FireflyMovie.com - Guerilla Marketing

Visit the Official Serenity Movie site

GUERILLA MARKETING: IDEAS

In the words of Malcolm Reynolds "Doing the impossible makes us mighty." It's time to bend a few rules and do whatever it takes to keep Serenity flying. This means getting as many butts into theater seats on Sept 30, 2005 as possble. I have compiled a list ideas to help spread the Firefly / Serenity word.

• Show the DVDs to as many people as possible! I like to loan just disc one of my loaner set. That's usually all it takes. By the time people return it, they usually inform me they already bought the box set for themselves. Other ways of getting the DVDs in front of more eyes include:

- Donate DVDs to your local library.
- Donate DVDs to your local video rental store.
- Visit your local retailers and strategically place copies of the DVD in front of other less deserving DVDs (Friends is always a good choice),
- Loan a set to salespeople at popular DVD retail stores (they will then be much more likely to recommend it to other customers)
- Make sure the DVDs are at eye level in high traffic areas.
- Put the DVDs into the new releases areas of the store.
- Buy your own copy of the DVD boxset for heaven sake!!
- Contact the video rental stores and ask them to carry the DVDs.
- Give copies of the DVDs as gifts.
- Pass your DVDs around to as many friends as possible.

• Throw a conversion party (thanks Julia!).

• Outdoor Marketing with these wonderful yet simple black and white posters - created by 11th hour - no color printer required. Download and print these out and photocopy them onto (preferably) colored paper then plaster them on any billboards you can find, or hand 'em out on busy streets. (You're a true hard core fan if you'll do that!)

• Rental DVDs. Any time you rent a sci-fi, western or action movie, put a small flyer or sticker on the case underneath the DVD. Where the renters will see them, but employees inspecting the cases won't. 11th hour's mini-posters would work great for this! Add a personal handwritten message that says something like "If you like this movie you'll love Serenity, in theaters September 30. Visit serenitymovie.net (or or favorite site)" (Thanks Toby). [PDF template with 11th's posters coming soon...]

• Buy stuff and put it on your body / head / car / bags / mugs / lunchboxes / notebooks etc. While we wait for the official merchandise to come out, there are numerous locations where you can get unofficial stuff. Cafe Press is a good source (search for Firefly or Blue Sun). I'm also looking into opening a not-for-profit unofficial merchandise store here - all proceeds go to charity. Coming soon!

• Print sticky (preferably post-it) labels with fireflymovie.com/fff.net/OB URLs and stick them right on the back of every Firefly DVD in your local store. (Thanks Rob).

• Make your own bumper stickers.

• Type in www.whatisfirefly.com into any public access Internet computer you come into contact with (libraries, computer stores, cyber cafés, etc) and leave it on the screen when you leave.

• Put Firefly / Serenity wallpapers (aka Desktop Pictures to you Mac users) and screensavers on any computers you can.

• Create AIM/MSN Chat/Yahoo chat icons and use 'em.

• Take advantage of Amazon's recommendation feature, and recommend the Firefly DVDs anytime you buy a related product (Babylon 5, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc) from Amazon.com

• Using money to spread the word - literally. (apparently it works!)

• Radio show call ins. Since millions of people listen to talk radio, we need to call in and get the word out. Call in and tell the screener you are calling to talk about the subject of the day, then once you are on the air, drop a plug for Serenity! (Apparently Howard Stern is a sci-fi geek. - thanks JD.)

• Western Fans - if anybody knows of any Western movie forums, let's drop by and put in the good word. (thanks Bob)

• Sign up for the Hollywood Stock Exchange and buy Firefly "stock" so that the price and volume go up (sounds crazy but it is one of the indicators execs check). We don’t want to stuff the “ballot box” per se, but having the fans experience HSX in exchange for helping the cause is a fair trade in my opinion.
[Please see forum for info on to properly increase Firefly's HSX value.]

• Go to Universal Studio's Contact Us page and ask when are they going to re-run the Fox series on the SciFi Network (corporate synergy never hurts!).
[click on "Accept" then select the area you are commenting on "Movies", "Television" etc.]

• Send Thank you notes to Universal. Thank them for recognizing what a great property Firefly is and how happy you’ll be to see Serenity on the big screen (and T-shirts, and action figures, etc.)

Universal Pictures
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
[This the only address I have for Universal, if anybody has a more direct address, let me know.]

• Post on Ain't It Cool, and other movie sites.

One thing that has been proven over and over is that the only thing that needs to be done to convert people over to firefly is for them to watch it. Nearly everyone who sees the show loves it. So it's your job to get those DVDs in front of as many eyes as possible.

Less Guerilla-y ideas:

- Put "promotional" tags below the DVDs (see downloads)
- Put a Firefly bumper sticker on your car (see downloads)

Any additional ideas, please contact me.

This site is not in any way affiliated with Fox Television or Universal Pictures.
Some images copyright Fox & Mutant Enemy.