viral marketing: curiosity as drug

J.J. Abrams, the Hollywood director-writer-producer wunderkind responsible for a seemingly unending stream of successful TV and movie products, is beginning filming on Super 8, a movie set in 1979 with an aliens-among-us theme.

The interesting part is that a well-organized alternate reality game (ARG) has already been launched. It got on people's radar with the appearance of the movie's trailer shown during Iron Man 2's run, and now it's taking off. 

If you missed the Cloverfield movie and its viral marketing, you're in for a treat. In the latter case, the viral marketing helped make Cloverfield's January 2008 debut the strongest January opening ever.

Expect series box office on Super 8. It's got what they call in Hollywood "pedigree", and it's got Paramount on the viral marketing ARG job, and boy howdy, they're good.

It works for a simple reason: When a person becomes curious about something, chemicals are released in the brain that feel so good, you become "addicted" - perhaps not literally addicted, but it sure feels good. If you need the studies backing that up, let me know.

Comments

[Paul Ward]

The one to watch: Amy Powell, of INSURGE. Why? You'll only get hints if you Google her name. Which is perfect, considering what she can do.