Power of Online Movie Communities

Disqus presents analysis of comment trends in movie marketing.

For more information, contact: Steve Roy, sroy@disqus.com

Transcript

1. The Power of Online Movie-goer Communities. Michael Son VP, Strategic Partnerships son@disqus.com Photo: Tom Turner / AP
2. Every day, we shape digital content. Underneath the black and white text of the digital page is where Disqus empowers people to add color to content.
3. Disqus is the web’s most popular discussion platform used by 3 million websites. Each day, the people who use Disqus generate more than 7,000 hours of conversation, providing color to site content. 7,000 conversation hours daily
4. “BATMAN V. SUPERMAN – DAWN OF THE BUTTCHINS” disqus.com/ zachp
5. “I just saw the new X-Men. Peter Dinklage! And through the whole movie, no one commented on his stature, no one made a stupid joke. Nothing. And he nailed it.” disqus.com/ rvh
6. Research •  GOAL: Better understand how commenters respond to movie marketing moments •  WHAT: Summer blockbusters –  X-Men: Days of Future Past –  The Amazing Spider-Man 2 •  WHY: Same genre, same release month in May 2014 In partnership with leading content intelligence platform
7. Methodology •  Semantic analysis of discussion threads on Disqus over 365 days •  All comments related to the two films •  375,000 unique comments •  14k URLs pertaining to one of the films ✔
8. The teaser trailer matters … a lot!
9. 6,200 comments 1st WEEK More conversations than follow-on trailers or any other single marketing event. X-Men Trailer Buzz Dominated by the Teaser Trailer 6 of the 10 top commented articles around any of the X-Men trailers were about the teaser trailer.
10. Trailers vs. Rumors Conversations about trailers spike and burn out quickly, but conversations about rumors and speculation last a long time. Spider-Slayer to appear in 'Amazing Spider-Man 2'?
11. Non-Movie Assets Non-movie assets more lively with comments, but rarely tied in. More longevity of conversations and higher average comments per article.
12. Images vs. Videos Photo-based commenting generated just as many comments as videos in the long term, if not more.
13. Star Power + Context The stars of these movies drew relevant comments not quite in proportion to their "star power." 19k comments 17k comments 29k comments
14. Jennifer Lawrence had the least amount of comments per article.
15. The Plot Matters More Key characters in the unfolding plot of these movies generated as many conversations as stars with top billing.
16. That’s a Wrap! To build word-of-mouth online with movie-goer communities: 1.  Teaser trailers are CRITICAL. 2.  Rumor content draws out discussions. 3.  Images generate many conversations. 4.  Give love to plot-driving characters.