Viral Marketing

Viral marketing plays a big part of advertising films in today's age. It can be passed around from person to person and can spread, like a virus. If this is done well, or done excessively, then this may create a real hype for the film in question. Viral marketing does not cost very much either, unlike other sources of advertising (TV, Radio, etc.)

Here is a picture that basically shows how viral marketing and advertising works. One person tells others, they tell others they know and so on until it has spread to thousands of people.

A film that used viral marketing was 'Cloverfield' which came out in 2008. The film was first publicised with a one-and-a-half-minute teaser trailer attached to the film Transformers. Nothing was known about the film before this trailer. The trailer did not advertise the name of the film; only the producer's name, J.J. Abrams and a release date, 18.01.08. An element of viral marketing included pages being created for fictional characters on the social networking site MySpace. The viral marketing also lead to websites being created for fictional companies that were later alluded to in the film.

Another film that used viral marketing to their advantage and gained plenty of advertisement was the 2008 film 'Shifty'. Just before the film was released the website for the film allowed users to send an e-mail with a friend's face attatched to a person in a photo which is meant to be from the police. The photo is two people who appear to be doing a drug deal. The person who receives the e-mail is supposed to be fooled in to thinking that they have been caught dealing drugs by the police. The e-mail also came with the following warning: "If you fail to respond to this e-mail within seven days of receipt please be aware that this will then become an official matter and there will be a strong likelihood of criminal investigation". This fits in well as the film in question is about a drug deal. The image below shows what users could send to their friends or family.

Another form of viral advertising , from 2007, was done by Portuguese football club Sporting Lisbon in an attempt to raise season ticket sales. Before the start of the 07/08 season, a video was integrated into the club's website. Before the video started playing, the user had to enter his name and phone number into the boxes. The video featured then coach Paulo Bento and the players waiting in the changing room while the coach makes a phone call to the user saying that they can't start the season until he buys a season ticket. The synchronisation between video and phone call and the fact that it was a new experience for the user lead to nearly 200,000 page views and phone calls in less than 24 Hours. Here is the link to the video.