2. The Blair Witch Project Blair Witch was one of the first films to exploit the capabilities of the internet via its very realistic viral campaign. This created a buzz and everyone was talking about it and it has influenced many film marketing strategies since, both in style and means of distribution. The success of the film was solely related to the success of the campaign and made millions for its creators. The film budget was very low and the cost of marketing was again very cheap as it costs virtually nothing to distribute material in this way. http://www.google.co.uk/#q=blair+witch+trailers&hl=en&biw=1012&bih=583&prmd=v&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=ZhS0TLqCB9O7jAfT94CBDQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQqwQwAA&fp=fc34de4e5ce78d79 Related Articles http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Internet-THE-BLAIR-WITCH-PROJECT-PARADIGM-AND-ONLINE-FAN-DISCOURSE.html http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/1999/07/16/blair_marketing http://nostatic.com/viral/?q=node/18
3. Cloverfield Again, Cloverfield virals created a buzz. Like Blair Witch, they created an enigma as to who, or what, the ‘monster’ was. Although this was fairly low budget, this is by Hollywood standards. Cloverfield's £15m budget far exceeds that of The Blair Witch Project, at £150,000, but compared to most Hollywood blockbusters, the film was made on a shoestring. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/cloverfield-the-monster-is-coming-771261.html
4. Style and ‘Hyperrealism’ The style of ‘hyperrealism’ can also be seen in the following trailers:- Paranormal Activity http://www.google.co.uk/#q=paranormal+activity&hl=en&biw=1012&bih=583&prmd=vni&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=Khy0TKSCIIKUjAexyYX4DA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQqwQwAA&fp=fc34de4e5ce78d79 How does this trailer resemble the Blair Witch campaign?
6. Super 8 JJ Abrams, the man behind Cloverfield has begun another viral campaign for his next epic, Super 8. This campaign begun in May 2010, the film is not yet out. The trailer follows the conventions of Cloverfield in style. http://www.google.co.uk/#q=super+8+trailer&hl=en&biw=995&bih=583&prmd=vn&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=vSC0TPrIEtaSjAet0tH5DA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCAQqwQwAA&fp=fc34de4e5ce78d79 The viral campaign, however, follows conventions established in campaigns for Batman, The Dark Knight and District 9 http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/05/super_8_viral_marketing_campai.html http://www.filmedge.net/Super8/surprise.htm This style of viral creates ‘hyper realism’ in creating the world of the film before we know the contents of the actual product itself ….the film.
7. The Dark Knight The Dark Knight’s campaign included a fake election poster ‘I believe in Harvey Dent. This was all part of creating the ‘real’ world of Gotham City. http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/1687/exclusive-chicago-police-break-up-harvey-dent-viral-marketing-campaign-for-the-dark-knight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpuC7HhCPWA http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-dark-knight/viral-two-face http://www.whysoserious.com/ The Virals also created this effect unlike the theatrical trailer which was more conventional. Official Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y2szViJlaY Related Articles http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2008/07/17/movie-marketing-madness-the-dark-knight/ http://www.altogetherdigital.com/20071213/new-batman-dark-knight-marketing-continues-fantastic/
8. Brand Capitalism O’Reilly (2005) described ‘brand capitalism’, especially virals, as ‘bottom up marketing’. This is where mainstream producers imitate strategies of prosumers and amateurs. Consumption is no longer the end point of a product. The creation of virals,websites and artefacts from the hyper real world (other than that of the official sites and theatrical trailers)allow a digital life outside of the product.
9. District 9 Similarly to the Dark Knight , posters from ‘the real world’ of District 9 was created as a poster campaign and series of virals . http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/business/2009/09/01/barnett.district.9.cnn.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3lYvByEM3I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZNftV-BSiA http://current.com/entertainment/movies/90146829_district-9-viral-marketing-spreads-to-benches.htm
