Snakes on a cellphone
August 10th, 2006 by Kristin
So movies are kind of a big thing for me…. I’m a Netflix junkie with over 300 movies in my Queue. But as a general rule, I try not to do a movie marketers job for them. I know that viral marketing is the best of all worlds but as movie executives learn that you can get other people to market your movie for you for free, recent viral marketing campaigns have seemed forced and obvious.
But I can’t help myself. I love this. I love this so much. You can have Samuel L. Jackson call your best friends, co-workers, roomates, etc. telling them to go see his new movie, Snakes on a Plane. The call is fantastic. The one I sent to my boyfriend was customized to tell him to stop pimping his truck (he drives a big red one) and playing with funny money (he works at an investment firm) and take his girlfriend Kristin to see Snakes on a Plane on August 18. It is just so much fun. (you know you want to do it…. go ahead… I’ll wait…. done? Great, isn’t it?)
But beyond the novelty of marketing a B movie to your friends via personalized calls, this is a fantastic PR opportunity not only for the movie, but for Varitalk the company that produces and delivers the messages. Despite the fact that their system was overwhelmed by the 100,000 calls in the first 24 hours of the promotion, the company has gotten some pretty great press around this customer installation: InfoWorld, AdAge, CNet, and the LA Times.
While a lot of the press surrounding this that doesn’t reference Varitalk directly (including the Entertainment Weekly blog where I first discovered this) , the value of it all is undeniable. A client with a cool technology and an extremely recognizable customer is a Tech PRer’s dream, and this is one sweet dream come true for someone…
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 10:01 am and is filed under Marketing, News & Commentary, Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
August 10th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
I’m just glad I finally figured out who sent Samuel L. to my cellphone last Friday near the bar at Pho Republique (the crispy tuna sashimi springrolls are the best appetizer in the world – how’s that for word-of-mouth marketing?!)
Are there any fun Boston-area journalists/bloggers who want to observe numerous agency employees attend a movie premier?
While we’re hyping amazing, creative marketing campaigns (and content), here’s my entry …
Generating Buzz The Sixties Way
article in Advertising Age:
An ad promoting the second season of “Weeds,” the Showtime series that stars Mary-Louise Parker as a widowed mom who supports her two boys by dealing pot in a fictitious Los Angeles suburb, smells like marijuana, or patchouli oil, or “hippies,” or whatever–who cares, what’s the difference, man? It appears in the Aug. 24 issue of Rolling Stone. “There was a lot of back and forth about the scent,” said George DeBolt, VP-media, Showtime. “We wanted to have the scent be as close as possible to marijuana. It’s the buzz factor, if you will.” Other promotions for the show include “Munchie Mobiles” that will show up at concerts and other events to hand out “Weeds” merchandise and brownie (unadulterated) giveaways in six cities.
Mmmmmm, brownies
August 10th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I was a little chuffed that the program did not recognize the name “Doug” (too ethnic?). It made it hard to personalize my message.
I shall henceforth be named “Ronald”.
Ah well, this is the biggest online buzz film since The Blair Witch Project.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Is it totally unethical blog etiquette to quote someone’s e-mail? Aw, who cares – this is Todd’s great post-movie note to Topaz – and the movie is the greatest of all time:
I was there last night, shouting at the screen. F#%&ing brilliant movie. I’m not sure if this will be the next Rocky Horror Picture Show, as the second half of the movie is just so fast paced there isn’t a lot of space for the kind of audience participation that made RHPS so much fun–the best thing you can do is split the audience up into snake-cheers and Jackson-cheerers and let them go at it. But the first half is PERFECT for interaction and comic timing. I like to think we made a positive contribution to that end.
See the audience participation wiki: http://snakeplay.pbwiki.com/script (the password is soap: I already added my alternative to the limo signs–I encourage additions and edits!)