Blair Witch Phenomenon

Blair Witch

The "Blair Witch Project" is an ideal example of cutting edge marketing at it's best. It is a story of how several ingenious filmmakers used their creative minds rather than vast amounts of money to position their movie as the highest grossing film of 1999. The horror flick shot in the woods, on a $400 video camera in 8 days had no blood, no gore and more noticeably no Blair Witch monster.

Furthermore, it was made on a budget of only $35 000. However, the film went on to gross $135 million using what as their major publicity tool - a website. This article highlights the importance of the Internet in promoting to specific sectors of the public. This is what happened. After the film was shot a website www.blairwitch.com was launched, devoted to the tale of the Blair Witch. Everything on the site was offered as fact with no suggestion of it being a marketing device. Those involved with the film were given missing person flyers to hand out around cinema complexes. These flyers directed the public to the website for more information regarding these strange 'missing persons' within the area.

By the time the film had opened at Cannes the site had received millions of hits and it seemed everyone new about the legend of the Blair Witch. The film was picked up by Artisan for distribution and released at cinemas around the globe. The media jumped on the low-budget flick providing even more publicity and cues were out the door

It was because the filmmakers involved in the project recognized the importance of websites, the internet and were able to pinpoint the key strengths and weaknesses of both their product and their target viewers, that Blair Witch became a slogan, a money making machine, and a world wide phenomenon.