So I’ve been dying to follow up on the article I wrote a few months back called Snakes on a Plane: The Ultimate Headline. The entire premise of the article was the brilliance of the “non-marketing” marketing campaign used by New Line to build a buzz. It was so innovative(at least in my opinion).
There were no “official” trailers put out. They simply had that name, that wonderful name, out there. And before you knew it homemade trailers were showing up all over the internet. There was hardly anyone who hadn’t heard about the movie before they started the traditional trailers and advertising. (Please excuse my talk of traditional vs. non-traditional marketing schemes for the film industry…purely from the viewer’s point of view!)
So anyway, those events alone inspired me to write the article and also to continue thinking of more “out there” headlines for future articles. And wow, do I thank the Snakes people for that. The Snakes on a Plane article has gotten by-far the best response of anything I’ve written since jumping into the article marketing game. It’s even brought a few article writing gigs my way.
So a few weeks after I wrote that piece, I got a phone call from Samuel L. Jackson. No, I’m not lying. If you don’t happen to have any friends with too much time on their hands and didn’t receive a similar call, let me explain.
There is a new kid in town in the interactive marketing world, at least new to me. Their name is Varitalk, and they apparently offer many different interactive solutions.
One of their nifty options being a customizable voice mail message from a celebrity spokesperson to anyone you want to send it to. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should really check it out!
Basically, you type in your name, your friend’s name, a few different phrasing options and both of your phone numbers, hit send and the call is made. They’ve recently added a similar program for America’s Next Top Model as well.
Anyway, as I sent the Snakes message to everyone in my phone book, I once again was awestruck with these ingenius ways of getting attention. In retrospect, I will say that I’m not sure exactly how well that translated into box office sales for the film…I really don’t know. But I will say that as far as viral marketing and the like for name recognition, I think the whole scheme was brilliant!