The Blair Witch Project
These days the movie industry is all about money as movie budgets soar along with the money invested in an advertising campaign.
But there are a handful of movies that are going about promoting themselves in a completely different manner - with an online viral campaign.
Paranormal Activity 2 has topped the box office on both sides of the Atlantic in the last couple of weeks and this has mainly come from a viral buzz.
However the wonders of viral is not necessarily a new concept as you can go back as far as 1999 to look at movies who has benefited from this type of buzz.
It was the Blair Witch Project back in 1999 really showed how effective an online marketing campaign could be as this was the most talked about movie of the year.
Three unknown actors played the trio of filmmakers who went into the woods to film a documentary about the Blair Witch.
They went into the woods near Burkittesville, Maryland and their footage was found twelve months later.
There were several online sites that suggested that this movie was based on a real story and that the footage was genuine - this just added to the mystery and intrigue that surrounded the release.
The Blair Witch Project went on to take in excess of $248 million at the global box office, not bad for a movie made on the rather meagre budget of $22,000.
And while there have been movies that have enjoyed the viral buzz before Paranormal Activity came along it was this horror movie that really capitalised on the era of Facebook and Twitter.
It was word of mouth that brought this movie success twelve months ago after it was given a very limited release.
As the buzz around the movie grew it opened in more and more cinemas and eventually hit the #1 spot after climbing up the charts due to excitement that has been growing on line
Much like The Blair Witch Project this movie was shot in a home video kind of way as a couple set up I camera in their bedroom after continuingly being disturbed by a demonic presence.
The movie eventually made $191 million world wide and a sequel has also enjoyed box office success; this time around grabbing the number one spot in the opening week.
Snakes On A Plane enjoyed a similar word of mouth success as people who had seen the movie began talking about it on line.
Samuel L. Jackson also did some online promotion - which just added to the internet hype surrounding the film. This was topped off by fans then suggesting other animal causing havoc on transport movies.
The mere secrecy surrounding JJ Abrams’ 2008 release was enough to set the internet alive with chatter and speculation as to what the movie would be about.
The film cleverly tapped into this online interest by launching a viral campaign that included viral tie-ins as well as teaser trailers that just heightened excitement around the release.
And the online marketing worked for the movie as it went on to gross over $170 million - easily making back it’s $25 million budget - as well as winning over the critics.
Seeing the success of these movies in recent years, in particular Paranormal Activity in the last twelve months, we can safely assume that online marketing and the power of social networks will be fully capitalised on as an effective as well as money saving way of promoting a movie.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Paranormal Activity