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COMM234 – Media & New Technologies
Week 6 – Cross-Platform MarketingSarah Wharton – [email protected]
Week 6 Outline What is cross-platform marketing? How does it differ from conventional ideas of
marketing? Why use cross-platform marketing? Case study: The Blair Witch Project. Case study: Donnie Darko and the interactive
website. Case study: The BT Family. Conclusions. Seminar info.
Learning Outcomes By the end of the session, learners will be able to:
o Identify what a cross-platform marketing campaign is.
o Identify how a cross-platform campaign is different to more traditional marketing methods.
o Identify examples of cross-platform marketing campaigns.
What is cross-platform marketing?
Marketing of a product or service across a variety of media platforms rather than just (but also including) the traditional outlets such as print and TV advertising.
What outlets are used (to name but a few)?o TVo Printo Websites (often
interactive)o Social networkingo Viral media (e.g.
YouTube videos)o Internet forumso Blogs
How is it different? Encourages
interactivity and engagement rather than passively watching/reading an ad.
Feels more akin to entertainment than marketing.
Why use cross-platform marketing?
More direct engagement with consumers.
Wider saturation of message. Can be cheaper if using it
instead of traditional marketing channels.
Target audience spreads message themselves.
Enables use of more creative, subtle marketing techniques.
For niche products, enables a direct engagement with fans/target demographic that would be unreachable via mainstream channels.
Case Study 1: The Blair Witch Project
Early example of successful cross-platform marketing.
Low-budget ($30,000-$60,000) horror film that made $140.5 million in US alone.
Utilised a viral or mischief marketing campaign.
Case Study 1: The Blair Witch Project
Based on the premise that the film events were real.
No interviews from film’s stars as they were supposedly dead.
Use of documentary and websites (which existed a year prior to release) to promote the film as an event.
Word-of-mouth campaign. Pirate copies of the film “leaked” online. Buzz created through people’s confusion over
whether or not events were real.
Case Study 1: The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Websiteo Official site promoting
the film as real events.o Followed by amateur
fansites also made by the filmmakers.
Curse of the Blair Witcho Sci-Fi Channel
“documentary” purporting the film as real.
o Available as an extra feature on the film’s DVD (available in SJL).
Case Study 1: The Blair Witch Project
BWP successfully used cross-platform marketing to make a cheap, effective campaign.
Since the campaign hinged on hoodwinking people, the cross-platform model was more “realistic” than a traditional movie marketing campaign.
Case Study 2: Donnie Darko
Low budget ($4.5 million) psychological thriller/sci-fi film with a cult following.
Used more traditional film-marketing methods with the addition of a highly interactive website.
Case Study 2: Donnie Darko
____donnie darko____o Official site for the film.o Highly interactive.o Provides a transmedia
experience.o Relies on users having
seen the film, but its complexity encourages them to see it again by renting or purchasing it on DVD.• Useful guide to
navigating the site here.
Case Study 2: Donnie Darko
Site is akin to a game where users search for clues for passwords in order to enter the next level.
Site gives users additional info on characters and storylines and films in plotholes.o E.g. what happens to Patrick
Swayze’s paedophile character if Donnie doesn’t go back in time?
Site explains further the complicated theories of time-travel expounded in the film’s narrative.
Site extends the audiences experience of the film and gives them reasons to re-watch it.
Case Study 2: Donnie Darko
Cross-platform marketing here helps create a cult film out of one that had little-to-no theatrical success (Donnie Darko barely broke even in its US theatrical run).
By enabling the audience to “investigate” the film’s content and themes it extends the experience and creates a repeat audience.
By using a website to do this it creates something that is accessible to almost everyone (unlike, for example, a video game).
Case Study 3: The BT Family
Cross-platform campaign advertising British Telecom products and services using TV ads, a website and social networking (Facebook).
Follows the relationship of Adam and Jane (plus her 2 kids) from meeting to marriage.
Follows similar line to the Nescafe Gold Blend ads from 1980s, catching an audience through the “soap” storyline.
Case Study 3: The BT Family
The BT Family allowed viewers to vote via Facebook on whether or not Jane would fall pregnant (1.6 million voted).
This was extended to allow viewers to vote on the wedding dress, wedding car and 1st dance song (480,000 votes).o For full statistics, see
this article. Competition was also run
for people to win parts as extras in the wedding ad.
Case Study 3: The BT Family
Set up BT as a service designed to help modern families communicate.
Shows BT as a company “in tune” with modern family life.
Voting process shows BT as a company that listens to its customers.
Encourages potential customers to actively engage with the brand, thereby making them more likely to remember them when changing their phone/internet/TV provider.
Conclusions
Cross-platform marketing can be cost-effective. It encourages active engagement from
audiences/consumers. This active engagement makes people
increasingly likely to remember/buy/consume the product/brand.
Seminar Info Key readings:
o Gray, Jonathon (2010) Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts, New York: New York University Press (Chapter 2)
o Cherry, Brigid (2010) ‘Stalking the Web: Celebration, Chat, and Horror film Marketing on the Internet’ in Conrich, Ian (ed.) Horror Zone, New York: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, pp67 – 85.
We will be deconstructing a cross-platform marketing campaign in groups.
You will be given your assignment briefs and deadlines for Assignment 3.