Fringe - Join The Club

Text Fringe to 94444 to get special videos and messages!

JJ Abrams' Super 8 Promo With Fringe Easter Egg

Can you identify the Fringe Easter egg in this promo?

FringeTelevision In Advertising Age

FringeTelevision was featured in Advertising Age magazine recently, and that article was mentioned on the front page of the Official Fox Website (Fan Site Gets Shout Out). However, the article is now only available to paid subscribers, but luckily we have a cache of the article:

Click here to read full article

Fans Go Viral Over Fox's 'Fringe'
Network's Enigmatic Online Campaign Builds on 'Cloverfield' Base

By Claude Brodesser-Akner
Published: September 04, 2008

Many of the same online fans who inadvertently helped market the J.J. Abrams-produced 'Cloverfield' are now back and doing the same thing for his new series 'Fringe.'

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Fair warning to entertainment marketers: Once fans get bitten by the viral marketing bug, they could be infected for life.

Case in point: the online marketing backing "Fringe," the forthcoming TV series from J.J. Abrams ("Lost," "Alias") that has its debut on Fox next Tuesday. The show -- about an FBI agent guided by an unhinged genius scientist -- already has a dozen rabid fan sites devoted to it, dissecting a handful of clues dispensed through a cryptic Fox-created website, imaginetheimpossibilities.com.

It worked before
Of course, that "Fringe" will have a fairly active viral-marketing component comes as no surprise, given that Mr. Abrams also produced "Cloverfield," a horror film whose online hype helped it make it the most successful January film release ever.

Indeed, "Cloverfield" fan sites like Cloverfield Clues racked up some 2.6 million unique visitors and just shy of 5 million page views. Created by a Lexington, Ky., software engineer named Dennis Acevedo, Cloverfield Clues was getting some 70,000 visitors daily prior to the film's release in theaters last year.

But what is surprising is that many of the same online fans who inadvertently helped market "Cloverfield" are now back and doing the same thing for "Fringe."

Mr. Acevedo, for example, has partnered with another self-described Abrams fan, an Orange County, Calif.-based administrative assistant named Edward Michaud, to create FringeTelevision.com. They're already getting 2,000 unique visitors for a site about a show no one has seen.

Raised expectations
Susan Bonds, president-CEO of 42 Entertainment in Pasadena, Calif., was not surprised that Mr. Acevedo is back at it.

While not affiliated with "Fringe," she was responsible for producing the alternate-reality game for this summer's Warner Bros. blockbuster "The Dark Knight," which has become the second-highest-grossing film of all time.

Said Ms. Bonds: "My feeling is that 'Dark Knight' and 'Cloverfield' changed things. They allowed the audience to really live in the fiction, and so overall, expectations are raised."

And the benefit is overwhelmingly accruing to both marketers and advertisers, Ms. Bonds said.

"With viral sites ... we learn not only how many unique participants, and where they are, but average length of time they experience. That's time spent with your brand or property -- about 10 minutes, on average. That's incredibly valuable to making people fans for life."

And Mr. Acevedo is nothing if not that. He has managed to see a leaked pilot episode online -- as well as the finished version from a Fox press kit, though he won't say how.

"I don't know if I want to reveal how I got it," Mr. Acevedo said.

Mysteries abound
There are a dozen other "Fringe" fan sites puzzling over viral marketing clues about esoteric plot points -- videos of sheep walking in perfect circles, mysterious Braille dots and math formulas -- but "only three or four that are really up to date. They're my competition."

So far, though, Mr. Acevedo says "Fringe" has been holding back on the viral treats, relative to "Cloverfield." A viral website, MassiveDynamic.com, a glancing reference to a corporation in the pilot of "Fringe," exists online but is not yet live [it is live now], though he said he's monitoring it closely.

"As far as viral marketing, it's been very, very limited. There's really only been seven pieces of evidence released. It's not a full-on interactive game -- at least, not yet."

Cautioned Mr. Michaud, "My sense is they're laying the groundwork."

Executives at Bad Robot, Mr. Abrams' production company, declined to comment on their plans for the show's marketing, but people familiar with the situation said there will be plenty of viruses floating around -- after the first episode airs.

Two New Fringe Radio Ads

There are two new Fringe radio ads, titled "Cruise" and "Stories". The first three ads can be found here.

Cruise (Download MP3):

Ship captain: (panicked) National Sea Rescue, this is the Solara Cruise Ship, Estrella, come in.

NSR rep: Roger. We read you 5 by 5. Go ahead, Estrella.

Captain: May Day! The navigation system’s down.

NSR: We copy. What was your last position?

Captain: We can’t find our way out. Sudden fog bank off the… coast of Patagonia. I’m gonna try and turn her around. May Day! May Day!

[Tape rewind FX]
Captain: We can’t find our way out. Sudden fog bank off the… coast of Patagonia. I’m gonna try and turn her around. May Day! May Day!

[Tape rewind FX]
Captain: We can’t FIND our way out. Sudden fog bank off THE… coast of PATagonia. I’m gonna try and TURN her around. May Day! May Day!

