Producers of the film: Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale
Distribution Company: Artisan Entertainment
Cost of marketing campaign: $25million
What made the marketing campaign successful?
This marketing campaign was successful because it was something that people didn't accept it will happen. It was very different to other film marketing campaigns and people were interested in because it was something that they thought was happening around them. It created a lot of hype especially in the town it was film in, Burkittsville, Maryland.
How did the distributors create hype and mystery before social media and before the internet use was a broadly used as today?
Fake clues like pictures, video, interviews and realistically looking camera footage materials were given to the audience as clues for the movie. The film was made before YouTube, Twitter and Facebook even existed therefore the production company didn't have many choices for advertising the movie. They have decided to use everyday media like newspapers to gain interest in what could be happening around. People were interested in it because they didn't know whether it was actually a true story or not. It created a feeling of uncertainty in people's minds. Were they actual people? Had they really disappeared? Surely this couldn't all be fake?
What does it tell us about the production a and distribution?
From the research I've done I found out that the film had a very low production budget (estimated around $60, 000 depending on the sources) but its gross was $140, 539, 099. The production company have eared a lot of money without having to spend too much. Most of the movie is film using a hand held camera witch saves extra money needed for professional filming equipment. After the filming, used cameras were sold to ear some extra money. In conclusion the production was very cheap for quite a high grossing movie and also I don't think the marketing for the film cost the production company a lot of money but was still very successful as it cached people's attention.
Link to the official Blair Witch Project website:
http://www.blairwitch.com/
Link to the Blair Witch Project trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiz6reVupA
Can you think of any other interesting/innovating marketing campaigns for a film?
The Blair Witch Project had one of the best and interesting marketing campaigns and these are a few examples:
The Men in Black |||
The blogger "bugeyes" is supposedly a no-name kid from a no-name town in the middle of nowhere. This likable 14-year-old student likes computer science and researching extraterrestrials, so has gathered information on his blog to prove that aliens and "the men in black suits" are real. This clever campaign from Sony quickly generated over 129 thousand Facebook likes, and ended in a feel-good vlog where bugeyes is recruited to join the team he idolises.
Chronicle
The low-budget superhero movie "Chronicle" used the surreal stunt to generate viral chatter in the weeks leading up to the movie's debut. The "flying people" were actually human-shaped remote-control planes being manipulated by team members on the ground. Fox partnered with ad firm Thinkmodo (the group behind the iPad Head Girl) to generate this clever marketing campaign. A video of the stunt has over 8 million views on YouTube, and the flyers were reported on by the Today Show, Early Today, Bloomberg News, LA Times, ABC, NBC, KTLA, and many other news outlets.
X-Men
Fans got an extra boost when Fox put out the free iPad app "X-Men Extra." The interactive app was actually a digital magazine featuring period (1960's) pieces about the X-Men, for example captioned photos of Xavier sharing a conversation with JFK and Magneto with Fidel Castro. In addition to photos and stories, the digital magazine includes embedded audio clips, videos, and clever special features.
The Simpsons movie
When "The Simpsons Movie" came out in 2007, the marketing team at Fox developed some uniquely creative ideas to stimulate the already excited fan base. Ideas included an integrated campaign that let fans create their own Simpson's-style avatar, play the wrecking ball game on the movie website and explore digital Springfield, enter a contest to be in a Simpson's episode or have their hometown host the movie's premier. But the most visually-interesting part of the campaign was when 7-Elevens around the country were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts. Stores were given Kwik-E-Mart branding and products, including Buzz Cola Squishees and pink-frosted donuts.
Information from:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/32219.asp#multiview
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