Moshe Engelberg On Everything Marketing

To "prepare" us for the next Muppets feature film in 2011, Disney (who bought the Muppet franchise several years ago) has unleashed a brilliant and carefully orchestrated combination new and traditional media strategy that draws on Disney's many assets. A major communication channel is YouTube, and Muppet characters have been appeared in several ABC and ESPN programs. Check out the very cool Muppets version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which to date, has been viewed by over 11.6 million viewers.

Soon we'll be seeing Muppets everywhere. The power of pop culture to influence our collective psyche!

Viacom's movie studio Paramount needs a new way to make money since DVD sales are declining. They are now launching an online video clip service that makes favorite segments from its movie collection available for purchase. 

The price depends on your licensing agreement with them, and how you plan to use the clips. Heres' a link to their demo, which is only open to "friends" right now (if you have access, please let me know).

Techies call these clips "short-form video assets." I think they are the future of online video. We're working in this space too - more to follow!

Paranormal Activity, a horror movie about a young couple's house haunted by a demonic presence, cost about $15,000 to produce, and brought in $7.9 million last weekend. Paramount Pictures worked with Eventful in San Diego to create a social media buzz, instead of more traditional movie marketing approaches. Eventful's "Demand It" lets us "demand" that performers, movies, or events we want to see come to our town. Enough demand can make it happen.

That's how Paramount decided which cities to show Paranormal Activity in - it was based on demand level generated through social media. Then when they got 1 million demands, they decided to roll out the movie nationwide. From their press release: “From the very beginning, we put this film in the hands of the fans and we trusted them to tell us where and when it should be seen. We couldn’t be more thrilled by their overwhelming support and we are happy to release the film in every town - big and small,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures.

I see this as an incredible Web 2.0 resource. It gives a powerful voice to the public and enables companies to respond to what the market wants. And framing it as "Demand It" may lead people to feel more empowered than something like "Request It."

As we shouted and sang in the '60s, "Power to the People!" Who knew the many ways that the internet would deliver on that promise.