word of mouth -- shhhhhhh

We’ve been working on a project called Nokia Productions. This is basically a user generated movie consisting of content recorded only on mobile phones; it has been directed by Spike Lee and has sparked an avalanche of net-wide submissions over the last few months. You can see the trailer here: http://share.ovi.com/media/NokiaProduction.public/NokiaProduction.10402

We’re extending the idea of social media invading mainstream entertainment by running a virtual premiere alongside the real-life Nokia Productions Hollywood premiere. The film itself will be shown along with highlights, videos and commentary uploaded and streamed live from our social media guys on the ground at the Hollywood event. They’ll be creating some exclusive content, such as an interview with Spike [Lee], and we’ll upload other goodies such as the ‘making of’ documentary, live discussion threads on online film communities, and behind the scenes footage.

We’d love you to be one of our social media attendees, and I’ve attached your personal invite to this email. But we’d also like you to take part. Before the film is screened, we’re going to show a brief video collage of the virtual attendees’ opinions on the project and expectations for the film – a chance to see who else is attending, get your name and your site out there, and contribute to what social media really thinks about the scheme. So if you’d like to take part, produce a quick 15-30 second video introducing yourself and your online space or community, and then answer the question: how will social media impact on mainstream entertainment in the future? Email it over to us and you’ll be part of the virtual premiere yourself.

Excerpt from an email received from the Nokia Word of Mouth marketing team -- the same folks who asked me to test drive that phone a little while ago.

Here's the thing: It's a word of mouth marketing event, but the invite that they sent is sort of exclusive and, frankly, hard to tap. They bundled it into an interactive PDF that wouldn't fire right on the Mac, although opening it on my PC presented the showtime and dates that I was looking for -- in a little animation that disappeared almost as soon as it was presented.

I'm not sure I'm *supposed* to share the info regarding the start time of this event, even though it *is* a word of mouth marketing event. All in all a very muddled marketing effort.

But I'm gonna punt and link it here anyway.

Showtime = Tuesday, 14 October 2008 at 7.15 Pacific (that's 9.15 for me, Central Time).

No promises.