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
Tron Legacy Trailer to Premiere Online Next Week March 5, 2010March 5, 2010In what’s becoming our daily Tron Legacy update, MTV has confirmed that the much anticipated first trailer (not including test footage from last year) to the film will be debuting online next week. Many thought it would be this week, thanks in part to four images from the trailer being… Read More
The Buzz: Green Lantern & Thor Photos, Mark Ruffalo Might Be Hulk, Will Smith Joins Vampire Craze, & More! July 17, 2010The Buzz is a feature in which we round up the biggest and most popular film and television stories of the week. Why go through pages of blogs just to find out what everyone is talking about? We’ve got it all right here. Check out all the stories after the… Read More
ParkerPOV Viral Reveals Parker’s Schedule and the Hunt for The Lizard May 7, 2012May 10, 2012The Amazing Spider-Man is turning out to be the viral that we here at MovieViral have been waiting for. Like The Dark Knight viral that ran a few years back, fans of the franchise and viral enthusiasts are looking forward to the next great update for the highly anticipated movie…. Read More