You can see many things walking the streets of New York City. Over the years many villains and scary creatures (and people), both real and imaginary, have wreaked havoc in Manhattan. But I don’t think anyone’s ever seen a baby terrorizing the Big Apple. Until last week that is.
In a stroke of marketing genius the team that was promoting the new horror flick, Devil’s Due, unleashed an animatronic “devil baby” in a remote controlled stroller.
The “baby”, as you can see in the video above, goes on a rampage through the streets of New York City and hidden cameras record people’s reactions.
The compilation video of screams and shrieks of Devil Baby encounters has garnered nearly 35 million views in just under a week.
The marketing team also used Facebook and Twitter to push the movie. The stunt buzzed over the social networks for the last 5 days.
This is the type of content that really works on social media. From a comparative perspective, this campaign didn’t cost anywhere near what a traditional marketing initiative typically costs. It’s why I believe entertainment works so well on social media.
We all want to be entertained. We all want a good scare or a good laugh. But unfortunately even good marketing can’t help a bad product.
The movie got panned. People tweeted and commented that it sucked pretty bad. Oh well, at least the team who marketed it on social media knew what they were doing.
One thing makes me wonder. No doubt that this would have made for an amazingly good promo for a company that sells Halloween products. Maybe the folks who did the work for Devil Baby should contact a few Halloween retailer types. Might just be the ticket to some serious buzz and sales.
These types of stunts aren’t new or groundbreaking in any way, but they do seem to work. Here’s some background on how similar campaigns have worked. Just in case there are some execs at Halloween retail companies that might be looking for some inspiration.
