Firefly

"Viral newspaper ads" is a guerilla marketing idea which combines a celebration of Serenity with promotion of the movie and Universal, with the fans themselves.

The idea is place a flurry of "viral" newspaper ads in newspapers, big and small, all across the country to mark September 30th, Serenity ’Versary. The thing that will make the difference to continuing the ’Verse is to increase our audience by recruiting new FF/S fans out there in the greater world. We need to reach out to people who aren’t necessarily Sci-Fi fans or travel the same online roads that we do. The great thing about Firefly and Serenity is that someone doesn’t have to be a Sci-Fi to enjoy them enormously. We need to tap the greater potential audience out there.

One ad in a newspaper could be missed... but if we could spread small ads throughout newspapers, then people would begin to notice them. Big ads are also expensive, but an alternative could be to create eye-catching, cool small newspaper ads sprinkled throughout the paper. These are much less expensive to place, and can be set up to be sponsored by fans on a per ad basis.

Also, people sometimes only read one section of the newspaper... so we can make ads which match different sections of the newspaper. Ads that are designed to work in the Classified section, Entertainment, Home section, Sports, etc. They would all be highly visual, but have copy that plays off the featured section. For example, in the Classified section we could have an ad for renting a shuttle... with a blurb about it being used for a short while by a "bonafied Companion", and describe it in a way that gives a flavor of FF/S. The ad’s contact would be of course Capt. Malcolm Reynolds. A Classified ad could be for a Mercenary and a take-off on the scene in Out of Gas.

Ads with a high "WTF?" factor will get people curious. But this "WTF?" factor has to be geared to reaching folks who aren’t necessarily Sci-Fi fans. These ads will not be ads in the traditional sense. Rather they are "mock" ads sharing the same areas as the regular newspaper ads, but doing so in an off the wall, unique way... almost like alternative universe ads sharing the same space! The ads are either addressing matters that only exist in the Firefly/Serenity world, or they’re just flat out thank you/congratulation ads singing the praises of Universal... and you gotta think that a movie studio will appreciate some free and shiny publicity from the fans!

Just wanted to toss a few preliminary ideas out to give everyone an sense of the direction I was thinking for the viral newspaper ads. These are first tries, nothing set in stone yet, but it gets the ball rolling... (Yeah, used more than one cliché there, but at least I didn’t mention running something up a flagpole and the saluting thing... heh...)

Ideas for Classified ads:

• STANDARD SHORT RANGE SPACE SHUTTLE FOR RENT •

Space worthy • Not overly smallish • Will break atmo from wide orbit • Has a few miles on it.

Get you where you need to go, bring you back home again.

Inquiries to: Malcolm Reynolds, Capt. of Serenity

Cortex link: www.fireflyfans.net

GOT GOODS YOU NEED MOVED?

Planet to planet transport — low profile.

We ain’t too particular about legalities.

Show us the coin. We’ll get the job done.

NO FEDS.

Inquiries to: M. Reynolds, Capt. of Serenity

Cortex link: www.fireflyfans.net

The Personal ads can also be a rich field to explore:

• 6’4" Muscular SWM Seeks Willin’ Woman •

"Hero of Canton", Merc for hire, Good tracker Once hit a guy in the neck at five hundred yards with a bent scope. Has own bunk on Firefly class spaceship. Lookin’ for a good grapple • no strings

Jayne (I ain’t a girl) Cobb

Cortex link: www.fireflyfans.net

Stella

Keep the iPod, the X-Box, and my Halo game. But I gotta get my Firefly and Serenity DVDs back NOW.

Going through serious withdrawls here.

Reach me at: www.fireflyfans.net

ID: GottaHaveSerenity