SXSW kicks off with 'Kick-Ass'

For those of you who don't know what the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival is, it is an annual set of interactive, film and music festivals and conferences that take place in Austin, Texas every spring. For four days, the city is the center of one of the largest music festivals in the United Sates.

Performers, new talent and film creators congregate to premiere their works and gain media exposure. This year, film director Matthew Vaughn opened the festival with the premiere of his latest movie, "Kick-Ass."

I cannot think of a better way to jump start promotions for a new movie than to give film enthusiasts a sneak peek of the final production.

"Kick-Ass" isn't your typical superhero movie. This film tells the story of an average comic-fanboy who takes his obsession with superheroes to the next level--he decides to become one himself.

The movie is supposed to be a comedy, and personally, I can't wait to see it. From the trailers I've come across, it looks like it will be an entertaining watch.

At the premiere at SXSW, Vaughn complained that one of the speakers was blown, citing that it was awkward in many instances where the audience would see a gun firing but no sound accompanied it. Even with a rough start, however, the audience seemed to really embrace the movie.

To top off the opening night, "Kick-Ass" posters were also being given out and signed by the cast. This is the type of simple, yet effective public relations tactic that I always enjoy seeing.

"Kick-Ass" opens April 16.

Tony Stark has a confession?

In conjunction with the Stark Industries Web site, it turns out Paramount and Marvel and really putting thought into their viral marketing angle.

One of the things I love about big movies from Marvel is that they know exactly how to stir up buzz among their fans, and they are able to do this by releasing even the most minute details that hardcore fans are sure to pick up. For "Iron Man 2", they have released three separate installments of another viral campaign featuring burnt newspaper clippings of stories about Tony Stark, the man behind the mask.

These fictional newspaper clippings were all released to different sources with one word highlighted in each of them. The clipping released first had a headline which read "The Secret Life of Mr. Stark" with the word "Secret" highlighted.

The second clipping's headline read "Stark Situation Paralyzed" with the word "Stark" highlighted.


The final installment of the campaign had a newspaper clipping that read "Tony Stark's confession: I am Iron Man" with the word "confession" highlighted.


All together, the highlighted words create the phrase "Secret Stark confession." This has been enough to make fans go wild with speculation as to what the superhero might reveal.

No matter what this revelation might be, Paramount and Marvel's online strategy has certainly worked and word of mouth has rapidly spread leaving fans wanting more. May 7 can't come soon enough.

Iron Man goes viral

I am really excited to see "Iron Man 2" when it comes out in May, but until then, fans get to find entertainment in Marvel's public relation tactics.

Marvel launched www.starkindustriesnow.com in the summer, but I just recently came across it and decided to check it out. The Web site has a really simplistic, straight-froward design in the classic Tony Stark manner. As of right now, Stark Industries is accepting job applications online. If you click the "Join Stark Industries" tab, you'll find areas of information to fill in along with entertainingly complicated questions on physics that sound as if Stark's character were asking you himself.

This is actually one of the more fun and amusing public relations strategies I have come across. Personally, I don't think any movie Marvel makes needs much hype to begin with, but you can check this out and wait to see if you are Stark Industries material. I'm still waiting on a response myself, but I have a nagging gut feeling I just may not make the cut.

There are still two months until the movie's theatrical release, and it will be interesting to see what else Marvel decides to post onto this new Web site. I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes open to see what happens next!