The PR effort for The Source Code, the movie starring Duncan Jones and Jake Gyllenhaal, is the latest example. A TechCrunch blogger named Alexia Tsotsis was attacked by the movie's producer Summit Entertainment for being too snarky in a blog post she wrote about the movie during SXSW. Moreover, the person connected with Summit Entertainment felt it necessary to go to her new bosses at AOL and complain about Alexia's work. Sad.
Sad for Summit Entertainment, that is.
Hollywood studios are making the same mistake The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made in reaching out to the tech press to present it's new social media effort for the 83rd Academy Awards: it's avoiding its media friends and fans, none of which are in the tech press.
Once again, Hollywood's segregationist, non-systemic, Old Media thinking, is getting it into major trouble. The problem is that Hollywood thinks the culture of tech is confined to the tech press and that just because some movie purports to "speak tech," the tech press is going to embrace it. Forgetting what happens when that movie's "tech speak" falls short of any smell test: it gets panned.
Rather than target the tech press, then whine about the result, Summit Entertainment should have went to its normal set of press contacts and expanded it to include fan blogs. Why? Because those bloggers, who in many cases have made their own blogs from scratch, know just enough tech to be sympathetic to the movie maker's message and not throw them under the bus.
But that didn't happen in the case of TechCrunch and Alexia (cool name, by the way). And the fact that AOL chose to insert itself into a blogger's work is a little scary and doesn't bode well for the future of AOL's relationship with TechCrunch or any of its blogs that it bought. Check out this email that AOL sent to Alexia:
Hey Alexia,
Hope you’re having a good time at SxSW and that it’s not been too crazy busy for you!
First wanted to thank you for covering Source Code/attending the party, etc. But also wanted to raise a concern that Summit had about the piece that ran. They felt it was a little snarky and wondered if any of the snark can be toned down? I wasn’t able to view the video interviews but I think their issue is just with some of the text. Let me know if you’re able to take another look at it and make any edits. I know of course that TechCrunch has its own voice and editorial standards, so if you have good reasons not to change anything that’s fine, I just need to get back to Summit with some sort of information. Let me know.
Thanks!
What happened in both examples is that The Academy and Summit Entertainment isn't experienced with the tech press, which reacts to any effort that's, well, "fake." Let's face it, The Source Code isn't an iPad or a new computer, or a Twitter-beater. It's a movie. And the press outreach effort isn't about some real word tech innovation used in the movie, it's about the movie. Period.
As I said before, and will say again, Hollywood needs to stop this silly way of thinking and come back to its media base. It's just as tech savvy, more friendly, and certainly less snarky, than the tech press.
As for Alexia, TechCrunch, and AOL, that email was shameful on AOL's part and makes this blogger think it's time for a countdown clock for AOL. A countdown to merger failure because the culture of AOL doesn't seem to be meshing with the cultures of the properties they bought.
Stay tuned.