WT & Warp web 2.0 Marketing

[I'm re-posting this from the AS blog, especially useful for any A2 students submitting coursework next month - with regards to issues of audience feedback and use of new media for marketing/distribution/exhibition]

You want to be examining the variety of tools employed by both companies through their own, and specific film, websites to promote their productions. So, follow the steps below:
1: look at the WT site and list all promotional tools they use (games, downloads, film features, wallpapers etc), being precise in your notes (so, don't just note 'games' but Hot Fuzz Pacman, as an example). Where you can, add brief notes on the likely target audience for these (you'll find some specific details through Q2 below)

2: look at the designers for WT's website and try to find their guidelines on what they were asked to produce; look up http://www.redberrydigital.com/projects/detail.php?pid=44 (I was able to find this by googling 'working title films website designer')
3: Pick out 3 individual film sites from the redberry site to look at, making notes on Redberry's brief and clicking through to the actual film sites to note what marketing tools are used on each of these
4: [you'll have to do this one at home!] What WT materials can you find on (a) MySpace (b) Facebook (c) YouTube?
5: What WT-related fan materials (user-generated content) can you find on YouTube?
6: repeat step 1 for the Warp website

7: Look up http://www.thedrum.co.uk/inbox/press_release/1534-we-love-the-web-warp-films-we-love-the-web/ What does this tell you about Warp's plans to use the web for marketing?
8: can you find any examples of specific websites, not pages on the Warp site, for individual Warp films?
9: look at http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk/ - what does this add to the picture?*
10: [you'll have to do this one at home!] What Warp materials can you find on (a) MySpace (b) Facebook (c) YouTube?
11: Finally, look up www.amazon.co.uk Taking the films you analysed in steps 3 and 8 (look at Donkey Punch and TisEng at least for Warp) and make notes on how many versions/editions of the DVD/Blu-Ray and CD soundtrack you can find, with brief notes on any special features included



Everything you've done here is an illustration of the growing power and importance of viral marketing; the rise of below-the-line marketing (see quote below), strategies which are available to even low-budget, Indie film producers such as Warp:

Below the line (BTL), Above the line (ATL), and Through the Line (TTL), in organizational business and marketing communications, are advertising techniques.
Promotion can be loosely classified as "above the line" or "below the line".
Promotional activities carried out through mass media, such as television, radio and newspaper, are classed as above the line promotion.
The terms "below the line" promotion or communications, refers to forms of non-media communication, even non-media advertising. Below the line promotions are becoming increasingly important within the communications mix of many companies, not only those involved in FMCG products, but also for industrial goods.
"Through the line" refers to an advertising strategy involving both above and below the line communications in which one form of advertising points the target to another form of advertising thereby crossing the "line". An example would be a TV commercial that says 'come into the store to sample XYZ product'. In this example, the TV commercial is a form of "above the line" advertising and once in the store, the target customer is presented with "below the line" promotional material such as store banners, competition entry forms, etc..

 VIRAL MARKETING 

The buzzwords viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.
The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being taken by another competitor.
The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing on-line combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.

[SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing]

*(This links into the auteur theory, which considers the director the main creative force behind a film, and labels an auteur any directors who are seen as having a particularly noteworthy, artistic style - Alfred Hitchcock being an early example. It shows that marketing is now happening at all levels: it traditionally was down to distributors, but production companies can now get involved without spending fortunes on above-the-line marketing [paid-for advertising in TV/press/cinema/radio/billboards] because of the impact of the web)