MySpace and Fox Partner to Launch the 'Black Carpet Screening Series'

This morning, MySpace and Twentieth Century Fox announced the launch of the Black Carpet Screening Series, which will enable MySpace registered users a chance to see early previews of films before they hit theaters. The move is the biggest studio social networking promotion to date, and also marks MySpace’s first foray into a worldwide exclusive event.

The first advance screening will kickoff on September 20th, which will showcase 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,' a full two weeks ahead of the film’s November 3rd premiere. Members in Canada, Germany, the U.K., Ireland and 20 U.S. cities will have a chance to attend local screening events. Users will have to add the Black Carpet profile to their friends list, as well as the film they are interested in seeing, and they will then receive bulletins with details on cities and showtimes.

This looks like an exceptionally smart move by Fox to harness the viral effect of social networks. In effect, it is a brilliant marriage of the proven word of mouth Generating capability of advance screenings to MySpace’s 40 million member social network, and this move will enable the positive word of mouth to spread faster than face-to-face contact. It will be interesting to see which films they choose beyond ‘Borat;’ After all, we have seen how much of a double-edged sword instant word-of-mouth can be.

Nonetheless, this move furthers the synergy between MySpace and News Corp., and looks like a broadening of the studio’s recent efforts to court the youth market with the launch of their Fox Atomic label. It will be interesting to see if further synergies between MySpace and Fox Atomic develop, and also how the other studios will react.

Lionsgate Announces Nationwide Public Word of Mouth Screening Event for 'The Descent'

Lionsgate has teamed up with in-theater ad & promo outfit National CineMedia and Horror rag Fangoria Magazine to launch a one-night-only advance screening event for the upcoming horror thriller 'The Descent.' The special screening will take place next week on July 26th at 8:00 p.m. - nine days ahead of the film's August 4th wide release. The event will be held at 47 participating Regal, United Artists, Edwards, and Cinemark around the country in key markets including New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Miami and Atlanta, among others (a full list of markets is available here). A regular admission charge will be in effect, and tickets can be purchased either online or at the box office the day of the screening.

The producers of the film have created exclusive behind-the-scenes content created especially for the event, and Fangoria has created a microsite to promote the screenings as well. Lionsgate has also linked to the advance ticket sales site from the film’s homepage.

Based on the numerous positive early reviews from fan boy and genre sites such as AICN, Joblo.com and bloodydisgusting.com, the potential for good word of mouth arising from this effort are high, especially since the structure of the event is designed to cater to the "mavens" of the horror genre – Fangoria readers eager to see both the previously-unseen U.S. cut as well as the exclusive extras. Collateral for the film has also been exceptional, with one of the most compelling one-sheets, trailer and web sites of 2006.

This isn't National CineMedia's first foray into movie marketing promotions – Last year, they conducted advance screenings to promote MGM’s 'North Country', as well as a one day re-release of New Line's 'The Wedding Crashers' earlier this year in support of the DVD release. Both screenings also had "special features," including a live satellite Q&A for 'North Country' and exclusive "uncorked" extras for 'Wedding Crashers.'

Echo Bridge Launches R-Rated Viral Game for 'Beer League'

Indie distributor Echo Bridge Entertainment recently launched an "adults-only" pinball game to promote their upcoming theatrical release of their comedy 'Beer League', according to Adotas.com.

Created by Soap Agency, an Australia-based interactive firm, the game features graphics and content matching the movie's racy themes. The film, with a production budget of $2.8 million according to IMDB Pro, stars Artie Lange (The Howard Stern Show, Mad TV) as an unemployed slacker who inspires his softball teammates to improve so they can remain in the local league. In the tradition of "New Dude Cinema," the film is liberally laced with gross-out humor and sexual innuendo, and Soap's effort matches the tone by peppering the game with "unsafe for work" action to boost its viral appeal.

'Beer League' is slated for a limited release on September 15, 2006.

Try the 'Beer League' Viral Pinball Game here (not safe for work)

[link]

Twentieth Century Fox Pushes U.K. 'Garfield' Release with User Generated Content

According to Digital Bulletin, Twentieth Century Fox is launching a viral site that will use user-generated content to promote the U.K. release of 'Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.'

Located at worldwidewhiskers.com, the site enables users to create a special "cat profile," which allows the user to pick attributes like color, food favorites, and pastimes. Users can then scour the globe to find other "cat buddies" that share similar interests.

The site, which is available in nine languages, was designed by Substance, a U.K. based interactive agency. 'Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties' is slated to open in the U.K. on August 18th. The film has grossed $11.05 million since its U.S. release on June 16th.

Technorati tags:movie marketing, Garfield, viral marketing


Via Digital Bulletin

New Video Launches Viral Game to Promote 'Monty Python' DVD Releases

DVD Distributor New Video launched a viral game called the "Silly Walks Generator" to promote their recent DVD release of "Monty Python's Personal Best" for A&E Home Video. The releases are six new DVDs featuring the best bits from all six Pythons plus new content. The game, which has a pretty slick interface, lets you pick a famous Python character and animate them into a "Silly Walk." Our favorite is the knight with the dead chicken, of course.

