"Net Heads" in Variety

The main thrust of the article involves the dangers of treating Internet message boards as the equivalent of professional publications (something I heartily concur with):

The article does also include talk about how many of the "leaks" that appear on Internet boards are from the studios themselves (whether positive leaks about their own productions or vicious rumors about their competitors) and about the kind of unique ego-graft that drives that buzz (did you know that AICN's Harry Knowles is "even producing projects at Revolution and Paramount -- a remarkable new role for a Web impresario operating at arm's length from the studio system"?)

Variety's Ben Fritz even kind of gets that buzz on the Web can lead to bigger things:

Ultimately, though, the pressures on film marketing executives to harnass the buzz-making potential of the Web are sheerly about economics:

And therein is the rub: what Variety's headline calls "'Net heads finally get some respect" is really not that different from casting Harry in your film for some free press or making him up from scratch. Don't get me wrong -- I'm a practitioner of "buzz marketing," but I always preach that it is about recruiting fans and building a relationship with them, not about simple insertion of marketing messages in ways that traditionally-trained journalists or savvy readers would be loathe to participate in.

What a film fan most craves from the Internet is a connection with the people who made the film (the stars, the writer, the director or even just the ideas the film raises). In fact, that might be the most generic definition of fandom for any media ... or product, or service. If thinking of it as "brand loyalty" is easier for you than thinking of them as "fans" that would at least put you closer on the right marketing path of legitimate buzz building.

People (real people, that is) seldom have a burning desire to connect with a marketing message, but real fans will happily (and willingly) spread a marketing message as your standard bearers. Sufficiently encouraged and energized and deputized, idle fans will find ways to market you: they've invested themselves in your success. When you do it right, it looks more like this (where fans of Haxan's short-lived television series "Freakylinks" still plot for the show's return three years after the show was canceled.)

Real memetics can't be forced unnaturally, but they can be introduced and cultivated: the best independents on the Web understand that as "community building". For film marketing, that ultimately means treating your "web fans" as your "best fans" ... and finally giving them "some respect" as something more than a target demographic to be manipulated.