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The Blair Witch Project is Real?
How a movie trailer built hype on speculation
Ali Kaltman
September 02, 2024
Brand: Blair Witch Project
Campaign: The Official Trailer
Read time: 5 minutes
💬 Overview 💬
Nowadays, we have direct access to our audience.
With Meta and YouTube, we can heavily target based on any audience, interest, location, etc.
It’s hard to remember a time when that wasn’t the case.
But there was…
There was a time when movies mostly didn't even have websites.
Enter The Blair Witch Project, a little indie horror film that changed the game for the marketing industry back in 1999
… with a budget of $60,000 for the WHOLE MOVIE.
The Blair Witch Project is the ultimate word of mouth marketing success story.
Here’s how they did it:
💙 The Branded Moment 💙
In 1999, a website popped up entitled The Blair Witch Project.
Eerily, it had details on film-makers who went missing in Maryland on a witch hunt and never returned…
BUT THEN their footage was found.
To get viewers to the website, the studio hung missing posters for the film’s stars on college campuses with a link (note: this was wayyyy before the QR code so you had to actually remember the site name).
The marketers behind these posters allegedly fed information on reddit threads too, furthering people’s curiosity on the legend of the Blair Witch.
The website and word of mouth marketing was SO GOOD that no one knew what was real and what was fake…
It got everyone talking.
💡 Results 💡
Ultimately, the movie was dubbed a cultural phenomenon. It grossed $248M worldwide.
And from a marketing standpoint, it also became the blueprint for horror movie and website marketing.
It gave their audience an experience that feels so raw and so real they have to wonder if it’s actually true.
🎬 Take Action 🎬
Many of you (if not all) are likely not horror movie marketers, but there’s still a huge lesson in The Blair Witch Project.
When planning a launch, consider these 3 things:
Pique people’s interest. What’s a fact around your launch that’s so crazy, people have to know if it’s true or not?
Consider your tactics. Should your launch be everywhere? Or are you better off trying to go bottoms up? Sometimes, it’s the latter.
Create a compelling backstory. People love a good story. What story are you telling around your launch? Does it help build hype?
I think about this movie whenever planning any launches I do for work. It hits ALL the buckets.
What’s New This Week
One new product I tried this week 👉 Simple Mills Graham Crackers Really good snack, really good for you too.
One new campaign I’m loving 👉 Branded entertainment goes outside the cinema in this new Beetlejuice x Carmax campaign.
One new show/content/creator to watch 👉 Still not watching anything new YET but back from my honeymoon today and taking recs for what to catch up on!!
Brandkeeping
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See ya!
Ali
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