The viral component comes in when a walk is sent to a friend. I played around with it for a while, and I have to say, it's pretty cool. It took me a second to figure out that the space bar moved the character around, but I tried the animated tutorial, which explained all of the controls. The game comes from a company called Transmote, which, according to their profile, has developed some pretty sophisticated Flash Games for the cable networks (most recently Court TV).

This is the first viral game we've seen dedicated to a DVD release (please correct us if we're wrong) -- what's interesting is that they drive purchases to ten different retail partners - perhaps that's a way of generating "good mojo" with their distribution channels.

Technorati Tags: Viral Marketing, DVD, Monty Python, Flash Games, Movie Marketing

New Line Pulls Racy Viral Marketing Game for 'Running Scared'

Without an announcement, New Line has pulled the sexually-themed portion of the flash game on the 'Running Scared' website, according to Variety. The move comes amidst pressure from the National Institute on Media and the Family, who had made several requests to pull the game. While the game generated considerable buzz throughout the blogosphere (as can be seen here) those conversations didn't translate into box office dollars for the Paul Walker action vehicle -- 'Running Scared' generated a paltry $3.4 million during its opening weekend.

Reaction Negative to Paris Hilton's 'House of Wax' Promo Podcast

If the comments surrounding Paris Hilton's promotional podcasts for 'House of Wax' are any indicator, Warner Brothers' experiment with the format has been poorly received by members of the podcasting community.

According to the message boards on Podcast Alley, a leading source for podcasting shows and info, people are finding the rambling musings of Paris as she wanders around as "boring celeb-spam." Here's an example from one post written yesterday:

I started listening to podcasts in January, and I gotta say that, after hearing the first Paris Hilton "podcast", I am really impressed with how fast the whole thing appears to be going right down the tubes...The Paris Hilton "podcast" is exactly the kind of drivel that drove people to take broadcast content into their own hands in the first place. *This* is what the podcasting community should boycott, and if it is on Podcast Alley only because of the cash involved, P.A. is in real trouble..."

Backlash from insiders is one thing, but are these podcasts going to get anyone interested in the film? After having listened to the show, my verdict is a resounding no. The production values are embarrassing, Paris' unfettered ennui is tiresome, and the grating theme had me reaching for the mute button on my keyboard.

So what have we learned from this experiment?

1. Poor production values -- If you're going to do a commercial podcast, do it right. Hire professionals to record, edit and mix the audio.

2. Boring content -- They should have structured the content to complement the film and build interest in it. We're not talking hiring a crack team of writers or anything -- but even a little bit of structure would have been nice.

3. Wrong audience for the film's demographics -- podcasting is still in it's infancy, and is largely a tech-savvy audience catering to hip, literate men and women in their mid to late twenties. Paris Hilton, awash in disinterest and perpetually disengaged, is about the worst person you could pick to reach out to these people.

So what kind of film would have benefited from a podcast? I can think of two:

Seems like big-budget sci-fi fans are the perfect demo to consume podcasts -- for example, imagine how popular one for the upcoming 'War of the Worlds' film could be, especially if it was a 2005 version of the famed Orson Welles broadcast...

Or maybe a studio could use a podcast to cheaply add web value to a preexisting franchise -- think "Shrek" or "Napoleon Dynamite". Perhaps you could have Napoleon run a fictional Idaho radio station, playing his "flippin' sweet" tunes...

These are just off-the-cuff examples, but I can see something in line with these ideas having a greater impact and the potential for a "viral effect."

You can catch the first two 'House of Wax' podcasts here.

[Via Always On]

Napoleon Dynamite's Marketing? Sweet!

I have yet to see Napoleon Dynamite, but I am impressed with the creativity of the guys and gals at Fox Searchlight's marketing department. If you've been Reading the Movie Marketing Blog this year, you've seen lots of innovations in the marketplace. Well, Fox has followed some of their own best practices and added a few new and interesting marketing tactics to boot:

1. New scenes -- with this Friday's expansion, Fox has added a 5 minute epilogue to entice fans to come back for a second showing. Straight out of the DVD playbook, this technique worked well for Fox with last year’s '28 Days Later'. The difference? The scenes were shot just 4 weeks ago...

2. Fan Club Competition -- Fox has heavily promoted the "Napoleon Dynamite Fan Club," and now has 20,000 people competing in a contest to select the club's president. The competition winner gets a free screening and other perks, and helps the movie by virally spreading the word among the target demographic.

3. Napoleon Dynamite Mixers -- Special pre-film events held in "tastemaker" cities to turn out the fan club base.

4. Audience Participation Script -- Ever heard of the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show'?

5. Iron-On transfers -- Over 40 different designs that can be printed out and made into t-shirts. Branding, anyone? And no cost to the marketer?

All of this effort would be moot if the film was a dog, but the reviews have been pretty good. I did read somewhere (don't remember where) that the film is "like watching a Wes Anderson cover band" or something to that effect, but In my opinion, Fox Searchlight has done an incredible job of making the film into a unique viewer experience.

Related Links:

Official Site
Fan Club
Rotten Tomatoes Review Page