As I wrote in my previous post, I’m quite admirative of Apple’s marketers. The buzz paving the Iphone relase has no precedent in hi-tech landscape. You might know this fake TV ad broadcasted on Youtube, illustrating perfectly Apple’s Iphone launching strategy:
Note: the soundtrack is Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn & John
How to promote a niche TV channel with limited ressource ? Impossible to advertise on other TV channels, even nor on the radio : too expensive.
Then, rely on your target to convey your message. That’s the point of buzz marketing. By aiming at the right population, your message can be spread much faster than using traditionnal channels.
Filles TV, a french girls-dedicated TV channel, experimented such promotion methods, dressing up parisian rules in pink and broadcasting movies of the commando-like operation on DailyMotion.
You said cheap? New media channels exponentially increase buzz marketing relevance. French countryside rapper Kamini generated more than 2,5 million hits on YouTube without spending a single cent in promotion. The Blair Witch Project became the most profitable movie ever thanks to the Internet and good viral marketing.
That’s precisely why the new information channels are revolutionary. They allow everybody to reach the widest audience. And that’s why real-TV producers were visionary (in their early years …), understanding that people’s only claim to the media was to get access to the mass-celebrity.