Film Producers Exploit New Viral Marketing Techniques

Online video sites like YouTube are Hollywood's hottest new marketing tool. And in a way similar to what their theatrical counterparts are doing with new movies, studio DVD marketers are scrambling to harness the power of viral marketing by posting trailers of upcoming DVD releases to these nascent sites and hoping they get passed along -- again, and again, and again.

Some studios are even staging contests and other promotions to capture the interest of the mostly teens and young adults who tend to use these sites -- the same demographic that drives DVD sales.

"Because DVD consumers are increasingly getting their entertainment information online, Internet marketing has become an intrinsic component of all our DVD campaigns," said Ken Graffeo, exec vp marketing at Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "The key is coming up with creative concepts that speak directly to a title's core audience."

In March, Universal partnered with Revver, another video site whose official launch is this month, to promote the "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" DVD. Consumers were asked to create their own video, explaining why Chappelle should attend their own fictional block party; creators of the five most popular videos received a free DVD, while the grand prize winner also got a four-day, three-night expense-paid trip to New York.

Paramount Home Entertainment recently started posting "some content" to YouTube and now averages three trailers a month.

"We want to make sure it's right for our audience," said Michael Arkin, the supplier's senior vice president of marketing. "Right now we have a fun video from our upcoming release 'Queer Duck: The Movie."'

Arkin said Paramount began posting trailers "because our target (audience) now really migrates online to find information about DVDs."

Story source: reuters.com.