The keys to gathering an audience for your film via a successful word of mouth campaign are twofold 1) creating compelling content that people will share and/or talk about and 2) finding your ”sneezers,” as Seth Godin calls them, to help pass the content around and bring their people into your circle.  Sneezers are the people who spread the “gospel” of your work. They are influencers who generally have a following within a particular niche. People listen to a good sneezer and if the sneezer talks to them about you or your film, they will check it out. So how do you find these sneezers?

Identify the niche audience that your film will attract. Within that niche, there are people who stand out as “experts” or are “the voice” of that niche. Most likely they have an online platform (blog or website) that they use to speak to their audience. If you can identify them by name, do a Google search to find out where they hang out online and get an approximation of their following. Do they have a lot of Facebook fans? A large Twitter following? A YouTube channel with many views? Once you find one sneezer, you are likely to find more because they tend to follow each other, comment on each others’ posts, speak on Twitter or are active on the same forums. You want to know what vehicles they use to communicate with their audience; your audience.

When approaching them, you have to be cautious. Their credibility is at stake any time they recommend something so you don’t want to undermine that or bombard them with requests from an unknown entity. Start by listening. Monitor what they say, read their blog posts and twitter posts, subscribe to their newsletter or RSS feed. I know it sounds a little stalker-like and it is, but you aren’t going to be malicious. You should have interests in common with this person if they are part of your target audience, they just don’t know you yet. After you get a handle on what they talk about, try commenting on their blog posts or their Facebook page entries. Suggest topics unrelated to your film but interesting to their audience. In other words, engage them in conversation, but not a one sided, all-about-you conversation. Keep in mind that their content is also something that you can perpetuate on your platforms. If they have a good video or blog post, repost it. Your followers will be interested in what they have to say. This should lead to some reciprocity.

This is a time consuming process, but totally worth it in terms of gathering an audience for your work. If you can get some of these sneezers into your circle and they help you enlarge the circle, you will reap the rewards of a large following. When you find your sneezers, embrace them and empower them, because they are your strongest “viral” marketing tool.

My mother recently ordered a CD from a company called CDBaby.com. The company is a large, online CD distributor specializing in independent music. After she ordered online, she received a confirmation email detailing her order and when it would be shipped. Below is the very clever and memorable message that she kindly forwarded to me:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, September 8, 2009.

We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! We will be patiently awaiting your return. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh…We miss you already. 

Why am I telling you about this? It serves as an example of why just a little bit of imagination in the marketing of your product (film, album, art) can make it so unforgettable that people will want to share it. This message didn’t cost CDBaby.com anything but time. They didn’t have to buy advertising time on a TV network or advertising space in a magazine or newspaper. They simply constructed a humorous message to accompany a mundane (but necessary) confirmation email and it proved so unique that I am now sharing it with you, free of charge to everyone. And maybe you will pass it on to your friends, and maybe you will visit the site to see what products they have, and maybe you will buy something. This is viral marketing, my friends. Create something so unique and memorable people will pass it on.

I think a definition of Viral Marketing is in order here, because I hear this term bandied about like it is something easy to create and control. Viral Marketing is really just a method to get your message out to as many people as possible using word of mouth techniques. The actual message can be in many formats from an email, a video, an audio file, a photo etc. The idea is getting people who already know you and have your message to spread it to people they know and on it goes. You, the message developer, really don’t have control over how much it gets spread, where it spreads or even if it spreads. The only thing you do have control over is developing a message worth spreading. Something relevant, useful and/or engaging. Play to your audience’s emotions.

A film trailer in and of itself is not viral marketing. A really weird, funny and/or engaging piece (said email, video, photo) that causes a reaction and makes people want to spread it around to their friends and giving them the tools to do so easily, that is viral marketing. Just loading up a video on YouTube and hoping people will see it and spread it does not mean you are carrying out a viral marketing campaign. Trying to make your message spread by spamming millions of strangers with unwanted email; that is not viral marketing and it is illegal and totally ineffective.

So how do you carry out a viral marketing campaign? First, you develop that unique and engaging content. Nobody wants useless crap, they want something that entertains them or that’s going to benefit them (not you!) in some way, like giving a freebie. People can’t resist FREE.  It will be more worthwhile to think about what people really want than to waste your time putting together material that is going to give you no return. If you’re having trouble figuring out what that is, visit online forums for ideas. See what films people are talking about and what they are sending around. What elements can you use for your campaign? The key is achieving a fine balance between spreading your marketing message without appearing like a blatant advertisement.  

