The Net catches 'Pee Mak' fever
Film-makers around the world have been using social media to promote their movies for a while now.
Producers were quick to add online word-of-mouth to their box of marketing tools. But few have seen the viral fever spread faster than the makers of “Pee Mak Phra Khanong”.
The Thai horror comedy has already stuffed more than Bt300 million into box offices after just two weeks in cinemas. It’s now the second most successful Thai film of all time, behind 2001’s “The Legend of Suriyothai”, which earned Bt550 million.
“Pee Mak Phra Khanong” is directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun (@Banjong_P) of GTH Studio (@gthchannel), who was also responsible for “Shutter”, “Phobia” (“Si-Phrang”), “Phobia 2” (“Ha-Phrang”), “Hello Stranger” (“Kuan-Moun-Ho”) and “The ABCs of Death”.
Strong visuals and a good story are cornerstones of his latest offering, but turbo-charging its success is a marketing campaign that’s gone viral among its fans. The film has been a hit on all major online channels, including Facebook, where “likes” surged past the 77,000 mark on Thursday, and Twitter and Instagram through @gthchannel @Banjong_P and #peemak. Information and opinions from those who have seen the film, those who want to, and the production firm, are flooding onto these channels all the time.
Most influential among these are reviews by people who have just watched the movie, which have created a tide of good feeling that has swept more and more social-media users into cinemas.
The success of “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” has far outstripped that of “Sunset at Chaopraya” (“Khoo Kam”), a new version of the old love story which arrived a week later in theatres.
The 2013 remake by M-Thirtynine studio is based on the World War II romantic novel by National Artist Thommayanti. Scripted and directed by Kittikorn Liawsirikul, “Khoo Kam” has taken 10 times less than “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” (a little over Bt30 million) at the box office.
Another obvious difference between the two films is that “Khoo Kam” has a much smaller presence in social media. It’s only on Facebook, where it had reached 9,000 “likes” by Thursday night.
Rather than rolling out updates about the film, the page is narrowly focused on information and pictures of its 18-year-old star, Oranate “Richy” D Caballness.
Things are even worse on Twitter and Instagram. We found only three #KhooKam photos on Instagram, and two of those were not related to the movie.
One of them is a photo of the stage-play “Khoo Kam”.
When compared with the slow-burn of “Khoo Kam”, the turbo-charged success of “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” reflects the important role online social networks are playing in marketing movies.
After “Pee Mak Phra Khanong”, few film-makers will be willing to ignore the power of social media.
