Firefly Movie Using Viral Marketing?

CABridges writes "According to the official movie site, some interesting "security excerpts" have begun popping up online, first at iFilm. The videos (two, so far) appear to depict River Tam during various stages of her incarceration and mental capacity. More to come?" Also, in vaguely related and somewhat humorous news XJHardware writes "For those of you who really need an obsessive/compulsive hobby here's a good example. Seems this fellow Chris Doyle built a model of Serenity from the upcoming movie and too-quickly canceled series Firefly."

Comments

'viral' marketing?

[REBloomfield]

Can someone explain why this is called 'viral' marketing? Seems more like the hype machine at work more than anything else. That thing with the BBC and wikipedia made me wonder the same thing.

Re:'viral' marketing?

[SimilarityEngine]

They are exploiting sites (such as Slashdot) to raise awareness of the film, through word of mouth and such like. We are the ones doing the "viral marketing", simply by having this discussion...

Re:'viral' marketing?

[Kazzahdrane]

I think the idea is that this kind of "marketing" doesn't need to be marketed. You release some information/footage/specs and let the internet go crazy and spread the news for you, like a virus.

Re:'viral' marketing?

[nine-times]

Well, it's a little more specific, I think. Viral marketing tends to imply that the "word of mouth advertising" is started by releasing small amounts of obscure or confusing information. It doesn't look like an ad. It looks like a leak or something they don't want you to know about.

So the "word of mouth" when people say, "what the hell is this?" and the mystery/obscurity of the information drives the spread, not the virtues of the product. Viral marketing works on something like reverse psychology. The point is, whatever they're selling is so cool and underground, you shouldn't really know about it, so everyone wants to know about it.

Firewhat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Firefox changing name again?

Viral Marketing

[kevin_conaway]

For those that don't know (myself included), Wikipedia is your friend

Re:Viral Marketing

[mmkkbb]

Not exactly. It's socially engineered word-of-mouth.

Re:Viral Marketing

[Harbinjer]

Issn't that called astro-turfing? In other words artificial grass-roots type thing?

Or is this somehow the same thing?

It will never work!

[bigtallmofo]

Nobody will fall for such obvious viral marketing techniques by spreading the news on their site. I'll be surprised if I ever even hear of this.

The Virual Jackpot

[buffy]

Posted on Slashdot? We hit the jackpot, baby! Virual Marketing Gold!

Just watch the hit counter in the next hour or so.

Ahem -- Lego

[sigmaseven]

Seems this fellow Chris Doyle built a model of Serenity from the upcoming movie

There's a key word missing from this sentence that might put it into a clearer perspective, and that word is Lego. That said, the Lego Wash is adorable.

Re:All to quickly?

[N8F8]

Fox was going for a different target market than what the show was bringing in. Cosidering it did get decent viewership in spite of the fact they aired the series completely out of order should a one indicator of the suckiness. Another is the fat that it is still one of the top box sets at Amazon two years on with very little marketing.

Those were lame

[pHatidic]

I have to say though that the DVD series was my best purchase of the last year. I was skeptical when I bought it because some of the Amazon commenters were saying that the only reason it was getting five stars was because of people rating it over and over. However, having watched it I think it really lives up to the hype and then some. I'm just sad they aren't making any more, it was the only drama I've ever actually liked.

Re:All to quickly?

[Kazzahdrane]

Sorry you think that, but I have to disagree. I bought the DVD set a few months ago on a whim and loved it. I then lent it to a friend who wasn't particularly enthusiastic and received a text message from him that very night saying "Firefly kicks ass, shame there's so little of it left to watch". That's a perfect 2 out of 2, and last week I lent it to my 53 year old father, let's see if he likes it too. Just because not many people watched a show doesn't mean it sucked. You obviously weren't one of the people trying to get tickets for a Serenity screening this year, I tried to get one for the Edinburgh International Film Festival next Sunday and the ticket lines were engaged and the booking computer went down under the load. If Serenity is a good movie it will be a hit, because the fans won't let it be hidden amongst the competition.

Re:All to quickly?

[Gannoc]

I know this is a troll. I know it. I know it.

Nonetheless, I have to say that despite the tendancy for geeks to latch on to a crappy cancelled show, Firefly was a great series. Rent/Buy/Steal the DVD and check it out for yourself.

From the Firefly podcast

[lesinator]

I co-host the Firefly/Serenity podcast The Signal. We have already interviewed Adam Baldwin (Jayne), Gina Torres (Zoe) and Ron Glass (Book) and they are all really behind the movie & the Firefly franchise. To quote Adam "Joss called me up the other day and said 'you should see the movie now (with all the effects & final music in place), it is so cherry!'". They really show an enthusiasm & devotion beyond what one would expect if it were just another acting job to them. There are a lot others grass roots efforts like ours out there promoting Serenity from the bottom up. Its very exciting to see the groundswell of anticipation build with with the advance screenings & now other new clever marketing tools that Universal is using.

