Fans of the Paranormal Activity franchise will once again be able to use social networking to decide which 25 cities around the world will see the film first.
It follows a similar vote last year which saw Melbourne voted among the top 20 cities to host an advanced screening of Paranormal Activity 3, although that campaign relied on social networking rival Twitter.
The latest 'Want It' interactive campaign for Paranormal Activity 4 involves a Facebook leaderboard showing the number of votes each city has received, as well as allowing fans to send reminders to their friends to vote. The franchise has a long history of fan interactivity – the first film relied on fan participation to get the low-budget film distributed in cinemas worldwide.
Paramount executive vice president of interactive marketing, Amy Powell, said fans have supported the films through social networking from very beginning. “The success of Paranormal Activity began with the fans who have championed the movie franchise from the very beginning through social media,” said Powell.
Matt Jacobson, head of market development at Facebook, said the franchise established its fan base on the platform and will continuing using it to drive awareness up to the film's release. “Four years after the initial success of the franchise and the establishment of a passionate fan community, we’re excited to see continued iteration on a franchise that was born on Facebook,” Jacobson said.
Australian films have yet to embrace social media on the same level however, many actively use social media for traditional promotion. Australian film The Sapphires is benefitting from distributor Hopscotch Films' fan base of almost 10,000 followers on Twitter while The Sapphires' Facebook fan page has over 2200 'likes'.
The film also benefits from actor Jessica Mauboy’s more than 46,000 Twitter fans as she consistently tweets promotional content and interacts with fans.
Paramount's Paranormal Activity 4 ‘Want It’ campaign is ongoing until October. The Sapphires is released in cinemas nationwide on Thursday.