In the film industry, there are a number of films that have truly revolutionized the art of filmmaking. Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles, introduced innovative techniques that gave rise to what we now refer to as film. Two decades later, Stanley Kubrick brought the special effects to contemporaneity with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Jaws and The Exorcist created in the early 70s what we understand today as horror.

Of course, the list is richer. But compared to the total number of movies, estimated by ChatGPT at around 4 million, this is not that long. Even shorter is the list of films that have revolutionized not only cinematography, but also marketing. And at the top of it is The Blair Witch Project.

Initially considered by some critics as a “Sundance festival specific scam” (Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer) or as a film “much less diabolical than its marketing plan” (Tom Block, Culturevulture.net), it marked a benchmark in horror, cinema and marketing. First, because it popularized a new subgenre that appears to be eternal: found footage. In the second because he showed the directors that you can make a profit from a film with a very low budget. Thirdly, because it officially moved marketing to the online area and introduced techniques that until then seemed like myths.

The film’s impact on marketing is perhaps best and most simply described in an article in ThinkMonsters.com: “At the time of its release, online marketing was not what it is today. But the marketing team behind The Blair Witch Project saw the internet as a tremendous opportunity.” And this opportunity was used to the fullest through several marketing tactics and channels, which may now seem trivial, but at the time were really innovative. These include:

1. Website

Currently, a website is the starting point of an online business. In addition to its informative and customer attraction role, it is interconnected with multiple online platforms, serving as the destination point for actions in them. Communication tactics such as Social Media posts, Google Ads campaigns, advertorials and many others link to the site, which is the point of generating leads or making sales.

At the end of the 90s, however, websites were not ubiquitous. Currently, about 70% of companies in Romania own a website, according to the Klain study (the same percentage being valid worldwide, according to Forbes). In 1998, however, the percentage was around 10%, which is even lower in the film industry.

However, the team behind The Blair Witch Project understood that the basis of a marketing campaign is the website, successfully using it to promote the film. This technical and theoretical ingenuity was supported by an impressive creativity, noted by another marketing tactic, namely storytelling.

2. Storytelling

In marketing, storytelling is the art of building brand messages with the help of a fascinating and relevant story, in order to capture the attention of the target audience and create a long-lasting emotional connection with them. Through it, companies go from a simple presentation of the offer to creating an experience that stimulates the emotions and needs of consumers.

This emotional involvement was also tracked by The Blair Witch Project. Before discussing how it was obtained, we must briefly describe the story of the film (trying to avoid spoilers).

Three young people set out to film a documentary in a forest in America about the local legend Blair Witch. They disappear without a trace, leaving behind only their videos, found a year later, which reveal their fate.

Their disappearance and the mystery behind it are the main topics of storytelling. To convey them, the team behind the film created numerous materials such as (attention, a long list follows): posters with missing persons, news diaries, interviews, newspaper clippings, police reports, photos from the searches for missing persons, interviews with “locals”, photographs taken by the three, unpublished videos filmed by the three, photos from the scene of the crime, photos of the evidence and personal belongings.

All these were integrated into multiple online and offline environments, but were promoted most strongly through the website launched in the summer of 1998. Their main role was to eliminate the boundary between reality and fiction, in other words to convince the target audience that the film is truly a documentary and that all the events presented in it are true. We know this tactic today by the expression: “based on real facts”.

In addition to these materials, in order to increase the credibility of the story, the film team made several decisions. These included: omitting the main actors from the film’s premieres, listing them on IMDb as missing, presumed dead, distributing posters of missing persons and interviews in which they asked for more information about the fate of the three.

The team’s efforts were a considerable success, with a significant portion of the audience believing that the story of the film is completely real. Thus, The Blair Witch Project remains one of the greatest storytelling successes in marketing.

3. Forums and chats

Before the emergence of what we now know as Social Media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn), the interaction of Internet users was carried out on various online forums. The Blair Witch team realized this and took full advantage of the power of the media in question, organically promoting the film on social media.

On these forums and chats, they shared images of missing persons, challenged users to solve the mystery behind the film, and directed them to their core marketing platform, the website. Realizing early on that the online environment represents the future of communication, they made full use of the resources offered by it.

4. Advertorials

Another revolutionary tactic in marketing, adopted and popularized at that time by the filum’s team, was the combination of online and offline. To accentuate the effect of digital promotion, materials such as advertorials were made, the most important of which was published in Variety.

Instead of boasting about the impressive receipts from the film’s premiere, the filmmakers chose to convey another central message through this article: blairwitch.com: 21,222,589 hits to date (blairwitch.com: 21,222,589 hits to date). Thus, they promoted the relevance of the site through analytical data and accurate figures, a tactic whose viability is still maintained today. Moreover, through this, the film industry, but also the business environment in general, have been permanently moved online.

These are just a few of the online and offline marketing tactics used by the film team. Numerous other materials were created and distributed, such as: interviews on small television channels, viral video campaigns, advertorials in local publications and cryptic promotional clips.

But were these actions successful? In other words, in terms of marketing, what was the ROI? The film’s initial budget was around $50,000. It grew to $500,000 after post-production and marketing. And his receipts? Over $248,000,000. Today’s businesses and studios can only dream of these figures.

What did The Blair Witch Project teach us about marketing?

In the world of cinema, The Blair Witch Project’s online marketing approach has become a model for horror films (see Longlegs, for example). Moreover, many tactics launched or popularized by film are frequently used in the marketing world, for different industries. These include:

1. Create a strategy

Marketing strategy and planning based on it are essential to guarantee success online. Each action to promote the film had a clear planning and was integrated with complementary tactics.

2. The website as a reference platform

Multiple actions and online campaigns currently link to the site, which represents the common point of information, lead collection and sales. The Blair Witch Project website, however, was one of the first to be used in this way.

3. Cross-platform communication

It’s not enough to post on Social Media, write blog articles, or run a PPC campaign. Online, success is given by the integration of communication on multiple platforms and by keeping common messages on all of them.

4. Online-Offline Integration

Even if your marketing actions are dispersed on several online platforms, the success of the promotion is often given by supporting them through offline actions. The film team achieved this by combining the website and forums with advertorials and flyers.

5. Community Building

Behind every successful brand is a strong community. It has supported it in the long term, since the beginning of its launch. The Blair Witch Project took numerous actions to create this community, which promoted the organic film.

6. Using storytelling

The community is drawn in by an engaging and relevant brand story. The Blair Witch Project stood out as one of the most successful examples of storytelling, arousing the emotions of the audience and managing to convince them of the absolute truthfulness of the narrative.

7. Use of new communication media

The film’s team did not hesitate to use emerging channels, platforms and marketing actions. They served not only for effective promotion, but also for a distinction from the competition, a fundamental aspect in marketing and business.

After more than 25 years, The Blair Witch Project remains a benchmark film in the film industry and a benchmark in the marketing industry. He made the transition to online and launched numerous revolutionary tactics, the use of which has become the norm today.