True Blood: When Marketing Goes For the Jugular

From Religion Dispatches ( you want to read this - FotS anyone ?)

An HBO show about vampires in the rural South depends on “viral marketing” for its buzz. But some people resent the conflation of fact and fiction that this kind of advertising entails. And what of the new religious movement known as the Vampire Community?

This June, HBO will launch the second season of True Blood, a soap opera featuring psychics, vampires, and shape-shifters based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris. The story takes place in a world where vampires have discovered a synthetic beverage that can slake their thirst for blood. No longer a threat to humans, many vampires reveal themselves to the public, form advocacy groups, and begin dating human waitresses. Set in rural Louisiana, the vampires’ struggle against prejudice carries strong echoes of the civil rights movement.

Last year’s season drew an average audience of 7.8 million viewers per episode. This was due, at least in part, to one of the most bizarre marketing campaigns in history.

HBO hired an agency called CampFire NYC to use a technique known as “viral marketing.” The strategy was to pique interest in True Blood by deliberately confusing fact and fiction. This was primarily done online, where Web sites such as TruBeverage.com were created, complete with product descriptions of various synthetic blood types. Vampire profiles began to appear on Myspace, Facebook, and livejournal complete with fake news and fake discussions on how Tru Blood would affect the vampire political structure. YouTube clips began to circulate in which actors in fangs snarled into webcams that the hackers who had found their secret vampire Web sites would pay.

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