Studio Plants, Myth or Fact?

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

usually with an attack against the person expressing that 'hateful' opinion against the movie itself.

almost as if they fear loosing their job if they don't attack the person rather than the opinion ;o).

Is the person expressing a negative opinion?
Or s#itposting?
Because the latter is often confused with the former.

And...I highly doubt any intern slated with joining forums in order to generate buzz are really being paid commission.

[BubblyShell22]

Maybe not, but there were some people who were out and out rude to those who didn't like the movie. Not everyone is going to be respectful of a differing opinion.

[Vegita-San]

yep, and there's no reason to be outright confrontational if you don't have to be.

and if they where new rude posters....plant suspicions go up

[Katie]

Originally Posted by snake

ok mod



You really can't fathom that studios would have viral marketers going around? It's a damn good way to promote something and it DOES exist.

I have a degree in marketing so I do understand the concepts, yes. We learned that social media is a good tool. As in Facebook and Twitter. No one dumps money into online forums as a marketing strategy. Facebook? Yeah. But there's zero money in marketing and thats why I'm a risk manager for a bank

My 2 cents is that probably more than half are curious newcomers that get riled by old time forum dwellers and the rest ard trolls baiting the hardcore fans for the LOLs.

People never can learn to ignore stuff and take the bait.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

I don't think the plants were spending any money on these forums, just logging in for free and talking good about the PD films a few times every day to get the forum members to take their children and go and see the film.

[snake]

Originally Posted by Katie

I have a degree in marketing so I do understand the concepts, yes. We learned that social media is a good tool. As in Facebook and Twitter. No one dumps money into online forums as a marketing strategy. Facebook? Yeah. But there's zero money in marketing and thats why I'm a risk manager for a bank

.

Right, you work for a bank and somehow understand how the entertainment industry works to the point of declaring that absolutely no company would use an online forum to promote a product.

[ProactiveMan]

Originally Posted by Katie

I have a degree in marketing so I do understand the concepts, yes. We learned that social media is a good tool. As in Facebook and Twitter. No one dumps money into online forums as a marketing strategy. Facebook? Yeah. But there's zero money in marketing and thats why I'm a risk manager for a bank

My 2 cents is that probably more than half are curious newcomers that get riled by old time forum dwellers and the rest ard trolls baiting the hardcore fans for the LOLs.

People never can learn to ignore stuff and take the bait.

I'll defer to your expertise in marketing theory, but as someone who has worked under and alongside marketing people for 11 years I can say that they don't allways make good and rational decisions. A lot of people work in marketing without having any actual marketing credentials too, and there's a lot of shooting from the hip.

You're probably right about the wisdom of this kind of guerrilla astroturfing, but there are documented cases of this happening. Check out the Driver 3 scandal. There was an agency involved in that who listed forum infiltration as one of their specialties.

[Vegita-San]

in that case, why is it so hard to believe that they'd offer 'package deals?'

charge for facebook and twitter, and throw in message boards for free? give that 'less important stuff' to plant trainees

[Katie]

I'm guessing that at one point, before facebook, twitter, instagram, and whatever, trying to do promotion on forums was something that was more prominent. However, the goal in viral promotion is to get people to actually see your campaign and share it. That isn't going to be on a fan forum.

Look at this place. Everyone here already knows about the Turtles, already has an opinion about them, and will likely consume any new Turtles media without proding at least once. It's a waste of time to deal with superfans. I would expect that the goal is to get "casuals" and kids excited for new Turtles media.

Not too many if those hanging out on fan forums.

And snake, you can think what you want about me, I don't give a rip, but if I was such a "plant" and so in on the industry, wouldn't I be all over the movie forums here? I couldn't care less about all the industry bullsh!t about movies. I just go watch stuff occasionally and I either like it or don't.

[plastroncafe]

Places like this one aren't welcome to newcomers or outsiders.
The only reason someone would bother to come here is to try and use it for some sort of social collateral, not to change minds.

[Vegita-San]

looking at a few posts from this page alone, a few people joined from 2009 onward and have almost a thousand posts already.

i would say only the die hards found this place early on it's existence and stuck around for that long. everyone else found it later, or decided to check it out later.

or finally decided talking turtles was worth putting up with this places reputation as being a hard butt tough as nails don't come in with a soft shoulder place .

i just find it interesting that people are willing to admit that it happens on facebook and youtube and other places, but are hard lined at the fact that it can't possibly happen on message boards anymore.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

or finally decided talking turtles was worth putting up with this places reputation as being a hard butt tough as nails don't come in with a soft shoulder place.

You just described the internet. All of it. Or at least anything with a comment section.

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

You just described the internet. All of it. Or at least anything with a comment section.

I kind of think we where pioneers in that regard at least ;o).

I didn't notice things getting REALLY bad elsewhere until at least 6 years ago.

[plastroncafe]

That's the thing about Safe Spaces, if you never leave yours, you're likely not to notice you're in one.