Parnormal DIWO Case Study in the Making

Paranormal Activity is a DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) case study in the making.  @GoGoSlava has been tweeting lots about it.  It opened in just a few theaters in September, after a long and creative internet-based marketing campaign involving:

• trailers showing real-life movie-goers
• posters devoid of the Hollywood polish
• college tour
• free screenings to drive twitter and facebook buzz
• unconventional user-driven theatrical release schedule. 

It will open in more theaters in October as more fans demand a screening in their area! 

Sound familiar?  IndieGoGo recently gave every project profile "Demand it" functionality... so every project's fans can demand an event in their area.  Learn more here.

Back to Paranormal...

The Los Angeles Times and Move Marketing Madness blog have good write-ups on "Paranormal Activity's" unusual approach to building an audience.  Read and learn!

Some excerpts:

LA Times:
"Two weeks ago, rain was coming down in a hard drizzle at the Telluride Film Festival, and as midnight approached, the several hundred festival guests wrapped themselves tighter in blankets, tarps and ponchos as they tried to stay warm. The free, outdoor "Paranormal Activity" screening at this year's Labor Day festival scarcely benefited from the cold, wet weather, but few in the audience left early. By the next day, positive Internet reviews and tweets were flowing in, a process that was repeated a week later at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie was shown outside of the festival program."  Full Article here.

Movie Marketing Madness blog:
"While there’s been some press about how the movie was shot in 2006 and has been sitting on the Dreamworks shelf since 2007, it’s important to realize that the entire “Demand It” campaign, coupled with the release strategy that has the movie appearing on a handful of college campuses at first is one big publicity move. The idea is to get college kids to see the movie, rave about it to their friends who will demand that it play on their campus and eventually have that enthusiasm reach a critical mass and spill over into the mainstream when Paramount expands it to more theaters in mid-October." Full blog here.

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Check out the film's media below.

Comments

[Julian Perrera]

On KCRW's The Business they did a segment on Paranormal Activity before I had heard of it otherwise, readers might find it interesting:
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tb/tb091005paranormal_activity_

It seems like the DemandIt thing could really be powerful once projection becomes digital. A film could be demanded while people are at work and played that night at a theatre around 8pm or so. As of now there is no way a print could get across the country in hours, while downloading a file could take minutes.

[karen millen outlet]

Asks everybody to feel relieved the purchase! !