Viral marketing doesn’t work for dish soap and cars the same way it works for fantasy films because it doesn’t create that playful spark which ignites when we believe, even for a split second, that something truly chimerical is taking place.
Viewing the below footage out-of-context will send a chill up your spine for a mere millisecond before your b.s. meter flies into the red. But that millisecond is more than sufficient time to plant the emotional seed that will bear fruit when you hand your credit card to the box office employee.
It’s the first viral video for an upcoming feature from Neill Blomkamp (District 9). It’s being dubbed the AGM Heartland clip for obvious reasons.
We’re nearing the point in cinema history where a viral campaign is obligatory for any upcoming sci-fi or horror film that’s presumed to take place in our own time.
While The Blair Witch Project is the first notable example of verisimilitude-based movie marketing, ABC’s Lost exponentially expanded the technique via The Lost Experience – an immersive alternate reality that allowed viewers to follow the divergent off-screen story lines for as far as their attention spans would allow.
"Rachel Blake" exposed the darker side of The Hanso Foundation as part of The Lost Experience
As attention becomes more of a substantial form of currency, storytellers will have to give their audiences more than what’s contained within the 120 minutes of screen time in order to create a die-hard fan base. In 20th century thinking, this would mean heavy airwave saturation, ubiquitous billboards, and possibly even a publicity stunt, however, the 21st century public has become much too savvy and jaded for any of these methods to make an impact that would effectively return on the investment. What’s required today is an expansion of the fictional universes so far into reality that jarring overlaps are created which blur the lines between our world and the fantasy.
