Universal Studios marketing guru serves
as Graduate-in-Residence
If you’re a woman and you went to see King Kong, you have Dan Wolfe ’84 to thank.
Executives at Universal Studios knew virtually every 10- to 70-year-old male would be lining up to see the 2005 blockbuster. As executive vice president of Worldwide Creative Operations at NBC/Universal, Wolfe was charged with making sure everyone else, particularly women, filled the theater seats.
In order to do this, Wolfe had to sell a romance between a woman and an ape.
He told a class of UMW undergraduates how he and his team capitalized on the relationship between King Kong star Naomi Watts and her ape companion.
Wolfe, this year’s Distinguished Graduate-in-Residence, showed promotional posters in which Watts appears vulnerable and adoring curled up in King Kong’s massive hand and others in which the actress stands tall and strong next to the ape.
“She looks just as powerful in her own way here,” Wolfe said of the latter poster. “That speaks to women.”
Wolfe’s duties at Universal include strategic planning, development, and execution of film marketing – from the theatrical trailer to commercials, print advertising, and more.
He leads nearly 100 creative, technical, and support personnel to produce award-winning marketing campaigns for all of Universal’s major films.
Wolfe works on about 30 films per year, most recently The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Meet the Fockers, and Ray.
“I felt like all I did in my 30s was work. I looked back and said, ‘Have I really given back?’” Wolfe said “And I want to give back to the school that meant a lot to me.”
Throughout his talk, Wolfe presented movie promotional posters. He pointed out the different advertising strategies employed for the domestic (U.S.) market and the international market.
For instance, Wolfe showed both the domestic and international trailers for the upcoming release, Knocked Up, a movie about a young guy who impregnates his one-night stand.
The international trailer included far more profanity and sexual references, because, Wolfe explained, “We can get away with more overseas.”
Ever the marketer, Wolfe asked the class for feedback.
“I get inspiration from understanding the audience I’m trying to sell to,” he said.
Raised in a military family in Florida and Virginia, Wolfe emphasized that people from ordinary backgrounds can achieve extraordinary things.
“I was very much like you guys,” Wolfe said to students in the class. “I had a middle-class background and I didn’t know what I wanted to do going into college. You can accomplish anything.”
Wolfe, who frequently visits other countries for business, says his interest in traveling was sparked by the late Dr. Richard Palmieri, former professor of geography at Mary Washington.
“He was one of my biggest influences from Mary Washington and one of the best professors I’ve ever had,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe’s undergraduate degree was in business administration. He went on to earn a master’s degree in communication industries management from Emerson College.
“What really prepared me and helped me to mold where I wanted to go was the very diverse education I got from Mary Washington,” Wolfe said. “I’m glad I took classes in logic and Shakespeare.”
But nothing at Mary Washington could prepare Wolfe for the wild and mystical land of Hollywood.
He told the class that when he was leaving work recently, chatting with his brother on his cell phone, he looked up at the truck in front of him to see a caged tiger staring back at him and licking its lips.
“Things like that make you realize you don’t work in the real world,” Wolfe said. “L.A. is a kind of fantasy world.”
Wolfe has worked at Universal for more than 16 years, but he wasn’t always living the glamorous life. His first job after graduating from Mary Washington involved transporting frozen fish. But Wolfe stresses the importance of learning from such experiences.
“It’s good to have bad jobs because it builds character,” he said.
– Tierney R. Mcafee ’08