While riding high in 2007, social media website MySpace creates a movie video trailer community with indie distributor Lions Gate as its inaugural promotional partner. The cinema section is dubbed MySpace Trailer Park.
A press release quotes MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe saying that the trailer community “speaks to users who want to discover and virally share these videos.” Lionsgate’s first film in the trailer park is “Good Luck Chuck.”
The press release continues: “Trailer Park will further enable movie studios to connect with a film’s fanbase on MySpace prior to its theatrical release. Content will premiere on Trailer Park 3-6 months prior to a film’s theatrical release and a few months prior to the movie’s MySpace profile launch. All trailers posted to Trailer Park will enable users to attach the content to their own profiles to share with friends and fans. All friends of the profile will receive bulletins alerting them that a new trailer has been added to the community.” (article continues after the image).
A Mashable article by Kristen Nicole says: “Only upcoming films will be shown on Trailer Park, meaning that this won’t be a repository for movie trailers, but a teaser site to help each movie’s building hype. It’s a very niche section of MySpace that fits in with many of their existing components, and fits nicely with the type of advertising that is typically seen on the social network.”
UPDATE: In 2007 when Trailer Park launched, MySpace was the leading social media website, but within two years was surpassed by Facebook.
MySpace then fell into obscurity as a victim of its own over-commercialization with banner and other overt, in-your-face traditional advertising that turned off online users. Meanwhile, Facebook sold advertisers access to its platform with more subtle mechanisms that are less obtrusive.
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