“Cloud Atlas,” an eight-year old novel written by David Mitchell, was ranked 2509th on Amazon last Monday, July 23rd. By last Friday, July 27th, the novel had moved up the list to number 7.
According to the WSJ article titled “Social Media Power a Novel” the increase in sales was due to a trailer for a film rendition of the movie that appeared on Apple’s iTunes movie trailers page on Thursday (July 26th) – only one day before sales of the novel surged.
Movie versions of books often create a buzz around an older title. However, as this article points out, the speed with which Mitchell’s novel moved from spot 2509 to spot 7 is indeed uncommon.
Once the trailer appeared on Apple’s website, discussions on Twitter and sales on Amazon both increased. The trailer was promptly shared on other social media sites.
This is definitely an example of social media marketing executed seamlessly. The movie will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and will arrive in US theaters on October 26th. The premiere of the nearly six minute trailer on iTunes generated just enough buzz and was located in just the right place. Unassuming apple.com users were pleasantly surprised to log on to the site last Thursday and view the trailer for the first time. It seems that the movie’s marketing team knew exactly the people that they wanted to target and knew just where to find them. I’ll be anxious to see if the well-planned social media marketing will lead to a big opening for the film. Based on some of the online comments generated by the trailer, my bet is that it will.
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