Movie Marketing Madness

“Movie Marketing Madness

Movie marketing news, reviews and opinion by Chris Thilk.
http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com”

This site provides an incredible amount of detail on upcoming movies and the marketing campaigns behind them. Of particular relevance to me are those articles that discuss the word of mouth method of advertising movies and while they are all fascinating, one of these that I have chosen to examine in depth is, “At what point do we begin to do harm?”http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2009/06/01/at-what-point-do-we-begin-to-do-harm/

Here, Chris Thilk discusses the  cons of the internet and its effect on the world of viral marketing. In particular he asks the question, “How far is too far?” when we consider the role we are all able to play in the success or failure of entertainment media and its various word of mouth methods of marketing. Thilk cites the root of this problem being in that everyone has a voice on the internet, although is adamant to clarify that not all voices are equal.  Hence, one might draw from this conclusion that Thilk believes the blame lies not with the creators of the product allowing it free reign within the sphere of the internet, but with those with whom viral marketing relies, the public.

Thilk takes the stance that these fans of movies are hypocritical in the sense that on the one hand they purport their love for something while at the same time bringing it down by, for example, posting leaked scripts and rumours that are very often detrimental to the product. Contrarily to this however, it is my opinion that the creators should embrace such seemingly unwanted attention and use it to their marketing advantage. Obviously a technology with such a global impact as the internet can be harnessed for both good and evil and as such, it demonstrates a profound knowledge to be able to use this to your advantage. This is done readily in successful viral marketing campaigns and therefore, the internet is extraordinarily beneficial to the movie marketing cause.