{"id":136,"date":"2005-09-27T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2005-09-27T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=136"},"modified":"2005-09-27T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2005-09-27T14:00:52","slug":"serenity-and-grassroots-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2005\/09\/27\/serenity-and-grassroots-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Serenity and grassroots marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About a week or so ago, I <a href=\"https:\/\/getgood.typepad.com\/getgood_strategic_marketi\/2005\/09\/the_power_of_th.html\">posted<\/a> about the Joss Whedon movie <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.serenitymovie.com\/\">Serenity<\/a><\/strong> as an example of how customers can effect change, when they care enough AND somebody is actually listening. The post also was my submission to this week\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/anyletter.blogspot.com\/2005\/09\/lets-have-carnival-of-capitalists.html\">Carnival of the Capitalists<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>As a fan of <strong>Firefly<\/strong>, I have been impatiently waiting for the film that continues the story just like any other fan. And as a marketer, I have been observing the grassroots and viral marketing efforts with great interest over the past year. I\u2019ve even done my share of fan conversions. For the uninitiated, that\u2019s when you loan your Firefly DVDs to a \u201cvirgin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after I wrote my post, as we got ever closer to this Friday\u2019s general US release, the media \u2013 both mainstream and blogosphere \u2013 effectively exploded. The LA premiere generated a great deal of press, as did the rounds of interviews director Whedon and the cast are doing to promote the movie. I won\u2019t list it all here, but you can find most of the coverage on the site <a href=\"http:\/\/whedonesque.com\/\">Whedonesque<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, given the grassroots and viral campaigns already in play, the studio (Universal) decided to approach bloggers directly. Among the bloggers they contacted with their offer for a free advance screening provided they agreed to blog about the movie, good or bad, was the <a href=\"http:\/\/instapundit.com\/archives\/025717.php\">Instapundit<\/a> . Definitely the way to spread the word fast..&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In fact, three marketing blogs that I read on a fairly regular basis wrote about the offer, each with a slightly different take and what it means longer term. I\u2019ve commented at all three, and won\u2019t rehash all the discussion here, other than to recommend you read the posts, and all the comments.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.holtz.com\/index.php\/weblog\/can_blogs_turn_a_film_into_a_blockbuster\/\">Shel Holtz<\/a> <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gapingvoid.com\/Moveable_Type\/archives\/001960.html\">Hugh Macleod (gapingvoid)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nevon.net\/nevon\/2005\/09\/blog_a_movie_an.html\">Neville Hobson<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As one of the commenters on the gapingvoid post pointed out, planned or merely unintended consequence, the free advanced screenings reached well beyond the fanbase. <\/p>\n<p>The best post about the whole thing however was from a blog I hadn\u2019t read before, <a href=\"http:\/\/newpersuasion.typepad.com\/new_persuasion\/2005\/09\/go_see_serenity.html\">New Persuasion<\/a>&nbsp; &nbsp;(again I tip my hat to Whedonesque for the link). The author of the post Nellie Lide actually was \u201cconfirmed\u201d for one of the blogger screenings but chose not to go because she didn\u2019t like the way the publicity firm handled the whole thing. Reading some of the language they used in their emails, I can definitely see why bloggers might be put off by it (notably too much use of the word MUST). And perhaps the PR firm didn\u2019t handle it as well as they could have. <\/p>\n<p>But I still stand by my opinion that no one was forced to do anything. It was a choice whether to accept the terms of the offer: get into a free advance screening of a much-anticipated movie in exchange for blogging about it. Or not. <\/p>\n<p>Yes, the language the PR firm used was a bit strong and controlling. But, if you didn\u2019t like the terms, don\u2019t accept. Nellie Lide didn\u2019t accept. Others did. <em>(Although I do imagine it was easier to resist if you\u2019d already seen the film than if you hadn\u2019t.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We will make mistakes \u2026 all of us \u2026 as we try to integrate new media into existing models. It is inevitable. But I\u2019d rather try something new and perhaps make a mistake than never be willing to try. For that alone, I commend the team behind the blogger screenings \u2013they tried something new. And hopefully, they learned from whatever mistakes they made. As I hope to when I make mine. <\/p>\n<p>By Friday, this will all be moot anyway, as Serenity will be in general release. According to Whedonesque this morning, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.movietickets.com\/movie_detail.asp?movie_id=48243\">tickets are now available<\/a> on movietickets.com. <\/p>\n<p>See you at the movies. And &quot;aim to misbehave.&quot;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About a week or so ago, I posted about the Joss Whedon movie Serenity as an example of how customers can effect change, when they care enough AND somebody is actually listening. The post also was my submission to this week\u2019s Carnival of the Capitalists. As a fan of Firefly, I have been impatiently waiting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[5,11,4,8,24],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}