Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Finally. It’s been 19 years since we last saw Indy - 19 years trying to pick the truth out of the rumours. And with only a month to go I’m pretty excited. I am not the only one. The Indiana Jones series is a silver screen legend. Rarely do film-goers talk about action films with such enthusiasm because rarely does Hollywood produce action films with such quality characters. And rarely has a film’s development had such a slow burn. Suffice to say anticipation around the Cystal Skull is rife. Hype should be easy. But it ain’t what it used to be.

For the past few years avid Indy fans probably kept an eye out for headlines mentioning Indy’s return, whilst blogs speculated on possible story lines and release dates. Fansites kept the less avid fanboys up to date but it was a one way street as consumers looked for news. Once the release date was set and production started, Paramount’s well oiled hype machine was put in gear and content was plastered all over the web. But not by Paramount - by we the mighty consumers instead. In fact the initial Indy site featured only an image of the crate which those bureaucratic fools hid the Ark in back in 1981. Blogs leapt alive at the possibility of the Ark of the Covenant featuring in Indy 4. But not so long afterwards, the site began to re-route to the official site which held a depressing paucity of content, slowly released over the recent months. Consumers were kept waiting for elements of the site to be switched on but when the trailer was released the site recieved more than 200 million hits in one week. The viral nature of trailers is standard amongst new releases, but what followed was more surprising. Consumers weren’t just talking about the film online but actually advertising it through a number of tools the official site supplied. The official Indiana Jones Widget appears on blogs and social network profiles world wide. A tool kit of banner ads is even downloadable should you wish to plug the film on your own site. Never has a campaign offered so many tools that covered so many internet channels (I’m happy to be proved wrong).

Consumers have been walking billboards for years. There is no better ad for Adidas than a friend sporting their wears, but we don’t just wear brands on our clothes anymore, we wear them online too. The first Facebook app I came across was the Red Bull stones paper scissors game, Roshambull. On the mini feed friends would have read “Tive has installed Red Bull Roshambull”. Consumers are installing widgets, apps and banners on their blogs. We can endorse bands, films, charity events, club nights, anything and everything. It is free exposure, but whilst it may look like we have made it easier for marketers to build a campaign for a blockbuster, arguably, it is tougher. TV trailers and epic billboards won’t do any longer. Consumers have come to expect free content that adds texture to their online experience. And as with so many ideas, most content will just add noise to the landscape and only exceptional creative will breakthrough to get circulated or posted. That said, with the ability to easily and freely supply content to consumers, there is a creative opportunity that, if well executed, could cover heavily subscribed sites like wildfire and give products exposure, engagement and personal endorsement the likes of which have never been achieved before.

(All images downloaded within seconds from www.indianajones.com)

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