Case study: 1-18-08 social media marketing

August 11th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Tags: Audio & Video · Blogging & RSS · Internet Marketing

We’ve all seen the effects and consequences of a successful social media marketing campaign on the web: Relatively unknown websites melting down their web hosting servers, ordinary people reaching rock-star status overnight (sometimes unwillingly) and new trends becoming mainstream in less than a week.

But what happens when one of Hollywood’s most brilliant minds decides to use social media marketing as the main strategy to promote his upcoming feature film? Enter the secretive world of J.J. Abrams and 01-18-08 (aka Cloverfield / Slusho / Cheese / Chocolate / Overnight). Things are about to get outrageously weird…so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!

A bright spark to ignite the wildfire.
Preceding the new Transformers movie, a mysterious trailer has been shocking audiences all around the world. Here’s the trailer (click here for an HD version):

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. They didn’t even release the title for the movie. The only available information (in appearance) on that trailer is the date it will be released on and the name of the director: J.J. Abrams – known worldwide for his primetime T.V. series LOST, Alias and Felicity, and for directing movies like Mission Impossible 3 and the new Star Trek film.

I’m sure you’ll agree that given the audience it was shown to (sci-fi/fantasy buffs), the 01-18-2008 trailer generates an outstanding amount of curiosity. And that’s no coincidence. This is all part of a cleverly designed marketing campaign that will be unleashed to the public (and fueled by the blogosphere) during the next few months.

The plot thickens.
The second step in this brilliant campaign was the release of two new clues that exponentially increased the already high level of curiosity. First, the official movie website was launched (1-18-08.com) and it contained a couple of photos related to the characters in the movie (2 extra photos were added later). Some of the names of the characters are written behind the photos and MySpace pages have been found for each of them.

The second major clue is the release of the high-definition trailer in Quicktime format – that allowed fans and puzzle-buffs to analyze it frame-by-frame and reveal even more clues.

One of the clues revealed in the trailer comes from the t-shirt that one of the actors is wearing at the party. It has the logo of a faux Slurpee-like refreshment called “slusho”. This immediately led fans to a website hosted in Japan (www.slusho.jp). This website has, once more, skyrocketed the online buzz and chatter in websites like YouTube, Digg and others.

What’s next?
Those are all the clues (to the best of my knowledge) that have been revealed so far. But the mystery gets deeper every passing day, and the more that is unveiled, the more people seem to get involved in this magnificent marketing campaign. By now even the mainstream media (CNBC and FOX) have mentioned the film in news reports (non-paid advertising that generates even more word of mouth).

My prediction is that we are witnessing the making of what is to become the next true cult movie… and the cult is being sowed deep from the heart of the blogosphere.

If you are involved in any sort of online marketing, I strongly recommend you to keep a eye on this campaign; it has already given us some very valuable lessons (i.e. a brilliant execution to generate curiosity and how to use it in top social media sites to back a single campaign) and rest assured that the best is coming in the next few months. Hang on; it’s going to be a wild ride JJ Abrams’ style.