So the Apple ipad is out, now shut up!

Yesterday I watched the release of Apples ipad and now today I’m watching the after math of what it’s caused. Sure the ipad is cool don’t get me wrong I already have the mini edition and it also comes with a phone, but lets be frank people the ipad has not even released yet so please stop speculating on your blogs.

I’m sure the ipad will make a huge splash in the techy world but past that I’m not sure. I can tell you for sure I don’t want one, but I’m sure there are plenty of people that do.

What apple needs to do now is justify this product to the average consumer and I’m not sure they can.

I’ve seen all this hype about it bringing newspapers back from the brink of death; people the newspaper, as we know it is DEAD! What the news industry needs to do now is create an e-paper that is paid for just like a newspaper but is downloaded to the ipad every morning. If Apple can’t sell this to the average consumer then this will not work.

As a techy myself I don’t care about local news and no one else under 25 does ether. This might save the larges papers but the local papers will die off.

Why would a twenty something want to read the local paper when they have Digg, Engadget and so much more to read online for free?

Now if the magazine and comic book industries take advantage of this, they might profit really well but for now lets just wait for this to be released before you advise your clients to move ad dollars back to papers.

How MGM Can Hit A Home Run With Hot Tub Time Machine

Ever since I saw the teaser trailer for “Hot Tub Time Machine” I couldn’t wait for this to hit theaters and it looks like MGM can’t wait ether. I’m very exited to see this movie and now have free tickets, thanks to MGM. I believe this can be the Hangover of 2010 if it is done right and MGM seems to think so also.

MGM has started a full force marketing campaign to push this movie to the top. With the Facebook, Twitter, Eventful and much, much more MGM is really attacking this head on.

They have finally realized how powerful the web and social media can be when it comes to movie marketing. I’m finally glad to see a movie studio get it when it come to social media.

The first thing I noticed was MGM releasing teaser trailers late in 2009, by doing this they created a organic buzz revolving around this movie. This would not work for every movie but in this case it does and it seemed to pay off well. After looking over a few video sites where it had been posted I’ve seen nothing but praise and joy to see this movie. Then blogers got a hold of this and went wild promoting this movie for free. The cost to do this almost nothing compared to the ROI they received in return. Lets score one for MGM and this was six month before the movie is set to release.

In December I noticed a few ad campaigns set up, a Facebook fan page was created, the official trailer was released and MGM managed to keep attention on this movie still three months before it’s set to release. I’ve also noticed the stars of this movie doing the rounds and promoting this movie.

On December 25^th MGM started an ad campaign on XBOX LIVE giving away free tickets to early screenings. By our findings so far MGM knows what the audience for this movie is and they are going directly to them.

Threw MGM’s twitter account they have started tweeting about the “Hot Tub Time Machine’s” Facebook fan page. They have about 5000 fans so far; I would say they are still on the right path. Yesterday they tweeted out about free screenings in almost 50 cities. If you don’t see a city near you, you can chose to host the movie in your city.

It was very easy to get two free tickets to see this movie two weeks before it releases nation wide. After you have locked in your ticket they gave me five different options to promote the free screenings on social networks and to email to friends. Again MGM has really struck oil with this marketing campaign.

With all these free screenings MGM is going to get great word of mouth marketing and every marketer knows that word of mouth is still the best marketing. I guess they have noticed that early buzz on Twitter and Facebook can make or break your movie and it looks like MGM has decided to take control of this early buzz and hopefully it works in their favor.

MGM these are some things you can do to ensure the keep up the current buzz before and after the release.

Before Release:

• Continue the Marketing of Facebook and Twitter
• Pick five big cities from your free screenings and host a before show party in the parking lot.
• Really connect with movie and entertainment blogers and work out deals for them to promote you weeks before the release.
• Host small contest giving away tickets and swag.
• Take lots of picture of everyone there and put them on Facebook in their own screening folder. Then ask them to look threw and tag them selves.

After Release:

• Have a funny video with the cast after the credits; inform the screening audience of this before they leave and let the Internet do it job.
• Advertise to them on the screen during the free screening. People are more likely to pay attention and not complain about the ads because they are there for free.
• Offer free tickets to the movie theater you are at by having the coward tweet out that they are watching the movie for free and include a hashtag. Pick one of them at random.
• Pass out a flyer to the screeners at the end to have them go to a Facebook discussion and comment on their experience at the screening.

MGM I think you are on a great path right now and you are really embracing social media and the web.

I have some great ideas for you and I would love to talk about it with you, so please feel free to contact me anytime.

Contact Info:

Daniel Woods
330-664-9058
info@socialboxmedia.com