Thursday, April 30, 2009

LET THEM PLAY


I never got into Kings of Leon. I had heard them, thought it was cool, didn't care enough to seek it out.

Then I heard this mashup, http://bit.ly/5f8tR. I played it on my iPod about 20 times. Always came back to it. Then every time I heard Kings of Leon, I paid more attention and like it more and more.

Tonight I'm buying a bunch of KOL tunes from iTunes.

Lesson: Let fans play

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Team Star Trek Does Earned Media

Star Trek does an awesome job rewarding their fanboys, by turning a run of mill screening of Wrath of Khan in Austin, TX into a World Premiere of the New Star Trek movie.



Its yet another example of JJ Abrams and Damon Lindeloff walking the talk with the fans who drive the early buzz around the excitement of their projects. It's not only good for the new Star Trek movie, but its putting money in the bank (or "earned media") for the next project. Its on brand. Its beautiful marketing strategy.

Call me greedy but I would've tried to hold up more of a megaphone to this moment. Multiple cameras, fan interviews, encouraged a hashtag on Twitter, promoted a Qik.com live stream. Cut it into a pre-roll commercial and served it to a targeted group of movie goer's and Star Trek searches.

Do you think the further promotion of this authentic moment takes away from it? Or if you could directly expose a couple million people to it (instead tens of thousands), does the benefit of that echo outweigh what you lose in authenticity?