MySpace seeking more movie placement

MySpace has been a key component of online movie marketing strategies for a number of years now, almost as long as the site has been up and running and part of the mainstream consciousness.

The social network is now looking for some reciprocal love from the movie industry. MySpace is hoping that prominent placement in the campaign for Bruno and a role in the plot for Judd Apatow’s Funny People will help it continue to bring in the volume of visitors – particularly among the older teens and young adults advertisers love – it’s become used to over the years. It’s especially important for MySpace to become more active about marketing itself considering it’s rapidly losing ground to – and may even have been leaped by – Facebook, which is also being used by movie marketers.

So basically MySpace is adopting the same sort of product placement mindset that consumer goods and services brands have had for decades. They view the movie-going audience as being in line with the audience they’re trying to attract.

That seems to me like a bigger shift in things than it appears on its face. MySpace – and now Facebook – have grown not because of “marketing” in the classic sense of the word. Instead they’ve grown because they are the cool place to hang out, someplace where individuals can “see” their friends and be seen by others. It was a status symbol.

Now it’s something to be marketed to the audience. That’s different.

I’m not ragging on MySpace for this. It’s perfectly fine. But it does represent a change in the tactics it needs to put in place to maintain and grow its audience and that’s absolutely worth noting.