Here’s a great example of involving your consumers with a product and then allowing them to help shape the final product.
New Line Cinema is changing the rules for film making for it’s production of “Snakes on a Plane“, which is not coming out until August, 2006.
Firstly the name of the film cleverly explains in only 4 words what the film is about. Those 4 words condur up frightening images which have inspired creative consumers to interact with the film. Having already shot the film, New Line Cinema cleverly released trailers and images of the film and have allowed consumers to interact with them.
The consumer involvement has been so overwhelming, some of the scenes have had to be re-shot. More snakes, nudity and swearing have been added to the movie to meet the expectations of the fans.
Over 100 photos are on Flickr with the Snakes on a plane tag.
There’s the blog, called Snakes on a blog.. not created by New Line Cinema’s, but by an everyday person, who’s motivation is a quest to get an invite to the Hollywood premiere. Here’s a summary of his first 90 days.
I’ve been online for 90 days. I’ve had about 265,000 visitors. I’ve posted 185 stories. There have been 770,000 requests for pages, and a staggering 18,100,000 requests for all files (these are mostly people hotlinking to images and comics that I’ve hosted and posting them on other forums around the net). I’ve transferred 375 gigabytes of data (slowly approaching a terrabyte!). The most popular day of the week is Friday. The most popular hour of the day is between 1pm and 2pm.
I’ve gotten seven free t-shirts, one free hat and one free button (more please). A fan started petition requesting I be allowed to attend the premiere is currently standing at nearly 600 signatures (more please). There are currently 31 translations of “Snakes on a Plane” into foreign languages (more please). I’ve been interviewed by two TV crews. According to Google, SnakesOnABlog.com has appeared in 34 newspaper stories, been linked to by 521 blogs, and over 6,500 other webpages.
Someone has even created a Cafepress store to sell the SoaP t-shirts!
33 Consumer Generated Trailers are listed on Youtube.
The great news is that New Line is embracing these conversations.
It has asked consumers to create a Snakes on a Plane song, consumers will elect the top 25, and the winner will be featured in the movie!
Perspective: What a great way to build a groundswell support for a movie, which has inspired fans to participate in spreading the word prior to it’s release. No doubt a successful box office launch in August!
