Hey everyone, Producer of "No Tomorrow" Chris Pluchar here with Part 2 of 2 in our marketing adventure. In Part 1, I discussed the logic behind our decision to create a teaser or proof of concept piece for "No Tomorrow" instead of a making a no budget feature. In this part, I'd like to take that a step further and discuss some of the methods we'll be using to try and take this viral. If only it was as simple as biting your victim.
Illustration Courtesy of: www.rylanclayne.com
If you're unfamiliar with the concept, it's essentially a legal pyramid scheme fan based strategy. The above illustration pretty much sums it up (Note: It's not essential that we all dress alike for this to work.). You have the content creator who initially shares the video/song/article/joke/etc. with their friends/family/coworkers/audience. Those people then turn around and share it with their friends/family/coworkers/audience. And the rest is history.
Nobody knows exactly what makes some things go viral when others go nowhere, but we can assume that it has something to do with the perceived value of the content being shared. Is the joke funny? Is the information useful? Is the story exciting? If the answer is yes to these questions, then it's likely that your peers will also appreciate the content being shared and continue to share it.
What we do know is it's extremely important that you use everything you can to increase the likelihood of success. Here's a quick list of some of the online resources we'll be using.
- Film Website (under construction)
- Digg
- Blogger
- YouTube
There's also a load of blogs and websites dedicated to film and zombies which we're also working to actively engage. Add in some traditional marketing (email blasts, local press, alumni networks, etc.) and we're covering quite a few bases.
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| Poster Courtesy of: www.likemoyd.com |
We've also decided to create three mini teasers that we'll post each day leading up to the posting of the main teaser. We hope this will help increase interest and encourage our followers to spread the word before the final launch. Additionally, you can expect that we'll be loading all kinds of content onto the Facebook page, this blog, and the website (when it's ready). That means stills, looks behind the scenes, concept art, storyboards, posters (like the one to the right), crew posts, and more.
Now you're probably asking yourself, "How do you know if you were successful?" There's no clear answer, but there are a few milestones. Over the last year or so, the videos that have gotten the most attention are the ones that reached 10,000 views in a couple of weeks or so. It's true, the faster the better, but there are no hard and fast rules regarding a minimum number of views before someone who can provide funding for a feature takes notice.
This is where you come in. We have no hope of being successful without the wonderful support of our friends, family, coworkers, fans, casual acquaintances, and people we've never met. Getting "No Tomorrow" to the finish line is going to be a massive group effort. From now until the main teaser is posted, we need you to spread the word, invite people to join the Facebook page, and share the blog link. When the main teaser is posted on 12-09-10, it's imperative that we spread it like a virus and/or wildfire (whichever you prefer).
And that's the gist of our plan (summarized to spare you the painstaking details). If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to let me know. And if you want to help market in a more direct way, we'd be happy to find a way to get you involved.
Take Care,
Chris Pluchar
Chris Pluchar
Great post, Chris.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd add is that it's essential that you *participate* and *listen* and *contribute* to discussions about film and make promoting your film part of participating in a community of film fans and artists. The way you get people to listen to you about your work (and get engaged, and click your links, and pass them on) is to listen to them about their work and make a contribution to the overall discussion.
For example, there is a huge community of indie filmmakers on Twitter, often engaged in discussing filmmaking and film watching. Some people are amazing at combining self-promotion with adding value and contributing insights and material, but many are not so good. I get notices all the time that so-and-so filmmaker is now "following" me on Twitter. I click on that person's profile and see what they have to say. If their Twitter feed is one long stream of "Hey, watch my trailer!" "Hey, watch my trailer!" "Hey, watch my trailer!" "HEY CLICK MY THING, YOU GUYS!" "DONATE TO MY SWEET FILM ON KICKSTARTER" I will never follow them back and watch their trailer. Why should I? Life is short, and there are many trailers.
But if that same person responds to something I say with a neat comment or a question, then we're having a conversation. And with a few conversations comes a relationship. So then when they have content to share, I'm way more excited to click on it and, if it's good, share it with my friends. And when I have something to share, I'll feel comfortable asking for an opinion in return, and then everyone rises together.
The other thing I'd say is that Facebook and Twitter are good vehicles for driving traffic to your website, but, I'm sort of paraphrasing the great Sheri Candler here, if you use Facebook as your film's default homepage then Facebook alone has all the metrics of who your audience is. Whereas on your website, you own those reports about traffic. That is one of the things you have to sell to investors. "We know that our fans are x level of educated and located in the following cities, so we should concentrate our marketing efforts in those places (and co-market our film with x kinds of products)." If you rely only on Facebook, they use those stats to sell to their own investors and advertisers.
As you can tell, I have Thoughts. Continued good luck to you, and keep these great posts coming.
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteSome great insights. Participation in the community discussion and adding value to the community are perhaps the two most important things if you're using a platform like Twitter. Someone did a study at some point (vague enough?) and they concluded that you should only tweet your own stuff 10% of the time. The rest should be spent retweeting others, sharing links for resources, news, etc.
Makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Who wants to join Twitter only to see millions of people tweeting about themselves (aside from Colbert, love his life tweets)?
Rod Plummer is a proponent of the "Emotional Bank", which I think applies to exactly what you're saying. The more you build up the relationship, the more you can count on them to support you in your endeavors.
Your point about hosting your homepage on Facebook is also noted. It's unfortunate that you can't ignore the 500 million pound elephant and focus solely on your website. However, we basically agreed it was the most likely place we could get early support and it doesn't require people to remember yet another link. Once the website is up and running, we'll definitely direct traffic to that.
Thanks for your thoughts and the luck!
Take Care,
Chris
Chris, I love the idea of the "Emotional Bank." Sums it up beautifully.
ReplyDelete