“The Muppets” Marketing Was Hilarious, Interactive, and Lots of Fun

After a 12 year hiatus, its finally time to meet The Muppets when the movie opens in theaters on November 23. Yes I tried to force that Muppet theme song jingle, but its true. The Muppets haven’t seen the big screen for 12 years, and now they are back, and we love the fact that they have returned! Dan and I loved it, and you will too. So how exactly did they get here? Hit the jump to find out.

As aforementioned, its been a long 12 years, and when word broke out that there would be another Muppet movie, the news was met with mixed reaction. How could a Muppet movie survive? Would the new generation even accept the Muppets in an age of anime, South Park, and Twilight? Having seen it, I’d like to think everyone, young and old will not only accept The Muppets, but also embrace them with open arms.

Rather than review the movie, I think I’ve already expressed my excitement and Dan shares my sentiments, I will share my thoughts on the marketing aspects. Which was equally as fun and enjoyable to watch as the movie itself.

For one thing, the first Muppet trailer, if you can call it that, came out of the blue. The Green with Envy trailer started to look as though it was a generic and tiresome romantic comedy, but it quickly shape shifted into a trailer for The Muppets. Surprising everyone that watched it, a Green with Envy poster was released soon after and it even had a special cameo to prove that this was no ordinary movie.

Throughout the summer The Muppets continued to poke fun at some of the most highly anticipated summer movies including The Green Lantern and The Hangover Part 2. Of course they needed a trailer of their own, and that is just what we got back in June, when the first trailer for The Muppets debuted. But it didn’t stop there. Sam the Eagle became Captain America before Chris Evans wielded the shield. Unfortunately that would be the only time we would ever see The Muppets parodize The Avengers.

As the months advanced, we would see another exclusive Muppets trailer, and two more parody trailers that poked fun at The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twilight, Puss in Boots, and Paranormal Activity. Three if you count the Bollywood trailer. Some might have grown tired of the parodies, but I for one loved it, as it was a great way introduce The Muppets to the younger generation of fans. And I even saw my fair share of Muppet trailers on my Facebook news feed posted by friends my age. But if you grew tiresome of these parody trailers, The Muppets themselves grew tired of it too, and made a parody of their own parody. But the Muppet parody marathon wasn’t a trailer exclusive, we saw posters poking fun at The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Twilight.

To continue that Muppet marketing momentum, a Fan-a-thon campaign was held, where The Muppets tried to get over a bazillion likes on their Facebook page so that users can acquire tickets to see an advanced screening of the film. Information travels much quicker via social networking, and by taking advantage of Facebook’s capabilities, fans got a chance to see the movie before anyone else did. We even got a chance to become a part of the Manha Manha Phenomena. It really doesn’t take a genius to see that people were anticipating The Muppets, after having seen a couple loops of the never ending Mahna Mahna song

The Muppets were even kind enough to wish us a Happy Halloween and Happy Thanksgiving.

I for one think the Muppets will do very well over the Thanksgiving weekend. It is the perfect family film, because nothing says family like a little silence for an hour and a half.

All joking aside, Disney has something special in their hands and The Muppets is perfect film to be watched by anybody and everybody. The key to The Muppets marketing success was to make them selves relevant once again by making whimsy and fun ads that related to today’s pop culture. They didn’t just take on movie trailers, they also had a bit of fun with Facebook and movie etiquette. The Muppets marketing encompassed nearly everything in pop culture and in doing so it gained the attention of millions around the world.