How To Ruin A Viral (Part 2): Mess Up Dan Koelsch, June 3, 2009July 18, 2010 District 9 has a very versatile viral campaign encompassing two opposing forces, four websites, and the social networking world. Despite all this, many have complained about the viral not living up to its potential. Sure, all the pieces are in place, but Sony isn’t playing the game correctly. For instance, they went over 6 months without updating ANY of their viral sites. They set up this vast viral world and then abandon it for half a year. Maybe it was the economy, maybe they thought they started too soon, who knows. What matters is, people weren’t happy. Even when they start their viral campaign back up, Sony can’t win. Sony created a Twitter account on May 11th for the site mnuspreadslies.com. Seems reasonable enough, except that the name for the account holder was ‘Christopher’. The main alien behind the site was named George, so at first I, like many, though Christopher was another staff member (aka an alien) for the site. But as the weeks followed and Christopher tweeted more, it became clear that he was claiming to write blog posts on the site that had George as the author. Then Sony suddenly changed the author on all the posts to Christopher, likely as a way to cover their tracks, but they forgot something…to change the actual posts. Within many of the posts, the author would sign off as George, and that name is still there. The obvious explanation is that Sony has just f*cked up and is poor at covering their tracks. However, there are still questions. Why did Sony change the name? Are they really that careless? One, albeit far-off, explanation is that this is actually part of the viral. Somehow, Multi-National United has planted this “Christopher” to replace George, as a spy or something. It could even be a Marcus Wright (Terminator Salvation) scenario. This seems highly unlikely, as there hasn’t even been a whiff of a hint that this is the case. Just seems like reaching to stay oblivious to the obvious truth: Sony messed up. District 9 releases August 14th. See our District 9 page for more details. Editorials Features Viral Marketing District 9MNU Spreads Lies
Check This Out: The Lost Supper January 5, 2010November 1, 2010Whether you are a marketing firm or just someone who likes to dabble online, almost everyone likes the idea of creating something that goes viral. It’s hard to predict when something will become popular online, but there a few sure-fire ways to get noticed. One of the more interesting ways… Read More
Watch This: Funny People Red Band Trailer July 8, 2009July 8, 2009One of our newest viral campaigns, Funny People, has just released a red band trailer, and it shows a lot more than the green band trailer does (playing in front of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), including Adam Sandler’s stand-up routine, Seth Rogen’s video-game joke and Seth Rogen in general,… Read More
Tron Legacy Final Photo and Animated Series? March 4, 2010Total Film has been releasing daily images from Disney’s Tron Legacy as a build up to the trailer being released this weekend. Yesterday we showed you the third image, in which Sam Flynn has entered the abandoned Flynn’s Arcade. Check out the full version of today’s last image, as well… Read More