The Blair Witch Project A report for advertisement This report includes the marketing analysis of this project,

including the PESTLE and SWOT analysis. It also includes the problems this project faced and solutions to them, with the comparison to some similar movie projects.

Submitted to Prof. SHAM SHARMA

A presentation report for advertisement Submitted by:

Name Ankit Tomar Deepanshu Tyagi Neha Srivastava Ritika Chhabra

Roll no. 10 13 19 31 47

Section FA2 FA2 FA2 FA2 FA2

Vaishali Dhiman

Acknowledgement Any accomplishment requires the effort of many people and this work is no different. We take this opportunity to thank Prof. Sham Sharma for providing us valuable guidance at various stages of my project. Well! We do not have any long list of names to give them any credit for this project report as the credit mostly goes to us. But as we are being humans by the time of our birth, we are also dependent. We owe our sincere thanks to the college faculties, who always believe that the last bencher is not capable of doing nothing, their criticism challenged us to prove them wrong. We like to thank all our colleges at IIPM, New Delhi who always do their best by helping us to enjoy the life at its peak by bunking the lectures and spending time with PVR cinemas. We like to remember the wisdom provided by GOOGLE and ALTAVIST.com, for their valuable suggestions and auto completion dialogue boxes, without them we would not be able to bring this project report. Finally we would like to thank to Prof. Sham Sharma again for entertaining this acknowledgement without taking any action against pranks and been always supportive and motivator for innovation.

Table of content

Executive summary The Blair Witch Project was a low budget movie made by student filmmakers that become an international box office hit in 1999. Blair Witch was a landmark in movie marketing and distribution because it was the first time that any movie had successfully leveraged the Internet as a marketing platform to reach a wide audience. The marketing team employed a range of innovative strategies and tactics to stimulate audience demand. This case study describes and analyses the success of the marketing launch of The Blair Witch Project.

Terms of reference

Methodology

Introduction The Blair Witch Project horror film pieced together from amateur footage. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. The film relates the story of three student filmmakers (Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Micheal C. Williams) whogo into the Black Hills to film a documentary about a local legend known as the Blair Witch, and disappeared. The viewers are told that the three were never seen or heard from again, although their video and sound equipment was discovered a year later. This recovered footage is presented as the film the viewer is watching. As the producers of the Blair Witch Project had a budget of around $250 ooo, the film was shown at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, and released by Artisan on 30 July 1999 after months of publicity, including a campaign by the studio to use the Internet and suggest that the film was a record of real events. The distribution strategy was created by Artisan studio executive Steven Rothenberg. Thr film then went on to gross over$248 million worldwide, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time. The DVD was released in December 1999 and presented only in fullscreen. Marketing The Blair Witch Project was a lot more challenging than for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows due to the low budget the producers and directors had, and because it was an independent film company called Artisan, was in competition with Hollywood companies with budgets of millions of dollars. The Blair Witch Project was marketed particularly through the internet, and the reason for the huge buzz around it was because audiences werent sure whether the film is genuine footage or scripted. A lot of the budget was spent on the Blair Witch website- (http://www.blairwitch.com/), which includes a detailed history of the bogus legend dating back to the 1700s, pictures of found video and audio tape and film (with links to let you see and hear the footage), as well as police photos of the car and other gear supposedly discovered in 1995. There are news stories about the rescue efforts and recovery, lawsuits, statements from the students parents, etc. In addition, the trailers were also very effective as they too were low budget and didnt reveal anything about the film which enticed people to watch it.

