Creative talent has never had a stage like the one Web 2.0 has given it, and marketers have never had a mine so deep to tap. The trick, as Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) knows, is producing solid and measurable strategy from the nebulous world of social media, software as a service, and viral marketing while utilizing the talent available and begging to be found.
Warner and RES magazine have emerged as the teachers of how to do this as they peg the members of Jumpcut.com, a social networking startup that allows would-be filmmakers to use its server side software to upload and edit videos and post them online, to promote Richard Linklater’s film, “A Scanner Darkly,” opening July 7. The movie stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder.
The trio launched an online contest challenging Jumpcut citizens to create a promotional trailer for the film using 49 still images and 23 video clips provided. In addition to some credit, the winner receives a trip the movie’s US premiere and a Microsoft Windows professional video editing workstation. Site visitors, voting on their favorite, will win another filmmaker a kind of “people’s choice” award.
While the winners get some exposure (and perhaps an interesting after-party with a few of the more notorious Hollywood personalities – “A Scanner Darkly” is a movie about drug abuse after all), WIP gets something quite valuable as well: cheap marketing and Internet buzz.
“Instead of having one movie trailer out, Warner Independent has many, and this is only the first day,” said Mike Folgner, Miravida Media chief executive officer and co-founder on Wednesday. “By the end of this contest they could have hundreds of movie trailers that are passed from friend to friend.”
Jumpcut.com is also procuring arrangements with SixApart, eBay, Google, Flickr, AOL’s new UnCut, MySpace and YouTube to get the word out about the movie.
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