affiliate.gif links1.gif
news.gif
 
 Affiliate Newsletter - October 27, 2009  

Word-of-Mouth and Social Media Marketing Success Story

by Tom Wozniak, Marketing Director

It's always interesting to watch a marketer think outside the box, utilize non-traditional methods and hit a marketing grand slam.  It can be a great motivator for marketers as they see someone else take a chance and achieve some serious success. While it isn't in the affiliate marketing space, a recent marketing campaign for a new Hollywood movie is the latest example of someone turning the tried-and-true marketing establishment on its ear.

If you happened to catch the entertainment and movie news from the weekend, you may have noticed that a movie called Paranormal Activity was #1 at the box office.  The movie stands out from normal Hollywood fare for a number of reasons.  Number one - it was made by a virtually unknown director for approximately $11,000.  A large studio bought the movie, with possible plans to re-shoot the story with some big name actors and a big budget.  Those plans were changed and the film was released with a few minor tweaks.  The studio provided a truly minimal promotion budget, forcing the movie's marketing team to come up with some innovative ways to get the movie in front of a small, but potentially vocal target audience and then encourage them to recommend the movie to their friends. 

The movie was initially given limited screenings in a few college towns and promoted somewhat like The Blair Witch Project, in that it could be seen as a "true" story, rather than a Hollywood blockbuster.  Audiences reacted exactly as hoped and told their friends about the film.  The marketing team then utilized social media to let the audience mobilize and begin demanding that the movie be released in their towns.  The rest is movie marketing history in the making, as the film has earned over $62 million since its initial limited release. 

Obviously, the clever marketing wouldn't have done much good, if the movie hadn't resonated with audiences.  But, it still stands out as an unbelievably successful use of so-called "non-traditional" media to connect with an audience in ways that most movies never aspire to.

As affiliate marketers, we aren't generally involved in movie marketing (although I can certainly see performance-based marketing playing a role in online ticket sales) but, that doesn't mean there aren't some great lessons to be learned from this campaign.  The beauty of this type of word-of-mouth and social media marketing is that if it is done well, the audiences does most of the heavy lifting.  The marketer's main goal is to do their best to support and facilitate the group, as it caries out the majority of the actual promotion. 

Think about ways that you can leverage social media or other innovative methods to drive traffic to your websites and offers.   Not every outside the box idea will end up being a success, but you just might hit on one that will help you rise above the competition.

Hot Offers   

NEXTPAYDAYONLINE.COM
(Cannot Be Incentivized) ($35.00 per Lead) (
Email, Banner, Search, and Contextual)  Get the cash you need in 24 hours or less!  This offer converts best during the weekdays.  Some cash advance lenders for this offer do not keep weekend hours, therefore for PPC publishers it is advisable to not run the campaign during the WEEKENDS. Pays out on First Page Application Submit.

COURSE ADVISOR NURSING - EMAIL ONLY
(Cannot Be Incentivized) ($22.50 per Lead) (
Email Only)  Find the Nursing & Allied Health Care school that works for you.  Pays out after Second Page Submit.

Hot International Offers

SPAIN - OLE TRIVIA - SMARTFOX - FACEBOOK ONLY
(Can Be Incentivized) ($5.50 per Lead) (
Facebook Only)  Triviali offers mobile content to end users to personalize their phones and play to win prizes.  Pays out on PIN Submit. 

UK - PRIZES.UK - WIN A NINTENDO WII + 5 GAMES
(Cannot Be Incentivized) ($1.10 per Lead) (
Email, Banner, Search, and Social Media)  Win a Nintendo Wii and 5 games!  Pays out after First Page Submit. 

FUNMOBILE - NETHERLANDS - NEW
(Cannot Be Incentivized) ($10.00 per Lead) (
Email, Banner, and Search) (No Quiz traffic allowed)  Funmobile offers more than 15000+ choices of mobile phone downloads, including monophonic & polyphonic ringtones, real music tones, Java games, color wallpapers, logos, operator logos, picture messages and much more.  We offer every new visitor to Funmobile a Complimentary Ringtone of their choice.  Pays out on PIN Submit on Second Page. 

