In the case that you have not seen this trailer watch it first then continue on:

High Def Version

This is a trailer for a movie either titled 1/18/08 or being released on 1/18/08, it is also code named Cloverfield. It is from producer J.J. Abrams, the creator and director of Lost. This trailer premiered as a “preview” in the opening trailers of Transformers. As you can see it is pretty nondescript as far as what is happening. All we know is that a guy named Rob is going to Japan, next thing you know there is a loud roar and what seems like an earthquake, followed by explosions and The Statue of Liberty’s head rolling along the ground.

This is perhaps the best marriage of buzz and viral marketing that I have ever seen. I found this quote from AdAge that sums it up perfectly.

From the moment the trailer hit YouTube, thousands of bloggers, vloggers and alternate-reality gamers started dissecting it, byte by byte. Some conducted spectral analyses of the audio in the trailer in order to spot clues in what the characters were saying and compare the roar of the monster to the roar of Godzilla. Others used picture filters and facial-analysis tools to find clues in the video that might hint at more detail on plotlines or websites where more clues could be uncovered.

What is great about this is that not only is it generating buzz by having people pick it apart piece by piece but it also has a viral component because people want to pass it on and get other peoples opinions. There has been speculation that it is a new Godzilla movie or a Voltron movie. The fact remains though that it is a powerful piece of film. It is calling viewers to action, in fact I would go as far as to say that it actually gives the viewers a sense of duty to try and figure out what is going on.

John Miller, CMO of NBC Universal is quoted as saying “today you need to let people feel like they’re part of something because they discovered it.” Well Abrams has planted the seed and whether intentional or not he has led all viewers down a path of discovery, it is something on people’s minds and they want to know so they are going to speculate, participate in discussion and forums and further help build the buzz of this already high profile trailer. It is pure marketing genius and once again the perfect marriage of buzz and viral. Lets hope that he is able to hold our interest to the release date and that all the rest of the trailers and the movie itself are just as engrossing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 1:59 pm and is filed under internet marketing, marketing, Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.