Skip to content
The Bridge: Surprisingly, recent major media and marketing strategies have been relying on real people to draw engagement. Blurring the lines between digital reality and the real world, without the scary “matrix” vibes.
Blurred Lines
There’s been a strange turn of events, this week’s technology update isn’t related to AI – will wonders ever cease? Surprisingly, recent major media and marketing strategies have been relying on real people to draw engagement. Blurring the lines between digital reality and the real world, without the scary “matrix” vibes 🤖🤖 (or the scandal)
Take Taylor Swift for example, who’s using a weekly social media event to promote her upcoming album. The jet setting artist has been engaging fans in real time with her #MidnightsMayhemWithMe posts on TikTok. Basically, Swift picks bingo balls at random that have song titles from her upcoming album, Midnight, and uploads these at…
You guessed it – midnight.
While it’s not the same as debuting new singles on the radio, or a music video on MTV’s TRL, the intimacy, excitement, and interaction between the fans and an artist is 100% human. Think Fireside Chats, but for stans.
We know, we know, “where’s the weird”? Don’t worry – this same strategy is being used to drum up something frightful – just in time for the Halloween season 🎃
SMILE! 😀
What would you do if you saw a trailer for IT, only to run into Pennywise at a baseball game? Unlike Swift’s wholesome midnight bingo, horror fans and phobes have been completely caught off guard by the immersive marketing of box-office smash, Smile.
The film, which depicts a curse that leaves people with a sinister smile, has not only invested in billboards, social media ads, and press releases, but also real-life actors to disrupt public spaces.
Creepy smiling actors have been spotted on the Today Show, and even at the Yankees vs. Redsocks game – achieving instant viral moments as onlookers record and upload.
Beyond the weirdness of the random smiling person, is the use of real world people and events to create digital hype on social media…to get people back out into theaters and stadiums? What’s even weirder is that, for a generation suspicious of manufactured moments, it’s actually working.
Time will tell if this healthy balance of internet and In-Real-Life (IRL) marketing will become the new standard- but for now we’re grateful for the effort.
