Made in Hollywood

Starting his Mustang, Vin Diesel drove out of Universal Studios and headed towards Santa Monica at a high speed. Just thinking of what David Ellison said to him, he couldn't help but feel a little unbelievable.

In any case, Jessica Alba also filmed "Dark Angel" produced by James Cameron. After "Fast and Furious", she is considered a little famous, but she offended too many people in the circle because of a wrong step. Such a person has fallen into such a fate, whether it is pitiful or self-inflicted, Vin Diesel can't tell for a while.

However, Vin Diesel's mind quickly turned around. People who dream of being a star, think they are full of talent, and act unscrupulously, will only die at the starting line in this circle.

He has worked with Jessica Alba, and he knows that the other party is not exactly this kind of person, but because of James Cameron's care, he has this temperament.

Hollywood has never been an unscrupulous place. For those who think they are talented and arrogant, how many people can make it out?

Talent has never been a big deal in this circle. Vin Diesel knows that if he randomly recruits a few screenwriters from the Screenwriters Association, it may not be much worse than those gold-medal screenwriters, but gold-medal screenwriters are all Millionaires, and those people have problems even eating...

Shaking his head, Vin Diesel's thoughts returned to Jessica Alba. He never thought that David Ellison could find a person who had been missing for several years.

According to David Ellison, the private detective he hired was Jessica Alba, who was found on the side of a road from Nevada to Las Vegas. The shop she was working for was a truck driver. A frequented place and a place where women exchange their most primitive capital for money.

Vin Diesel also rejected the idea of ​​convening the original cast in "Fast and Furious 5". In any case, he would not let a woman appear in his movie.

When the car passed the Santa Monica Commercial Plaza, Vin Diesel saw a lot of people gathered here. There are also huge posters hanging, and it seems that some movies are doing promotional activities.

As one of the commercial centers in the Los Angeles area, there are often similar promotional activities here, and Vin Diesel didn't care. He stepped on the accelerator and quickly drove away from the Santa Monica Commercial Plaza, leaving only the roar of the motor behind.

However. The huge roar did not attract people's attention at all, and everyone's eyes were on the propaganda party in front of the square.

The reason is simple. This is the masterpiece of Duke Rosenberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, Scarlett Johansson, James Franco and others, and it has attracted their attention and expectations.

Some people got a special T-shirt from the promotion party. The pattern printed on the front of the T-shirt was a strange machine, and on the back was a QR two-dimensional code.

At the same time, some media reporters and film practitioners also received a mysterious gift. A nice little tin box containing a spinning top and a USB stick.

The lucky ones who got this item were naturally overjoyed, but they didn't know that these souvenirs and small gifts they received were just one link in the huge viral marketing plan made by Warner Bros. for "Inception".

Warner Bros. divided viral marketing into three phases ahead of the release of Inception. And it's going on in an orderly manner.

As early as last year when the film project was approved, the first stage was launched. The professional team of Warner Bros. used the method of casting nets to arouse the curiosity of the public.

When Warner Bros. just opened the official website of "Inception" last year. Most people are confused about the spinning top on the website - what is this video about? What is the relationship between the spinning top and the plot? What does the title "Inception" mean?

The seasoned Warner Bros. marketers did not play their cards early like other films, but kept throwing out clues. Let the public know about the film, but more question marks popped up, so as to tease the curiosity of movie fans and let them spread the word of mouth. Continue to pay attention to this film.

This viral marketing really kicked off at the San Diego Comic-Con last year. The T-shirt had already been distributed to the public at that time, and the front of the T-shirt was printed with the core props in the film - allowing users to enter other people's lives. Dreamland's "Dream Machine", and the QR code on the back implies a website "", this website is actually an instruction manual for "Dream Machine".

It is also the first viral website of Inception.

The tin box that many people get is not just a souvenir of the movie. The trailer of the movie is pre-stored in the USB flash drive, and the QR code on the box takes people to another viral website of the movie ""—conscious crime—— As for the spinning top, it is another crucial prop in the film...

"Inception" also has a viral website, the address of which is hidden in some street posters. This website is called ".Share?"-that is, what is dream sharing. In the form of an anonymous blog, this website introduces the source and theoretical basis of the dream machine, and seems to want to uncover the so-called "dream stealing" conspiracy.

