In Good Company

Hugh Hewitt had a very interesting offer the other day. Basically if a blogger committed to blogging a review of the upcoming movie In Good Company - then the company promoting the movie would get the blogger two tickets to an advance screening.

Sounded like a good deal to me - so I signed up. So did at least 100 other bloggers on the first day.

In terms of marketing - this is pure gold.

If I represent the average blogger and I get between 150-250 visitors on any given day and there are 100 of us blogging the advance screening (my guess is the actual number of bloggers will be at least double) - then our "reviews" will be read by about 20,000 people (the actual number will be much higher than this because Hugh will probably blog a review as well and maybe get Lileks to do the same). All for just the cost of handing out some free tickets. That's much more cost effective than radio or TV advertising.

What's more - good movies that don't have blockbuster budgets depend on word of mouth to get people to buy tickets. This is basically a pro-active word of mouth campaign. If I like the movie and 200 people read my review - then chances are pretty good that a percentage of my readers (and the readers of all the other blogs doing this) will buy tickets. If those people like the movie - then they'll tell their friends. It's the blog equivalent of the Breck commercial (you tell two friends, they tell two friends, and so on, and so on).

The marketing folks know they've struck gold - so they upped the ante:

There's been overwhelming response from bloggers responding to the offer for free tickets to an advance screening of IN GOOD COMPANY.

So Universal Pictures and Grace Hill Media wants to respond to that enthusiasm by upping the ante: any blogger who signs up for the free tickets and then posts this offer and a link to the IN GOOD COMPANY trailer on their site will be automatically entered in a contest to win their very own private screening of IN GOOD COMPANY in their town. The winner can either fill the screening with their friends and family, or see the film alone with that special someone - it's entirely up to them. One lucky blogger here in the US will win. Sign up at info@gracehillmedia.com and send us your link. And of course, all the non-winners will still be eligible to attend an advance screening in their area.

So if you have a blog - sign up! Send them an email that says you want in on the action. Tell them Chris sent you. The person who will be reading your email is named Emily (in case you wanted a more personalized address instead of "Dear Sir/Madam").

I can foresee this being the future of movie reviews. Can't you picture blurbs like this in the future;

"I loved it" - Glenn Reynolds

"All of my listeners should see this movie as soon as possible" - Hugh Hewitt

"Gnat's new favorite movie" - Lileks

If you think about it - eBay has completely eroded the advertising dollars for the "For Sale" ads in local papers. Craig's List has done the same to "Personal" ads. This could quite possibly put a big dent in traditional print advertising and that's good for blogs. Who wouldn't want the revenue from a blog-ad for the latest art house flick?

In the past I participated in something like this once. I can't recall how but I ended up with four free tickets to an advance screening of the Tom Selleck film, Quigley Down Under. When we got to the theater though - Quigley was sold out (they gave out too many free tickets) but the theater let us see another movie that was just opening instead. So that's how I got to see Die Hard for the first time and that may explain why every time a new Die Hard movie comes out - I go to see it.