Many filmmakers, movie fans and those in the gaming industry have heaped tributes upon George A. Romero, who co-wrote and directed “Night of the Living Dead.” Romero died Sunday at age 77 after battling lung cancer.
Romero is credited for bringing zombies to the big screen. Though he directed films that included “The Crazies,” and “There’s Always Vanilla,” none had such an effect on the film industry as “Night of the Living Dead”—along with “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead,” and “Land of the Dead.”
In honor of Romero’s life and legacy, here are three lessons brand managers can take from zombies:
1. Don’t give up.
Romero won the hearts of movie-goers and filmmakers, but at the beginning, he struggled to capture studios’ interest.
Los Angeles’ Times Tre’vell Anderson wrote:
It was the night of April 4, 1968, and George A. Romero was driving to New York City from Pittsburgh on a mission: In the days to come he was to meet with film studios in hopes that one might buy the horror film he was lugging in his trunk, “Night of the Flesh Eaters.”
None of the studios was interested, but Romero still managed to get his $114,000 film in front of audiences that year. And though critics panned the picture, retitled “Night of the Living Dead,” moviegoers were mesmerized — packing theaters, hitting the drive-ins in droves and making Romero the father of the modern movie zombie. Romero’s “Living Dead” franchise went on to create a subgenre of horror movie whose influence across the decades has endured, seen in movies like “The Purge” and TV shows like “The Walking Dead.”
If multiple journalists reject your pitch, don’t throw in the towel.
Instead, assimilate any feedback you can get and take a long, hard look at why your story might not have appealed to those you contacted. Reshape your story—or go back to the drawing board—paying attention to your coveted publication’s guidelines, its readership and current hot topics.
2. Always be prepared.
Online quizzes such as “ How long would you survive in the zombie apocalypse” have infiltrated the internet, but the undead aren’t the only obstacle over which PR and marketing pros should remain vigilant.
Crises can break in a matter of minutes, especially online.
Brand managers must be ready to respond immediately, often with information that might not be readily available. One way to overcome this problem is to continually monitor trends, news and consumer sentiment that could damage your organization.
PR and marketing pros can also use zombies (and those who fight them) as role models for campaigns involving preparedness, as Illinois did this year.
In March, NBC 5 in Chicago reported:
The Illinois House adopted a resolution last month designating October of this year as “Zombie Preparedness Month.”
The living-dead-legislation, sponsored by Democratic state Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, encourages Illinoisans to learn about natural disasters and take steps toward stockpiling three days’ worth of emergency rations.
“I am told that if you are prepared for zombies, then you would be prepared to deal with a natural disaster like tornadoes, blizzards, natural disasters of any kind,” Welch said on the House floor in February. “You would have proper food storage, you would’ve identified a place where you would go for shelter, and you’d be prepared for a natural disaster.”
3. Don’t be afraid to embrace a trend.
Content marketing and social media successes are often won by brand managers who recognize a popular trend and quickly insert themselves into the conversation.
The same thing happened with the zombie genre. One only has to look at the success of shows such as “The Walking Dead” and the bountiful selection of films about the undead to see how much others have taken off with Romero’s inspiration.
In the last 20 years, Romero’s zombie genre was reinvented and gussied up in various ways. Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later put zombies back on the map, making them scarier and more athletic – able to run, in fact, which gave them a new edge on the uninfected. And Edgar Wright’s madly successful Shaun of the Dead tapped explicitly into Romero’s strain of black comedy. Then came the massive worldwide smash World War Z and the TV show The Walking Dead. George A Romero had very mixed feelings about these colossal hits; he described himself wistfully as someone who “used to be the only guy in the zombie playground”. But once the big names moved in, few were interested in his own new pitches for modestly budgeted zombie movies, in which the satire thrived by being left implicit.
PR and marketing pros don’t have to “zombify” their messages, however. Instead, remember that content which stands out often takes a new angle or approach to a trend (such as selfies, listicles or viral tweets ).
When jumping on the bandwagon for a trend—whether that’s by partnering with an influential Instagram user or tweeting replies to a trending Twitter hashtag—insert your brand’s voice and personality into your messages, and make sure it’s natural. Just as zombies have a distinct odor, insincere or pandering messages can be detected from miles away.
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