"Inception": Hollywood viral marketing calls for strong box office

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on September 1st, Christopher & bull; Nolan, a new film by Christopher & bull; Nolan, known as & ldquo; contemporary Kubrick & rdquo;, will be released in mainland theaters. As a...

on September 1st, Christopher & bull; Nolan, a new film by Christopher & bull; Nolan, known as & ldquo; contemporary Kubrick & rdquo;, will be released in mainland theaters. As a director, Nolan has become famous for the success of the Dark Knight. From Dark Knight to Inception, we can see that it is not only a super-efficient combination of art and commerce, but also a dripping embodiment of the director's personal style.

and behind these two films, we can find that Hollywood films are quite different from domestic films in the early propaganda. If the propaganda of Chinese films is still in the primary stage of socialism, then the propaganda of Hollywood films has left us far behind.

at the 2010 WonderCon Animation Show in San Francisco, some viewers were given a special T-shirt: a strange machine printed on the front and a QR QR code on the back. At the same time, some media reporters and filmmakers also received a mysterious gift: a delicate small tin box with a top and a USB disk in it.

The lucky ones who got it were naturally overjoyed, but they didn't know that the souvenirs and small gifts they received were only part of Warner Brothers' massive viral marketing plan for Inception.

stage 1: cast a net and cable to arouse curiosity

Let's set the clock back to 2009. When Warner first launched Inception's official website, most people were confused about the spinning top on the site: what is this film about? What does the top have to do with the plot? What does the title & ldquo;Inception” mean?

instead of playing cards as early as other films, seasoned Warner marketers keep throwing clues to let you know something about the film, but there are more question marks to tease fans' curiosity, let them spread by word of mouth, and keep paying attention to the film.

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on T-shirt & ldquo; Dream Machine & rdquo; < / center >

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the viral marketing really kicked off at the WonderCon Animation Show in San Francisco mentioned at the beginning of this article. The T-shirt printed on the front is the core prop in the film & mdash;— that allows users to enter other people's dreams & ldquo; Dreamland Machine & rdquo;, while the QR code on the back implies a URL & ldquo;PASIVDevice.org”,. This website is actually an instruction manual for ldquo; Dreamland Machine & rdquo;. It is also the first viral website of Inception.

and the tin box that reporters got is not just a souvenir of the movie. The trailer of the film is stored on the flash drive, and the QR QR code on the box takes people to another viral website of the film, ldquo;Mind Crime” (crime of consciousness). As for the top, it is another crucial prop in the film, which Leonardo relies on to tell whether he is in a dream or in reality.

Inception also has a viral website whose address is hidden in some street posters. The site is called & ldquo;What Is Dream Share? & rdquo; (what is dream sharing) In the form of an anonymous blog, the website introduces the origin and theoretical basis of the dream machine, and tries to uncover the so-called ldquo; dream theft & rdquo; plot.

& ldquo;Mind Crime” is the main website of Inception virus marketing. But among these websites, & ldquo;Mind Crime” is the main website of film virus marketing. The site is divided into four publicity stages, each with new content released, such as posters, trailers, etc. If you want to be the first to see these content, you have to complete small tasks such as maze games. This process is also when netizens give full play to their ingenuity, there is often such a situation, as soon as a clue is released, someone has already cracked it. Of course, this situation does not rule out the possibility of viral marketing personnel helping behind the scenes, but it is also understandable, because the purpose of viral marketing is to arouse everyone's interest, and if everyone is stumped and loses interest in understanding mysteries, the purpose of marketing cannot be achieved.

the second stage: find a good angle and focus on

Inception's marketing team worked with director Christopher from the very beginning. Nolan reached a consensus: the viral publicity of the film should be well balanced and should neither be covered nor unreserved, that is, the audience should not only be familiar with the film in advance, but also keep them fresh when they watch the film.

this is easier said than done, and many films are not well publicized. As a result, the audience already knows the film like the back of their hand and loses the excitement of watching the film. So how does Inception do it? The original marketing staff of the film did not start with the plot, but from the core creativity of the film & ldquo; Dreamland Machine Technology & rdquo;, & ldquo; consciousness Crime & rdquo; and so on, emphasizing that & ldquo; your brain is the crime scene & rdquo;, & ldquo; Dream is also real & rdquo; and other slogans. In this way, the audience will have an understanding of the key settings of the film before watching the movie (which is equivalent to a preview of the difficulties of the next class in advance at school), and they will feel a lot more relaxed when watching the movie.

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& ldquo; Dreamland Machine & rdquo; < / center >

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Nolan once admitted that he was most proud of Inception in which ldquo; invented & rdquo; a technology called the mdash;— Dreamland Machine, so that others can share your dreams. A considerable part of the film shows this technology, which also provides a focus for the film's viral marketing. In addition to the viral website equivalent to the instruction manual, propagandists also shot a video of Nolan interviewing dream scientists to explore the science of dreams and the principle of conscious crime. Nolan took part in the video himself to enhance the reality of the video. The short film achieved good results, and netizens were really interested in the scientific prospect of dreams depicted in the film. they began to think about whether this technology would be realized in the near future, and some media also took the opportunity to do some popular science. Stir up the topic along with the film.

the third stage: do not stick to one style and win by surprise

perhaps encouraged by the early publicity results, the Inception marketing team then increased the marketing of virus related to Dreamland technology, but it backfired, and then the effect of virus publicity was not so good. Netizens seem to lose interest overnight.

