Leaks, new communication strategy ?

Today the films are victims of numerous leaks, broadcast on social networks. A leak indicates an information leak, supposedly kept secret. The leak phenomenon is a recent phenomenon, pushed by social networks thanks to their information sharing facilities. Obviously, leaks are not desirable for production studios because they partially or completely reveal the plot of the film. The Star Wars IX movie was recently leaked before the movie hit theaters. Indeed, a large part of the script had been broadcast on the social network Reddit, then more widely broadcast on other networks such as Twitter. The scenario was available to everyone by simply searching for #StarwarsLeak.

However, some studios have found a way to fight against leaks in…. Creating false leaks. This is what Warner Bros will do to promote its film Detective Pikatchu in May 2019. Pretending that the film had leaked and was available in full on YouTube, it was actually only a video of almost two hours of pikatchu ... dancing.

And it’s a success! The video has more than 30 million views today! A hell of a free publicity stunt for the film.

Thus, leaks, posing as a danger to films can also be a good means of communication. So good that some studios are sometimes accused on social networks of false leaks, pretending to be real.

Marius