5 Things I Learned About Marketing While Watching Horror Movies

While most people wouldn’t connect the dots between marketing and horror movies, my strange mind has. Here are 5 things I learned about marketing while watching horror movies:

It’s all about timing

Like in a scary movie, marketing is all about timing. It’s not enough to reach the right people, you’ve got to reach them at the right time. Whether you’re in their inbox, on their social media page, in their mailbox, and more, you’ve got to target your audience at just the right time to be effective.

Content is king

If the plot in a scary movie isn’t good, the movie itself is going to be a flop. To scare people, you need a combination of good writing, story, characters, and imagery. The same goes for marketing. Content is one of the most important aspects of a good marketing campaign; it needs to be emotional, strategic, visually appealing, and well written.

A good villian is sometimes helpful

Sometimes in marketing, it can be helpful to play off of a competitor and portray them as a villian in your favor (think Burger King’s McDonald’s ghost stunt that was extremely effective and entertaining). Great horror movies have memorable villains, and it’s that factor which leaves you craving sequel after sequel (and sometimes prequel).

You’ve gotta be entertaining, baby

No horror movie is going to be a box office hit without being entertaining. Hostel is one of the biggest scary movies of all time because of its entertainment factor. In marketing, effective campaigns are almost always a winning combination of entertaining and informative.

Go for the guts

Lastly, horror movies often go for the guts, gore, jump scares, etc., and that’s why people love them. To be successful in marketing, the same rules often apply. Hitting sore spots, drawing on natural emotions to drive calls to action, and being gutsy with details are all factors for success.