Anna Dean: marketing genius

  • Breaking
  • 19/06/2014

Last week I wrote about the amazing viral marketing campaign behind Kiwi vampire mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows. This week I thought it would be a good idea to meet the person behind it.

It's Anna Dean. That's all you need to know, really.

(http://www.annadean.co.nz/)

"It's been going gangbusters and I hope everybody isn't sick of the film," Dean laughs.

For a bit of context, most trailers for films get released about three months before the film. With What We Do in the Shadows, the trailer was out May 1. That's about one-and-a-half months before it was released.

Cue the maddest marketing campaign for a film we've seen in New Zealand. A master-class in viral marketing (hell, it's all viral these days I suppose).

From pretending to be vampires on Twitter and Facebook, to running a poster/art competition - Dean says it's been a wild ride.

"The poster competition was started by an idea I saw with fan art coming through on the Spring Breakers page, and when I first talked to Taika I said, 'Way more important than a website is nailing your hashtag…' thus #deliciousnecks was born," says Dean.

Okay, so it wasn't just Dean (it was mainly her) involved in the campaign - other creative helpful sorts got involved as well. Like @digitalmaori on Twitter (pictured in the middle):

 

Dean says @digitalmaori was vital to the Twitter campaign coming out of @deliciousnecks.

"I sounded him out about it. Basically we've had six weeks on this - I knew that he was the person for the job. When it went live on that night, when it got dark, he went fully into vampire mode and over that time he occupied the soul of a vampire. He was staying up all night tweeting, and then at 6am he would wish everyone good night as they were waking up! He nailed it," says Dean.

The campaign was so fun, everyone was happy to help out. Trade Me waived success fees on the real art created by fictitious vamps.

The auctions were good marketing for the film, which meant good marketing for Trade Me.

"All up, around 50,000 views on six or seven really bizarre listings", a spokesperson for Trade Me told 3 News.

Dating website Findsomeone.co.nz even got on board, letting Taika Waititi's vampire character Viago have his own dating profile. A winner was picked to meet Viago at the premiere. It was a date.

Australia-based Noni Kuhner (self-confessed Taika Waititi fan) was so amazing and enthralled by the online presence of the film's characters, she flew all the way to New Zealand for the Wellington premiere.

"It's the immersion in the story, not just through the film and footage, but also through the connection with the characters through those social media channels. It was all exciting and made you feel more connected to the film," Kehner says.

Kehner was also sucked into the Trade Me auctions for various bits of vampire art.

"I was just hooked! By the Twitter and the Facebook, and the videos and everything - I have to have a part of this film! Especially since Australia won't get this film until at least September," she says

So, that's what Anna Dean did. She showed New Zealand how marketing a film can be fun - for both the filmmakers and the audience

The result? Well, now everyone knows about a great New Zealand film. That means they'll go and see it, instead of paying for rubbish like the new Adam Sandler film.

How wonderful!

3 News

source: newshub archive