After seeing some of my favorite television shows get canceled in the past -- as well as the unsuccessful "save this show" campaigns that followed -- I had the idea that a fan campaign BEFORE the show begins may be the best thing to do. This is not a "save this show" campaign, but a "hype this show" campaign so that it never has to be canceled!

We want to get fans motivated to promote Dollhouse BEFORE IT AIRS to friends/family/coworkers and save it from ever being in danger of the ax! If we do this leading up to the premiere, we may be able to make a number of people watch/get hooked and make it a breakout hit from the very beginning!

The overall idea is to encourage Joss/Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans to promote the show everywhere in addition to FOX's usual promotional/viral methods. We do not want to go overboard or annoy any unsuspecting people, but here are some ideas to use pre-premiere that may help the show garner some interest in areas FOX can't reach with their marketing:

- show the trailer to as many people interested
- organize a premiere viewing party
- creating/supporting fansites
- editing signatures/avatars in other forums to promote the show
- outdoor advertisements (probably won't happen due those pesky costs)
- and more (suggestions?)

And post-premiere ideas:

- organize weekly viewing parties
- contact brands that advertise during Dollhouse
- organize bulk purchases of said brands' product

Please post any ideas you have in this thread. Let's make Dollhouse the must-watch show of 2009!
To link directly to this topic, feel free to use: http://dollhouseforums.com/dollsunite


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May 20th, 2008 - Thank you to "glorificus214" for posting this at Whedonesque, and Jenna from Wired.com for writing about us! A lot of people are criticizing this for it being put together too early, and I totally understand why it's being said. I obviously know that it's abnormal to start a campaign like this so early, but I have watched so many shows end badly and talked with so many people who have stated "I wish we had done this earlier". We know that FOX is under new regime and are supporting the show completely. We would like the fans to be just as proactive as the network and hype the show to the best of their abilities -- so no one can ever say "we should have done this, we should have done that".

To those saying that we should watch the show before supporting it so intently, I say: "It's Joss freaking Whedon!" Of course we should support his new project!


May 31st, 2008 - It seems to me that this Dolls Unite campaign has taken on a little life of its own. People are still giving it the title of a "Save this show" campaign and fans are getting really angry that we are insinuating that Dollhouse will be in danger of cancellation when it airs. Or that we do not support FOX and believe that they will not do their best to promote the show. We know that they will and we are completely grateful that they are supporting the show so much as well!

We are NOT a campaign to save Dollhouse, we are just fans who are dedicated to promoting it as much as possible before it airs. Joss Whedon already has a loyal fanbase -- something that new shows with burgeoning creators don't initially have. Why not use it to our advantage and band together?

I think the best thing we could do as a fan collective is to just buy the hell out of the products advertised during the show. We wouldn't necessarily need to go on Dollhouse shopping sprees, although that may be fun, but just make a point of purchasing whatever brands are being advertised. If the Whedonites take credit for this publicly and execute it on a wide enough scale it could give us a bit more influence as to which shows do and do not get canceled.

That is a great idea! I remember using product/brand support with a couple other fan-campaigns in the past and loved the idea. That is definitely something we can do after the show premieres and we should add it to the list as a definite plan.

Hate to sound like a dummy. But why don't we make little cardboard dollhouses and set them up all around towns. A viral marketing campaign that gets people thinking "WTF are all the dollhouses for?"

-M@

Ok, sure, I'll do everything I can! Many people in my country loved Whedon's work, im sure they'll get caught with this serie as well! I Hope they'll start airing the show here next year, please FOX!! If not I'll have to download it and it'll be a let down! :/ Please if anyone knows in the near future if it is going to latinoamerica when more of the show stuff is related, let me know!

Anybody could make a dollhouse out of simple cardboard and glue, or for the more elaborate, balsa wood or any material they like. You could make it artistic, with writing all over it, creepy, or just a dollhouse, like the personalities for the characters, the combinations are endless, but the vessel is the same.

-M@

I think it's a great idea!

