Well the marketing tactics, from time to time, have me think it's a "throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks" approach. But it's still early days for film companies and their P.R. companies in dealing with the blogging community. Serenity is an experiment for new marketing policies and whatever lessons can be learnt will be applied to future releases of other movies.

Oh and btw, another blogger complains about the tactics. Evidence of a backlash? Maybe too early to tell.

Simon | September 27, 01:21 CET

If I'd received something that said 'you must', I would have cried foul. I hate being told what to do and what to blog. That's rather... uninformed of whoever set that up. You'd think marketing people would have a grip on blogging by now.

Caroline | September 27, 01:51 CET

Well, I'm going to the screening in Boston. If I get there early and don't get a seat, I will be pissed. I wonder if they'll have a computer there where you'll have to load your blog and show that you followed their directions. If it's some sort of lottery when we get there, they'll hear it from me.

totally0random | September 27, 02:09 CET

Yeah, I think that sounds as if it was a little extreme.

However, I'm all for the fan marketing. It's not that people are being tricked into doing it or offered incentives, as with boybands and such, but it's simply because we want to do it and we enjoy doing it. We want as many people to enjoy Serenity as possible, not only to support Joss but so we can see more of the Firefly-verse.

Razor | September 27, 02:11 CET

It's worth noting that this is clearly labeled as coming from Grace Hill Media, which is different than Universal or Serenity, but obviously people are not making that distinction.

I've got to admit I'm a little puzzled by Universal's decision to associate them with Serenity, particularly for organizing screenings for bloggers. Grace Hill's big thing is promoting films to church groups, rather than online promotion, although it looks like they might be branching out into that. Poking around online, I'm wondering if maybe Universal is just outsourcing a bit of its promotion to Grace Hill on all their movies now.

seasleepy | September 27, 02:42 CET

As somebody who has done a lot of work in media relations, 3rd party outreach, and basic public relations, I'm surprised by the clumsy approach by Grace Hill Media. Remember, before implementing a marketing plan like this (especially one like this, which is not just knife edge, as somebody noted, but even laser edge), the firm has to run the plan by the client, in this case Universal. They obviously signed off on it.

Sometimes that high-handed stuff can be appropriate, especially when dealing with mainstream media, but somebody should have understood that the blogosphere requires special treatment.

I think I mentioned ages ago that I wish I could have done media relations for this movie...I really, really wish I could have.

Have done a hell of a lot of "retail" promotion, though!

Chris inVirginia | September 27, 03:09 CET

I was slightly put off by the confirmation e-mail from Grace Hill Media, but I wasn't too proud to do what they asked.

I wonder what they're going to do to follow up on the Serenity blogoganza. Will they have some page linking to all the blog reviews or something?

tehipite_tom | September 27, 03:56 CET

It's a valid idea: get bloggers talking about the movie a day before release.

However, they (Grace Hill Media) did it very badly. Bad PR from a PR company, love it.

The other problem has been fans have been packing out these screenings, starting up blogs with 0 posts just to get into a screening. Universal are paying for these people - if they'd just waited a day legit bloggers would get in, AND they'd contribute to the box office rather than taking from it.

gossi | September 27, 04:22 CET

"Helping Hollywood reach people of faith..." Wow, that is ironic given Joss's well known atheism. Should Satan-worshipping bloggers not apply? Or is that ok cause it's a faith too? Just wondering...

gingeriffic | September 27, 06:38 CET

Dude, the screening in Boston was handled so poorly. There was a guy out front handing out a huge stack of passes that each admitted 2. Since I wasn't sure from the blogger confirmation whether I'd actually get in, I took a pass. It was really sad to see that most of the 2 rows reserved for the press was empty. And even worse that the entire front section of the theater was empty. The previous Boston screening, which people actually had to pay to see, sold out really quickly. It's such a shame that they didn't have a butt in every seat last night.

totally0random | September 28, 22:08 CET