In 1999, the Internet was still an undiscovered source. Not many people were sure how to use it to help them reach audiences and promote products, other than advertising. Most of the teenagers and college students that were online spent their time on message boards and in chat rooms. Enter The Blair Witch Project, a small independent film with a tiny budget. This campaign is considered one of the first of its kind and named one of the best by Forbes Magazine in 2010.
Stories about three college documentary makers, Heather Donahue, Josh Leonard and Michael William, disappeared in the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland in October of 1994 while searching for the urban legend called the Blair Witch, started to appear through out message boards and often citing blairwitch.com. It told the story of the “infamous” Blair Witch, and also told about the disappearances of the three college students. On the website news clips from local stations, police photos and a time line of the actions laid out perfectly for users to follow along with the story as it had happened. All of this made it easy to share on different websites, and soon spread across the internet like wild fire.
From footage that was "found" in the woods, The Blair Witch Project was born. Due to the ability to spread news quickly and the cost effectiveness of it, the directors of the movie decided to spread news of the project online, through something now know as viral marketing. Not only did the images and word spread about the film quickly, but a debate sparked, fueling more people's need to go see the film.
Viral marketing is now a great way to get fans involved and has grown since the basic days of The Blair Witch Project, but I love a good viral marketing campaign, like the one Lost had every off season.
Check out the Blair Witch Site if you would like, it is pretty sweet.
Till Next time!
Heather
No comments:
Post a Comment