Made in Hollywood

Starting his own Mustang cart, Van Diesel drove out of Universal Studios and sprinted towards Santa Monica, only thinking of what David Ellison said to him, he couldn't help feeling a little weird.

In any case, Jessica Alba also filmed James Cameron’s "Apocalyptic Black Angel". After "Fast and Furious", it was considered a small celebrity, but because she took a wrong step, she offended too many circles. Van Diesel didn’t know whether it was pitiful or self-inflicted.

However, Van Diesel's brain quickly turned around, holding a star dream, thinking that he was full of talent and acting unscrupulously, in this circle, he will only die at the starting line.

He has worked with Jessica Alba, knowing that the other person 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. How many people who think they have a bit of talent and arrogance can make their heads?

Talent has never been a big deal in this circle. Van Diesel knows that he randomly selects a few people from the screenwriters of the Screenwriter Guild, and it may not be much worse than those gold screenwriters, but the gold screenwriters are all 100 Millionaires, and those people even have problems eating...

Shaking his head, Van Diesel's thoughts returned to Jessica Alba. He did not expect 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 a highway leading to Las Vegas in Nevada. The shop she was in was a truck driver. Places frequented by women are also places where women exchange their most primitive capital for money.

Van Diesel also rejected the idea of ​​summoning the original crew 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, Van Diesel saw a lot of people gathered here. There are also huge posters hanging, and it seems that a movie is engaged in promotional activities.

As one of the commercial centers in the Los Angeles area, similar publicity activities are often held here. Van Diesel didn't care either, stepped on the accelerator and drove away from Santa Monica Plaza. Only the roar of the motor is left.

However, this huge roar did not arouse people's attention at all, and everyone was paying attention to 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 propaganda party. The pattern printed on the front of the t-shirt is a strange machine, and the back is a QR code.

At the same time, some media reporters and film practitioners also received a mysterious gift. A delicate tin box with a spinning top and a USB flash drive inside.

The lucky ones who got this thing are naturally very happy, but how do they know that the souvenirs and small gifts they received are just one link in the huge viral marketing plan of Warner Bros. for Inception.

Before the release of Inception, Warner Bros. divided the viral marketing into three stages and proceeded 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. provoked the curiosity of the public by casting a net and wiring.

When Warner Bros. just launched the official website of Inception last year, most people were confused about the spinning top on the website. What is this movie about? What is the connection between the spinning top and the plot? What does the title "Pirate Dream Space" mean?

The veteran Warner Bros. marketing staff did not show their cards as early as other films. Instead, clues have been continuously put out to let the public understand the film, but more question marks have appeared. In order to tease the curiosity of movie fans, let them spread word of mouth and continue to pay attention to the film.

This viral marketing really kicked off at last year’s San Diego Animation Exhibition. That t-shirt had already begun to be distributed to the public at that time, and the front of the t-shirt printed on the core props in the film that allow users to enter the dream of others. "Dream Machine", and the QR code on the back implies a website "". This website is actually a manual for "Dream Machine".

It is also the first viral website of Inception.

The tin box that many people got was not just a movie souvenir. The trailer of the movie was pre-stored in the U disk. The QR code on the box took people to another viral website of the movie, "Consciousness crime is the top." It is another crucial prop in the film...

"Inception" also has a viral website whose address is hidden in some street posters. This website is called "hat.is.?" What is dream sharing. The website introduces the source and theoretical basis of Dream Machine in the form of an anonymous blog. It seems to uncover the so-called "Pirate Dream" conspiracy.

However, among these websites, "" is the main website for viral marketing of films.

The website is divided into four publicity stages. In each stage, new content will be released, such as posters, trailers, etc. If you want to see these content first, you must complete small tasks such as maze games. This process is also played by netizens. When they are clever and savvy, this situation often occurs. Someone has already cracked a certain clue as soon as it was released.

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

The second stage is to find a good angle and focus on the effort.

The marketing team of "Inception" reached a consensus with Duke early on that the viral promotion of the film must be balanced. It must not be covered or unreserved, that is, the audience must be familiar with the film in advance, but also Let them still feel fresh when watching the movie.

This is easier said than done. Many films do not grasp this degree when they are promoted. As a result, the audience already knows the film 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 from the core creative "Dream Machine Technology" and "Conscious Crime" in the film. It emphasized that "Your brain is the crime scene" and "Dreamland". It is also true" and other publicity 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 a lot easier when watching the movie.

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

In addition to a viral website equivalent to an instruction manual, the propaganda staff also specially shot a video of Duke interviewing dream scientists to discuss the science of dreams and the principles of consciousness crime. Duke personally went into battle to enhance the realism of the video.

This short film has achieved good results. It is very interesting that netizens have really started to be interested in the scientific prospects of dreams depicted in the film. They began to think about whether this technology will be realized in the near future. Warner’s media also took the opportunity to do something. Popular science, this topic is heated up along with the film.

The third stage is eclectic and surprisingly winning.

Perhaps inspired by the results of the previous publicity, the marketing team of "Inception" then increased the viral marketing related to the dream machine technology. However, it was counterproductive. After that, the effect of viral publicity was not so good. Netizens seemed to be overnight. Lost interest in between.

This is why? After professional analysis, the Warner Bros. team quickly got the result.

Due to technical problems that are too professional and obscure, and the viral marketing in the later period of "Inception" is too frequent, many netizens are a little bit unable to digest, and then cause them to feel tired and bored.

The important point of viral marketing is to arouse the interest of others, and it is wasteful to have no interest.

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

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

These posters are mainly composed of two kinds of content. One poster shows the curling of the building's facade, exposing the floors inside; the other shows the flooding leaning down from the windows on the top floor of the building...

The two posters are very shocking, and they are also very consistent with the slogan "the." in the later stage of the film. The dream is real. Once published on the Internet, they were quickly reposted on websites and websites. They successfully attracted people’s attention and contributed to the film’s momentum. .

On the other hand, Duke’s personal website is also promoting. From the beginning of the film’s 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 add layer by layer. Things, on the last day, the top fell down.

Viral marketing is a means, not an end. When done well, it can often play a big role. But the commercial success or failure of a film does not entirely depend on the success or failure of viral marketing.

Like Duke said, viral marketing is interesting, but if the film itself doesn’t work, who cares what the **** you are doing online.

If the quality of the film is not too hard to be recognized by most viewers, after the film is released, viral marketing will bring negative effects, and negative word of mouth will spread on the Internet at lightning speed.

The quality of the film is the basis for the big sales, and marketing is the key means to achieve it. Most of the time, the two are complementary. (To be continued.)

ps: It's the end of the month. Give me a few if you have a monthly pass! The new year is about to begin. The whole person is as busy as a dog. I don’t know how long I haven’t been to the group to communicate. I have to be busy with work and code words. Forgive me...