command 
Some interesting tidbits about MGM/Sony/EON’s marketing campaign so far:
–> They release the teaser trailer way earlier as compared to previous Bond films ([i]27th March 2015[/i])
–> The teaser in itself is perhaps the best teaser you can think of. It creates a lot of buzz……more buzz as compared to “Skyfall” ([i]youtube hits, likes, Twitter[/i])
–> The number of videoblogs is scaled down as compared to “Skyfall” ([i]4 blogs so far, as compared to 12 (!) very spoiler-ish blogs for “SF”[/i])
–> A first TV-spot, that’s only 1 min, with only 30 sec’s extra footage, so it’s teasing even more
–> The full 2min30sec theatrical trailer near the end of July, which is almost the same as the “SF”-full trailer ([i]31st of July[/i])
My conclusion: MGM/Sony/EON know exactly what they are doing :-). They are trying to create some impatience and frustration (especially among fans), thus creating higher expectations, and even more viral buzz and exposure. I call this [b]perfect marketing[/b] :-).
Ultimately resulting in an exquisit $1.2 Billion global box office take?
If you ask me personally, I think Paramount’s promotional campaign for “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” has been way more troubled. I mean advancing the release date a whopping 6 months must have had some bad consequences for post production….thus also slightly affecting its promotional campaign.