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COMM234 – Media & New Technologies

COMM234 – Media & New Technologies. Week 6 – Cross-Platform Marketing Sarah Wharton – sarah.wharton@liverpool.ac.uk. Week 6 Outline. What is cross-platform marketing? How does it differ from conventional ideas of marketing? Why use cross-platform marketing?

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COMM234 – Media & New Technologies

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  1. COMM234 – Media & New Technologies Week 6 – Cross-Platform Marketing Sarah Wharton – sarah.wharton@liverpool.ac.uk

  2. 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.

  3. Learning Outcomes • By the end of the session, learners will be able to: • Identify what a cross-platform marketing campaign is. • Identify how a cross-platform campaign is different to more traditional marketing methods. • Identify examples of cross-platform marketing campaigns.

  4. 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)? • TV • Print • Websites (often interactive) • Social networking • Viral media (e.g. YouTube videos) • Internet forums • Blogs

  5. How is it different? • Encourages interactivity and engagement rather than passively watching/reading an ad. • Feels more akin to entertainment than marketing.

  6. 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.

  7. Case Study 1: The Blair Witch Project Film Year: 1999 Directors: Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. Case Study 1: The Blair Witch Project • The Blair Witch Website • Official site promoting the film as real events. • Followed by amateur fansites also made by the filmmakers. • Curse of the Blair Witch • Sci-Fi Channel “documentary” purporting the film as real. • Available as an extra feature on the film’s DVD (available in SJL).

  11. 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.

  12. Case Study 2: Donnie Darko Film Year: 2001 Director: Richard Kelly

  13. 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.

  14. Case Study 2: Donnie Darko • ____donniedarko____ • Official site for the film. • Highly interactive. • Provides a transmedia experience. • 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.

  15. 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. • 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.

  16. 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 Darkobarely 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).

  17. Case Study 3: The BT Family Communications service 2005-2011

  18. 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.

  19. 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). • For full statistics, see this article. • Competition was also run for people to win parts as extras in the wedding ad.

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

  22. Seminar Info • Key readings: • Gray, Jonathon (2010) Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts, New York: New York University Press (Chapter 2) • 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.

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