The Effectiveness of Viral Marketing Campaigns

Viral Marketing campaigns have become a unique phenomenon to sell modern films to a young 21st century audience that can now engage in the world of film as an active, personal experience beyond the screen. This specific type of marketing shows how simplistic and ambigiuous techniques can sell fairly low budget films to make huge profits in the industry.

The Blair Witch Project

The 1999 hand held camera film 'The Blair Witch Project' is an example of one of the first movies to incorporate the internet in it's marketing campaign and managed to fool an entire generation of cinema-goers into believing the film's shocking storyline was real legitimate footage using 'hyperrealism': the snippets of mysterious shaky camera footage posted online intrigued audiences and the three starring actors of the film did not even attend the premiere to keep up the pretence they were indeed 'missing'. The unique campaign was so successful the small budget film made a profit of millions.

Cloverfield

J.J Abrams Cloverfield was released in cinemas in 2008 after a year long marketing campaign which progressed from a teaser trailer previewing before Transformers in 2007. The clip gripped veiwers as we witness the head of the Statue of Liberty spiral down the streets of New York to the horror of onlookers - all filmed using a shaky camcorder to stress the confusion and chaos.

The interesting trailer sparked an online buzz as more clips began to surface on Youtube with views reaching up to 1.5 million hits.

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/845/845649p1.html

This article delves further into the secrets of Cloverfields marketing campaign, with fake websites revealing subtle photos from the film and also a website for a fake sponser, the drink brand 'Slusho'. This viral marketing process enabled viewers to interact with the film on a more personal level - using the internet as a base to piece clues together about the mysteries of the film and discuss via online forums.

The homepage for the Slusho website.


Hyper Realism

The Hyper Realism effect for film trailers is largely used for those which come under the Horror Genre as seen with films such as Quarantine and Paranormal Activity





Using a hand held camera is very effective for the horror genre as the shaky techniques used create a suspenseful atmoshphere and the audience can relate to the characters and narrative in a far more personal way than they could with an average Romantic Comedy or Sc-fi blockbuster.

I could consider the horror genre in relation to the short film I will be producing as Hyper Realism is a very simplistic yet effective way to engage the audience with a believable personal narrative.

District 9 Poster

The Sc-fi film District 9 used a distinctive poster campaign to advertise the film and sell it to audiences.

Hyper realism is used here effectively as details about the film itself are only small, causing the audience to be intrigued and start to question the main plot outline. The posters gave the effect that the events in the film were ongoing in reality with the only reference given to a website "D-9.com" which will attract the young target audience viral marketing campaigns reach out for.

I could consider following a similar theme poster for my short film, this would epsecially be effective for horror films as it creates a sense of threat and delievers with scaring the audience which is the main ethos of the genre.