About Me 0003: why internet marketing

You missed two that became somewhat successful due to the web and more specifically filesharing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1071804/

Ink

http://www.p2pon.com/2010/02/07/ink-the-proof-that-bittorrent-can-help-m...

“Ink”: The Proof that BitTorrent Can Help Movie Makers

Responsible for boosting the popularity and, implicitly, the earnings of independent movie “Ink”(a film P2PON has recommended when it first hit the p2p networks), online piracy is once again into the spotlight; this time, however, for the completely different reasons.

The creators behind the film production admitted in an interview that the unexpected success achieved by the initially unpresuming project is primarily owed to the intensive download activity registered on BitTorrent networks, which propelled the title into the top 20 movies on iMDb, despite all expectations.

Invited by the press to comment on the recently achieved success, Jamin and Kiowa Winans, the creators of Ink, didn’t hesitate to praise the BitTorrent download community for increasing the film’s exposure, as well as DVD and Blu-ray sales. Later statements from the two revealed the same initial enthusiasm regarding their new conquered “pirate fans”.

When asked to translate the hundreds of thousands of downloads into effective sales, Kiowa said it was difficult to quantify the financial gain generated by the activity on BitTorrent trackers, but admitted that DVD and Blu-ray sales have definitely gone up.

The unexpected financial success enjoyed by the production also came from other sources. Thanks to its popularity on BitTorrent, members of the downloading community supported the idea that fans should donate money via the film’s official website. Kiowa complemented on the generosity of German fans, who she claimed to have been twice as benevolent as fans from the US.

Asked if she considered the film to be a victim to piracy, Kiowa responded: “I think to say victim is to characterize piracy as an all-together awful thing. The piracy of Ink is unquestionably responsible for its popularity around the world. Sure our trailers have been out for over a year and have had plenty of views outside the US, but we think that 70% of the illegal downloads are coming from outside of the US and we do get a good number of international buyers at our online store every day.”

Kiowa suggested that the movie industry needed to change and adopt an effective strategy to ensure the deserved revenue for filmmakers, and satisfy film enthusiasts’ needs in terms of availability and affordability at the same time. As for online piracy,
Kiowa explained that it would be best to focus on exploiting the phenomenon for producing positive effects, pointing out once again to the success of the film Ink, owed to the thousands of downloaders on BitTorrent.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

The Man from Earth

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/internet-piracy-is-good-for-films-1

INTERNET PIRACY IS GOOD FOR FILMS

FOR "MAN FROM EARTH", AT ANY RATE

Can internet piracy result in more and better movies? "Of course, not!" is probably our stock reaction. By illegally downloading and sharing films, pirates steal the revenue that would otherwise reward and encourage film-makers--or so we are told by lawyers, economists, and lobbyists for Hollywood studios.

But we may have plenty to learn yet about the possible impact of file-sharing and other online distribution methods on the quantity and quality of films we watch. The story of Jerome Bixby's "The Man from Earth", a small-budget science fiction movie released on DVD in November, shows how piracy can help salvage, not sink, high-quality cinema.

Shot on digital video with a budget of less than $200,000, the film features a bookish debate among academics who get together for a farewell party for John Oldman, a college professor, who, for no obvious reason, wants to quit his tenure-track job and hit the road. As the party unfolds, Oldman makes a surprising emotional confessession: he is 14,000 years old, doesn't really age, and has 10 doctorates--making him both the oldest and the smartest man on Earth.

What follows is an intense intellectual drilling by his colleagues--professors of anthropology, biology, archeology, psychology, and Christian literature--who try hard to spot inconsistencies in Oldman's account of the world, based on what they know from their own disciplines.

Their passionate debate is heavy on both science and humanities and makes "The Man from Earth" a very appealing movie to smart--yes, nerdy--audiences. Even if you don't learn anything new (which is unlikely), there is a good chance you will be asking yourself a lot of questions afterwards. It's nerdy enough to get the sci-fi geeks to watch it, while its interdisciplinarity makes it accessible to general public as well.

But what is truly unique about the film is not just the controversial story of John Oldman. It's the fact that the film producers have embraced internet piracy and thanked illegal downloaders for helping to spread the buzz about the movie.

In early November Releaselog, a popular blog that regularly posts links to movies, music, and software (most of which is copyrighted), ran a review (with accompanying download links) of "The Man from Earth". The review generated a flood of comments. The movie obviously struck a chord with the geeky and anti-establishment community at Releaselog and prompted many (illegal) downloads.

Most crews would have wanted to sue every downloader. Eric Wilkinson, the producer of "The Man from Earth" turned out to be much more new-media-savvy. He thanked the Releaselog community for piracy and said they were helping sales.

