Thursday, September 04, 2008
TrueBlood HBO's Vampire TV Show Taking Viral Marketing to Extremes
About 2 months ago I received a package at my house (note: not my office), inside the bubble wrap envelope was a vile of what looked like marchiano cherry syrup. Also in the envelope was a small card with Japanese writing on it with the url www.trublood.jp or something close (I threw it all away because, although I knew it was the beginning of a viral campaign, it was simply too vague and the site was entirely in Japanese). After all, my mom taught me to not take candy from strangers and I think it's safe to say that includes taking synthetic blood beverages in viles from unmarked packages that arrive in your mail (hooda thunkit?!). Well, the entire mystery of who, what and why I received the synthetic blood beverage was unraveled a couple of weeks ago when I received an even larger package from an HBO PR firm that was responsible for the viral marketing campaign of HBO's new vampire series called TrueBlood. I do find it interesting that we may be starting to see the beginnings of a new trend where comic books are used (sent to a select group of targeted bloggers and viral seed planters) to get the word out about new products and services. After all, HBO sent me this new comic book about True Blood and just this week Google used a comic book to not-so-secretly launch Google Chromium, their new web browser. HBO has spent a small fortune on marketing this show and making sure it has the potential to become a cult hit. They have launched the following sites in support of the Tru Blood brand which I find very interesting. 
Blood Copy Chronicles the amazing days we live in as vampires attempt to integrate with humans. With the advent of Tru Blood, a synthetic blood substitute, vampires have decided to announce their presence and exist among us openly. This website chronicles the amazing days we live in as vampires attempt to integrate with humans. I love the blood spattered version of the Skype logo, nice touch. American Vampire League
The American Vampire League is the largest organization in the United States dedicated to promoting the equality and civil liberties of vampires. The AVL takes a three-pronged approach: lobbying for the Vampire Rights Act at state and national levels, disseminating accurate information about vampires to the general public and offering guidance to vampires seeking to mainstream. Each of these efforts supports one ultimate mission: To eradicate the fear and hatred of vampires that is caused by both widespread misinformation and an entire race's punishment for the crimes of a few. Since the discovery and marketing of synthetic blood, there is no longer any reason for vampires to remain hidden — or to be shunned or discriminated against. To humans we say: Vampires are your neighbors, your nightwatchmen, your ancestors. And to my fellow vampires: It's time we all come out of the darkness. Let's learn to live together without fear. Fellowship Of The Sun
Just say no to the vampire rights ammendment, this catchy line sits on top of this FrontPage-esque non-profit vampire site. The Fellowship of the Sun (FoS) is a grass-roots organization pledged to protect humanity from the vampire scourge. These Creatures of Darkness (CoDs) threaten not only our very existence with their perverted craving for human blood, but they also undermine our way of life, sullying our communities with their routine acts of hedonism and cruelty. While certain "free thinkers" battle for the "rights" of these monsters to infiltrate and degrade the human species, the FoS is committed to bringing truth to the public. Every vampire is a proven mass murderer and has no place on our streets or in our society. Wake up to the reality of the CoD agenda: They're not a soul-challenged "new minority." They're an ancient menace. Social Networking / Dating Site for Vampires - Lovebitten 
What vampire do you know that doesn't belong to Lovebitten, the official dating site of all eligible vampires. Oh yeah, vampires and humans are both welcome here :) I could go on and on about the other sites HBO has created but I'll wrap it up with the True Blood Wiki. Honestly I thought MySpace was the ultimate in social media time wasting, but now a wiki created to support a tv show, I think this is where the viral group behind the show went overboard. Regardless, this is a fairly large commitment on the part of HBO to engage the internet as it's primary audience and most importantly the initial point of insertion for it's grass roots viral marketing campaign and I think it was a wise move indeed. The only issue I have with most of these sites, as with most other web sites that HBO launches to support a new or existing series, is the blatant lack of search engine optimization. Most of the sites are in flash and have duplicate content penalties and nearly 0 indexable content to speak of. I think that's the final frontier for all companies making a major marketing shift from offline to online though, to tame the search engine optimization beast. It's a difficult task to put together a well-formed site that is visually appealing while at the same time being able to get Google love and all the free-targeted traffic you can eat but it absolutely CAN be done.
Posted By Jason Dowdell at 11:01 AM
Permanent Link: TrueBlood HBO's Vampire TV Show Taking Viral Marketing to Extremes
| Comments (38)
Subscribe to The MarketingShift Feed