Latest News

This article is original to KTTC, written by co-owner Doctor Bacchus. It is strictly for the members-only area and will not be republished on the public forums.

This Is Not A Rant.

This is not a rant.

Really. It's not.

It may LOOK a little like a rant. It may SMELL a little like a rant. But it's not a rant.

It's really about promoting a property, like a web site. Or a film, or a book, or any other product or idea that will only flourish and grow if it's put out in the harsh light of public scrutiny, where The People decide what's a worthy idea and what deserves to die a thousand painful deaths.

I should step back and introduce the owners of KTTC, just in case you don't already know us or frequent the message boards. I am Doctor Bacchus, and I co-own KTTC with three other individuals: Captain Van Der Decken, Lady Killigrew and Captain Lequatte. You can check out our mug shots and a little about us at this link, if you're really that interested.

I'm introducing the players just so you know who's who, not to imply that the other owners agree with my opinion-and that's precisely what this is, my opinion. It is an opinion based on knowing the internal workings of a successful promotional team, an opinion formed after much reading and studying the situation I will be discussing, an opinion, let's face it, that has also been informed and colored by watching the mistakes and mis-steps of others.

Many years ago, we came together as friends, Disney fans and "marketeers" at certain web sites to help promote a couple of little films called "The Haunted Mansion" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." Maybe you've heard of them, maybe not. But we were the right people in the right place at the right time and managed to pull off some very impressive feats, which were noticed by a certain company that starts with a D.

After a time, we outgrew our stations with those particular web sites and left to create DizHub.com, a much more broadly focused promotional entity. (ed note: KeepToTheCode.com is a wholly-owned project of DizHub.com) We caught the attention of a certain film production studio in the first week after the launch of DizHub, and from the ensuing discussions KeepToTheCode.com sprang forth for the world to see.

Why? Because people at the studio knew who could promote a property professionally, with integrity, with talent, with the needed connections and contacts. They had seen us do it for other properties. We and they believed we were the right guys for the job.

On March 18 of this year, KTTC hit the ground running and we've never looked back. Contests, promotions and gatherings, as well as a strong forum community, reliable, leading news and features and the freshest trustworthy content we can find or create have put us in the front of the pack, and will keep us there as long as we keep listening to what The People tell us they want to see and to have. Because they know we'll do everything in our power to make it happen.

There *is* a point to all this, and it's not to be smug and self-congratulatory. Stay with me. I promise the point is in sight.

Recently, a film called "Chicken Little" debuted in the US. Advance reviews were awful, with nearly 80 per cent of the news wire reports that I saw thoroughly cooking this little bird before he'd even left the coop. I almost felt sorry for the drubbing the film was taking, until I walked in to a local Disney store and BEHOLD! The Wonderful World Of Chicken Little Merchandise was spread as far as the eye could see.

Chicken Little plush. Chicken lunch boxes, snow globes, games, beach towels and clothing. It was clear that--despite what the pundits were saying--Disney believed in this film and thought the nay-sayers were crying 'fowl' prematurely.

And so far, Disney has been right. Chicken Little has been the box office winner in both of its first two weekends in wide release. Those with the power to look at a film and approve merchandise associated with that film weren't frightened by anything they saw in the story of Chicken Little.

And the merchandising went forward without any Chicken Little fan sites crying out "Give us fabric chickens! Give us plastic pigs! Give us ugly waterfowl silkscreened on toddlers' pajamas!" In fact, it seemed that The People really didn't give a cluck about any merchandise tie-ins.

The problem is, all of that Chicken Little merchandise is sitting on shelves. The People spoke in advance by their silence, and the silence was ignored.

Let's travel back in time now, to the spring of 2003. We're just a few weeks out from the release of the first Pirates film. Message boards are buzzing with talk of how good the film is. People are speculating about it like crazy. A cry goes out on UseNet: "Wow, I bet they merchandise the living you-know-what out of this film!" Even sites like AintItCool.com are loving what they've seen of this film.

