Why It’s Important
Have you ever watched a trailer for a movie and almost immediately decided you weren’t going to watch it? This is a common tale for most people, myself included, as there are always going to be good and bad trailers, regardless of how good the film actually is.
In the industry, A/B testing is a common strategy we typically use when determining how we want to portray the film to the audience. Oftentimes, we create more than one trailer and screen it to a select few, to see not only which the audience liked more, but more importantly, which conveyed the tone of the film the most, while not giving too much of the narrative away.
The Case of The Invisible Man
You may have heard of the classic tale of The Invisible Man, but chances are you might not have seen the film adaptation of the same name released in 2020. Whenever I talk to people on the importance of A/B testing in the entertainment industry, I always bring up this movie.
For one, the initial main trailer that was released to kick off the marketing campaign, spoiled 90% of the film. I, myself, remember viewing the trailer for the first time and just being utterly confused because it felt like I had already seen the movie. It also made it seem like another generic horror movie with no substance and draw. Yet, upon seeing it in theaters, I was genuinely floored.
Image by Brian Stockwell
The movie was actually good. Great, even. I’m not going to go into spoilers, as I highly recommend you check it out, but there were so many twists and turns it had me on the edge of my seat the whole ride. My point here is the poor decision making and marketing really hindered the release of this film. Myself and many others really thought this movie would bomb.
I was lucky enough to have gone and seen it, but many others weren’t.