Then, you utilize your already existing audience. Viral marketing will not work without an already existing audience. This can be an audience of your friends, your co workers, your fans, your cast, your crew, and any other affiliate networks you have developed.  They are already receptive to your message and on board to support your efforts. Expand out from that by engaging in conversations on Twitter, film forums or filmmaker message boards. Filmmakers like to engage with each other and champion colleagues’ projects.

Stick with your campaign for a while as it may take some time to catch on. When it does and attention starts to wane, follow it up with additional content that incorporates elements of the old message with something new. In video terms, a continuing story line would work or a behind the scenes look at making the original message. But video doesn’t have to be your only format. Games and quizzes on Facebook regularly engage the audience and encourage them to pass it along to their friends. Whatever method you choose, just make it worthy of attention and ties in to your project.

An article in the LA Times about the upcoming film District 9 had me researching this multifaceted campaign from TriStar which has been going on for about a year, first posters hit the ComiCon convention last year. For those unaware of the film thus far, District 9 is produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp as a feature adapted from his short “Alive in Joburg.”  The plot comprises of aliens landing on earth and humans being so fearful of anything different, force them  to live and work in segregated, slum-like conditions. The “Non Humans” are  supervised by the Multi-National United (MNU) Corporation. The MNU is tasked with keeping the  “Non Humans” in line while utilizing their technology for human consumption.

The centerpiece of the campaign is the main website www.D-9.com which features an interactive map of Johannesburg, where the story takes place, with a section called District 9. The map is ostensibly a “Local Alert System” that provides updates about non  human crime in the area and rules and tips for relations with non humans. Users are allowed to enter as a human or a non-human (the non-human site is in alien language, but instructions can be translated into English). It eerily conjures up images of a police state and apartheid.

The fictitional corporation MNU has its own site with a nice propaganda video explaining how the corporation is working to make lives better for both humans and non humans. An offer for employment is included for those thinking of joining its ranks and it sends you to the career page where you will find descriptions of positions available. There is also a resistance movement site headed by an alien blogger who is trying to create an uprising for equal rights.

The trailer was released a little over a month ago on all the major video sharing sites and there has been some “interview” footage released as well, but critics of the campaign have complained that the footage should have been released much earlier to pump up the buzz before everyone knew exactly what was going on. I am not sure they are right, see my note below on successful viral video practices.

Other methods being employed include traditional outdoor advertising (billboards, bus shelters, park benches), posters in comic book stores, a blog about District 9 on Blogspot and outreach on blogger sites devoted to sci fi and horror films. Plenty of buzz is building on this film. They have a Facebook page (but the fan created one has more members!) and a Twitter account, but the Tweets thank you for following and just ask you to go to the Facebook page. They could be utilizing the tweets better than this. They have a toll free number set up to collect reports on illegal alien activities (it really works!) which has received over 33,000 calls and over 2,000 sighting reports. A great way to get the audience interacting and anxious to see the film.

Now most of my indie film brethren do not have the millions that this kind of campaign is spending, but there are elements of it that can be fairly low cost and still be effective. Say you too have a sci fi or horror genre film and you would like to utilize some of the viral and social media elements of this campaign. Using Twitter is a great way to send out cryptic messages from your characters, soliciting help from danger or asking for sightings of the antagonist. Fans of these genres love to be in on the game.   If the messages are sent relatively often, but not so much as to be completely annoying, fans will interact with your brand, retweet your message or make up their own tweets for their friends.

The posters the D-9 campaign is using are fairly basic in design, but effective because they are cryptic and they have been positioned in key places where their target audience would congregate, like ComiCon. Film blogs are easy and free to set up, so utilizing a blog from the characters’ perspective allows you to build a world and backstory around your film that engages the fans early on.

The “interview” footage tactic is easy to employ, but tricky to achieve viral status.  Be sure to put popular keyword tags on it so if someone searches “alien,” “monster,” “zombies,” etc. your footage comes up. It is a good idea to search YouTube, Flikr, Vimeo etc. to see what other footage you will be competing with so yours can be unique and more compelling to watch. I like the toll free number approach and there are many services available that charge about $10 a month for a number. You could have this option for the run of your marketing campaign. It is a fairly low cost tactic and great for tracking response. Your answering message would have to be believable and interesting enough for someone to want to leave a message.

With regard to viral video marketing techniques in general, think about this.  When it comes to viral video, you need to make sure 1) you create something people will spread and 2) that the video carries a message about your film. Fail on point 1 and your video won’t spread. Fail on point 2 and you’ll be a hit, but it won’t help your film sales. There has to be a tie in to your film for you to see the ROI. It’s a very difficult balance to achieve and you should only attempt it with an experienced marketing or advertising expert to guide you.