Die Hard 4.0 meets Transformers | Grandpa meets Grandson

Think I have been on the subject of Apple and its products abit too much lately. I could not help it. Anyways, let us move over to yet another interesting subject: Die Hard 4.0 and Transformers. There has been so much hype and publicity around both these movies.

I am not referring to the movie, storyline, cast, etc. Feel free to find out more about that from IMDb (Transformers | Die Hard 4.0) . You can even read on an interesting comparison between the two movies here.

I am more interested in exploring the spirit of the movie from both a consumer and marketing point of view.

Die Hard still rides on its old age successful formula, a very traditional ‘good guy saves the day’ approach. It very likely that the director, Wiseman or even Bruce will tell you that they wanted to capitalize on past success while injecting more zest in the form of action and humor. But you know, it doesn’t impress the consumer anymore. We have been flooded with so many action movies since Die Hard 1 that it will take a lot more to get us to the edge of our seat!

Transformers, on the other hand, got it right. Not only were the action scenes unique, you can literally feel the ‘physics’ involved in those incredible action scenes. I can go on and on about all the aspects they got right, the awesome stunts, the appropriate slow motion sequences, etc. Even the robots were executed to perfection making it seem almost real, that is if you can accept robots being able to be transformed into cars.
Hey! There was even fresh new humor thrown in as opposed to the recycled tacky jokes in Die Hard 4.0.

Launching a campaign or a product is the same. There is a common saying, “Do what you used to do and you only get what you used to get”. At most, you take the risk element out. The best recipe for success is ‘change, adapt and be reactive and innovative”. This applies in movies as well. This is probably why Transformers will shoot through the global box offices.