The promotion of "Exorcism Video" began in February this year, first on the official website. theexorcismtapes。 Online, the same pseudo-documentary propaganda style, no stills, no behind-the-scenes footage and other information, only a mysterious atmosphere, like some real information about exorcism, and creepy exorcism pictures.

But the most striking thing is undoubtedly the movie poster in the center, in the gray color barn, a long-haired girl in a bloodstained white dress, her body is tilted back and twisted, and her pretty face is half covered by the hanging hair, standing in the distance. Near the front are an exorcist with a cross and a farmer with a shotgun, their faces heavy and sad.

There is also a thriller flower of about 30 seconds, in the shaky shot, under the dark night, the girl is running barefoot on the snow, and the exorcist is chasing behind, shouting "Maggie!", the girl suddenly turned around and rushed over fiercely, those people hurriedly retreated, screams and screams sounded, and the more shaky lens was blurred, showing the text:

"Video of the real exorcism, April 22, horror strikes"

There is no emphasis on how this is just a movie, and there is no attempt to disguise that this is a pseudo-documentary of the type of "Blair the Witch." Lionsgate's distribution strategy for it is like this: we are indeed a pseudo-documentary, but it is a pseudo-documentary that is scary and scary, and it is new!

Nostalgic for being scared by a pseudo-documentary? Want to see another "true horror story"? Interested in exorcism? Watch "Exorcism Video"!

After the official website was launched, a $100,000 viral marketing campaign followed. Due to the small budget and the large size of the Internet, although the official website has many attractive elements, those promotions are like a small stone thrown into the sea, and nothing is lifted.

Lionsgate is definitely a good promoter of new online media and viral marketing, and it is not without the experience of successfully distributing low-budget thrillers.

Last year, in 2004, there was the legendary "Trembling Ocean". It bought this R-rated thriller with a production fee of 500,000 at the Sundance Film Festival, which grew from the opening of 47 theaters to the release of 2,709 theaters, and finally received 30.61 million North American box office, and has made a lot of money so far at the global box office of 51.3 million.

The difference is that Lionsgate has no expectations for "Exorcism Video", and the reason why the theater released it is to realize the dream of Cliff Movies and get the North American disc distribution rights at a low price, so the publicity effect is not good and it is not tense, and the 100,000 funds can only do this thing, and it is impossible to advertise on any popular website.

Lionsgate doesn't care, but Ye Wei cares, sitting still is not his style, and he even started the operation codenamed "ET virus" earlier than the official website was launched.

If he is a general, Chen Nuo is a soldier, maybe a non-commissioned officer. He was in charge of instructing, and Chen Nuo, who knew the top secret, and his cousin Jay were in charge of execution.

"Viral, you know?" When Ye Wei asked Chen Nuo like this, Chen Nuo, who claimed to be an IT master, shook his head: "I'm better at playing games...... Ye Wei sighed when he heard it: "Man, you are really embarrassing to the Chinese IT people." ”

Isn't it, viral marketing is a long-standing thing, the classic referral model, word of mouth, more and more popular. Viral marketing on the Internet has also been around for some years, and I have to say that James Hong and Jim Young set off a viral storm at the end of 2000, they made a dating site "am-i-hot-or-not" that scores photos, and when they emailed 42 friends to invite them to visit Wèn, there were 3 on the first day of launch. 70,000 visitors, 100,000 the next day, and just a few months later, millions of pages per day...... The site became worth a lot of money.

Ye Wei and Chen Nuo have both played "hot-or-not", Lev likes it the most, and he still visits Wèn almost every day, giving ten points to the photos of beautiful women and one point to others.

Successful viral marketing can have a huge effect without spending a penny, so in recent years more and more movies have taken up the idea. Its essence is spontaneous communication by users, which must arouse their interest in sharing, doubtful, interesting, and fun......

Chen Nuo and Jay didn't have any ideas, Ye Wei had to think about it by himself, and he didn't know whether it was a bad idea or a good idea, so he let them implement whatever he thought of.

He gave them some stills from "Exorcism Video", all of which were scary but beautiful photos of Nina, "Spread it on hot-or-not, saying that she is a demon, a zombie, a ghost, a vampire, as long as the mysterious and supernatural ones are good, find a way to put her score up, and there are other similar websites and forums, all, especially in Los Angeles and Toronto, let as many people see it!"

Gave them another 1. The 5-minute video, which is required to be distributed to every video website, is a collection of horror shots of Nina's twisted body in the film, it is much easier to share such a hunting video than to share a movie trailer, as long as this video becomes popular, as long as Nina becomes popular, the public is surprised and curious, it is equivalent to tet becoming popular.

All of them have been watermarked on the official website, and a number of surrounding virus websites have been established, including a decent exorcism network and a sensational "Switzer Farm Incident...... These sites are simple and practical, and they all point to a movie called "Exorcism Video."

In the past few months, Chen Nuo's spare time has been contributed to the "ET virus", the game has fallen, but his IT skills in all aspects have improved a lot, and he has also made a small program with his cousin.

Ye Wei's other idea, have you ever been possessed by a demon?

Fill in some numbers and answer questions to test your physical condition, and you will get the answer, a large number of different demons correspond to different symptoms, all the diagnostic reports are mean and interesting, and there are some funny exorcisms that make people want to send it to a friend to do this test, and want to know which demon is in the friend's body.

There is also a web, email, and video version of this test......

Advice: "If you don't feel well, you're not looking for a doctor, you're looking for an exorcist"

If you really want to find it, welcome to visit Wèn. theexorcismtapes。

However, only Chen Nuo and Jay do these things, not full-time, there are few people and little strength, it is already April, there has not been any virus storm set off by tet on the Internet, the number of visitors to the official website, the number of clicks on the video, etc. are average, there is some transmission, but the search popularity of guò knows that the overall popularity is not high.

Ye Wei began to devote himself to the filming of "Little Sunshine Beauty" again, and he had no time to think of new ideas, and manpower and cost were always unavoidable problems.

They've all done their best, otherwise they wouldn't even be able to hold a damn critics' preview with just a little bit of damn Lionsgate's damn investment, and they wouldn't be able to make a splash!

On April 22, "Exorcism Video" will be released, no one knows.