The Soapbox: Why Can’t Sony Do Anything Right? Matt, June 17, 2009January 16, 2010 Sony, what is it with you and shoddy viral campaigns? You let a viral sit for half a year, send me free shit that I don’t want, made National Treasure for old people (Angles & Demons), and worst of all, you keep letting Roland Emmirich make movies. Seriously Sony, why can’t you guys do anything right?I have been following the District-9 Campaign since Comic-Con 08. After an initial surge, it went dry for 6 months. Take a look at good virals (The Dark Knight, Cloverfield, Star Trek, Year Zero), they never went dry for more than one month. Once the campaign starts up again, I have no interest in it.Now that they are breaking the fourth wall on EVERY site, it just takes the fun out. That’s what made other viral campaigns fun, the hunt for a site; now all you have to do is go to d-9.com and you will see each new site to the side. When Cloverfield’s campaign was running, we actually had to work to find new sites and we analyzed everything. But with D-9, Sony is handing everything to us on a shiny silver platter of shit. Don’t even get me started on The Dark Knight campaign, which did everything right, involved the real world, gave me free shit that I actually want, and most importantly, it was fun. You could really learn something from 42 Entertainment and Bad Robot, Sony.Lets take a look at a few other Sony films with “virals”. Angels & Demons, now I don’t know why we even covered this, but this viral sucked ass. They made ONE site for it, ONE, and it added nothing to the film . . . which is what virals are for. Now, onto the shit-fest that is known as 2012, sure the movie isn’t out yet, but I can still rip on it! Yeah, a couple videos on YouTube, that’s about as interesting as Quarantine’s viral. OK, and the IHC, what the fuck can they do? Taking pre-cautions for the end of the world? How the fuck do you survive THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD. That’s equivalent to Bear Grylls teaching viewers how to jump into a lava pit and live.So, thank God that last paragraph is over. Now Sony, I hope you can learn from your mistakes and create some intricate and entertaining virals.NOTE: Sorry guys, had a party last Saturday, next time The Soapbox will arrive on Saturday. Viral Marketing
Sherlockology Counts Down To A Big, Dangerous, and Fun “Sherlock” Reveal Saturday August 1, 2013August 1, 2013The BBC’s hit series Sherlock returns for its third series this Fall in the U.K. (early 2014 here in the U.S.), and fans on both sides of the Pond have been clamoring for any bit of information following the climax of the second series finale which saw the “death” of… Read More
Conan Hosts Valentine’s Day Video Contest February 2, 2011Have you ever wanted to eat dinner with your special someone in front a live studio audience and millions of television viewers? Well, now you have the chance thanks to Conan O’Brien. To enter you just have to post a video response to the YouTube announcement (shown after the break)… Read More
Conventions Dragon Con 2013: Ten Things I Learned From The ‘Billy Dee Williams’ Panel September 8, 2013As a huge Star Wars fan, I really looked forward to getting Billy Dee Williams’ autograph and attending his panel this year at Dragon Con in Atlanta. I was lucky enough to be able to check both of those items off of my list during the recent Labor day weekend…. Read More