In accordance with the request after hearing the news, Nakamura very unscrupulously took the original author's manuscript and made predictions online. Of course, he could have attracted the attention of n people in a very unscrupulous way! After all, the plot he guessed was 100% correct! And of course his bizarre accuracy quickly made everyone suspicious. ¨ISome people soon began to wonder whether Mr. Nakamura had some source of information about the content of the unreleased manuscript. Otherwise, no matter how awesome a person is, he would not be able to guess the plot every now and then, and then add up to 100%. Correct?
In this regard, after hearing the news, Nakamura did not respond at all. Instead, after everyone became suspicious, he disappeared online for several days! Why do this? It¡¯s just to arouse everyone¡¯s interest and carry out viral marketing! What is viral marketing? Viral marketing refers to spreading and spreading information like a virus through the user's social network, using rapid replication to reach thousands or millions of audiences. In other words, by providing valuable products or services, "let everyone tell everyone", and through others promoting you, you can achieve the role of "marketing leverage". Viral marketing has become the most unique method of online marketing and is successfully used by more and more businesses and websites.
For example, in recent years, "mockumentary" as a unique film genre has gradually entered our field of vision. Mockumentary is a film made in the form of a documentary. It strives to appear real in form, but the content is fictional! For example, "Paranormal: Ghost Records" brought "mock documentaries" to the forefront of the topic again. With an ultra-low investment of US$15,000, it earned a box office of over US$100 million. It has become another box office miracle with low investment and high output after "Blair Witch"! And how does such a "small film" have such a high return on investment? It¡¯s not just viral marketing!
Although "Paranormal Activity: Ghost Chronicles" only cost US$15,000 and took one week to complete. But it went through a bumpy road of three years from completion to theaters. After the video is finished editing. Director Oren Paley first sent it to the Scream Film Festival for exhibition. It is a platform for cult films and home-made horror works, especially suitable for independent small productions like "The Ghost Story". Sure enough, the film lived up to expectations and won the honorary award at the film festival. This was also the first time the film received attention on a small scale. After that, Paley continued to try his luck in Hollywood and traveled to many places with his works. After many people introduced it, the DVD of the film was sent to the producer of "The Reader", Jason Blum. He was extremely excited after watching the film in his living room. He believed that the film was small but very affecting, and said: "I missed the opportunity to buy "The Blair Witch Project" before, and I will never make the same mistake again this time." So he naturally became the official producer of "The Ghost Story" Filmmaker. Blum was promoted and touted all over Hollywood, and a copy was finally sent to Spielberg. Spielberg liked it very much after watching it, and at his suggestion, director Oren Paley changed the ending of the original version.
Soon the film caused a huge response in the industry. Some producers want to remake the film, use more money to package the story, and turn a small production into a big one. Others want to release DVDs to make faster profits. The film held a screening event in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and the industry's reaction was that "this is a film suitable for showing anywhere and for any audience to enjoy." At the same time, the sales of DVDs of the film were extremely hot. More and more fans also gathered, and they began to applaud the film. Subsequently. Paramount is gearing up to distribute the film, which is just one step away from its release.
The success of "Paranormal Activity" in the market is not only related to the film itself, but also to the film's marketing methods. Relying on the reputation accumulated in the industry and among the people over the past three years, the call for "The Ghost Story" to enter theaters is getting stronger and stronger, and people are speculating that it will be the next "Blair Witch". Before introducing the marketing methods of "Ghost Chronicles", we need to explain a term, which is UGC (user-generated content). UGC is the abbreviation of "Urgenerated Content". The concept originated in the Internet field, that is, users display their own original content through the Internet platform or provide it to other users. It is not a specific business, but a way for users to use the Internet. In recent years, the concept of "user-generated content" has become more and more widespread, and the professional distinction between "content" has become increasingly weakened.
Putting this concept into the movie market, "user-generated content" can further be said to be "audience-generated box office". If you can guide the audience properly, they will definitely pay for UGC because they see what they want to see, and the generated numbers will get bigger and bigger. From a marketing perspective, this strategy is called ¡°crowdsourcing.¡± The "Wikipedia" on the Internet and Linux (the operating system used by more than 40% of the world's servers) are examples of this.
Paramount has adopted a series of successful marketing methods based on UGC. First, in order to testFor the first time, they released "Paranormal Activity" at midnight screenings in 12 theaters in North America in order to attract the attention of some movie fans. It is said that in Austin, Texas, hundreds of movie fans gathered in front of the theater and waited, looking forward to being the first audience for this film. The situation is the same in New York. Three hours before the movie started, more than 900 fans lined up outside the theater. The queue even reached near the parking lot. The film crew temporarily decided to add two screening rooms to meet the needs of movie fans.
