This is a Viral Blog Post . . .
It may not be new to alot of us, but it’s everywhere, and it’s not going away anytime soon. The impending success of the “The Dark Knight” will ensure that it’s utilized for at least the next 2 years. Just take a look at some the “viral” websites the Batman folks have unleashed:
I Believe in Harvey Dent Too (Hold your click & scroll through the black page)
The time, effort, & detail put into this effort is nothing short of extraordinary. There’s been lots of buzz surrounding this film, some of if it unfortunately due to the loss of Heath Ledger (who IMHO was the finest actor of his generation), and it will likely own the summer. Some marketers will point to it’s brilliant marketing campaign, and it’s many viral components as a reason for some of it’s success. Although the campaign has been nothing short of brilliant, let’s be honest – it’s always about the product. A brilliant marketing campaign can get you a big bump on opening weekend, but if the movie is crap, that’s all your going to get, but i’m getting ahead of myself –
3 things about viral campaigns –
1. They’re almost always geared towards fans. I’m not talking about “Yeah – I loved Batman Begins, and i can’t wait for the sequel” fans. I’m talking about the Die-Hards, the Geeks the ones checking Aint It Cool, Chud, http://www.ign.com/, and the gazillion other geek sites out there EVERY morning. The point is – it’s preaching to the choir – Geeks, are going whether you market to them or not, so the whole point of doing a viral campaign seems a little redundant. PS – This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do it, because I’m the first one to admit that I eat it all up.
2. You have to know you’re audience. Trying to do a viral campaign for someone like state farm, or AAA, which I’ve seen by the way, just seems wrong. I could be way off here, but i doubt the target audience for State Farm is the “viral” type of crowd. This reeks of some Big Shot Agency type of guy selling something really whiz-bangy to a client that doesn’t need it. For a viral campaign to work, you’ve got to have the right product and an audience whose receptive to both the product and the viral medium(s).
3. It’s ALL about product. Keeping with a movie theme, The Dark Knight’s brilliant viral campaign is rivaled only by the folks responsible for Lost and Cloverfield. But it’s successful because of it’s product. Conversely, Snakes on a Plane, had a brilliant viral marketing campaign, that was highly regarded and rightfully so, however the movie was crap. So did it really work?
Viral is a great and wonderful thing when used on the right product, in the right hands, on the right audience.
To Forward this article to a friend . . . just kidding.
This entry was posted on 07.02.2008 at 11:13 am and is filed in the blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.