Cloverfield used a viral marketing campaign including cryptic trailers, word of mouth promotion through social media widgets, and an alternative reality game (ARG) to generate buzz and interest without revealing the film's title or plot. The first teaser trailer was attached to Transformers and later trailers provided more information while keeping the title secret. The film's marketing extended to gaming through the online ARG centered around the fictional companies Tagruato and Slusho, which were connected to the film's story.

1. ‘Cloverfield’
(2008)
The Marketing Campaign
Summarise what sort of
marketing campaign
was used advertise the
film ‘Cloverfield’
Cloverfield used a viral marketing campaign to promote their film. Marketing
strategies were through an enigmatic teaser trailer, word of mouth and a widget.
The first teaser trailer was in screening of Transformers. They carried out a viral
marketing campaign to promote the film. The first teaser trailer was put together
during the preparation stage of the production process. This teaser was a basis
for the film itself and as they found out that transformers showed high tracking
numbers before its release, the studio attached the teaser trailer for Cloverfield
that showed the release date however it didn’t realise the title of the film. Later
on in the year, Cloverfield released a second trailer which was attached to
Beowulf. This confirmed the title.
What does ‘Cloverfield’s
marketing strategy
have to do with
gaming?
Cloverfield’s marketing strategy related to gaming as a story which was related to
Cloverfield was also being told through an ARG (alternative reality game). The
ARG centred around a Japanese company which was Tagruato and its subsidiary
which was Slusho. Direct connections were made to the Cloverfield plot. As the
plot was connected to the game, this gave Cloverfield another marketing strategy
as both Tagruato and Slusho had home pages which were online where people
were able to see and look for further detail into it. This game which was mostly
access through websites and voicemails portrayed scavenger hunts and even
novels. These were produced to challenge the players in order for them to make a
connection and solve puzzles which together created a ‘’distributed narrative’’
What did you find out
about the title of the
film?
Through researching about the film Cloverfield, I have found that there were a
couple of theories on why the film was named Cloverfield. These were:
 Cloverfield is the street right around the corner from Bad Robots old
offices on Olympic boulevard.
 It’s the original name of the Santa Monica airport. This was where the first
successful around-the-world-flight was launched.
 The film was produced by J.J Abrams and Bryan Burk and the street
around the corner called Cloverfield was near to J.J Abrams former
production office.
What the film makers wanted to do was to keep the plot of the film a secret. They
hadn’t thought of a name of the film and chose it because it hadn’t any relation to
the actual movie however it had relation to the people who made it. A few
different names had been thought out during the making of it such as Slusho,
Greyshot and Cheese.
What information was
on the first ‘Cloverfield’
On the first Cloverfield website contained a date (01.18.11) which was a release
date. It has this date on the first website and also clues for the audience. These

2. website?
clues were highlighted through clips which had been put onto the website. The
clips consisted of clues which related to the storyline of Cloverfield as it
emphasized particular aspects. As the release date grew closer the amount of
unexpected tensions increased from the audience; pictures were added revealing
the time and date stamped on allowing the tension to build due to glimpses into
the narrative.
How were widgets used
in the marketing of
‘Cloverfield’?
Widgets were used in the marketing of Cloverfield as these were clips that the
company had released. They did this as a part of the build-up to the film. The
widget was available from the website for people to download. In order for
people to be able to download this, contact details had to be registered however
it could then be attached to MySpace pages and blogs etc. Once they had
registered, they were automatically entered into a competition. This was based
on who managed to distribute the widget giving more advertisement for the
upcoming film. This was a direct encouragement of ‘’word of mouth’’ marketing.
The widget contained the first 5 minutes of the film with an introduction by JJ
Abrams who was the producer of the film.
In what strategic way
did the film use
Facebook to market the
film?
The film used Facebook strategically to market their film. Knowing Facebook is a
popular social networking site; they used it to their advantage and created profile
pages which were from the characters P.O.V. By the film doing this, it allowed the
audience to be able to keep up to date on any news or what was going on. There
were tensions from the audience so this is where they were able to check for any
updates.
What is ‘Slusho!’ and
what is its connection
with the film?
Slusho was the company which in the film, the character Rob was taking a job
with which was the connection it has to Cloverfield. Slusho is a business selling
frozen soft drinks and this was one of the speculated film titles. Slusho ran an
online competition which was for people to create an advert for the frozen soft
drinks and the man in the teaser clips were seen to be wearing a shirt which a
drink was on being a part of the campaign. From the official Slusho site, claims
were made that the ingredient was ‘’discovered on the deep ocean floor, under
amazing pressure and extreme cold. This ingredient could be giving relation
towards the story of Cloverfield with the involvement of the monster.
What does Manga have
in connection with
‘Cloverfield’?
Manga is a style of comic book and graphic novels. They are aimed at adults as
well as children. Manga has a connection with Cloverfield as a prequel manga film
was created and the storyline relates to the monster which makes an appearance
to Cloverfield. The story which the prequel told was about the lives of two
students who were seeking for shelter. This was from the chuai incident which
was seen in the films viral marketing material. Their internal conflict is what
potentially creates a connection to Cloverfield as it resembles the monster in the
film.

3. I think Cloverfield was a success at the box office because the viewers had been enlightened by the way
that Cloverfield had been marketed and it created a hype and excitement in wanting to find out more.
They were being teased about the film keeping their interests in what the updates were which allowed
time for them to talk about it to other people and get more people involved. The marketing strategy
appealed to their audience as it made them predict the endings to what the teases revealed. It appealed
to the audience because the audience like to feel that they know more and can guess already what is
going to happen. It keeps them interested and allows them to try and solve a puzzle themselves before
the film is out. The way the film was marketed through social networking sites such as Facebook kept the
attention of the audience effectively as it is up to date technology which they can easily access.