From marketing content to content marketing

Content providers such as Netflix and  Sky, amongst others, spend a considerable amount of money using traditional means to launch new channels or TV series.

Reviewing some of these recently,  I came across a number of examples that I enjoyed, were innovative and I felt were worth sharing.

Carrie

I’ve shared this with  clients a number of times and is a favourite of Matt Simpson, International Business Director at Zone but formerly their Head of Content.

It’s a great example of how creating an innovative piece can become viral and in fact can outstrip the traditional marketing approaches (to date the spoof has had 63m views in comparison to the official trailers 4m ). As Matt put it..moving from marketing content to content marketing

The Simpsons Movie

Re-branding a dozen 7-Elevens in the US into Kwik-E Marts complete with Buzz Cola , KrustyQs and signage relevant to the series, this take over was only seen physically by a few thousand people but generated masses of PR. In fact PR Week called it a case of Reverse Product Placement.

Reverse product placement converting 7-Elevens into Kwik-E-Marts

Not surprisingly it also had a positive impact on the 7-Elevens in question whose footfall and sales doubled!

Prometheus

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A TED Talk in the future about the future. A nice 3 minute piece by the film’s Character, Sir Peter Weyland, CEO of Weyland Industries on key themes from the movie

TNT

To launch TV channel TNT in Belgium they placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text "Push to add drama" invited people to use the button. And I always thought Belgium was a little dull.  Quite an action packed day

The Ring Two

Probably not as good a movie as The Ring but their 7daysleft.com site allowed people to enter a ‘friends’ telephone number and email address. The email was used for them to receive link to the trailer but during the trailer a call was made to the mobile number. When they answered they heard the words ‘7 days’ being whispered

Inception

Manifested itself as a game with its own website and Facebook pages that offered fans the opportunity to essentially create their own labyrinth and win exclusive prizes.   Mind Crime.