The Impact of Social Media and Viral Marketing on the Film Industry - Essay Example

?Impact of Social Media and Viral Marketing on the Film Industry Table of contents Page Introduction 2 Evolution of social media 2 The SPIN framework4 Spreadability 4 Propagativity 5 Integration 5 Nexus 6 Impact of social media and viral marketing on the film industry 6 Impact of social media and viral marketing on stakeholders of the film industry 7 Response to the issues 8 Recommendations & Conclusion 9 References 10 Impact of Social Media and Viral Marketing on the Film Industry Introduction Convergence of technology added impetus to Viral Marketing and accelerated the growth of social media. The changes have tremendous impact on companies including those in the film industry that necessitated reorienting their strategies in tune with the technological developments for sustainable growth in the long run. Interaction or exchange of the user generated information or content take place in virtual communities through social networks such as ‘facebook’ and ‘twitter’ using an internet for communication is called social media. Different network websites focus on different issues which include books, general, film, music, community, health, education and tourism. A Marketing technique similar to a self-replicating virus through an internet, using social networking or other internet applications for creating or increasing brand value is called as viral marketing. According to St-Amant (2012 p. 1), a patient principal uses viral marketing for stronger results. This paper seeks to analyse and make recommendations as to how the managers of the film industry can respond to the issues relating to social media and viral marketing considering their impacts on the industry with justification for recommendations. Evolution of social media over a period of time indicates how businesses have made use of it for marketing. Understanding the developments taken place in social media is important for evaluating its impact and reorienting our strategies in line with technological changes. Evolution of social media Once, word of mouth was the greatest marketing mantra. Also, rumour gets thicker as it spreads. In social media, it can become a mania or rage due to viral power in self-replicating techniques, if the strategy is logical and sound. According to Hinz et al (2012 p. 12) ‘hubs and bridges are key to the diffusion of viral marketing campaigns.’ Social media has broken the concept of ‘time’ in marketing perspective. Time and place are no longer the prohibiting factors in viral marketing in social media. The Web 2.0 phenomenon made collaboration with the customers easier. A single new contact brings all of its other contacts to the business in viral marketing that could be compared with infection through a web of the network with endless permutations and combinations. ‘Going viral is like a calculus function mixed with the element of randomness – Brad Hines.’ (Torkildson, 2012) Viral marketing’s impact on brand or content propagated in social media can be positive or negative. The absence of copy rights or patent laws for the contents propagated in social media attracts people and viewership is encouraged. Monetisation of viewership becomes easier where there is surge in demand for content. The Outdated brand of Old Spice has been revived by P&G in their viral marketing strategy for the product. The Responses to the Old Spice marketing strategy ‘topped 6 million total views and 60 000 Tweets in the first 24 hours on YouTube’ (Mills, 2012 p. 165) Similarly, negative impact affects the business severely. In a way, it increases the level of corporate social responsibility among the companies as the customers’ views on corporate practices converge at a faster pace that forces the companies to review their strategies more in line with public expectations. ‘Greenpeace supporters were so successful at flooding Nestle's Facebook page last year that the Kit Kat maker's social media rep publicly lashed out’ (CNN Money, 2011). Social media is an evolving theme with a very short history. Releasing content in social media and its propagation can be compared to lighting a match to a gunpowder train. The ability to control its course is very limited to the one who has released the content. It is a double edged sword with chances for an unintended negative impact for the content that could be triggered by any unknown factor. ‘Some viral marketing strategies work better than others’ (Wilson, 2012). The catalytic effect in social media is self-propelled, and can spread like fire in a forest. Factors like novelty, surprise, imagination and personal touch are aimed at triggering emotional responses. This is perhaps unique to viral marketing in social media. The SPIN framework propounded by Mills gives an insight into the mechanism involved in viral marketing. The SPIN framework Spreadability, Propagativity, Integration and Nexus are the corner-stones of the SPIN framework used in viral marketing. Spreadability  It is naturally the first prerequisite for viral marketing. The two important features of spreadability are likeability and shareability. For stimulating the audience, the content should be engaging with an emotional touch that motivates them to share their experience with others. Miles (2012 p. 166) stated, ‘motivation can be analyzed from both input and output perspectives, or the willingness to consume and the willingness to distribute.’ But, likability is subjective in nature. Therefore, success lies in striking the right cord with the recipient. If the content appeals to him, he would like to become a sender and share it with others. Content writing is a challenging job in this process since creating a likeable and shareable content is the fundamental requirement in viral marketing. Also, shareability depends upon the nature of the content. Understanding the profile of the target audience is very important in this respect. Propagativity Barriers in distribution or redistribution make a campaign difficult. For example, sharing or tweeting in facebook and twitter respectively are easy compared to sending information by email. We can increase viral effect with lesser cycle time using the ease and speed of propagation in social media. Viral marketing aims at a large number of audiences through ready accessibility and connectivity. Social media like facebook and twitter can reach a broader audience through larger networks. Richness of campaign content is an important determinant in choosing the medium of propagation. For example, while YouTube will be useful for video content, twitter is useful for short messages. Proximity of content with a distribution point is an important factor in influencing ease and speed of propagation. For example, we can’t access videos directly in Twitter. In this case, going through links to the content slows down redistribution. Integration It is an important step in social media applications because it achieves using more than one social network simultaneously. Sharing of YouTube in facebook is a good example for integration. Making social networks interdependent on each other is important for flexibility and efficiency. This integration enhances spreadability and increases propagativity. Therefore, integration of various platforms for the purpose of the campaign and using various apps for specific tasks in this connection are useful for enhancing quality and effectiveness of campaigns. Nexus The success factor nexus is very important for follow-up. The campaign should create expectations from the audience with excitement for more. Film reviews of acclaimed movies create hype among the film goers. Creating content to keep the fire alive will increase the viral spread. The initial content and strategy should be supported with follow-up campaign. Berthon et al. (2012) stated, ‘Creative consumers are the new locus of value in Web 2.0.’ Like in any other industry, viral marketing has significantly changed the strategies adopted by the film industry as well. The industry has adapted its strategies in tune with the developments taken place in technology and media. The Impact of social media and viral marketing on the film industry Advent of internet and problems of piracy kept the film industry depressed during the last decade. Emergence of viral marketing has helped the industry’s revival greatly. “Fake websites, videos, pictures, teasy snippets of information let loose in webspace created instant chatter and pre-release buzz” (Goodswen, 2009). Historically, in the film industry opinions on the first day of the release matters the most. Hampp (2009) stated “Twitter has helped forecasters such as Marketcast and Nielsen NRG steadfastly hold on to their role in manufacturing hype around those all-important first three days.” All the factors relating to the movies such as storyline, music and photography are critically analyzed and the crystallization of an overall rating of the film depends upon it. “The rating of movies is integral to Netflix and its ballyhooed recommendation engine” (Baer, 2013). Therefore, the performance should be balanced and satisfy the interests of the target viewers. Comments on Twitter or sites like Rotten Tomatoes can influence public opinion and ticket sales. Luna (2013) stated, movies with a lot of prerelease online hype tend to have big opening weekends… 72 percent of social media users write online comments about films they see…” In viral marketing reviews by audiences on factors like scenes most liked, important information about the film and special features liked by specific social groups or communities are not conventional. (Finsterwalder, Kupppelwieser & de Villiers, 2012 p. 2) stated ‘film marketers unlike film makers usually have no input in choosing actors, director or genre, they have the power to mediate how these are exposed to consumers in film trailers.’ The thread that connects a film with people could be discerned in social media especially through likes, comments, tags, and pokes by the people who have similar interests. The habit of viewing films online has caught up with people consequent upon use of internet and convergence of technology. ‘US-based Netflix provides paid movie services, mostly in the US and other western countries’ (NDTV, 2013). The viewer can instantly take a decision to see a movie based on reviews made by others. This impulsive decision making in the case of film is a major advantage of viral marketing for the film industry. The Impact of social media and viral marketing on stakeholders of the film industry Various stakeholders in the film industry are affected differently due to the impact of social media and viral marketing. The important stakeholders are from production, exhibition, distribution and retail. In UK there are concerns as to how the proposed Digital and Copyright Exchange will work in practice. Film Policy Review Panel (2012 p. 31) stated that ‘the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) mechanism... will have a continuing and detrimental impact on independent distributors and smaller exhibition venues.’ Producers find it difficult to attract investment into the industry. Success of low-budget films through viral marketing will attract investment into the industry. In conventional advertisements in newspapers, magazines, and television participation of the stakeholders are limited. Distributors and retailers can participate in viral marketing. Viral marketing benefits them in several ways. Spread of technology for watching internet video on television will increase use of social media that will benefit the industry as a whole. “The Internet allows for new forms of sourcing talent and finance (crowdsourcing and crowdfunding) and could strengthen the relationship with the audience” Vinck and Lindmark (2012 p. 25). Secondary stakeholders of the film industry include on-screen talents, director and his team, and the success of a film in viral marketing enhances their employability. Social media exposes such talents without fear or favour that nurtures ‘talent’ in the industry. Adebisi (2013) observed that abuse of their works on the internet and other social media and use of music without permission are serious concerns. Response to the issues The rise in distribution cost has been overcome with digitization of movies that eliminates transportation of physical films. This has been primarily useful for viral marketing in social media as well. ‘Content (films, music and TV) is vulnerable to piracy is the period between when it launches internationally and when it launches in local markets’ (Idato, 2012). Immediate release of movies online is very useful in combating piracy. ‘THE ABC’s iview player is on track to overtake piracy…’ (Stenhouse, 2012). The depression noticed by the turn of the century in the film industry has been reversed with viral marketing that has improved the booking of tickets in theatres. Tie-ups through viral marketing with products such as games and music shows increase revenue. Connectivity to pay-tv can be seamlessly integrated in viral marketing. “Hollywood is using social media and viral marketing to compensate for declining ticket sales” (Li, 2012). A huge cost involved in traditional marketing strategies is a constraint in promoting low budget movies. Paranormal Activity, an American supernatural low-budget horror film series has been a big hit thanks to the social media. This is similar to the viral marketing strategy adopted for Blair Witch. “"The Blair Witch Project" struck gold with one of the most successful viral movie marketing strategies…” (Hampp, 2009) This encourages experiments at nominal costs in the film industry. Generating awareness and hype in the film industry in relation to a new release of film is an important factor in determining success of a film. ‘High-grossing movies like Hunger Games, Hot Tub Time Machine, the Twilight saga, and The Hobbit also used viral marketing campaigns’ (Ramirez, 2013) successfully. Innovations in viral marketing give extensive coverage to the films. ‘Air New Zealand’s new in-flight safety video has gone viral …The safety video has enjoyed global media coverage… that includes Hobbits’ (Peterson, 2012). Analysis of audience profile is important. CMSI (2011) stated, ‘Currently, there are myriad tools available for collecting basic social media and digital distribution statistics.’  Recommendations & Conclusion The film industry is concerned with online piracy that hurts their business. A simultaneous online release of films using social media will eliminate piracy. Ability to use social media lies in overcoming the barriers that include ICT and communication skills of the employees. Lack of these skills can damage companies’ reputation in society. Digital divide is another barrier where lack of internet connectivity is a major problem. Orthodox managers view social media as a wasteful activity and discourage social networking. The employees should be trained to judiciously use social media for leveraging the benefits of viral marketing. Division of responsibilities among various stakeholders in viral marketing through social media is still evolving. Since distribution the film is on a global scale in various languages through dubbing, evolving suitable company specific policies relating to viral marketing is very important for effective coordination. The companies should have expertise to analyse statistics relating to social media or seek external industry experts for formulating viral marketing strategies. References Adebisi, Y. 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