With the Academy Awards around the corner (Sunday February 27, 2011 to be exact), it’s that time of year again when we can expect studios to churn out movie contenders for Hollywood’s largest, most prestigious, most coveted awards. But fame, glamor, and makeup aside, the Hollywood industry is no different than any other business/industry; it must develop a brand, and market its product/service.
Hollywood is a great example of an industry that has molded its marketing strategies to compliment rising trends to reach its audience, and it’s fun to examine how it has evolved. Remember when you used to see movie trailers as TV commercials? Now it seems like the fad to make it in time for the previews before your movie starts, but even that is giving way to more modern social media tactics. Of course, studios divert inroads with audiences through traditional publicity, but now-a-days, they would be hard-pressed not to use social media sites such as youtube, facebook, and twitter to implant excitement for its movie releases. Here are two successful examples:
To peak interest in the release of the third installment of the Toy Story franchise, Pixar implanted this alternate reality of a (fake) 80’s commercial to introduce its new character, Lots-O, which you can watch here on YouTube.
And while we’re on the subject of Pixar and Disney: Congratulation to Disney for reaching asocial media milestone of 100million fans on facebook.
Paranormal Activity was produced on a $15,000 budget and initially went on limited theater release, but thanks to a facebook fanpage campaign, it went on to gain one million fans to pressure its nationwide release. Its sequel was released this past October and bother movies went on to gross over $356 million.
The Hollywood industry has found its niche within the world social media, but it’s certainly not the end of it. And as any clever business would know, it must continue to adapt to the changing trends of social media.
As a fun little side note, I predict another Oscar nomination of Best Animated Feature for Pixar. Please share your thoughts, Oscar predictions, or if you’ve seen other clever examples of studios promoting their movies through social media.
Written By: Jaszver Bauzon