L

These guys know their market

[zrk]

That's for sure. I saw the trailer for Serenity when we went to go see 'The 40 Year Old Virgin". Hmmm.

The abulance from the show was found...

[doublem]

A guy was poking around in a aircraft graveyard in the American Southwest, and found the flying ambulance from the Firefly episode "Ariel"

He then put the photos up on his journal here.

This isn't viral marketing, it's scavenger hunt marketing!

Re:Err...

[Nutcase]

You are totally wrong.

The dialog and characters in Firefly and Serenity are pretty damn far from Hollywood. The trailer is cut that way because it's a trailer, and wants to depict a typical fun sci-fi action popcorn movie, so more people will see it. You know, marketing.

Watch a few episodes of the show. Then add a much darker plot line, insanely higher levels of space action, and some incredible character twists.

Also, this is NOTHING like Matrix, Star Wars, or Star Trek. It has more in common with The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, or maybe even something like the Bourne Identity.

Recently got back into it

[Winterblink]

You know, I watched some episodes on the air when it first came out, and really didn't enjoy it much. Space western? I was expecting something more along the lines of Cowboy Bebop, and that it wasn't. So I didn't mourn its passing.

But recently, on a whim, I decided to nab the DVD set. It's interesting because now after watching all the episodes out, in the proper order they were meant to be, I actually really enjoy the show immensely. The characters are all well done, the acting's great, the writing is subtle and excellent, it's just generally a very well thought out series on the same level as shows like Battlestar Galactica.

So for those who might be wondering what all the hype's about, go check out the DVD set. It's not that expensive, but might be a bit tricky to find. You won't be disappointed, and it will get you set for Serenity, which looks amazing.

Question

[WormholeFiend]

Do I need to watch the Firefly episodes before I go see Serenity?

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen the pre-showing.

No, it's not absolutely necessary - but it helps.

The movie does a decent job of covering the back story, but it can't give you the full sense of the character interactions and the 'in-jokes'.

In other words, you can understand the movie without seeing the shows, but it will be a lot more fun if you do.

Re:Word of mouth is not viral marketing

[SimilarityEngine]

Real viruses spread under their own steam, by moving between vulnerable people. Viral marketing spreads awareness of a product by "seeding" carefully chosen forums/blogs with the info, and letting readers spread the hype. Although some readers are quite able to exercise free will and keep quiet (analogous to people with high resistance to a virus), sufficiently many do not and act as vectors for the info. The viral analogy isn't perfect, but then the analogy between "memes" and "genes" is about as good...

Sorry to be offtopic...

[ArmenTanzarian]

But I'm interested in the obsession with Firefly, but don't feel like plunking down money for the DVD's unless I know I'm buying something good (and my patience for torrents are roughly three hours).

So here's my question, are there Firefly fans out there who didn't watch Buffy or Angel, etc.? Because I really really didn't like those shows and if such an intersection of Buffy non-fans and Firefly fans exists, I'd like to hear from their opinions on Firefly.

If you could wait until I get a response or two before modding me offtopic, I'd appreciate it.

Re:Sorry to be offtopic...

[CharAznable]

I don't really care for Buffy or Angel, but Firefly is one of the very best sci-fi shows ever. Imagine a show where the protagonist is Han Solo, and he offs Greedo by shooting first IN EVERY EPISODE!!!

Re:They're marketing to a false stereotype

[sacherjj]

I'll be in my bunk.

Viral Marketing Doesn't Work!

[TheRaven64]

Tell everyone you know!

(With apologies to NTK).

MOD PARENT UP (invent a new level if you have to)

[suitepotato]

If there's a truer thing said on Slashdot, it would not be so important as this though it has been said before in different ways.

If Linus wanted to sell paper cups with the Linux name on them, there'd be a stampede to get the news posted. If a new geek cult game releases, there's a post. Slashdot readers submit posts knowing the editors cannot resist publishing them because everyone knows the other readers will comment on them by the hundreds. Much of the news is stuff that DOESN'T matter. WE ARE the viral marketing and we do it DESPITE our own cynicsm. Oy.

Maybe we should get it over with and charge people to talk about their product and get it exposed to the tech brigades instead of giving them free advertising here. I won't even say the name of this movie franchise I'm so sick of hearing about it never mind sick of the incessant ways it gets squirreled into being mentioned.

Next big Slashdot running gag: inserting catch words and product names that are already known to be over-hyped.