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Micro-blog marketing gives low-budget movies big market access By Yu Yan
【摘 要】In November the Chinese movie industry experienced a startling surprise.Love Is Not Blind,a low-budget movie with no prominent director or major star,hit 344.8million yuan ($54.5 million) in box office revenue,despite the film's budget was only 9 million yuan ($1.4 million).The film,which tells the 33-day experience of a girl named Huang Xiaoxian after she breaks up with her boyfriend,owes its unexpected blockbusting success to its innovative marketing strategy:micro-blog marketing.The number of followers of the official micro-blog for Love Is Not Blind hit nearly 100,000,attracted by rccommendations of related micro-blog messages,impressive box office lines,and positive word of mouth.By December 7,search queries for Love Is Not Blind had exceeded 8 million.Those for Wang Xiaojian,the lcading male,were close to 1.5 million. 【期刊名称】北京周报（英文版） 【年(卷),期】2012(055)002 【总页数】1
In November the Chinese movie industry experienced a startling surprise. Love Is Not Blind, a low-budget movie with no prominent director or major star, hit 344.8 million yuan ($54.5 million) in box office
revenue, despite the film’s budget was only 9 million yuan ($1.4 million).
The film, which tells the 33-day experience of a girl named Huang Xiaoxian after she breaks up with her boyfriend, owes its unexpected blockbusting success to its innovative marketing strategy: micro-blog marketing.
The number of followers of the official micro-blog for Love Is Not Blind hit nearly 100,000, attracted by recommendations of related micro-blog messages, impressive box office lines, and positive word of mouth. By December 7, search queries for Love Is Not Blind had exceeded 8 million. Those for Wang Xiaojian, the leading male, were close to 1.5 million.
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From content creation to the promotion process, fans found it easy to relate to the movie’s characters. It is a “big party that everybody can participate in,” said the movie’s producer Hao Wei.
In May 2009, Bao Jingjing, author of the original novel, posted it on Douban, a popular website and also a virtual community where young Chinese people share comments on movies, books and music. The novel attracted a number of netizens.
Disappointment in love is an experience as common as a cold or fever. Bao wrote the story well, making it optimistic and fun, yet also
melancholic, said Teng Huatao, director of the movie.
The successful marketing strategy was not entirely by choice. “We failed in partnering with a big brand to cover the promotion cost, because the company had no confidence in the movie,” said Chen Su, an expert on social media studies and head of WisdomFish Culture Communication, which was responsible for the promotion of the film. Movies with 3D and Chinese martial arts and Love Is Not Blind had trouble finding support. The promoters needed an innovative strategy to attract the coveted 18 to 30 demographic. But how to reach them? Feeling deficient is the common problem of young lovers. They fall into love quickly and abandon love just as quickly; they are willing to share their feelings with others and such feelings will be echoed among young people, said Chen.
Based on this thought, WisdomFish started to make an online video expressing the theme of disappointment. They went to several major cities in China, looked for young people experiencing disappointment in love, and recorded them. It was a smashing success. The first video attracted 20 million page views.
However, this was still not enough. Promoters forwarded the micro-blog message, leading to a remarkable box office success, making new-media movie promotion the real star of the show.
“In this ‘we the media’ era, a slight glance at any information in the
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