According to Wilkinson, in two weeks that passed after Releaselog wrote about the movie, it rose from the 11,235th to the 5th most popular movie among visitors to IMDB, a popular online movie database featuring user-generated reviews and rankings (the movie was the #1 independent film and #1 science fiction film on IMDB). Most of the traffic to the film's web-site came from Releaselog. The pirates were definitely to thank for the publicity that ensued.

This was enough to make the file-sharing community fall in love with Wilkinson and the film (later on, the director of the movie also wrote a big thank-you note on Releaselog), propelling it even further up the IMDB charts and securing shelf-life in WalMart. That was just the right time for Wilkinson to provide directions on how to send him money via PayPal for copies shared online; sure thing, many people did.

For marketing, this is a sea change, akin to Radiohead's giveaway album. Instead of courting movie critics and studio bosses, directors and producers can reach out directly to the blogging public, stirring up attention there as best they can. To prove his authenticity, Wilkinson went as far as to post a picture of himself next to his monitor with the blog screen open: some commenters first took him for a PayPal-abusing scammer.

Why did the crew behind "The Man from Earth" decide to pursue this route? Because the traditional distribution model for small-budget indie movies seems broken. Even if such movies do secure funding to release a DVD in their country of origin, they rarely if ever break out internationally.

If you are in Norway or UK it may be impossible to find a movie like "The Man from Earth" in your local DVD store for the next few years--even if you are willing to pay a premium. (As Wilkinson pointed out, at the time of his blog comment, all international rights to "The Man from Earth" were still available, meaning that the chance of seeing it legally outside the US was still minuscule). All those whose movie tastes are to the far-right end of the long tail have little alternative to piracy or abstinence.

The emergence of online payments makes a different model possible. If only a limited few can ever go and out buy a DVD of a movie they have shared online, anyone can now contribute money. What would be the pricing point? It could be the Radiohead route: pay what you think it's worth. It could be "match the rental or a cinema ticket" model: pay what you would normally pay for renting it a DVD store or watching it in a cinema theater.

In stark contrast to the traditional restrictive model of film distribution, the new model seeks as many ways of content distribution as possible: peer-to-peer file-sharing is the tip of the iceberg. More advanced users would know about Usenet, various online file storage services like Rapidshare, and plain solutions such as FTP servers. If this sounds a bit too geeky, you are probably are still a few years (and a few laws) away from downloading the entire Woody Allen collection (available at more than a few file-sharing sites at the time of writing).

This explains why producers like Wilkinson place such a premimum value on online buzz: it can push a movie to the top of user-generated charts and listings, giving producers a chance to tap online fans for cash.

In this "networked moviesphere", the movie experience never really ends, even after the movie is over. You can (some would say "should") go vote for the movie on sites like IMDB, post a review on Amazon, wire a donation via PayPal, add the director to your list of virtual friends on MySpaces and Facebooks of this world, post to Digg, and blog it to death on LiveJournal. And that's not to mention editing Wikipedia pages. When combined, all these activities create a publicity machine that marginalises mainstream critics.

In the case of "The Man from Earth", 2,000 people who downloaded it encouraged 20,000 more to go and check it out in cinemas and WalMarts by giving it a top IMDB rating. By losing money on 2,000 viewers, the film made money on 20,000 more.

Some in the movie business are already asking the obvious question: should big studios offer screener-like copies to the file-sharing community, to preview and blog about film before it goes into distribution? My answer: there are screener copies of all major Hollywood movies available on the Internet anyway, so the studios may as well do that proactively.

"When I make my next picture, I just may upload the movie on the net myself!", said Wilkinson in another blog comment. However, as of now, despite the producer and the director's support, any downloads of "The Man from Earth" are still illegal: it still bears that "All Rights Reserved" mark. (There is always an option of releasing it under Creative Commons, Larry Lessig's child that is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month, but CC still hasn't enjoyed the universal adoption it deserves, particularly among film studios.)

All legal issues aside, it must become a question soon, even for established producers, whether they can capture buzz-momentum to "crowd-fund" their next movie. Why bother with a traditional model if your fans can contribute money and just wait for the next release?

Some experiments with this model are already under way. "A Swarm of Angels", which describes itself as "open source film-making venture that aims to create a £1 million movie with the help of 50,000 participants around the globe", promises its "swarm of subscribers" input into the entire movie-making process in exchange for a subscription of £25.

This seems like a promising model, as long as the fans don't have absolute control over what comes out: there have been quite a few terrible examples of fan-directed movies that are completely impossible to watch. "Snakes On a Plane", which took a Wiki-like approach to the plot, is one failed and overhyped blockbuster. There could be many more. Sometimes, it pays to be a dictator--at least, artistically.

As for the big studios, expect them to hold out the longest against a more decentralised and buzz-focused approach to movie distribution. Their model is in danger, in all sorts of ways. A comment on a blog thread about "The Man from Earth" puts it best: "Only bad movies have to fear piracy". And, given how many bad movies studios continue to produce, they have plenty to fear.

