News
Hollywood Sizes Up Twitter
By Robert Marich
July 30, 2011-Hollywood is sizing up how Twitter fits into movie marketing now that the wireless text and buzz service has more movie and TV experiences.
Paramount Pictures’ Twitter drive to boost the opening of Super 8 padded the sci-fi yarn’s premiere three-day haul of $35.4 million by $1.5 million in tickets that were sold in a couple of hours. That's according to Twitter ad sales chief Adam Bain, who is quoted in a TechCrunch article. Walt Disney is among early users of “promoted Tweets” that are paid ads streamed, for which Twitter reportedly seeks $120,000.
TV program marketing is particularly tapping into Twitter. A Wall Street Journal story says 20th Century Fox bought 15 Twitter ads for high school comedy Glee “to promote a contest for customers in which it gave away products to fans.” A Twitter analysis (obviously with a rooting interest) asserts the response for Glee effort was 700% above projections (whatever those projections were).
Other entertainment properties Tweeting away include Summit Entertainment movie 50/50, HBO and TNT, according to SocialTimes.com. 50/50 is a comedy theatrical slated for a Sept. 30 premiere. Disney bought a promoted Tweet campaign for Sorcerer’s Apprentice earlier this year, according to a story on marketingmovies.net.
Marketing to Moviegoers views Twitter as still having to prove is it a killer application and not just another layer in a marketing campaign. So far, measuring its buzz is a good indicator of pre-release tracking and Twitter can be useful for films appealing to the youth demographic, which is a prime Twitter user. But building traffic from scratch for movies that have an eight week self life is hit-or-miss. Twitter seems best suited for engagement with on-going properties such as film festivals and TV shows. But time will tell how important Twitter emerges for movies.
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