Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Marketers looking to capitalize on the power of social media could do worse than keep that mantra in mind next time they want to launch a campaign.

Whedon is the writer, producer and director behind such cult favorite television series as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly." Last week, he debuted a new project online, "Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog."

The musical superhero spoof was a collaboration between Whedon, his brothers Zack Whedon and Jed Whedon, and Jed’s fiancé Maurissa Tancharoen. The team embarked on the venture during the writer’s strike, and filmed it in six days on a low six-figure budget. The goal was to show the big studios that an "out of the box project," as Joss Whedon described it, could find an audience.

Indeed it did. When the first installment of the three-part short film began streaming for free on July 15, the site was getting about 1,000 hits per second, Jed Whedon told USA Today. And at $1.99 per episode or $3.99 for a season pass, "Dr. Horrible" quickly became the number one video on iTunes.

So, what was Dr. Horrible’s plan to rule the Internet? And what can you learn from it?

Make it an event.

To create a buzz, Whedon and Co. kept much about the production under wraps until a teaser trailer debuted a few weeks before "Dr. Horrible" went live. The first 13 minute installment was available for free streaming on July 15, followed by the second on July 17 and the finale on July 19. The free streaming ended July 20, although it is still available for download on iTunes for a limited time. A DVD is planned to hit stores before the holidays, Joss Whedon said during a WashingtonPost.com chat.

The overwhelming response to the first part led to the site crashing for a portion of the opening day. I’m guessing though that overall the video’s host site Hulu.com was pleased with the experience—no doubt a lot of viewers saw the Hulu logo for the first time when they went for their Doctor’s visit and then checked out the rest of Hulu to see what else was available.

(And the official site wasn’t the only one collapsed in Dr. Horrible’s villainous wake. Whedonesque.com, a Joss Whedon fan site, also went down for part of the day, as did the official site of Felicia Day, one of the mini-movie’s stars.)

Take advantage of free stuff.

Whedon had a very limited staff and budget to promote "Dr. Horrible." But hey, creating a Facebook page? Free. A MySpace page? Free. Embracing the fans that quickly created and flocked to a fan site? Free.

And those fans did more than just visit the site. Many posted the promo widgets and banners on their own blogs, Facebook pages and Web sites to encourage their friends to watch the video.

Timing is everything. The mid-July launch of "Dr. Horrible" was as calculated as the best supervillain’s diabolical scheme. The video hit the Web as TV viewers were bored out of their skulls with summer reruns and reality programming. And "coincidentally," it also debuted during the week where television networks trot out their stars on a press tour to promote the fall schedules.

Who was there? "Coincidentally," Joss Whedon was making the rounds to plug his upcoming Fox series "Dollhouse"—and if anyone had any "Horrible" questions, he was happy to answer.

And also "coincidentally" last week, the press conference to reveal this year’s Emmy nominees was held. "Coincidentally," one of the actors announcing the nominees was Dr. Horrible himself, actor Neil Patrick Harris. (He got a nod for his role as Barney on "How I Met Your Mother.")

Finally, in yet another crazy random happenstance, Comic-Con International—where Whedon always appears and is revered with a deity-like fervor—is being held this week in San Diego. Kooky, eh?

All of these events—Comic-Con in particular—are blogged and Twittered about incessantly, meaning the buzz keeps buzzing.

Like the show? Get the t-shirt.

Smartly, Whedon didn’t forget to throw e-commerce into the mix. Soon after the debut of part one, fans could go to Jinx.com and pick up their own t-shirts featuring either the "Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog" logo, the visages of Dr. Horrible or his nemesis Captain Hammer (played by Nathan Fillon) or a replica of the shirt Hammer wears as his costume.

The shirts with the hero and villain faces were featured in the third installment, which likely goosed even more fans to make a purchase. The ever dwindling stock meters on the Jinx site were also a smart move to create urgency among supporters to buy.

Bottom line: Is all this singing and dancing going to make Whedon and Co. any money? It’s too early to tell. In interviews, he’s said he hopes the iTunes and DVD sales will help him pay the crew who worked on the labor of love project with him. But the venture was definitely a success in its utilization of new media to create an audience. Let’s hope this is the start of a horribly good trend.