However, among these websites, "" is the main website for video virus marketing.

The website is divided into four publicity stages, and new content will be released in each stage, such as posters, trailers, etc. If you want to be the first to see these contents, you must complete small tasks such as maze games. When they are smart, there will often be such a situation, a certain clue has just been released, and someone has already cracked it.

Of course, in this case, there are also viral marketers helping behind the scenes, because the purpose of viral marketing is to arouse everyone's interest. If everyone is stumped and loses interest in solving the mystery, the purpose of marketing will not be realized.

The second stage is to find a good angle and focus on exerting force.

The marketing team of "Inception" reached a consensus with Duke as early as the beginning. The viral promotion of the film must be well balanced, neither holding back nor unreserved, that is, the audience must be familiar with the film in advance and must Keep them fresh while watching the movie.

This is easier said than done. Many film promotions fail to grasp this level. As a result, the audience already knows the film well before watching it, and loses the excitement of watching the film.

Therefore, the marketing team of Warner Bros. did not start from the plot, but started from the core creative "dream machine technology" and "conscious crime" in the film, emphasizing that "your brain is the crime scene", "dream It’s also true” and other promotional slogans.

In this way, the audience has a preliminary understanding of the key settings of the film before watching the movie, and it will be much easier when watching the movie.

Movies that cannot be understood by the audience must not sell well. This is one of the most basic laws of the film market, and Warner Bros. and Duke are very aware of this.

In addition to the viral website that is equivalent to an instruction manual, the propagandists also specially filmed a video in which Duke interviews dream scientists to discuss dream science and the principles of conscious crime. Duke even went into battle in person to enhance the realism of the video.

This short film has achieved good results. It is very encouraging that netizens have really begun to become interested in the prospect of dream science depicted in the film. They began to think about whether this technology will be realized in the near future. Warner Media also took the opportunity to do some Popular science, stir up this topic together with the video.

The third stage is eclectic and surprising.

Perhaps inspired by the previous publicity results, the marketing team of "Inception" then increased the viral marketing investment related to the dream machine technology, but things backfired, and the effect of the viral publicity was not so good after that. Lost interest in between.

what about this? After professional analysis, the Warner Bros. team quickly got the results.

Because the technical issues are too professional and obscure, and the viral marketing in the later stage of "Inception" is too frequent, many netizens have been a little bit overwhelmed, which in turn caused them to feel tired and bored.

The most important point of viral marketing is to arouse the interest of others. If there is no interest, no amount of means is a waste.

After realizing this, the marketing team of "Inception" adjusted its direction in time and changed the angle of doing viral marketing of the film.

They moved their marketing activities from online to offline, and hung giant posters on landmark buildings on the streets of big cities in the United States, such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The scene happened vividly in reality.

These posters are mainly composed of two kinds of content. One poster is that the facade of the building is curled, exposing the floors inside; the other is the rolling flood from the windows on the top floor of the building...

The two posters are very shocking, and they are also in line with the slogan "The ..Real" in the later stage of the film - the dream is real. Once it was released on the Internet, it was quickly reproduced by various websites, successfully attracting people's attention and creating momentum for the film Make another contribution.

On the other hand, Duke's personal website is also doing publicity. From the time the film entered the shooting stage, a spinning top appeared on the homepage of the website to let fans know that this is Duke's new film, and then added layer by layer. Stuff, on the last day, the spinning top fell down.

Viral marketing is a means, not an end. If it is done well, it can often make a difference. However, the commercial success or failure of a film does not depend entirely on the success or failure of viral marketing.

Like Duke said, viral marketing is interesting stuff, but if the video itself doesn't work, who cares what you do online.

If the quality of the film is not good enough to get the approval of most audiences, after the film is released, viral marketing will have negative effects, and negative word of mouth will spread on the Internet at lightning speed.

The quality of the film is the basis for great sales, and marketing is the key means of realization. Most of the time, the two complement each other. (to be continued ~^~)

PS:   It’s the end of the month, friends who have a monthly pass in hand, please give me a few! The new year is about to start. I am as busy as a dog. I don’t know how long it has been since I communicated in the group. I have to be busy with work and have to type. Please forgive me...