The promoters then conducted an online survey to collect fans¡¯ opinions, formulate plans based on the feedback, and let fans vote to decide where they want the film to be released. The response to this move was astonishing. In the first week, the website received requests from movie fans from all over the United States. The company gradually expanded the theater chain based on the number of people who sent requests from various places. The more people watched the video, the more people voted online, creating a snowballing effect. Soon, "The Ghost Story" expanded to 159 theaters and was released with almost no publicity. It grossed more than $1.2 million at the box office.
During this period. Paramount spent minimal money on publicity. They say it was "word of mouth" that made the film possible. "We had a limited promotional budget, but when we saw that many people loved the film, we changed our promotional strategy. Fans were more enthusiastic than ever, and they helped us carry out a huge promotional effort." Paramount Sales the president said. On this basis, the issuer continued to carry out crazy online marketing. They set up forums on many websites to give fans the opportunity to express their different opinions. At the same time, Paramount said that as long as fans' requests for a full release of the film reach 1 million times, it will expand the scale of the release. As soon as the news came out. Website statistics grew dramatically, crossing the million mark in a matter of days. In the following weeks, "Ghost Story" became a hot topic on the Internet. At the same time, more than 47,000 fans uploaded videos online to express their views on the film.
Paramount executives are very satisfied, and the company's vice chairman Rob Moore even publicly stated, "From the beginning, we have put this film in the hands of fans because they can tell us where and when the audience wants to see it. We're thrilled by the enthusiasm from fans for this film, so we're excited to show Paranormal Activity in every city big and small." The film was fully released in 1,945 theaters in North America and earned US$22 million at the box office in its first week. Win the box office title. As of now, "Paranormal Activity" has grossed over 100 million in North American box office, making it Paramount's most "cost-effective" movie in history.
According to expert analysis, for a bad movie, the promoter can only "trick" the audience into entering the theater on weekends through hype; but for a good movie, good reputation will play a huge role in promoting it. Only a good reputation can create objective conditions for "word of mouth" and form an irresistible force. In terms of content, "The Ghost Story" uses horror as its selling point and adopts the "tell but don't reveal" method to create suspense. The story is actually very simple, yet terrifying: a young American couple are frightened by strange noises in their house at night and decide to place a camera in their bedroom to capture potential "weird phenomena."
This kind of story, combined with the form of a pseudo-documentary, has been strongly sought after by movie fans. Netizens have left an overwhelming number of comments: "The best horror movie in ten years", "I will definitely watch it a second time", "The best horror movie I have ever seen" "Scary movie"Critics are full of praise. Roger Elbert said this is a unique horror movie that is well made and really scary. OAN of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film an A- rating and praised "The Ghost Story" as the most realistic and deep-rooted horror film in the past 30 years. On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the positive rating of "The Ghost Story" once reached over 85%.
The film was fully released and received a good reputation. But even so, Paramount's promotional offensive has not stopped and continues to use new promotional tactics online. In order to thank the public for their enthusiasm and support, they launched an event on the film's official website. As long as you submit your personal information online, you will have the opportunity to have your name placed in the subtitles at the end of the film's DVD and Blu-ray disc. Such novel and creative marketing methods are eye-catching. The similarities between Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project are self-evident. In terms of investment scale, "Blair Witch" only had 35,000 US dollars. After its release, it swept the global box office of 240 million US dollars and became a cultural phenomenon. However, from a publicity perspective, they are not quite the same. "Blair Witch" was first screened in several cities in the United States and accumulated a good reputation. Then the distributor changed its promotion strategy and began to hype it up. Taking into account the reputation accumulated by early audiences, using "the best horror movie ever" as a gimmick is basically a traditional marketing method.
¡°With Cloverfield, it became a complete hype, designed to create a buzz before the film was released.Loud and powerful to attract the audience's attention. This kind of promotion focuses on the film's selling point. If people are disappointed with this selling point when they enter the theater for the first time, this kind of promotion will fail. Fortunately, "Cloverfield" was novel enough and eye-catching enough, so it was still a success. Paramount's marketing this time has created a new model, which is to avoid taking the initiative, avoid "hard selling", and don't tell the audience what to watch. Rather, provide opportunities for the audience to decide for themselves.