Body The Blair Witch Project The movie cost a little more than a jeep Grand Cherokee to produce, (slightly more than $30,000), but The Blair Witch Project grossed over $200 million, making it the most successful movie ever based on revenue-to-cost ratio. Furthermore, it is a horror movie without scenes of gore or blood smeared knives. It has no stars, no music, very little action and Ms. Evil in the Black hills of Maryland is never seen. You do not know for sure what happened when it is over. In addition, it is shot on 16 mm film using handheld cameras that produce a grainy, jumpy image that actually made some viewers vomit from motion sickness. Why was it a success? Hindsight articles attribute Blair Witchs success to its wed sit and the impact of the internet on selling movies. But the truth is a little more fundamental, marketing-wise than just the focus on the internet, the amateur filmmakers who shot the movie, Dan Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, and the marketing talent of the people at Artisan Films (the company that distributed Blair Witch) fully understood their Gen X, twenty-something audience. Gen Xers are a major segment of the movie-going public and they especially like horror films. But a steady diet of Screams and I Know what you did s-type movies left them bored with the Shiningstyle bloody Knife and Psycho-style gore. What is unknown is what is feared and Blair Witch excels at the unknown. You do not know what happened to Heather, Josh and Michael. You never see the Witch .But when you see macabre objects like stick men hanging in the trees, the mind goes into overdrive that does not automatically stop with the movie. Blair Witch type of Horror was well-suited to its audience, and so was the style of the film. Having grown up with handheld cameras, this generation is at home with the grainy images of Blair Witch. Although they dont like to be advertised to, Gen Xers like to discover things on their own. Thats where the internet site comes in. Myrick and Sanchez posted a spooky web site in June 1998 in which they reported the disappearance of three student filmmakers. When Artisan Films took over, they expanded the web site (blairwitch.com) with photos of Joshs abandoned car, pictures of corroded film canisters. They also created the Blair Witch legend, which began in February 1785 when some children accused Elly Edward of Blair MD, of luring them into her home for their blood. When the townspeople banished Elly, their children begin disappearing and they fled Blair. In November 1809 a book, The Blair Witch Cult, is published and in 1824, the town of Burkittsville, MD is founded on the old Blair town site. The legends last entries occur in October 1994, when Heather, Josh and Michael went into the woods in search of the legend never to be seen alive again. To add realism to the web site, Artisan salted it with police reports, private investigator reports, interviews with townsfolk, recovered forage from the woods, Heathers diary, and reports that Duffel bags, Tapes ,etc. of the students have been found. In short, it was a mockumentary. When surfers found the Blair website, they were hooked by the unfolding nature of the drama. Chat rooms sprang up and the Buzz was heard around the net. Surfers thought it was real and began researching.

On their own and adding to the lore of the Blair Witch, Artisan Films continually updated the web site with new information and new links. By the time that the movie opened, the Blair Witch project could claim over 180 million hits on their web site alone. The promo story doesnt stop with the internet; Artisan used college student street teams to distribute fake missing Person posters on college campuses. They also screened the films, early on at 40 colleges. Instead of the usual movie trailers, Artisan leaked their trailers to the web site Aint it Cool new and to MTV. The Sci-Fi Channel ran a documentary, entitled the Curse of the Blair Witch. All of these promotion-utilized channels aimed directly at the target market in ways that captured their interest and involvement. When Artisan planned the release of the home Video / DVD for Halloween, they turned down a national beer company, for tie-in promotions, in favor of youth-oriented brands like Skechers. It also ran contests with non-traditional prizes, such as a trip to the Sundance film festival where Blair Witch was discovered, an internship at the studio and a trip for three to Burkittsville. Most movies dont spin off Comic books or games as Blair Witch did. What do we learn about web advertising form Blair Witch? First, the web is a level-playing field. What you spend doesnt matter as much as what you say. Youve got to have content. The internet is interactive. To be effective, the site has to do more than advertise movies; it has to involve fans, build anticipation of the movie and keep them coming back. You also have to understand your audience. While twenty-somethings want to discover things, an older audience might not. What happens next for Blair Witch? Maybe a sequel or a prequel? Maybe we finally meet Elly Kedward or find out whats in the woods. However, the success of the original will be hard to duplicate

Analysis Some analysis of this project with reference to the other similar projects is given below.

