Fantastic Fanboys

Wired is carrying an interesting article about trying to generate buzz for Fantastic Four. Marvel is hoping to utilize the fervent F4 fanboy base to generate a grassroots marketing campaign. I find this interesting: Ten years ago this would have been a marginal market, but now these same fanboys have blogs and participate on general-interest message boards. They've become a powerful tool for marketing departments. The role of fanboys is a favorite topic for journalists: look at these crazy kids, snort, aren't they fascinating? But you can see marketers starting to worry about the larger influence enjoyed by this marginalized group, with a disproportionate presence online. Of course, that doesn't mean the studios will actually start making good movies, but they clearly figure there's no such thing as bad press (which is very true; by mentioning the movie I'm contributing to the buzz and keeping the movie's name in your mind)

A fair number of p.r. people have approached me about promoting their products, and I find it fascinating to watch marketers try to leverage blogs. We must look like a dream come true: writers unfettered by corporate guidelines and sporting a large, persistent audience that trusts our opinions. Since most of us aren't paid for our efforts, marketers hold out freebies in exchange for our support. But marketers haven't quite figured us out yet, and their current attempts are often clumsy. You can't blame them: Each blogger is a different person, with quirks and foibles, and business can't afford to build a portfolio for each of us, even though it would make their marketing efforts much more successful.

Something to consider: Many believe that in 2007, money spent on online advertising will outstrip money spent in print media. That raises a lot of eyebrows, and it's certainly going to cause interesting changes.