How The Blair Witch Project Became One Of The Greatest Movies Ever.

The Blair Witch Project dominated the box office two decades ago, generating buzz and excitement around what is now recognized as one of the greatest feats in film history.

The Blair Witch Project is considered by some (myself included) to be the greatest marketing campaign in history, despite the fact that the film itself did not live up to the hype. Even those who are not willing to offer it the highest accolade consider it to be the ultimate viral marketing campaign and a pioneer in the use of the Internet.

For those who may not recall the plot, The Blair Witch Project recounts the urban legend of the Blair Witch, which takes place in the woods outside of a rural Maryland suburb. Three student filmmakers embarked on a mission to document and prove the veracity of the Blair witch. However, the students vanish, and ten years later, their recorded video, which was reportedly utilized to create the film, is discovered.

It is recorded using low-quality, first-person cameras, which enhances the sense that this is real found footage. After the film's triumph at the Sundance Film Festival, Artisan Entertainment acquired the film's rights and supplied additional advertising funds. Here are the five major strategies that contributed to the incredible success of The Blair Witch Project.

Missing Person Placards

The primary objective of the marketing campaign for The Blair Witch Project was to create uncertainty among the audience. Every strategy employed centered on creating confusion among prospective viewers. Was this footage actually found? Are these individuals truly deceased? Is this all genuine or a hoax? No one could discover the truth.

Every piece of advertising tried to fan this fire and entice audiences to not only see the film, but also discuss it with their friends and question whether it was real, so that more people would go see it. The initial strategy centered on setting the stage.

The Blair Witch team started by spreading rumors about the “student film makers.” They planted stories among the public, passed out missing person leaflets, shared photos from the police reports, and even went as far as having fake news stories written up by small local papers about the missing persons and their whereabouts. This word of mouth marketing was in-line with the key messages and kicked off the campaign.

Website

The website was the most effective element of the integrated marketing effort. Audiences were drawn to the website by all sorts of marketing and calls to action. In 1999, website browsing was somewhat new for many consumers.

The Blair Witch website was extremely basic and capitalized on the concept of being low-budget and homemade. It appeared that students had constructed it. The website was a continuation of the plot, detailing the legend of the Blair witch and providing further biographical information about the missing filmmakers.

It did not "sell" to persuade users to see the film, but rather concentrated on the myth to confuse and frighten prospective viewers.

Message Boards and Chat Rooms

Think back to 1999. If you had the internet, chances are, you were using AOL and were probably frequenting chat rooms and other online forums. These foundations for what would later become wikis, blogs and social media sites, were where people gossiped, communicated and shared information.

The marketers for the Blair Witch knew this and planted seeds in these online rooms about the film. It was an ultra-grassroots move – but in the digital age. They shared the missing person photos and directed visitors to the website. They pretended to be typical online users and stirred up questions about the validity of the film, intriguing fellow chatters.

They even manipulated the IMDb records so if you looked up the actors on the site, their bio information listed them as missing and presumed dead! The rumors continued to fly and people became both confused and captivated with the story.