Making brand advocates of filmgoers
By Hugh Jordan. Movie moves. Think of a recent film or video game release and the chances are PPC Interactive had a hand in its promotion. Star Trek, X-Men, Transformers – the agency has done them all. And most of the promotion work is done online. – so, is this the end of the traditional film trailer?
Marc Berry, strategic marketing manager at PPC Interactive, doesn’t think so.
“It’s important to use a range of platforms,” he says “Star Trek and X-Men work well online because of the nature of the films, but we are always looking to use different platforms. When we started out, we were doing a lot of film websites and microsites, now it tends to be flash games and social media.”
An offshoot of Picture Production Company – involved in film production for nearly 30 years – PPC Interactive boasts industry behemoths like Paramount and 20th Century Fox on its client list.
And the technology is ramping up. So impressed was Paramount with PPC Interactive’s augmented reality campaign – one of the first – for the cinema release of Star Wars, it has tasked the agency with producing more AR trickery for the DVD and Blu-ray. That means customers will be able to hold the Star Wars disk up to a webcam and take a virtual tour of the Starship Enterprise.
And PPC Interactive was similarly pioneering when it came to maximising the marketing potential of virtual worlds like Second Life.
“We were the first agency to hold a press conference in Second Life, for the film 300,” says Berry. “And when Sony launched Home – we were in there early. We’ve been working with Sony very closely, promoting Watchmen, Transformers and Wolverine in their world.”
The same marketing logic that applies in the real world holds sway in the virtual – turn potential consumers into brand advocates.
“Rather than just putting a billboard up [in Home], we like to design things like a Watchmen Tee-shirt, or a Wolverine vest, that people can download and wear when they go running around the virtual world,” explains Berry. “It gets users on board but it is up to them if they decide to interact with the brand.”
And with research indicating the virtual merchandise market is currently worth over $1 billion, it seems PPC Interactive is on to a winner, as users are happy enough paying for online accessories, never mind getting them for free.
But how do clients gauge the success of this type of campaign?
“Online film and video game marketing tends to be judged by things like interaction, user numbers, downloads and brand awareness online,” explains Berry. “We always have a PR push that coincides with the release of new applications or campaigns, where we target relevant blogs and online communities… As most of our clients are international it’s also important that our applications run across all social media and international platforms too.”
