Viral Marketing
Villiers Park: Contemporary British Film

Viral Marketing
Originally, viral marketing referred to word of mouth advertising...
one person tells all their friends, who in turn tell all their friends,
and so on. In practice, this rarely worked out well.
With the development of the Internet, suddenly more viable...
You don't have to know your consumer personally to reach
them with a blog, video, or web page.
Word of mouth can reach 100s, perhaps 1000s, the moment
someone hits the post button, it’s instant.

Good Viral Marketing
Ideally, a viral ad does not seem like an ad at all...
The most successful viral marketing technique is to make
something entertaining that people will want to share..
Making something people want to share and giving them easy
access to do so, helps make campaigns successful.

In the Film Industry, viral marketing appears in many forms...
Emails / e-Cards
Websites
Flash Games
and in the last few years...
MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, Bebo etc...

The Social Networks
Share with your friends!
MySpace Transformers takeover homepage...
MySpace homepage given a Transformers
theme.
myspace “Choose your side” campaign; themes your
myspace page with Autobots or Decepticons
Facebook Fan Pages...
Sending Updates directly to their “fans”
Facebook homepage
facebook Movie Clips exclusive to each site.

2007, JJ Abrahams announced
the website for his new film
project.. ‘1-18-08.com’
featuring photos of party guests,
destroyed boats missing posters
and mysterious remains of some
kind of creature.

Next, a website for fictional Japanese drinks
company, ‘Slusho’, owned by Tagruato Corp.
‘Slusho’ also appears in US TV drama, Alias;
another JJ Abrahams production.
The company that main character, Rob Hawkins
is leaving New York to work for.
Website mentions discovering a “deep sea
ingredient”.. starting to build a hype about has
caused the events in the upcoming film.

News Reports are leaked on the internet
following an attack on their drilling rig, just
off the coast of New York.
Footage shows, debris flying out of the water as
workers flee...
...something supernatural??
News reports start to give a visual tease that starts
to build a possible background story for the film.
Director, Matt Reeves when asked about the
marketing campaign said...
“The Internet sort of stories and connections and clues
are, in a way, a prism and they're another way of looking
at the same thing. To us, it's just another exciting aspect
of the storytelling”

Interactive Content
Marketing for british film
‘Shifty” (2008) was criticised for its
use of Viral Marketing..
Website allowed you to “Stitch Up
A Mate”, sending them an email to
imply they are being investigated
for drug use
Advertising Standards Agency
banned the campaign ruling that
“Stitch Up A Mate” was “distressing
and irresponsible” as it was not
made clear that it was a prank and
was an advertising material.

Teaser Trailer
Villiers Park: Contemporary British Film

What is a teaser trailer?
A “Teaser Trailer” or “Teaser” is a short trailer advertising an
upcoming film.
Unlike typical trailers, Teasers are very short (between 30-60
seconds)
Usually contain very little, if any, actual footage from the film.
Often released in cinema trails and online a long time in advance
of the film, sometimes over a year.

How do they work?
Less to tell the audience of any content of a film, but to let them
know something/it’s coming.
Lack of information/content entices the audience into wanting to
know more... “teasing” them.
Often a simple, original and inventive idea is the key...

Star Trek

The Hills Have Eyes 2

Discuss
Discuss recent advertising campaigns that you have seen..
Where have you seen them?
Was it very obvious, or more descrete advertising?
Did it give a lot of information or did it leave a lot of gaps?

Your Teaser Trailers
Keep It Simple
Be Creative
What Information are you going to give and hold back?
Storyboard and Plan well.