The Johnny Depp/Orlando Bloom/insert-Pirates-star-here sites are crying out "Give us fabric Johnnys! Give us plastic ships! Give us ugly cursed pirate faces on T-shirts!"

I walked in to the same Disney store in 2003 that is now glutted with chickens. Not a piece of eight in sight. No swords, no shirts, no action figures to promote one of the most eagerly-awaited films of the summer season. I was stunned.

"Why do you not have Pirates stuff?" I asked.

"Our buyers don't think it will sell, and they don't want to be stuck with a bunch of unsalable stuff" was the answer.

And then Pirates came out, and completely blew those buyers' expectations out of the water. People were screaming for anything--ANYTHING!--to do with the film. Of course, it takes several months for merchandise to move through the approval/production/get it on store shelves process, and so Disney missed the boat, as it were. Oh, sure, a few months later they had a T-shirt with a skeleton at a ship's wheel available. Since then, there has been a trickle of merchandise released. Some of it has been popular, namely the pieces that fans have been asking for for over two years. Some of it has tanked with all but the devoted fans and collectors (do you really need a travel mug with a skull on it? I didn't think so.)

But wait...I've just realized something.

Don't blame the buyers at the Disney stores for the lack of merchandise from the first film--and don't expect the company to get caught with its proverbial pants around its knees when Pirates 2 hits theatres in July of 2006. Ain't gonna happen.

The lack of merchandise from Pirates 1, I've come to firmly believe, can be blamed much higher up the food chain at Disney. I've done a lot of reading and studying the Pirates phenomena--you sort of have to do that when you own the official site, you know--and I think the whole merchandise-or-lack-thereof phenomena can be laid at the feet of the studio executives. Before you decide my hat must be on too tight, let's take a look at the situation at hand.

Traditionally, Disney has done well with both its standard 2-D animated merchandise and its Disney/Pixar merchandise. The People demonstrated a pattern that higher-ups simply rubber stamped their approval on whenever a new film was opening. That trend came to a stop with "Brother Bear" and "Home On The Range"'s underwhelming merchandising tie-in sales. And following the logic, since the Disney/Pixar merchandise sold well, then it must follow that 3D/CGI features will always have high merchandise sales...so let's roll on the chicken stuff!

Wrong.

The fact is, no merchandise will see stores as long as studio executives are afraid of a film. And from what I've been able to piece together, Disney execs were absolutely terrified of Johnny Depp's performance as Captain Jack (which, ironically, is what lifts the film above being an ordinary swashbuckler, in my opinion). I've been able to strongly corroborate this theory through James Stewart's book DisneyWar, and not-so-strongly but still in agreement with Stewart's assessment through Jason Surrell's new book. Both books discuss the discomfort of the executives with Johnny's swagger. Certain it was a bad thing, when Johnny wouldn't change his performance, they quietly released the film with no merchandising.

And as we know, they were wrong. Millions of dollars worth of wrong.

So what, exactly, is my point here? There will be Pirates merchandise for the release of the second film. The theme parks and resorts merchandise division is already cranking out as much Pirates merchandise as they can, and it's flying off the store shelves. I was just at Walt Disney World and was blown away by the amount of nice merchandise available AND at how busy the stores featuring it were, particularly the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop at the end of the attraction. They obviously "get it" and are riding the crest of the wave of popularity of all things pirates.

The point, at the end of the day, is this: Will the studio executives, the Nina Jacobsons and Brigham Taylors and Dick Cooks of the world, ever stop trying to second-guess the fans and start listening to them before plunging headlong into a merchandise blitz--or preventing a blitz that would be lucrative from happening? Or will they continue to "know best" and serve up cows and chickens in the retail arena?

As a successful promoter, I can only say that time will tell. The voices are out there...they'll tell you what to offer, if you choose to listen.

Agree? Disagree? Feedback may be sent to this address. Please label your mail "Feedback for Dr B" to ensure proper routing.