Unity Stoakes is the co-founder and president of OrganizedWisdom, an expert-driven digital media company focused on health and wellness. OrganizedWisdom is building the world’s first digital mapping of online health experts to help people easily discover and connect with credible health resources.

Is your doctor easily accessible online, or does he or she believe that the Internet isn’t a resource for accessing health information?

If it’s the latter, it may be time to find another doctor. With nearly 90% of online Americans searching the Internet for health resources, it’s likely you and your friends and family already use the Internet to research health issues. It’s true that the web has a jumble of health information, and engaging online takes time, which most health experts don’t have. The good news, however, is that the increasing number of health professionals now embracing the Internet as an important and useful tool for health and wellness is beginning to change your options as a consumer.

Read on for some ways that social media can help doctors, health experts and everyday users.

Social Wellness Trends/>

An exciting new social media trend is emerging that disrupts the standard view of health care delivery and will have a profound impact on us all. Thousands of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and health advocates are publicly engaging with people online. In fact, nearly 40% of Americans turn to social media for health information.

Patients (and a few early adopter health pros) moved online years ago to share health guidance, give support and find answers. But until recently, many health professionals have avoided using the Internet and social media as a way to help patients. This reluctance is changing, as savvy physicians, nurses, dentists and other health pros are realizing that if their patients are online, then perhaps they should be too. Health practitioners who were once too busy, inexperienced or afraid to share their expertise online, now actively share links on Twitter and Facebook, blog, write for online medical journals, engage on Q&A sites, or contribute to online health sites and forums.

For too long, health and wellness has been a do-it-yourself proposition for patients online, and people have been left on their own to determine how to effectively utilize empty search boxes. People have great access to lots of information, but they must sort through the billions of articles to determine the credible from redundant health encyclopedias, marketing web sites or sites with potentially unknown sources. Then, the task of deciding the credibility of the sources and articles has fallen on the patient alone.

While the number of health experts interacting with patients online is relatively small, there is a clear trend taking shape. A recent Manhattan Research survey of U.S. physicians shows an increase of Internet usage for professional purposes up from 2.5 hours per week in 2002 to 8 hours per week in 2010. More strikingly, while more than 100,000 doctors are using closed social health networks like Sermo.com and publishing in peer-reviewed journals online, thousands of health professionals are now blogging, using Twitter, and connecting with patients on Facebook in very public ways. So much so that this November, for the first time, the American Medical Association released a set of guidelines to direct physicians communicating and engaging with patients via social media. And earlier this year, the CDC also published its own best practices toolkit for how health professionals should be using social media.

Given that so many people now go to the Internet before, during and after their visit to the doctor’s office, the lack of guidance from credible and trusted health experts online is a growing problem. In fact, Manhattan Research shows that 61% of people now use the Internet instead of visiting a doctor. Thankfully, the tide is turning as thousands of health practitioners move online to do much more than interact with friends, family and colleagues and are instead using the social web to dispense their particular health expertise.

What This Means for Health Information Seekers/>

We are standing at the precipice of a new online revolution in health care. As more and more health experts embrace the Internet and increase their social media activity, health information seekers will undoubtedly benefit in profound ways. Based on conversations and surveys conducted with experts and health information seekers, here are some of the benefits associated with a robust online community of active health experts:

Interaction With Experts: In the real world, people seeking answers to important health, financial or legal matters look for guidance from the best experts. With a growing community of health experts participating in online discussions, people have access to more expertise than ever before at their fingertips.

Credibility and Trust: With doctors and other health professionals contributing information online in increasing numbers, it is important for a trust filter to separate credible information and sources from information that is not credible. The community of health professionals that is forming online will act as a system of checks and balances to separate good information and sources from the bad.

Transparency: It’s been a watershed year for increased transparency as government, big business, the financial services industry and other sectors have been shining a light into their operations like never before. Healthcare is taking a major step forward in this regard at the grassroots level, with an expert community being formed online by doctors, nurses and other health professionals across the country. As more doctors view social media as an extension of their professional reputation, you can be sure that they will treat their online interactions with the same care as they do in the offline world.

While the increase in the online activity of health experts is a welcome development, searching for crucial health information online remains an overwhelming and intimidating process for many. In the offline world, people searching for health information seek out the best experts — and now with more health professionals moving online, people will finally be able to connect with credible experts they can trust.

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

- 4 Effective Tools for Monitoring Your Child’s Online Safety/> - Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation/> - 5 Fun and Safe Social Networks for Children/> - HOW TO: Help Your Child Set Up a Blog/> - The Case For Social Media in Schools

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, dcdr

For more Social Media coverage:

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

why internet marketing

Social Wellness Trends/>

What This Means for Health Information Seekers/>

More Social Media Resources from Mashable:

For more Social Media coverage:

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