Leave it to independent film impresario Harvey Weinstein to make a quirky marketing splash on the Internet.
Last week, Weinstein set up Kevin Smith’s “Clerks II” for a promotion through MySpace.com whereby he solicited as many as 10,000 MySpace.com users. “Clerks II,” a sequel to the 1994 Sundance Film Festival hit “Clerks,” is set for release on July 21.
Weinstein’s company offered a chance to be listed in the film’s credits or, as the site proclaimed, “to see your name in lights,” for those who added “Mooby’s Presents: Clerks II” Web page to their friends lists. “Mooby” is a reference to one of the film’s characters.
The idea, according to the Weinstein Co., was to convince 10,000 MySpace.com users to foster and promote the film on their individual “spaces.” And if those 10,000 were to reach out to 8 to 10 or hundreds of others, then well, you get the idea.
“We couldn’t think of a better way to get Kevin’s longstanding fan base excited about this sequel,” Weinstein said.
The fan response was humungous. In less than three hours the site was filled.
So Weinstein and company decided to extend the sign-up period to handle any and all comers, and said that instead of listing them in the film credits, they put their names on the end of the DVD release. That still leaves a problem, though. Listing 10,000 names at the end of a movie no matter how miniscule the type could take hours. A Weinstein company spokesman admitted that they hadn’t worked out “the details” on fitting all the names in. If the responses keep coming in, the DVD release may have to be a boxed set.
Pet Project
MTV’s Los Angeles-based Neopets.com has launched a mobile-phone version of its popular site with Cingular Wireless, bringing the virtual characters to the cell phone universe. The service, which went live last week, allows members to interact, feed, love and of course, shop for their online “pets.”
Cingular has a three-month deal with Neopets for the cell phone service. MTV is planning to roll out Neopets Mobile worldwide in seven languages following its North American bow. This wireless version of Neopets was developed by Los Angeles-based In-Fusio.
Traffic Jammin’
If you pay attention to traffic in Los Angeles, you’re probably familiar with Sigalert.com. The Web site gets some 7 million page-views per month, making it one of the most popular online automotive sites in the nation. Sigalert.com has also partnered with the Los Angeles Times and NBC.
The pleasant traffic jams on the site have convinced its backers to expand nationally and they have enlisted online marketing firm Gorilla Nation Media to garner even more eyeballs.
“What we do is communicate within the agency and media-buying community,” said Richard Russo, vice president of business development for Gorilla Nation Media. “They are looking to target a specific audience and demographic. We find their perfect target audience and we deliver to that audience.”
Roughly 35 percent of Sigalert.com’s traffic currently comes from outside Southern California, suggesting real potential for broadening the site’s audience. Gorilla has created and sold similar integration spots for Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Mazda and Scion.
Culver City Complex
Cupertino-based Symantec Corp., which distributes its Norton-branded antivirus and utility software for the ever-expanding online universe, is expanding into Southern California.
The firm is planning to build a $155 million, 10-acre complex in Culver City, to be completed in October, 2007.
Two office buildings and a 2,000-car parking structure are planned. Preliminary work has been undertaken and actual building is expected to begin next week. Webcor Builders, the firm that is currently renovating the Griffith Park Observatory, will oversee the construction.
Fighting Kiddie Porn
AOL Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., Earthlink Inc. and United Online are ponying up a combined $1 million to create a technology coalition that will “develop and deploy technology solutions that disrupt the ability of predators to use the Internet to exploit children or traffic in child pornography.”
Laudable, certainly, but couldn’t that group have made a billion instead of million?
“It’s just a start,” said a spokesman for United Online. “We’re contributing by making our services and technological capabilities available, too.”
Staff reporter Dan Cox can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230, or at
[email protected]
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