Here’s a new wrinkle. When PepsiCo sought out DreamWorks SKG to
inquire about advertising on its site for the move called “Antz,” the beverage
marketer found out there was none. So Pepsi had one built, and sponsored it.
The New York Post reports
that the site got 700,000 hits before the film
had any promotion other than film trailers in theaters.
The Post said that in fact, DreamWorks Pictures doesn’t even have its own Web
site and is spending its marketing and promotional dollars in more traditional
off-line ways instead. That makes DreamWorks the only filmmaker of any size
to lack a
dedicated Web presence.
Hello, DreamWorks, anybody home? Well, maybe. The Post quoted an analyst as
saying that DreamWorks “believes in the medium as a marketing tool but not
paying any money for it, so they outsource their sites to the highest bidder.”