eROI Event

How do you take a movie with a $15,000 dollar budget that was originally released more than two years ago and blast it into the stratosphere in terms of popularity? Apparently viral promotion is the answer here.Paranormal Activity a film by unknown director Oren Peli which was originally screened at Screamdance Film Festival in fall 2007, has become the talk of the internet. It seems there are two main reasons for this, the first being that it is phenomenally terrifying (I’m too scared to see it), and Paramount has been using some interesting tactics to promote it in the online realm.

One of the main pushes for this effort is the “Demand an Event” feature on Eventful which is featuring the film on the site home page. Users can come on and “demand” that Paranormal Activity be shown in their city, Paramount will respond to the most demanded cities by having midnight screenings of the film in those locations. By doing this, the experience is transcending a normal trip to the movies and is turning itself into a genuine event. The results have been astounding. As of this writing, Paranormal Activity has over a million demands on Eventful, more than twice the current second demanded performer. It also has strong presences on Facebook, and Twitter where it has quickly garnered a large following. Each of these portals contains mostly positive buzz about the film, including lots of posts and lively discussion on the Facebook message board.

I think this case is a great example of how simple, and generally inexpensive social media tactics can be used to generate hype, attendance, and revenue for an event. If a person demanded on Eventful that the film come to their city, they are almost guaranteed to go see it, so the demanding works not only as a marketing tool, but also can help gauge future revenue and add more in depth metrics to your event analytics. Though the same tactics may not be able to work for your particular event, this can help give you an idea of how creative and slightly unorthodox methods can be used to create excitement and buzz for your next event.

Have you used Eventful to have people demand your event? Are there other similar platforms that have been effective for you? Let us know in the comments section.