Cat, Bag, and Whatnot

For the second time, I've had someone I respect urge me to keep the fact that Sam Bailey is a movie completely a secret. Do like they did on Blair Witch! Both times, my gut has told me not to be so secretive, and today I put my finger on where this marketing campaign is actually going.

That's a good thing to know, by the way.

Unlike The Blair Witch Project, Sam Bailey is not a fake documentary. Sam Bailey actually looks like a movie.

With a movie like Blair Witch, people realize they've been duped AFTER they buy the ticket. When you look at the DVD sales of that particular film relative to the box office, it's clear the movie lost some appeal when that realization hit home.

With Sam Bailey, they're going to find out the moment they see a trailer. As soon as they find out this film is coming to theaters, they realize that Who is Sam Bailey, the Church of Sam Bailey, and all the rest is a hoax. If that moment makes them feel stupid, they won't come to theaters.

Letting people's degree of curiosity determine how much they find out, at this stage, seems like a natural way to play things. In that regard, this marketing campaign is more akin to what was done with The Dark Knight.

By putting Sam Bailey in the audience's world, what we're really doing is bringing the audience into Sam's world.

That attraction, in turn, allows us to enlist our audience in the marketing process. That's exactly what The Dark Knight did right. Spreading the word becomes a game of tag. Folks who know what's up are "it".

Once you're "it", you know something others don't. Folks don't feel stupid, it makes them feel smart. When people take advantage of their insider information, it spreads word about Sam Bailey even further.

For those people who don't know about the film, who take the viral elements of the marketing campaign seriously... Those people are passive viewers. They get introduced to this world of mystery and magic. As time goes on, it seems like it's becoming a bigger and bigger deal until finally, at the end, they get a whole story. They get a movie. At that point, it's a movie they've already connected with and invested in.

Even better, Sam Bailey has enough fantasy and magic going on that either process, the enlistment or the passive reception, becomes a whole lot of fun.

This way, nobody gets cheated. Nobody gets duped.

For those people sitting back and watching, the viral content about Sam's history and nature offers an ever changing picture - but how do I keep the interest of people who find out?

Right now, we're thinking the best thing is to involve them in the details of making this movie, from start to finish. If you're rooting around for behind-the-scenes information, that's what we give you.

Ultimately, we'll get to see for ourselves what people respond to, and what they don't. We've got two years before we'll be ready to release the film. We've got time to see what works.

What we don't have is time to waste. If you have any thoughts of your own on all this, please share them.

Because while this makes sense, and while it definitely feels right, people I respect very much are telling me I'm nuts!