[Tape rewind FX]
Captain: Find…the…Pattern.
[Tape machine clicks off]

VO: Find the pattern.
VO: FOX

Stories (Download MP3)

AGENT: Case Number 22. Tell me what happened Mrs. Reed.

MRS. REED: I identified my husband at the morgue after the wreck. So, I went home to break the news to my son… and then I got this call from the coroner. He said “I don’t know how to tell you this… but your husband wants a ride home.” [sob/laugh] He’s alive!

Sfx: Static

VO: Find the pattern.
VO: FOX

Fringe News Roundup

TV Guide's Matt Roush suggests Fringe could become a cult phenomena, if given a chance:

Question: I know you're not really into spoilers, but I was just wondering whether you have viewed J.J. Abrams' Fringe yet. I watched the pilot today, and I just wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Being an Alias lover, I adored it. That being said, it was slightly predictable in certain parts (the "for example" omitted for spoiler reasons). Despite that fact, I think this show has a great future, especially with the commercial-lite gimmick. What do you think? — Amanda

Matt Roush: Your analogy to Alias is a good one. That's the show I most thought about while recently screening the Fringe pilot in a visit to Fox's offices — a very cloak and dagger process, because the network has yet to send screeners to critics in fear of more incidents of it leaking onto the Internet, which is where I gather you saw it. Anyway, I won't go into a detailed review here — too early, and I'd like to see a final cut when it gets closer to the September launch date — but my initial reaction was quite positive, and had me thinking and hoping that if Fringe is lucky and given the opportunity, it could grow into a cult phenom like Alias or even The X-Files, a show it resembles even more. The premise is a little too murky and the trappings a bit too sci-fi for me to predict that it will explode out of the gates the way Lost did. But wouldn't it be nice?

---

TVWeek's Josef Adalian has a detailed piece outlining Fox's "more elaborate second phase" Fringe marketing campaign that started this week.

In addition to noting the 'Find The Pattern' fringe radio ads, sponsored search engine links and those 'Imagine The Impossibilities' bleeding banner ads, Adalian learns that FOX isn't alone in marketing Fringe and that "Bad Robot is doing its own marketing on behalf of the show, as well.":

While [Laurel Bernard, senior vice president of marketing for Fox Broadcasting] couldn't confirm the details of Bad Robots efforts, the blogosphere has been buzzing about a YouTube video featuring a 12-fingered man. Fox’s official Web site for "Fringe" features a hidden link to the video, something that appears to confirm a connection between the YouTube video and the show’s producers.

We wondered the same thing when the link to the YouTube video of the 12-fingered man first appeared. In response to our inquiry, Stuart, the video's owner, claimed no knowledge of, nor connection to Fringe.

It seems there may be more read-world appearances or events as well:

Fox’s promo push for “Fringe” will get more specific—e.g., “Watch ‘Fringe’”—as the show’s September premiere date draws closer. Over the next few weeks, however, the network is planning to have some fun with the show’s mysterious science theme.

“We’re planning outbreaks of ‘Fringe’ in all sorts of interesting places,” Ms. Bernard said.

Will there be more cow sightings?

"I cant confirm or deny anything," she said. "But we love the cows."

Fringe Ads: Imagine The Impossibilities

Mysterious flash ads for Fringe have begun appearing online. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

[The ads are] placed on Web sites outside of the usual entertainment hubs to catch viewers attention in unique locations. Users on such sites as Automobile.com and recipe site FamilyOven.com will see mysterious ads encouraging them to "Imagine the Impossibilities."

"They will be very quick sort of messages, leading people to nondescript Web sites that will ultimately lead them back to 'Fringe,' " [Laurel] Bernard (senior vp marketing at Fox) said.

The ads don't specifically mention Fringe, but they do take you the ImagineTheImpossiblities.com website.

One very interesting tidbit about the ads...

The film strips that drop down have printing on the bottom; some sort of date, and the words "Drs Bell & Bishop" - most likely referring to Dr. Walter Bishop, the institutionalized father of Peter Bishop, and Dr. William Bell, the founder of Massive Dynamics.

Fringe Radio Spots - Find The Pattern

The following radio ads will begin airing today, kicking off FOX's media barrage to promote Fringe:



According to The Hollywood Reporter:

The campaign will feature cryptic messages that encourage fans to search on the Internet for more information. Fans of Abrams' hit ABC drama "Lost" and last year's theatrical release "Cloverfield" are familiar with the tactic, so much so that Abrams' name is incorporated into the radio ads as a clue.
...
"Our radio goal was definitely to not say 'Fringe,' " said Laurel Bernard, senior vp marketing at Fox. "We didn't want them to sound in any way like a traditional radio spot. We wanted them to be disruptive and a little mysterious sounding."
...
The Fox network is hoping listeners will piece together these mysterious fragments and realize there is indeed a pattern -- one that leads straight to the network's tentpole fall series "Fringe."

A possible website for the embedded "Find The Pattern" message may be FindThePattern.com. It is currently not active yet, but that may change later today.