Marketing
Summit Entertainment spent an estimated $10 million to produce and market the film. The full-length trailer was released in the internet on March 25, 2009. On June 3, 2009, the official poster was released. A novelization of the movie written by Aaron Rosenberg was released on July 9, 2009. Michalka, Hudgens and Connell, hosted a Bandslam Reel Thinking event at the Grammy Museum LA to promote the importance of music to middle-schoolers.
In partnership with Magic 106.7, Summit Entertainment conducted a band contest in Boston Burlington Mall. Hudgens and Connell attended the said contest as judges. Mike Ryan won the contest, and performed his original song on August 1, 2009. On August 7, 2009, Hudgens and Michalka were inducted as an honorary girl scouts as part of the film's gimmick. The induction was held at Harmony Gold Preview House and Theater. During the induction, a special screening was held for the scouts present in the affair. In the UK, Stardoll started a campaign which lets users dress Vanessa Hudgens in different Bandslam outfits, view the film trailer, create their own band using Stardoll scenery and virtual guitar gifts to give to friends.
However, Summit Entertainment's marketing strategies have been criticized. There have been a lot of calls and e-mails from heads of marketing at different studios saying the film's marketing may be the worst job they have seen from positioning, title, marketing tie-ins, and targeting audiences. Nikki Finke released an e-mail from a Bandslam insider who pointed out that Summit's marketing have basically sold it on to their stars Hudgens and Michalka instead of selling out the concept. The e-mail also claims that "they Disneyfied this movie with glitter paint." The insider also emphasized the good reviews the film is getting but it was unfortunate that it did not sell well because of Summit's bad marketing.
Yale Daily News marked that the film had the "Worst Marketing", pointing out that "Summit Entertainment, which has a done an admirable job marketing the "Twilight" films, completely ruined what should have been a sleeper hit."
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