You know the old saying “if you can’t beat em, join em”? Well it is over used and overrated but oddly fitting for the current deal between paramount and bittorrent. Yes you heard correctly; the multiple billion dollar movie studio and the multiple million user peer to peer download companies are making a deal for the new movie “The Tunnel”. I am not sure if this would be treated as cobranding in this situation but it is definitely intriguing.
Marketers for the movie and music industry have been challenged by the current accessibility of stolen media over the Internet. Consumers love convenience; naturally it is much easier AND cheaper to download your movies at home in your underwear than going to the movie rental store. ITunes has been at the forefront of combatting this through marketing themselves as convenient and accessible, parallel to torrent networks.
Anyways, paramount is planning to release a specific version on the bittorrent peer to peer network where you will be able to download it free and legally! Imagine that! They plan to create a DVD version with alternate endings and bonus material that is not available on the torrent version. Their stance is “if we stop fighting the peer to peer net works, they could become the biggest revolution we have ever seen in the way we share entertainment and information.” I foresee the entire music and movie content industry shifting focus and marketing towards a cloud distribution system. This will be a HUGE change and move all of these massive companies brand images to a new realm. The next 10 years are going to be a very interesting time for these marketers and marketing tactics!