Effectiveness of viral marketing in the film industry

Abstract

The Internet has enabled traditional word of mouth marketing to evolve into a new electronic version - viral marketing. This marketing technique is considered to be relatively new, however its use is rapidly gaining popularity in many industries. Since it is still in its early stages of development, there is limited information and research on the effectiveness of this marketing technique - especially with respect to specific industries. The main objective of this thesis is to explore the effectiveness of viral marketing in the film industry. In order to accomplish this task, an online questionnaire was set up where respondents were asked to reply to a number of questions related to the subject. Furthermore, respondents were asked to share the hyperlink for the online questionnaire with their peers - thus mimicking the concept behind viral marketing. To provide further insight into the results obtained, a focus group was held in which various topics related to viral marketing were discussed. Along with other interesting outcomes, the results attained indicate that viral marketing is very effective when it comes to reaching your target audience and creating awareness of a film amongst people aged between 16 and 30 years. Furthermore, it is also quite effective when it comes to influencing the behaviour of the target audience. A significant part of this audience tends to share film-related online content and watch films featured in viral communication. On the other hand, viral marketing did not prove to be so effective when it came to generating revenue. Many people tend to watch films using means that do not create any direct revenue for film producers and distributors. It is important to point out however, that had the same research been conducted in a different country other than Malta, we could have been presented with a very different scenario. Given the vast nature of the subject tackled in this dissertation, further research could provide more insight into the findings attained and possibly look into other aspects of viral marketing that were not dealt with in this thesis.