To promote it’s latest sci-fi blockbuster Prometheus, 20th Century Fox has run a viral marketing campaign to maintain online buzz before, and after, the films release. For cinema goers that stuck around for the end credits of Prometheus, they were directed to a new website. Created by Scott's own RSA production shingle, those videos are the latest example of a shift beyond the usual teasers and trailers. Their aim: to turn hardcore fans into mini-marketeers by giving them something unique to share with their less-engaged online friends.
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| Media: YouTube, Viral, Video | Country: India | Sector: Film | Objective: Build brand awareness| Format: Viral Video »
The micro-site featues a video of Peter Weyland (played by Guy Pearce), founder of the ‘Alien’ company in the film saying “I am a law only for my kind, I am no law for all” and for some reason a big book cover for Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical classic "Thus Spake Zarathustra" with the quote "What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not the end" gracing the cover.
Both the website and video give a date to mark on your calendar: October 11, 2012, with rumours circulating the date could reference a possible DVD/Blu-ray release date , while others suggesting it hints at a director’s cut issse or a re-release of the original Alien film.
A number of viral videos were released leading up to the film's premiere. One featured scientist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace)sending out a video message to Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce).
Another was a commercial for the android David (Michael Fassbender), while a third featured Peter Weyland delivering a TED Talk.
Lindelof, the screenwriter behind Prometheus, revealed that the idea for the viral videos came from The Avengers, where Marvel included scenes at the end of each of the individual movies leading up to the ensemble film.
"What they did with The Avengers was genius... That was viral six years later," he told New York Magazine. "So I was thinking about how that method and how those videos would be really effective at character introduction. So you meet David the robot, without spoiling it. One of the things I was thinking of for that were those iPhone commercials. So I talked to [executive producer] Michael Ellenberg, 'Can we do a commercial for a robot? If we have commercials for iPhones, wouldn't they have commercials for robots?'"
Watch the ‘David’ video viral here:
Watch the ‘Quiet Eye’ video here:
