Best Marketing Campaigns Around Horror Films
Image Source: IMDb
A film is only as successful as its marketing campaign. If the film has the right marketing team, then everyone will not only know about the film, but they will be eagerly awaiting its release. Unfortunately, if a film is partnered with the wrong marketing team, then there is a likelihood that the film will fail. While marketing is important for all genres, it is especially important for horror films. Since the genre is so oversaturated with content, new films must grab the attention of their intended audience and convince them that it is the film they should spend their money on seeing over every other horror film coming out.
Some marketing teams went above and beyond to grab audiences and ensure a great opening weekend. In some cases, these marketing decisions not only set the trend of how to market a film, but they also changed the way horror films would be marketed in the future. Here is a list of five of the best horror marketing campaigns of all time.
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5. The Last Exorcism (2010)
Image Source: YouTube
All of the films in The Last Exorcism franchise have had expertly crafted marketing campaigns, but the first film was the best. When the first film came out, a website called Chatroulette had been gaining traction with young adults. The website allowed users to get on their webcam and get paired with a stranger to chat with. When the marketing campaign began, users were told that they may be recorded if they entered the site, to which they would either consent or decline.
To promote the film, the marketing team created different videos of young women that would randomly play when paired with a user. The video was up for 2 hours a day during the campaign. In the video, the young woman would be flirty and then begin to undo her shirt. When she was just about to remove the shirt, her face would change and become demonic. Information about the film would then appear on the screen.
This campaign worked so well that Lionsgate created a compilation video of reactions to the ad that quickly went viral on YouTube.
4. Paranormal Activity (2007)
Image Source: Film Inquiry
Paranormal Activity’s marketing team was one of the first ever to utilize a campaign that put all of the power into the hands of the viewers. After the film was announced, Paramount Pictures launched its “demand it” campaign on the film’s website. People could push a giant red button on the website and then enter the city they were in. The website then kept track of how many votes each city was getting. When the campaign ended, the cities with the most votes would be the only ones to get the film. This worked so well that they changed the campaign to say that if fans could get the votes to one million, then the film would be released nationwide.
Not only did this campaign make fans feel involved and boost their desire to see the film, but it also showed the filmmakers where there was a demand for the film so that they did not waste what little budget they had to distribute the film to areas where it would have little to no audience.
3. Smile (2022)
Image Source: Observer
The marketing team for the new film Smile deserves an award. Rather than following in the footsteps of some of the greatest horror marketing campaigns and utilizing social media or the internet, they chose to go in a completely new, unique, and terrifying direction. In the weeks leading up to the release of the film, the marketing team sent “smilers” to MLB games and NBC’s Today show. The individuals were placed behind home plate or in other areas where they were guaranteed to be caught on camera. They would stand completely motionless with terrifying smiles on their faces for close to an hour at a time. The campaign clearly worked as pictures of these “smilers” spread like wildfire across social media and news outlets.
2. Psycho (1960)
Image Source: Bloody Disgusting
Alfred Hitchcock was a genius when it came to marketing for his film, Psycho. Not only was he incredibly guarded and secretive about the film, but he also implemented a policy that no one could enter the theater late or leave the theater early. This was because he wanted to keep the film’s twist quiet, and he knew that if people learned about Janet Leigh’s early death, they may not come to see the film. The strategy was clearly effective since the film made 61 times its budget at the box office!
1. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Image Source: The Guardian
The Blair Witch Project is a cult classic that not only introduced audiences to the found footage subgenre of horror, but it changed film marketing forever. To build interest around the film, which was made to look like a documentary, the marketing team put up missing person fliers around college campuses in the United States that featured the actors from the film, created a website that documented the legend of the Blair Witch, interviewed families of “the victims” to add credence to the missing person fliers, and posted false information into conspiracy threads across the internet.
This marketing campaign was so successful that when audiences rushed to see the film, they truly believed that it was a documentary and that the actors had actually gone missing. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the internet was a dark place with few rules and lots of conspiracies. The marketing team expertly utilized this, and many in the marketing field believe it lead to the spike in internet marketing for films.
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Source(s): Screen Rant, Forbes, Game Rant, Collider, Entertainment Weekly
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