HP Promotes ‘Monsters’ Computer Tie-in

As another DreamWorks Animation film hits cinema screens, Hewlett-Packard gets a chance to again shout from the rooftops that it provided computer equipment, this time for the making of “Monsters vs. Aliens.”

HP is part of a small cadre of corporate sponsors tied to DreamWorks Animation in long-term deals.  The other sponsors are McDonald’s restaurants (which mounts valuable film tie-in promotions to snag the kids audience), Office Depot, and Intel, which is the computer chip company that replaced Advanced Micro Devices in summer 2008 as a sponsor. In addition, the “Monsters vs. Aliens” film has single-picture promotions with Energizer Battery and ConAgra Foods, according to a DreamWorks disclosure statement.

In a press release this weekend, HP provided this breathless description of what HP hardware provides to the “Monsters vs. Aliens”: “Audiences will experience monsters that move like liquid, whose arms and mouths disappear, and whose bodies are transparent – characters that exist in part because of the unprecedented power of HP workstations, HP ProLiant blade servers and other HP technology that enabled the increased demands of a new generation of 3-D filmmaking. ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ required more than 40 million computing hours to make – more than eight times as many as the original ‘Shrek’ and nearly double what it took to create ‘Kung Fu Panda.’”

This author’s response to those impressive-sounding factoids is a slack-jawed “gasp”!

For DreamWorks Animation, the tie-up certainly gets discounts on HP computer equipment and very diligent-tech support, because HP wouldn’t want any hint of hardware or software problems in this association.

“Monsters vs. Aliens” enjoyed a solid premiere weekend opening, with its three-day box office estimated at $56 million. That is more than half of the sum of all films in the comparable weekend a year earlier when the top film – youth crime thriller “21” – weighed in with just $24.1 million.

Separately, a June 6, 2008 press release from HP elaborates on its DreamWorks Animation relationship. Once you get past the “sure to be delighted” in the first sentence, the PR is interesting in pulling together and explaining DreamWorks’ long-term corporate tie-ins with Hewlett-Packard, Nickelodeon and McDonald’s.  

Related content:

• HP Technology Powers DreamWorks Animation’s Breakthrough 3-D Film, “Monsters vs. Aliens”
• Office Depot and HP Announce Sweepstakes Surrounding the Release of DreamWorks Animation’s Newest Film “Monsters vs. Aliens”
• YouTube: The Technology Behind DreamWorks’ ‘Monsters vs Aliens‘
• PR: HP Technology Helps DreamWorks Animation’s Summer Feature Kung Fu Panda Soar to New Creative Heights