How Cloverfield Revolutionized Movie Marketing

gamerant.com:

There was a time, not too long ago, when movie trailers would helpfully unpack a film's entire plot, occasionally spoiling every twist. Film advertisements vary wildly in effectiveness, everyone's missed a good movie because of a bad trailer or been tricked into something terrible with solid marketing. But every once in a while, one comes along that changes the landscape.

Cloverfield was directed by Matt Reeves, now much better known for his take on The Batman, and written by Drew Goddard, creator of Daredevil and director of Cabin in the Woods. Despite that, the film was mainly described in relation to producer J. J. Abrams, and his controversial Mystery Box technique.

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The marketing for Cloverfield began in February 2007. Abrams reportedly came up with the project while looking over some Godzilla toys in Japan. Paramount silently greenlit the project under its current title, but the production changed names several times to conceal its direction. The title Cloverfield was derived from the name of the exit Abrams took on his trip to work every morning. They pitched other titles during production, including Slusho, Cheese, and Greyshot, but the production had so much hype behind it, the studio had to stick with Cloverfield. The production was deliberately kept quiet from online publications, an impressive feat, even in the 2000s. Concept designer Neville Page crafted the monster, but many of his more complex ideas didn't make it to screen. Of course, not showing the monster is part of the genius of the film's marketing.

Cloverfield's first teaser is one of the smartest single ads in recent cinema. It was attached to the first Transformers movie and became