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Date Posted: 14:09:31 10/15/04 Fri
Author: By Nicole Sperling
Subject: Marketers Are Caught Tween Rock, Hard Place

Marketers Are Caught Tween Rock, Hard Place
Fri Oct 15
By Nicole Sperling

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Just when marketers think they have the elusive tween girl audience figured out, those beguiling young consumers just up and change their fickle minds, leaving studio executives scratching their heads.



New Line Cinema thought it had a surefire hit on its hands this past weekend with the Hilary Duff starrer "Raise Your Voice." The teen pop star/actress recently scored a hit with Warner Bros. Pictures' "A Cinderella Story" -- generating a $13.6 million opening weekend in July before going on to earn $51 million.


Duff's latest pop album recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and "Voice" carried an appealing story line of a young girl trying to prove her talent at a respectable music academy (think "Flashdance").


But none of that mattered to the 8- to 12-year-old girl audience over the Columbus Day holiday weekend when the modestly budgeted film earned a paltry $4.6 million. You can chalk some of the disappointment to the box office powerhouse "Shark Tale," which lured in much of that audience as well as their parents. But it also failed to take off because it didn't spark with that whimsical demographic's interests.


"One of our gut responses to what went wrong is (that) there seems to be a very specific image or identity that any one of these young female stars have and if you sway from that, it could be problematic," said Russell Schwartz, president of marketing at New Line. "In this case, what we liked so much about 'Voice' is that it was a step up for Hilary. It's a smarter movie, a better movie, it got good reviews, and it's an older movie. With her younger fan base, they might not have identified with the subject matter, as opposed to the subject matter in 'Cinderella Story."'


New Line is definitely not the first studio to tread the perilous waters of preteen angst and sputter in the process. MGM had little luck releasing "Sleepover" this year, while 20th Century Fox recently stumbled with "First Daughter" and Warners couldn't get out of the gate with the Olsen twins' "New York Minute."


"The young female movies are almost impossible to figure out right now," one studio marketing executive said. "The girls are just rejecting the young female movies. They are a fickle segment of the audience, and it's pretty hard to figure out who is going to go to these movies."


But that doesn't mean the studios won't keep trying. For one thing, tween girls are fabulous consumers. Once they hit on something, they buy again and again and they spend a lot of time telling others. As well, the production costs on these films are such that if they hit, they can be profitable very quickly. Yet no marketer seems to have the exact answer as to how to reach them.


One thing seems certain with these films: If you pander to these little girls with formulaic material, they will reject you.


"Young girls are really hard to nail because as consumers they are interested in everything," one marketing executive said. "If it is specifically targeted for them, it has to be special or it will be forgotten. And they aren't necessarily waiting for something specific. They drive the horror genre, they sample everything. They are very good consumers, but very difficult consumers."


Adds Dawn Taubin, Warner Bros. president of marketing: "They are one of the hardest targets to reach. These girls don't watch television the same way other audiences do. They seem to have a resistance to traditional forms of advertising. When they know they are being sold, it's not as interesting to them. Yet they seem a little more open to a viral marketing approach."


Indicative of the fickleness of this preteen audience is the track record of these preteen stars. The recent fate of Duff is not an anomaly. Anne Hathaway, the star of "Princess Diaries," flopped this year with "Ella Enchanted," just as Lindsay Lohan scored big with "Mean Girls" but couldn't open "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen."


"There is no star who can open any movie," one executive said. "It's always about the concept of the film and if the concept is a good fit for the audience. 'Mean Girls' was smart enough to appeal to a broad audience, and 'Princess' was a pre-established brand. It needs to go beyond the one quadrant. Hitting just 8- to 12-year-olds is not enough."


Such was the case with "13 Going on 30" whereby preteens, their mothers, teenagers and women in their 20s and 30s were all enticed to see the film, which allowed it to open to $21 million for an eventual total of $57.1 million. As well, according to many marketing executives, it had a star in Jennifer Garner that many in the industry found to be fresh and appealing to a wide range of audiences.


In contrast, "Mean Girls" ($86 million), written by "Saturday Night Live" star Tina Fey, seemed to appeal to a broader crowd because of its universal themes centering on high school gossip as well as its comedic element that won strong word-of-mouth from "SNL" fans.


As for "Voice," the marketing effort was targeted to girls 8-14 but was primarily focused on Duff growing up with this movie. According to Schwartz, the older half of that demographic showed up, but the younger ones just didn't connect.


"Hilary talked about this movie as the next step for her, and it was the message we wanted to get out there, but it didn't seem to resonate with her audience," Schwartz said. "The older fan base came, which is good news for her in that it seems she's breaking through, but the younger fans didn't. We keep learning. They are a fickle group."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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