search-engine-optimization.jpgThere’s a little bit of everything in this week’s list of new releases. Sci-fi/fantasy, brainless blockbusters and a little indie spirit as well. Let’s see how they stack up in utilzing search engines as the portal to the brand experience.

Stardust (Paramount)

This one scores really well.

The first result is to the Google Movies listing. That’s where you can enter your zip code to get listings and such. Right next to that is a link to the Apple Quicktime trailer.

The movie’s official site is next – followed up by the “/site.html” URL for the site. The abstract nicely displays the movie’s main cast list, which is cool.

IMDb’s listing is third, followed by a bunch of Google News results about the movie. Past that are some non-movie stardust references, with the Wikipedia entry for the source book coming in seventh place. Another couple of astrological pages follow that, with the Yahoo Movies page at the bottom of the first page of results.

No Sponsored Links appear at the top of the page but the movie’s official site is the first result in the right-hand side set of Sponsored Links. The movie’s MovieFone page is the only other paid placement link on the front page.

Skinwalkers (Lions Gate/AfterDark)

Again, the Google Movies page and Apple’s trailer are the first result.

The official site once again comes in second, but with very little meta-data, just an explanation that this is the movie’s official site. Okey-dokey. IMDb comes in third.

Two Wikipedia pages follow. The first is just to skin-walker mythology in general, providing information on the legend of skin-walkers. Second is the Wikipedia page for the movie.

The Yahoo entry comes in at fifth place. Next is the YouTube trailer, which you can expand and play right on the page. RottenTomatoes is right below that.

There are then a couple other links to the actual skin-walkers legend, including a page on About.com. The last result is from ComingSoon.net’s dedicated page to the movie.

There’s no Sponsored Link advertising of any sort on the search results, either on top or on the side.

Rocket Science (Picturehouse)

Now this is interesting. The first search result for a Rocket Science search is a list of Google News stories. At the top of that list is a link to one of the diaries the studio put on MTV.com.

The IMDb page and official website – which actually has a description that runs longer than the allowed characters – come in second and third respectively. The link to the official site contains not only the movie’s title but also the release date, which is a good idea.

Links to actual rocket science are the next two, with the homepage of the Rocket Science PR/marketing firm coming in sixth. The only other movie-related result is the Apple movie trailer that appears in seventh place.

Just like for Stardust, the movie’s official website and Moviefone page are the one and two results in the Sponsored Links section to the right. Nothing appears at the top of the results.

Rush Hour 3 (New Line)

Keep in mind this is the first movie this week that doesn’t just have a generic title. That means the search results are, in this case, all related ot the movie.

In the one slot is the Google Movies/Apple trailer combo. Google News results are in the second position, followed by the IMDb page.

The official site – the description of which for some reason focuses on the fact that it has the trailer – is fourth. The Apple trailer makes its second appearance as the fifth result. Wikipedia is sixth and RottenTomatoes is seventh

There are two YouTube trailers next, first the theatrical trailer and second the teaser. Yahoo Movies and ComingSoon round out the organic results.

This is the first movie of the week to place a Sponsored search result at the top of the page, which points of course to the movie’s official site. The Moviefone page is off to the right.

Daddy Day Camp (Sony)

The usual suspects fill in the top five results. First is a batch of Google News stories, followed by the official Sony site. Then the IMDb page, Rotten Tomatoes and Wikipedia.

Making its first appearance this week, in the sixth slot, is the movie’s page on Disney’s Movies.go.com site. Interesting. Hadn’t seen that one before and don’t see it mentioned in the online world very much so I find it curious that this appears so highly for this movie. I don’t see anything that unusual or different in the meta-data, so this must just be popular for some reason. It’ll be interesting to see if this happens again with another “family” comedy like this.

Yahoo Movies’ trailer page for the film, not the main info page but the one with the video offerings, comes in seventh, again something that seems a bit odd to me. Hollywood.com, MovieTickets.com and the review from Cinematical round out the first page of results.

This is definitely the odd-man-out when it comes to this week’s movies. There are quite a few outliers in the data and I’m curious to see if this sort of thing becomes a trend with this sort of film.

The only paid search result for a “daddy day camp” search is to the Moviefone page.

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So that’s it for this week’s edition of The Week in Movie Search. What did you think? I’m interested in hearing feedback on how this comes off so feel free to leave comments. As I said last week this is a work in progress and your input will play a large part in how it’s adjusted over time.

3 thoughts on “The Week in Movie Search: 8/10/07

  1. Interesting look at how the search engines control the flow of a movie’s buzz. This brings to mind an article I read in Filmmaker magazine a while back that talked about “The Scattershot Approach,” which was one way that an independent film was able to gain considerable ground in search engine results. It’s a good read, here’s a link to the article:

    http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/winter2007/line_items/lessons_diy1.php

    I’d love to see some posts on other independent films that have been able to build some buzz for their movie in the search engine world without having to pay for sponsorships. Maybe “This Week in Movie Search” could highlight a guerrilla campaign from time to time that achieved prominent SEO status on the cheap.

    Regardless, I enjoyed the post, as always.

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