When you visit the Apple Movie Trailers website and choose to watch the Trailer for the New Movie 2012, at the end of the clip it tells you to “Google 2012 To Find Out The Truth” OK, so when I Googled 2012 I am a little confused as to what to look for, especially since there is no organic or paid listing that is part of a coordinated strategy with the movie trailer. If the goal of this tactic is to simply get people interested in what 2012 means, then I think they get the “gist” of it. But, when you tell people to Google something, they are expecting to see a authoritative website which will tell them the truth about 2012, not a random organic or even paid listing trying to sell Food Storage supplies.

Since this movie is about how to prepare Six Billion People that the world’s gonna end, I would, at the very least, expect Columbia pictures or the people working for Roland Emmerich to create an online marketing strategy which would INDEED tell the people about the movie. It’s one of those obvious, oxy-moronic things if you ask me.

So, what happens when you Google “2012″. You would be surprised.

If you look at the screen shot, of the (6) six listings, there is only one reference to the movie, but it not coming from the movie itself. A random IMDB listing is the best they can do?? Hmmn, I wonder if they are using SERP tools to see how many people are actually Googling 2012. Well, I have a prepared a very small PPC Strategy that Columbia Pictures, Roland Emmerich and even John Cusack would entertain

The Duh Moment – How About a PPC Ad for the movie 2012 and maybe a Website? Just a suggestion
I know that online marketing can be complex at times, but what the heck. Each movie-goer pays like $20 per ticket, they could at least afford $1.00 CPC or less.

Small, yet detailed PPC Strategy

• Use a Long-Tail Keyword in the Trailer (Make the Googler work a little for that information. Try something like “2012 trailer, apple 2012 trailer, etc…” Don’t they want to know how many people connected the dots????
• Keep the flow with similar Ad/Creative: Say something like “enjoyed the Trailer? click here for more information about the movie…..” C’mon, it’s not that hard.
• Keyword Craziness. People who are interested in this movie, will search of many areas of the movie. Such as “John Cusack, Roland Emmerich, 2012, 2021, end of the world, etc..) Make it easy……
• Web Analytics the living crap out of the web page. Have some sort of conversion based page to track something. Captures emails to let people know of a new trailer, where the movie is released, etc…

In conclusion:
I am just making a suggestion to Columbia Pictures to think about using PPC as a method to continue to  drive movie sales or interest in a movie. Paid Search has and will always evolve as the major player in connecting the offline and the online consumer. They spend millions making a movie, and spend pennies trying to promote it online. We live in an age where if you want to know something, you GOOGLE IT. If you tell your viewers to Google something within a trailer, you better have something for them to look at, or they might just disappear from the Movie Theater.