Why is that? It turns out that because the technical problems are too professional and obscure, coupled with the frequent viral marketing in the later period of Inception, many netizens have been unable to digest it, resulting in a sense of tiredness and boredom. And viral marketing is very important to arouse the interest of others, no matter how many means are in vain.

< center > & ldquo; Dream is true & rdquo; slogan < / center >

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Inception came out in the later publicity & ldquo; Dream is real & when slogans like rdquo; realized this, the Inception marketing team changed its direction and changed its perspective to do viral marketing of the film. They moved the marketing campaign from online to offline, hanging giant posters on two buildings on the streets of New York, which at first glance gave the illusion that the scene in the movie was real: one was the curl of the facade of the building, revealing the inner floor, and the other was flooding from the windows on the top floor of the building. The two posters are very powerful and very consistent with the propaganda language of the later stage of the film-ldquo;The Dream is Real” (Dream is Real). As soon as they are published on the Internet, they are quickly reprinted by large and small websites, successfully attracting people's attention and making another contribution to the film.

& nbsp; definition of viral marketing

viral marketing (Viral Marketing) is a special marketing method, which does not really carry out marketing by spreading the virus, but through the word-of-mouth of users, spreading information like a virus to thousands and millions of audiences at a very low cost. Viral marketing is a kind of exponential communication mode of ldquo;-rdquo;, which can break out after several generations.

types of viral marketing

according to the mode of communication, viral marketing can be divided into two categories: 1, people's word of mouth; 2, Internet

if you want to follow specific communication channels, it can be divided into several types: e-mail, social networking sites, blog forums, television and radio, direct advertising and flyers, outdoor advertising, text messages, and so on.

and viral marketing mainly takes the following forms: video, Flash, games, software, pictures, text and so on. # p# subtitle # e# successful movie virus marketing case

1. The Blair Witch earned $100m with $1 million

< center > < center > < / center > Blair Witch (1999) < / center > The only valuable thing left today of this horror film in 1999 is its successful viral marketing case. It is the first film to use Internet netizens to promote it. It wraps itself as a documentary, takes advantage of people's curiosity, deliberately confuses virtual and reality, and succeeds & ldquo; scam & rdquo by creating hot topics. The audience walked into the cinema and grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at a low cost of $1 million.

2. The Clover Archives has earned enough eyeballs by extraordinary means

< center > Clover Archives "(2008) < / center >

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the viral marketing of "the Clover Archives" in 2008 was mysterious. There was no news about the film before the trailer was released, and people didn't know what it was about after the trailer was released. Even the actors who were involved in the film didn't know what they were doing, because there was no script. Even the title of the film pretended to be kept secret, only released & ldquo;1-18-08 movie rdquotes; such a release date as a code name. The result of all this is that it has aroused great curiosity and strong interest from the audience and the media, and the film has made a big hit at the box office after its release, creating another miracle at the box office of low-cost films.

3. Hollywood has become the object of ridicule in Tropical Thunder

Tropical Thunder satirizes real Hollywood in many ways, so the film's viral marketers parody real-life Hollywood stars and films and set up a series of virtual websites. Among them, the website opened for the hero & ldquo;Tugg Speedman” is a parody of Tom. Cruise's official website. This method only costs the money of registering domain names and renting servers, but it has achieved good results.

4. District 9 is a successful imitator of the Clover Archives

after the Clover Archives, there are quite a number of films that imitate its viral marketing, including losers like "fourth kind of contact" and winners like "District 9." At first, Sony, the film's production company, deliberately created a sense of mystery for "District 9." they put up promotional posters for the film at Comic-Con San Diego, elevators, escalators, corridors and even bathrooms, and then opened a number of virtual websites online, but they just didn't tell you what kind of story the film told. It was not until some clips of the film were screened that the mysterious veil of the film was slowly unveiled by netizens, satisfying the appetite of the audience. "District 9" methodically simulated the successful viral marketing case of "Clover Archives" (Cloverfield), and the result was also successful.

5. The Midnight Psychic Video is a successful continuation of the Blair Witch

if District 9 imitates the viral marketing of the Clover Archives, then the Midnight Psychic Video obviously borrows from the viral marketing of the Blair Witch. From the beginning, Paramount's publicity team trumpeted that the film was not filmed, but a true record of the family's story, and then made a trailer with the frightened reaction of the audience during the screening, creating topics and earning enough attention. In the end, the film earned a huge box office at a lower cost than Blair the Witch.

although Electronic World Warfare 2 hasn't been released yet, its viral marketing is impressive. At this year's WonderConn show in San Francisco, Disney held a special press conference for the film-ldquo;Encom software company & rdquo;. On the way, some demonstrators from FlynnLives.com broke onto the stage with slogans. After the event, some people parachuted to make a scene. In fact, they are all actors, that skydiving is the film's leading actor Garrett Hedlund, so serious & ldquo; fake real & rdquo; people have to admire the film's bold and meticulous viral marketing.