FREELOTTO
(Cannot Be Incentivized) ($0.35 per Lead) (
Banner and Search Only)  Freelotto.com is a sweepstakes site.  Users register to the site and can play up to 6 games daily.  Pays out after First Page Submit.

>>back to top

 

Halloween Costume Tip

Remember, with the advent of social media, photos of you in your Halloween costume could be available to the entire world.  Take this into consideration when selecting a costume this year.  For an example of this phenomenon, log in to affiliate.com and check out the current photo of your Affiliate Manager.      

Favorite Scary Movies

We asked some of our Affiliate Managers for their favorite scary movies.  Here are a few responses.

Jazette Pester - Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Lyric Black - Friday the 13th (the original)
Jason Jugert - The Exorcist
Jen Conlon - Zombieland
Jon Ringhofer - Friday the 13th
Laura Nielsen - It
Bobby D'onofrio - Event Horizon
Andrea Jantzen - The Strangers
Antonio Vitale - Silence of the Lambs
Sara D'Onfrio - The Exorcist
Will Charland - The Wizard of Oz

 

 Can't get enough affiliate.com info?  Check out the links below.  

www.affiliate.com

www.affiliate.com/blog


www.affiliatecubes.com

 
Follow us on Twitter



Find us on Facebook

 

Contact Information

Doug Davis
Manager of affiliate.com
doug.davis@affiliate.com
AIM: affDougDavis
Phone: 720-929-2493

Jason Jugert
Senior Affiliate Manager
jason.jugert@affiliate.com
AIM: affJasonJugert
Phone: 720-929-1980

Jazette Pester
Senior Affiliate Manager
jazette.pester@affiliate.com
AIM: affJazettePester
Phone: 720-929-198181

Jon Ringhofer
Senior Affiliate Manager
jon.ringhofer@affiliate.com
AIM: affJonRinghofer
Phone: 303-468-2614

Brian Chase
Affiliate Manager
brian.chase@affiliate.com
AIM: affBrianChase
Phone: 720-929-1987

Laura Nielsen
Senior Affiliate Manager
laura.nielsen@affiliate.com
AIM: affLauraNielsen
Phone: 720-929-24911

Lyric Black
Affiliate Manager
lyric.black@affiliate.com
AIM: affLyricBlack
Phone: 720-929-2495
 

Brittany Bankston
Affiliate Manager
brittany.bankston@affiliate.com
AIM: affBrittanyBank
Phone: 720-929-2490

Will Charland
Affiliate Manager
will.charland@affiliate.com
AIM: affWillCharland
Phone: 303-920-7946

Antonio Vitale
Affiliate Manager
antonio.vitale@affiliate.com
AIM: affAntonioVitale
Phone: 303-920-7948
 

  Gina Spano
Affiliate Manager
gina.spano@affiliate.com
AIM: affGinaSpano
Phone: 720-929-2484
 

  Sara D'Onofrio
Affiliate Manager
sara.donofrio@affiliate.com
AIM: affSaraDonofrio
Phone: 720-929-2480

For Advertising inquiries, please contact:

Andrea Castaneda
Manager of Advertising
andrea.castaneda@affiliate.com
AIM: affAndreaCastane
Phone: 720-929-1979

Jen Conlon
Advertising & Sales Coordinator
jen.conlon@affiliate.com
AIM: affJenConlon
Phone: 303-468-2619

Andrea Jantzen
Advertising Account Exec.
andrea.jantzen@affiliate.com
AIM: affAndreaJantzen
Phone: 720-929-2499

 

 Christi Cameron
Advertising Account Exec.
christi.cameron@affiliate.com
AIM: affChristiCamero
Phone: 720-929-1977
 

 

We hope you enjoy today's newsletter!
To read previous issues of the newsletter and other company news and information, visit www.affiliate.com/blog.

Thanks,
Tom Wozniak
Director of Marketing
tom@mediabreakaway.com
303-920-7930

affiliate.com is a division of Media Breakaway, LLC. We are not responsible for typographical errors or omissions on this newsletter or website.

Forward email

Safe Unsubscribe
This email was sent to joey.kemp@affiliate.com by newsletter@affiliate.com.

affiliate.com (a division of Media Breakaway, LLC) | 1490 W 121st Ave | Suite 201 | Westminster | CO | 80234