Viral advertising is an important step within the promotion of a film and has taken a new direction within recent years. This is due to the rise in social media and the ways films can be consumed. A viral advertisement in terms of films is usually a public gimmick or stunt that aims to intrigue and gain as much media coverage as possible. For example Disney have recently used viral advertising to advertise a new store coming soon but to also promote the Disney franchise in an American mall where customers who walk past a clear wall will have their shadow in the shape of a popular Disney character. The customers soon brought crowds to watch the Disney shadows and was an interactive experience for the audience and the video footage if this has been viewed 3,757,909 times. The amount of views of this viral ad means that people are now more than likely going to visit the store and the interest of Disney has been regenerated due to this publicity stunt. Here is the video.
Power of telekinesis
Viral advertising has also been used in the promotion of media products such as the 2013 remake of the film Carrie. As Carrie originally was released in the 1970's a refresh of the films story had to be brought to the audiences attention so that the film would interest them. Due to the rise in popularity on YouTube and the dedicated audience who subscribe and use YouTube daily, the Carrie film takes advantage of this in order to promote the upcoming film via a publicity stunt. As Carrie features a protagonist with the power of telekinesis a public prank filmed in a coffee shop was published on YouTube to gain attention from potential viewers and aims to make them laugh at the unaware coffee shop customers. The public prank entailed a fake wall with mechanisms to make the actor look like he has been thrown against the wall via the power of the female actress's hand. The remote controlled chairs and tables have been made to look as if they are moving by the power of the woman's mind, ad well as the book shelf which was spring loaded. All of these give the effect that the woman has supernatural powers and is entertaining to see how the public react to this scene being performed in front of their eyes, often believing it to be real. The film is not mentioned until the very end of the video to allow that to be the last thing the audience views and thinks of after the video has ended, encouraging them to watch the film. An image of the new Carrie and the release date of the film is cleverly the last part of the video and is a form of advertising in a fun and interactive way. Rather than have a traditional trailer, the public prank video offers something much more for the audience and brings the theme of Carrie into real life. The power of social media continues as a hashtag related to the video was also shown on the video stating #Flexlikecarrie, the film distributors aimed to make a social 'buzz' surrounding the film, enticing social media users to watch the film, the hashtag also allows it to reach a wider audience.
Customer reactions to prank
Carrie Image
Made by the same company who made the Carrie viral ad, Thinkmodo, a similar public prank was released for the horror film called Devil's Due which was released January 2014. The premise of this viral ad was a realistic looking baby pram and the baby inside shot up bolt right to reveal it to look possessed by the devil. Unsuspecting members of New York would see the pram left alone and look down into the pram in concern for the crying child, and be presented with a jump scare when the baby flung forwards towards them. The pram was remote controlled and the public are secretly filmed in order to catch their scared reactions, at the end of the video, similar to that of the Carrie viral ad, the films name and release date of the film is shown. This video received a similar reception and was proven to be heavily popular because of its entertainment value. It was also beneficial for the film as it was a relatively low budget unknown horror but with the aid of the viral ad, it promoted it and thrust it into the spotlight.
The Blair Witch Project had the first viral ad campaign that made the low budget film into a phenomenon which is still talked about due to the realistic use of online viral advertising. As the film features three characters who go missing during the shooting of their documentary and the film consists of this 'footage' found after their disappearance. Before and during the release of the film, the film company of the Blair Witch Project took steps in order to make the audience believe that the three characters in the film were real people and that the film was real footage and they had indeed disappeared during filming. In order to do this missing posters and leaflets were made of the three characters which were distributed to members of the public and a website was created giving details of the three characters. This generated an online interest where members of the public created forums to discuss the film and the missing cast, the production team would reveal information to continue the hype surrounding the film, increasing the potential audience. On the internet movie database website the profiles of the three cast members had been cleverly changed to say 'Missing' and advertisements of the film and the cast were broadcasted on small lesser known programs to make the audience believe they had 'stumbled' across something unique. Despite the film only being shown on 27 screens, the film had generated such an interest that people were queuing out of the street and grossed 248 million due to the viral campaign. The use of the viral ad allowed a small film to become a huge success due to the fabrication the film company had allowed the audience to believe.
Viral advertising is an important step within the promotion of a film and has taken a new direction within recent years. This is due to the rise in social media and the ways films can be consumed. A viral advertisement in terms of films is usually a public gimmick or stunt that aims to intrigue and gain as much media coverage as possible. For example Disney have recently used viral advertising to advertise a new store coming soon but to also promote the Disney franchise in an American mall where customers who walk past a clear wall will have their shadow in the shape of a popular Disney character. The customers soon brought crowds to watch the Disney shadows and was an interactive experience for the audience and the video footage if this has been viewed 3,757,909 times. The amount of views of this viral ad means that people are now more than likely going to visit the store and the interest of Disney has been regenerated due to this publicity stunt. Here is the video.
The Blair Witch Project had the first viral ad campaign that made the low budget film into a phenomenon which is still talked about due to the realistic use of online viral advertising. As the film features three characters who go missing during the shooting of their documentary and the film consists of this 'footage' found after their disappearance. Before and during the release of the film, the film company of the Blair Witch Project took steps in order to make the audience believe that the three characters in the film were real people and that the film was real footage and they had indeed disappeared during filming. In order to do this missing posters and leaflets were made of the three characters which were distributed to members of the public and a website was created giving details of the three characters. This generated an online interest where members of the public created forums to discuss the film and the missing cast, the production team would reveal information to continue the hype surrounding the film, increasing the potential audience. On the internet movie database website the profiles of the three cast members had been cleverly changed to say 'Missing' and advertisements of the film and the cast were broadcasted on small lesser known programs to make the audience believe they had 'stumbled' across something unique. Despite the film only being shown on 27 screens, the film had generated such an interest that people were queuing out of the street and grossed 248 million due to the viral campaign. The use of the viral ad allowed a small film to become a huge success due to the fabrication the film company had allowed the audience to believe.
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