Further research- Viral marketing

To further my research, in order to get a grip of the type of campaign I am trying to achieve and based on the case study of Cloverfield, I thought I should delve deeper into what viral marketing actually is and what mediums it cover. By the end of my research i should have a rough idea of what type of viral campaign I will approach to create my promotion package, whether it bean online or print campaign.

Viral Marketing- Viral marketing is the term referred to the marketing techniques

that use social networks to get a brand going. They use the virus effect to 'infect' people with the next big thing. Viral marketing has been a success for films such as Cloverfield, The Dark Knight and Inception. Viral marketing is also created through word of mouth, which is where Viral marketing excels as it couses a chain reaction, a friend tells a friend who tells another friend.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 highlights the new generation of online users to interact with anything and everyone, wherever they are in the world. Buzzwords such as mashups and flaash have evolved the web as it is allowing the capacity of the user to be endless. Social networking (such as Facebook and Twitter) and file sharing sites (Youtube And Flickr) have paved the way for users to control whatever goes on the internet. Web 2.0 has opened the door to so many new websites and software, making the internet an essential part of daily life. Many film promotions use this medium for distribution of its products such as trailers.

Forums create the ideal environment for people to discuss and debate about the 'hot topic', allowing people, that do not neccessarily have to know each other to converse about the latest film or new leaked information about and upcoming production.

Facebook :-Facebook is probably the most popular Social networking site out at the moment, allowing people to converse over the internet, sharing photos, statuses and comments. Facebook was released in 2004 and already has 500 million active users. Many films companies and producers have a generic facebook account with updates on the latest news. the ability to create and like groups, creates a micro-cosm of a soceity and the publicity builds on these foundations.

Twitter:- Twitter has also been in the social netwrok market, being more popular with celebritis that facebook. Twitter allows the users to type a message no lojner than 150 characters, 'tweets' , providing short sucsynced messages. Most websites advertise to

share their information through twitter, such as YouTube which have an option to share the video just watched on Twitter. Actors and film magazines, in particular, hat are on twitter help

to promote films and advertise them. For example actors can leak information about how their day shooting for the new film that they are in has gone. Since the messages cannot be longer than 150 characters it also doesnt give much away. Film magazines, such as total films, post links to articles about the latest news gossip. To a degree Twitter could be classified as the online 'Word of mouth'.

YouTube:- YouTube is the largest video sharing community on the internet, with a staggering 24 hours worth of video uploaded every minute, with the website itself getting over 2

billion views a day. Youtube is the ideal community for people to share and comment on videas and it has become a very important website for film companies and film makers to promote their films. Nearly every film company has a YouTube channel, which includes trailers and promo videos. Aspiring young film makers also have the chance to put their films and get them noticed on Youtube, creating a buzz about the next big film maker. YouTube would be part of the core of promoting and film, especially virally.

Myspace:- Myspace was once the king of the social networking, where users create a webpage and can customise their page to whatever they desire. Myspace was used primarily to promote bands and share their music. Arctic monkeys became famous through myspace and now they are one of the most well known indie bands. In addition to this myspace was also u

sed for film promotion. For example, The characters from Cloverfield had their own fictional myspace page to present them as real people. Also, the films soundtrack could be put on myspace as a way of expanding and exploiting all its opportunities to promote. The idea of characters of my f ilm having a social networking page would be a good idea and would be considered as it would be fit for purpose of a viral marketing campaign.

Flickr:- Flickr is a picture and video hosting allowing users to post images on the internet. Flickr has now over 5 billion images on its site. Flickr would be an effective way of promoting a film as it could leak photos of a viral film that is being anticipated and could promote its posters as a digital format or ambiguous images to leave hints and building up a buzz.

RSS:- RSS feeds allow people to follow whatever news the want and it will be presented to them on their homepage. RSS feeds are an easy way to get information across to the globe. RSS helps spread the word of official news instantly and effectively. New films or content for a film can be accessed one click away from your homepage.

All these Web 2.0 aspects provide me with endless possibilities into how I can get my promotional package across as the wide range of integration between social networking and the ability to put my work on the internet, where people around the world can see it and have their opinion and even receive feedback over the internet, as well as advertising my work virally.

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