New Line: Go ahead, mash it up

The NY Times reports on New Line's clever marketing of `Take the Lead,' the new Antonio Banderas movie opening today. Advertising columnist Stuart Elliot writes:

The studio...wants to take the lead in finding alternative ways to market movies beyond traditional methods like advertising on television and in newspapers. It is a search that is also preoccupying the rest of Hollywood, anxious to reverse a slump in ticket sales.



For "Take the Lead" — a romantic drama about a professional dancer who volunteers to teach all the right moves to New York City schoolchildren — New Line is sponsoring such unusual marketing initiatives as a chance for computer users to create unofficial mash-ups. Those are mixed versions of music from the movie, using material available on the film's official Web site (taketheleadmovie.com).



New Line is also providing a variety of blogs, online social communities and Web sites with mash-ups of music and images from "Take the Lead" produced by professional D.J.'s and V.J.'s, which supplement the trailers for the movie being shown in theaters. The D.J.'s are also playing the mash-ups they produced during live events at clubs where they work.



Among the online sites where the mash-up trailers can be watched are Google Video (video.google.com), iFilm (ifilm.com), MySpace (myspace.com), TagWorld (tagworld.com) and YouTube (youtube.com).