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“Contagion” Billboard is LITERALLY “Viral”
So, now I have now seen “Contagion” and all the cards are on the table. I thought it was decent, but frankly, quite underwhelming. However, I have to give props for this brilliant marketing tool. After all, who needs a regular billboard when you can have a billboard made completely out of bacteria?
To gain publicity at the Toronto Film Festival, Warner Bros. tapped the Canadian advertising company Lowe Roche to design a form of marketing acute to the disturbing plot of Steven Soderbergh’s film. The artists used fungi and bacteria to illustrate some posters. When first hung up, they appeared like simple, blank billboards. However, after some time passed, onlookers were excited and horrified to see that the substances had rotted and evolved in a way that beautifully (and, at the same time, disgustingly) advertised the movie.
I must say that in the past decade or so of viral marketing, this is the first advertisement to take that phrase to a whole new level. Well done to the “Contagion” marketing team for really using the creative side of their brains.
Check out the awesome making-of video, below:
Armadyne PSA Spot – “Elysium” Marketing
If you thought that “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider Man” were pretty distant glimpses into the future, then you’re really going to get thrown for a loop with this one. Sony Pictures has released a viral marketing video for the film “Elysium” due out in theaters in about a year and a half. The video is actually an advertisement of an advertisement, in essence. It’s a PSA commercial for a company called Armadyne, which will apparently be the industry conglomerate playing a big role in the film and its plot.
It’s a cool video, despite the fact that neither it, nor really anyone involved in the film, has revealed any kind of inkling to the story….or really anything else about it, except that it will be sci fi to its very core. “Elysium” is the sophomore film by rockstar director Neill Blomkamp, who helmed 2009’s Best Picture nominee “District 9.” The film reunites the director with his star, Sharlto Copley, who joins a big name cast featuring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, William Fichtner, Alice Braga and Diego Luna.
This film is already turning into the kind of massive mystery, both in marketing and plot, that “Inception” was last year. For sure, it will either be a major hit or a ridiculous disappointment, with Blomkamp’s career hanging in the balance.
Check out Armadyne and all it has to offer the world, below:
The Edge of the Frame 