I hate Sarah Marshall Gimmick or Purple Cow
I was driving around and saw bunch of billboards that were stylized to marker writing and said “I Don’t Miss You Sarah Marshall.” On the bottom corner of the billboard I did find a link to www.ihatesarahmarshall.com I then went to the website and found flog by a guy who is getting over his girlfriend. I figured out that it was a flog, because there were no comments and I know how costly is the marketing on Toronto buses.
Obviously, this is sort of viral promotion for a movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” – pretty clever isn’t it? My first thought was “wow what a great marketing move.” Then I thought is it a “Purple Cow?” Here is the answer I came up with: while the marketing campaign is brilliant and I give kudos to the creative minds behind it, the movie itself is NOT a Purple Cow. After figuring out what this all is about I was very impressed with marketing, but had no interest in watching the movie at all.
What I am saying is that a brilliant marketing campaign would have way more results if the product was a Purple Cow as well. If the product is not then it is just a gimmick and it is a waste of creativity. I would be interested to see if the movie actually grossed up more, because of this unorthodox campaign.
p.s. It seems like their a new breed of agencies, that not only incorporate viral marketing in their plan, but actually specialize in it.