S.W.O.T. analysis S.W.O.T. Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat As very clear from the above comparison, The Blair Witch Project excels the other projects in hitting the target market much more than the similar projects. PESTLE analysis P-political E-economical S- social T- technological L-legal E- environmental The Blair Witch project Paranormal activity The Sixth sense The asylum horror SG:suiciders must die

Questions ? Q1. If you were he producers of the movie, how will you evaluate the effectiveness of the internet as a promotional medium, remember that the period in question is more than two decades ago? Q2. Visit the Blair Witch website and other horror movies and compare them in terms of attractiveness, atmospherics, involvement and the type of content.

Findings 1) Unmarketing Key: The filmmakers focused on story; not their product and not themselves. They didnt stop with the tangible real world specs of their product, they went beyond that and let storytelling create a spectacle, which sold the film. Lesson: Entertain; dont sell. Its whats known as unmarketing. Instead of pitching people on your product, entertain them. As long as your brand is at the center of all that you do, people will associate the entertainment with your product. When you make things fun, entertaining, mysterious, intriguing and exciting you dont have to market your product; it markets itself. 2) True Audience Targeting Key: They took their message to the people that wanted to hear it. They didnt wait for anyone to come to them; they sought out their target audience. From the beginning, the filmmakers reached out to potential fans on message boards. As money became attached to the film, their target audience was also reached via the Sci-Fi Channel and the recruitment of street teams. Lesson: Know your audience and go find them. Instead of throwing you message out there and hoping it connects with someone, seek out your audience and try to start a conversation with them. Tap into the audiences culture, reach them through their peers, influencers and the media they actually use. 3) Put Money Where Your Audience Is Key: Similarly to true audience targeting, the producers didnt use mainstream advertising outlets until there was already money in the bank. They used alternate means to advertise, let their online buzz and the success of their limited opening weekend pave the way to a victorious wide release weekend. The addition of mainstream advertising for the films fourth week in release then pushed the film to additional success (number two on the weekend box office charts for the second week in a row with a take of $24.3 million). Lesson: Just because its there and just because thats the way it has always been done, doesnt mean you have to use mainstream advertisers. With The Blair Witch Project, they zeroed in on their niche audience and then used that as leverage. By the time they put down big advertising dollars, they had practically guaranteed a return on those funds. 4) Make Em Want More Key: Their campaign always left people wanting more. Like the film itself, never did you get to see, hear or know the whole story. The film played on our fears of the dark, the woods, the unknown and the super natural, while also letting our imaginations and desires to believe in ghosts, witches and legends run wild. The campaign behind the film touched on those same fears and had all of our imaginations conjuring up horrible thoughts and visions. Lesson: Sometimes less truly is more. There was actually quite a bit of information on the Blair Witch at the time it was released, but none of it explained the film or let those that believed it was real know it was fake. This isnt something I recommend everyone tries as it is a huge risk. If you leave your consumer wanting too much and then they feel your product doesnt deliver

what they expected, theyre not happy. This is why I think many dislike this film and why they also dislike a lot of M. Night Shyamalans stuff. (By the way, Catfish has completely hooked me by using this technique.) 5) Connect the Dots (Even If Youre Not Connecting Any Dots) Key: Filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Snchez tied their campaign altogether with a website that was ahead of its time. Many people forget, but movie websites were pretty damn boring back in 1999. Photos and information was about the most you could expect from them. With BlairWitch.com the website was an extension of the film that sold the film without selling it. Every bit of information put out about that the Blair Witch was meant to spark interest. Once it did, people went online and searched for more information. It all worked as advertising for their website, which only confused people more and further led them to believe the story was real. This of course pushed everyone in to talking about and having to see it. We rushed out to see the film as soon as we could. It delivered with scares and more mystery and this left many of us wanting even more. Thats genius filmmaking. Thats genius storytelling. But more importantly, its genius branding. Lesson: Websites are more than brochures filled with facts. With blogs and social media sites, many of us have gotten lazy and dont see the need for up keeping websites. But a company or products website is the glue that holds its brand all together. It can be a portal into your online solar system and a home base that all your secondary sites funnel to. Its the one place online that you fully control the message of your product or company. If your intention is to lead people into thinking something is so when plenty of other sites say it isnt, make sure your website is getting the job done.

Recommendations

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Appendices

Glossary