Dear Blogosphere, Can we pick a better movie that SoaP to promote next time?
Lets face it Snakes on a Plane is going to SUCK. It’s going to be like Anaconda and Airport ‘77 all rolled into one, and we’re the ones that launched it into the stratosphere. Me included, I’ve personally even sent a Samuel L Jackson phone message to a friend of mine in Boston using the super cool online tool, and used the snakes on a plane template on my myspace page, and embedded the sound board on my blog.
Lets face it blogosphere, is this the one you want to be remembered for? Is this the kind of lowest common denominator content that you want big media companies to try and push via the “community.” Is social media just another vehicle for marketing sub-par product through social engineering?
Let me suggest that we promote a movie we’ve seen next time, and avoid hijacking our own channels into promoting something that will go down as the highest grossing crap B movie ever.
I’m not going to see it on principal.
7 Comments, Comment or Ping
Mack Collier
I don’t think it’s a matter of bloggers picking this movie to promote, but rather New Line picking bloggers to LET them promote this movie. I mean it’s not like bloggers exactly have their choice of studios in which to support because they are reaching out to us.
What I *hope* happens is that SoaP is a huge success, and it opens studios’ eyes to the possibilities that exist when they engage and involve bloggers in the promotional process.
However I agree that what could very well happen would be studios thinking ‘Haw haw! We can take any ole turd of a movie and if we send a few emails to bloggers, they’ll praise it as the next Gone With The Wind! Haw haw!’.
Is it going to be ‘How can we further involve our fans in the process in order to create a better product?’, or ‘How can we use bloggers to make even MORE money off our movies?’.
Sadly, the latter question will probably be asked much more often than the former.
Aug 15th, 2006
karl long
“How can we further involve our fans in the process in order to create a better product”
Agreed, that’s where it should be going.
Aug 15th, 2006
Nathan Midgley
– “However I agree that what could very well happen would be studios thinking ‘Haw haw! We can take any ole turd of a movie and if we send a few emails to bloggers, they’ll praise it as the next Gone With The Wind! Haw haw!’” –
Would it work though? SoaP whizzed round the blogosphere because it was an utterly preposterous idea with a title to match - the ‘promotion’ it got was incidental to the blogosphere simply riffing on something it thought was funny. Imagine the sucky film they’d tried to get bloggers to promote had been Date Movie. Nothing would have happened because neither concept nor title are original, or surprising, or stupid, or indeed anything that makes them worthy of consideration.
My first visit here by the way - nice work Karl.
Aug 16th, 2006
karl long
Thanks Nathan, and yes, you’re right about the preposterous nature of the film concept probably having a lot to do with it becoming such a phenomenon. I was being a little tongue in cheek with my open letter to the blogosphere, but I can’t help feeling that the success of this B movies will drive some equally preposterous pitches to the blogosphere. I mean, they already tried it with the “little man” podcast, another turd of a movie getting promoted through “cheap alternative channels”
Mind you I can’t wait to see Talladega Nights
Aug 16th, 2006
Ben Yoskovitz
It’s a similar phenomenon to watching a guy dancing in a video blog or someone doing something utterly stupid online and getting his 15 minutes for it.
The blogosphere likes stupidity. Well, people like stupidity, not just the blogosphere. And so something like Snakes on a Plane (I can’t use the acronym it’s too much to handle) with a silly concept and the right little push into the blogosphere is all the rage.
We promote worse than Snakes on a Plane when you think of all the nonsense online that gets people their 15 minutes. Hopefully in most cases it’s only 15 minutes and not more.
You can be sure a great documentary or serious movie of some kind, whether the Studios push it into the blogosphere or not, would get very little play.
Aug 16th, 2006
CK
I hear a lot of what you’re saying on this Karl. Really do. But I think the blogosphere, seeing how fast and furious trends rise and fade (like, who’s talking about the agency.com vid this week?), will be known for a lot more than SoaP. Call me an optimist, but my money is on the blogosphere being around for a long, long time with many memes.
Not every studio will get this kind of buzz. Will they try? Yep. But bloggers will determine each one on their own merits.
While SoaP is no Oscar winner, what I’m confused by is how many people who have not seen it are reporting as to how stupid it is. How can people who’ve not seen it judge it? That’s like assuming what your customers want, without actually asking them. Hmm.
I don’t like to speak on things I’ve not experienced, that’s why I went to see it opening night.
And while it’s so silly, it does deliver on its promise–the promise being this and only this: a cheesy film with gore, comedy, snakes, Sam Jackson and a silly name. Did it deliver on those brand promises? In spades.
Did it leverage its blog fame? Yep. Were the SoaP bloggers happy? Yep. Why were they pleased? Because the movie did what it promised.
I can only say this because I saw it (and got to see it with a rowdy crowd!). Also, I was able to ask people their reactions, too.
Please understand that I advocate listening to our markets and not assuming, so when I promote seeing it before judging it, I do so in the best interest of all of us.
And the blogosphere won’t let the studios only produce trash–actually, the blogosphere will push many good agendas because now we have a voice and are finding a way to be involved at the front end of a product cycle. Sure, this one was SoaP…but trends always emanate from the fringes and only then move to maintream. So, in 3 years, perhaps we’ll play more of a part in other products that really affect our daily lives. Now ain’t that a grand thing?
P.S.: Btw, great post on Daily Fix regarding viral.
Aug 19th, 2006
Reply to “Dear Blogosphere, Can we pick a better movie that SoaP to promote next time?”