Battlestar Galactica SciFi Webisodes are Here

The SciFi Channel is releasing a series of 10 webisodes to build buzz for BSG (That's Battlestar Galactica to all you none-fans) before the season premiere.

The merging of online marketing to television is a welcome addition, though I wish they had made the videos easy to forward. The idea behind pre-release teasers is not new - I can think of the Clone Wars episodes on Cartoon Channel that launched before the Star Wars III came out, and they told portions of the story that made a difference in the plotline for the third movie, but more important, it helps to shore up opening day audience when you pre-sell anything.

One of the strategies we recommend to clients is using the pre-sell method in all marketing they do. The cheapness of social media gives you the ability to launch blogs, podcasts, short videos, postcards, e-mails, whisper campaigns, billboards, and every other marketing vehicle under the sun to let the general public know that something big is coming.

There are three rules, however, to pre-release marketing, that cannot be ignored.

1) The product must be good. As we found out for Snakes on a Plane (which is getting terrible reviews), a bad product cannot be masked with good marketing, online or off.

2) The pre-release marketing can't be better than the product itself. This ties into the first rule, but all too often we see a great lead-up with no pay-off, or a thriving community built that sets expectations too high. If anyone remembers Majestic, the online-offline integrated conspiracy game launched by EA int he summer of 2001 a few years ago, they know what I'm talking about. The pre-game communities were more interesting, more creative, and more fun than the game itself.

3) Timing is everything. Publicity tends to rise and fall like the crest of a wave, which is to say that excitement generated about a product has a certain sweet spot you have to hit if you want to convert interest into action. Starting a marketing program too early risks disappointing your target market, but starting a program too late means you'll get little impact. Starting the program after you released the product is just plain foolish.

I'm eager to see the new webisodes, as I'm already a BSG fan, but as I said, I think portability of the video would make a big difference. Yes, you lose some traffic that way, but the ability to forward material to friends without directing them to a new site is a key aspect of viral marketing. It becomes a question of tracking versus barriers to word-of-mouth.

For ideas on how to pre-market , send me a note with your product and we'll find out if there's a way to help you build buzz before the launch date.