NBC-Universal uses horizontal integration to keep Damon franchise airborne

Okay, so this might not be part of the OFFICIAL marketing blitz from NBC-U - but such trivial but viral UGC as this vine is worth many millions in advertising spend when considered as a whole, able to penetrate beyond core audiences targeted by the distributors. Here's where I found it:

An unofficial JB Facebook page with 48k likes.

The Vine was featured by a UK newspaper:

My main point here, however, is a good example of how the mega-conglomerates can flex their muscles to mutually benefit different wings: NBC-U both creating and benefitting from pre-release hype of the new Bourne movie by playing the Damon-starring previous films across EIGHT of its NBC-U channels. Research indicated that existing franchise fans were the key audience for the movie, so NBC-U sought to reinforce familiarity with the long-running franchise:

UGC #IvorIsComing to Shaun of the Dead

'The text' extends far beyond the 'product' officially released...

[Hoping to finally find some time in a few weeks to work through months of mainly smartphone-sourced posts and properly format/illustrate these ... and here's another for that growing catalogue...]

Great example of the UGC concept which provides a rather funny demonstration of why Gauntlett, Gillmor and more are right to write of "the former audience" in the web 2.0 era (OK, so the shift to social media online dominance gives some sway to the web 3.0 label, but that's yet to gain the same currency).

Scroll to the bottom of the Unilad article linked below [NB: comments, fairly typically, contain strong language, and the article itself contains some - I've linked a Love, Actually alternative at the bottom] and you'll see a doctored SotDead still, one of many filmic responses to the viral mocking of an Irish hipster. I'll share a screenshot in due course.

Working Title, never mind their conglomerate parent NBCU or SotD's distributor, have no control over this - though surely smarter film firms will be keen to share, encourage and maybe even (albeit with risks of backlash) create such UGC?

There's convergence here too: a website accessed through a social media platform reporting on and sharing Twitter and Instagram trending content which features many film references, and which I, like most, accessed and viewed on my smartphone before further sharing on Blogger!

MARKETING Do viral campaigns REALLY work?

Another Vaughn flop sparked off this article...

They can do, but often fail to boost box office, even if the campaign materials have been enormously popular, according to Ben Lee. He cites the now classic case of a vibrant, highly engaged social media campaign that failed to stimulate comparable box office...

But although studios continue to distract attention from the movies themselves with such trickery, the proof is in the rather deflated pudding. In the summer of 2006, the most talked about film by far was New Line’s high-concept thriller Snakes on a Plane. As soon as it was announced, the film became online catnip, and fake trailers, artwork and fan fiction flooded the web. The official campaign capitalised on this outpouring with reshoots to include fan-created dialogue, a competition for bands to send in music for the end credits, and prerecorded messages from star Samuel L Jackson that you could send to your friends’ phones. But the buzz failed to turn into box office, and the film opened to a disappointing $14m in the US.
While adding some colour to a mediocre film’s campaign helps to increase awareness and online conversation, it’s failed to translate into an increase in box office. A study last year by Nielsen showed that the younger, more digitally aware consumers who would be the core audience for online stunts are losing interest in the cinema, with a 15% decline in their attendance year on year. It’s also worth remembering the importance of simplicity. Google conducted a survey which found that a film’s official trailer is three times more important than any other information source when it comes to influencing moviegoing decisions.

Lots of other useful examples in the full article!

Great publicity campaign, shame about the movie.

Inside: Hollywood blurring audience/producer; are YOU?

'Social film': blurring audience/ad/producer divide

In time, we'll consider various web 2.0 theories that typically argue that the contemporary, highly interactive (as opposed to top-down, one way) web is seeing the traditional dividing line between audience/consumer and producer wither away. Concepts such as UGC (user-generated content) and fan-made videos (a key revenue source for YouTube and record labels, through the advertising attached to these) have become very mainstream. Viral campaigns also present ads as fictional or reality texts (including music videos, not just film/'reality' clips).

The fiasco of Snakes on a Plane showed that democratising and outsourcing creative work to an audience (in that case in an effort to create money-spinning buzz and awareness) can be a disaster, but we will most certainly see more and more of this. I've blogged elsewhere about examples of film production company Working Title's slick marketing campaign for films such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which used online (spy-style) puzzles as part of multimedia campaign spanning supermarkets, posters and other such traditional fare with social media elements.

If you watch the short video below (3mins), ask yourself where the line is drawn here between audience and producer, and film and advertising (the title meshes with Intel's slogan, Intel inside), with the audience given chances to appear in the film and shape the script, whilst the blogs and other online videos and guides that sprang became part of the meta-text (a postmodern theory term).

Then ask yourself what use YOU are making of social media for producing your work. Have YOU used social media for...

• casting?
• initial genre/audience research through fan forums?
• generating pre-release buzz through a company blog/FB/Twitter/Instagram (etc!)?
• gaining audience feedback through any of the above (and YouTube/Vimeo of course)?
• used tagging/labels in Blogger/YouTube etc to attract more hits to help with the above?
• tried YouTube video responses/messages/comments to link to other film/video-makers?
• designed a viral-style campaign element which helps to involve an audience and increase publicity/awareness?
• generated and used a QR code as part of this?
• generally considered options for direct audience involvement in/influence on your production?

This is the film Inside, which is itself a good example of the viral methods used by conglomerates these days to get through to ad-weary and wary consumers (Toshiba and Intel were behind this movie): IMDB, Wiki, links to their FB/website etc are in this article. They coined the term 'social film' for this approach.

A beginner's guide to blockbusters

Great article from Murdoch paper The Times taking a wry, but well-informed, look at the process of making a hit movie - lots here you can reference, especially within your coursework blogs and evaluations:

From Times Online

-->

April 24, 2010

A beginner's guide to blockbusters

You need neither script nor star to have a box office success, it’s all just a matter of timing, chutzpah and explosives

--> --> --> --> --> -->

“The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things — Bread and Games!”
So wrote the poet Juvenal in AD104, but then he never lived to witness the blockbuster movie season in America: one long canyon run stretching between Memorial Day and Labour Day, in which the studios loose one $200-million behemoth after another in what amounts to what one observer has called a “multimillion-dollar demolition derby played with Porsches”. To make sense of all this, here is a ten-point guide to surviving the summer season.
1. Pick a date. Any date, as long as it lies between May and August. The summer used to be a wasteland, the place the studios dumped dreck like Electra Glide in Blue (“He’s a good cop. On a big bike. On a bad road”); blockbusters were things that happened once in a generation, like Gone with the Wind. But then along came Jaws and Star Wars, ripping up all known box-office records, and audiences hunkered down for repeats. Blockbusters became things that happened every year. Now, a new one is expected every week. This year Iron Man 2 on May 7 is followed a week later by Robin Hood, then Shrek Forever After, then Prince Caspian, all jostling for position.
“There are more teens living in America now than in the history of this country,” says Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “It’s all about when the schools are out. It’s driven by that, by how you get them into theatres