In honor of the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz (for you younger folks, it’s the sequel to Wicked), Netflix is hosting a free outdoor screening of the digitally re-mastered film in Central Park.
The opening act is a live concert featuring songs from the movie performed by Jennifer Hudson, Julianne Hough and ?uestlove of the Roots.”
Its pluses, as a media-worthy event, include:
1. Price
It’s free. You can’t beat that price unless you also receive free giveaways (see below). Plus, the pre-show concert is also free. As we know, with celebrity performers and other possible celebrity guests come media and public interest.
2. Location
The screening is both in a media-worthy spot and a location where midtown reporters can easily access it. Since it’s free, general attendance should also be high, especially if the weather plays along.
3. Brand Alignment
Netflix has become the premier resource for home film viewing. What could be a better tie-in than one of the most popular and groundbreaking motion pictures of all time?
4. Online Tie-In
The film will be streaming for free online (on Netflix-compatible devices) on October 3. If you can’t make it to Central Park for the screening, this is a meaningful substitute.
5. Broad Appeal
The Wizard of Oz is popular among kids, adults, seniors, families, history buffs, film history buffs, pop culturists and Pink Floyd fans, among others.
To make the event even more press-worthy, I’d suggest:
1. Free Giveaways
Halloween is close enough that I’m sure a New York PR-savvy costume shop would pitch in a free Oz-related memento for the first, say, 500 guests. Free DVD’s of the film would also be a natural tie-in.
2. Costumes
Netflix should encourage attendees to dress up as flying monkeys, witches, lions, tin men and other characters from The Wizard of Oz. Some will dress up anyway, and this is a great way to have media-worthy photo ops.
3. Art
Not knowing how long in advance Netflix planned this promotion, it’s hard to tell what kind of broader preparations they have in store for Central Park. It would be cool if a few artists could provide their interpretations, much like the promotional interpretation above, of the Yellow Brick Road in Central Park.
It conjures up some of the Park’s more memorable, recent art displays, including Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates (2005) and Roxy Paine’s Maelstrom, currently sprawling over the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Park’s eastern edge.
If not for the 70th anniversary, how about the 75th? A Yellow Brick Road through Central Park.
4. Toto!
What was Toto? A terrier of some sort? (There’s apparently some controversy over this question.) Netflix should link up with local kennel clubs and terrier meetup groups to bring a cavalcade of Toto lookalikes to the screening.
5. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
It’s a long shot, but it would be epic to see Elton John and Billy Joel perform “Goodbye Yellow brick Road” as the pre-screening concert’s encore.
Other ideas?
