Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a form of marketing which is done online. The use of the internet can be helpful in the ways in which it can be seen universally and reach wider audiences. I created a questionnaire that was sent via email to several friends and also shared on social networking sites such as Facebook. I wanted to see what audiences thought to the synopsis of our film and to see if we had the right target audience. One of the most important questions within the questionnaire was, "Which title do you think is suitable for the film?" and if anyone could come up with their own title for the film. I believe tat the audiences responses can improve a film dramatically as they are the consumers and know what they want to view. I found that emulating existing products was helpful as I was able to demonstrate what our film could potentially create if made into a feature length film. As well as having  a website, most mainstream films have a Facebook Page which allows the audience to like and share the information about the film and allow friends and other potential viewers the Facebook page for the particular film.
I created a Facebook page of the film in order to replicate what a real life media product can do in order to attain an audience. On the Facebook Page I am able to write information about the upcoming short film and share inside footage of the film to potential audiences. In the set up process on Facebook website, I was bale to input the description of what the purpose of the page was to inform the potential audience. Below is a screenshot of the information I inputted upon setting up the page.

I then created a profile picture for the film. I identified that other products used film posters for their profile picture or an iconic character that can be recognised within the film. As our film is during the early stages of production, I have decided to use a mock Playback poster that I created using Adobe Photoshop. I believe it will offer the enigmatic experience for the audience as they will wonder what the importance of the cassette tape is and will be able to identify the cast and crew and film certificate.

The beneficial factor of the social media website, Facebook, was the fact it allowed me to select the target audience I want the Page to be viewed by, this is extremely helpful in terms of viral marketing as it is a free source to upload the information and potentially reach millions of people. In the set up process I was able to select the age group I wanted the page to be viewed by and also reach audiences with a particular interest in science fiction film, the source told me that over 150 million people had an interest in this genre of film and therefore, the potential audience could exceed this amount. I was able to identify how the film industry can use viral marketing efficiently to reach a wide audience in  a relatively small amount of time.

This was the final product of the Facebook page for the short film Playback, I feel it has the potential to generate an interest in the film and is an excellent platform to communicate with the audience. 

Here are a selection of examples of existing products and their Facebook Pages.