?Traditional marketing is top-down. And viral marketing is bottom-up. "Paranormal Activity: Ghost Chronicles" falls into the latter category. It spreads from the grassroots and gradually produces a "slow-rolling effect". Its essence is that the audience has influence, not the propagandist. At this point, there is no "voice from above" forcing you to see this movie. You may not want the film to be released in your city, but you can't stop your friends from liking it. In this case, when the movie disappoints you, you will feel like "this movie is not suitable for me." Instead of saying "this is a bad movie". According to industry insiders, this will be the marketing direction of future movies. Ordinary audiences have long questioned the traditional so-called authority. When they have communication tools in their hands, they will determine the direction of market promotion. Whether in the past, present or future, the right to support films will always be in the hands of the grassroots. This time, they are supporting a "small film": "Paranormal Activity: True Ghost Story".
For Wen Xin, what he has to do is such a kind of viral marketing. What he has to do is to make potential consumers pay attention to such a book of his at a low cost, and then still have the book to be presented in a way that is still embracing. The pipa is half-covered to seduce everyone and keep everyone interested. Then circulate it in a small area or something like that, anyway, it has to be secretive. It just makes everyone feel the difference of such a book! After hearing the news, I believe that as long as this is done, such a book will definitely become popular in a very unexpected way, and it will definitely become a very unique example in the history of marketing!
According to the instructions given by the news, Nakamura disappeared for a few days and then appeared on the 2ch network again. As soon as he came up, he immediately attracted various users to chase him. After all, these people have been squatting in Nakamura for several days, just to get an explanation from Nakamura! They can't understand why a person whose identity is unknown can 100% guess the plot of popular comics and novels! The purpose of asking Nakamura to go online after hearing the news this time is also very clear - of course not to admit that he is an editor, but to insist that such a plot is too easy to guess! Only in this way can we pave the way for marketing after hearing the news!
After Nakamura came online, it really attracted a lot of attention on the 2ch forum! If you know that Nakamura's account was in the days after he disappeared, his reputation would have spread throughout the forum! After all, an ID with little history suddenly appeared, and then such an ID was able to guess the future plot of a popular work, and he was able to guess it correctly with perfect accuracy! What kind of hit rate is this! This makes people feel that it is impossible to do it even if you are lucky! After all, although otakus have weird hobbies, although they don¡¯t like three-dimensional girls and only like girls in two dimensions, even though otakus¡¯ money seems easy to cheat in the eyes of professionals. Like the legendary akb48, they just sell CDs based on the love of otakus. And such a akb48 CD is still associated with support coupons and the like. In the end, it seems that you have to buy the CD to have the opportunity to shake hands with your favorite singer. What is the musical quality of the CD itself? Otakus are completely They don't care, they just buy CDs in large quantities, and then after getting support coupons and the like, they may turn around and throw away the CDs.
In the eyes of professionals, such a move is definitely a fool¡¯s move, and it definitely means that such a person¡¯s money is too easy to cheat! But this is just the weaknesses of otakus being targeted. Who doesn¡¯t have a weakness? Some people may not be a homebody at all, but they have no resistance to watches. They may release a watch with a style they like, and then they can really spend money to buy it regardless of the situation. Then what does such a person do? In essence, isn't that similar to what otakus do? In other aspects, otakus are not stupid at all. Many of them can even be said to be smart!
These otakus on the forum quickly guessed various possibilities - after a little calculation, they estimated that the most likely possibility is that an account like Nakamura belongs to someone in the editorial department of Kadokawa Shoten. Otherwise, how could such a person do it? Maybe everyone who knew the plot was right? Of course, there is another possibility, that is, such a person is the author himself or the author's assistant. But the question is, if he is the author himself, why would he go online to leak something that he has not yet made public? Plot? Isn't this causing trouble for yourself? And if it's the author's assistant or something, that's not quite right.Reliable. Because my assistant is not stupid either! Before they join the job, they know what the professional ethics of this industry are. If such a person secretly bothers with this kind of mistake on the Internet and announces the plot that the boss who hired him has not yet announced, then it will definitely be a huge business accident! With such an accident, it is basically impossible for this guy to find a job in such an industry in the future, okay!
So after adding up and adding up, the nerds finally guessed that such a person who can always guess correctly is either a newbie in the editorial department who doesn't know the rules, or an assistant or a screenwriter who is a desperate teenager. Relatives! Otherwise, there is basically no possibility of guessing the plot with perfect accuracy! (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!