My suggestions are to use the principles of Word of Mouth Marketing and keep it cheap or free. Get the influencers to buzz about it. Get it on WWdN. You already got it on Whedonesque. Get everyone you know to Twitter it: http://twitter.com/foxdollhouse/ Get regular updates on io9. Continue to get the blogging community to buzz about it, and then start spreading the arms of the virus beyond the standard scifi blog community and over to more mainstream blogs. Make some LOLcats. Get your friends involved in the facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dollhouse/14409357519 - heck, does anyone know much about facebook? I mean, can you create a widget or an app or whatever to share "dolls"? Can we set up a Dollhouse in Second Life?

Those are my first thoughts...

Looking at other viral marketing campaigns might be a good way to get ideas for the types of things that we could be doing. I mean, I have been (for lack of better phrasing) playing the Dark Knight viral marketing games, and it gets peoples attention when there are 150 people gathered together in Joker makeup in the middle of a metropolitan area. I like the dollhouses idea, but I think that it's important that we be uniform and professional so that people know that we are serious. (Maybe somebody could make a printable paper cutout...?) It would be awesome if FOX or Joss were involved...they could use their knowledge of the show to set up some sort of of campaign.

But I agree with what's been said:
Tell your friends.
Show them the trailer. (Who could resist?)
Be excited! Enthusiasm is infectious.

Mostly, I just want to see the damn show. But I think this sentiment is wise.

Winchester, as an American fan of Japanese anime, I feel your pain. Even if we're lucky enough for our shows to get shown locally, chances are they'll be horibbly dubbed. Anyway, here's hoping Dollhouse gets popular enough for a release in S. America.
Also, it's nice to hear that Whedon is known all the way in Argentina!

well i think the best way is to spread the word is on tv sites e.g. i have made a dollhouse spot on fanpop
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/dollhouse
which now has 50 fans after the link being posted on the television spot,
or post links about fox's new shows for next year
the word of mouth is a brilliant way, tell friends family send it to friends in emails,

i like the dollhouse cut out idea but i can't imagine it really taking off unless there was literally one in everytown and considering whedon fans are spread all over the world it might be hard but i'm definitley willing to give it a shot

another idea is for those that do fan art, where ever you post it (livejournal, fansites, fanpop ect) why not slash dollhouse with other scifi/fantasy shows like smallville or supernatural and post on sites and comunities such as that,

also picking a really interesting dollhouse icon to use as your user icon/avatar mite spike some interest

or writing reviews of the promos and posting them on tv sites

what do you guys think?

The cutout Dollhouse campaign is a great idea, but may be a little to fan-crazy than we had originally hoped. If this was done in a large-scale format it may be applauded, but anything else would just be considered unorganized and embarrassing to the fandom that want the show to succeed and be considered "interesting" and "must-see" for unwilling viewers.

What I would like to see happen is EVERYONE spreading the word about Dollhouse to their friends, web-friends, coworkers, and whomever else will listen and may be potentially interested. The point is not to come off as a superfan of a show that hasn't even aired yet (I agree that is quite annoying when people do it to me), but to show genuine interest in a show and make them believe that they MUST at least watch the first episode and make their own decision. Plus... "Eliza Dushku is that sexy chick from all of those movies! We have to watch!" always seems to work fine.

yes having eliza dushku & tahmoh penikett in it does work for the show so metioning it to battlestar fans, tru calling fans or bring it on fans can't hurt, also i believe joss is doing some episode of the office which is a really popular show and just mentioning it in passing will probably rouse interest with some of the more fanatic fans

How about making banners? I mean some of us are members of more than one forum (I think) so why not promote in your sigs/avatars? =]

I think babydoll's idea about Facebook widgets is brilliant! You need something that will keep popping up in your friends' news feed. That way it'll spread and almost everyone on there will have heard of it by the time it airs (and so watch the show! )

How about being able to 'build' a dollhouse and then customise dolls to go in it. It could even build up so your house gets bigger the more you use it or some kind of trading thing that gives you points. I'm pretty rubbish at computer stuff but I know a lot about fashion if that's helpful (for something other than spending all my money )

x

We have been featured on Wired.com! It's a good/bad thing because there are references to some disheartening posts at Whedonesque... but hopefully everyone will somehow figure out that we aren't looking to "Save That Show" -- we just want to promote it as much as possible before the premiere and help out as much as possible.

Check out the article thread here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=61

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5573168755 - Dollhouse Forums Facebook group, for those who haven't found it yet.

BoinBoing picked up Wired.com's article and gave it a nice litle spin, check out this thread!

I think this campaign is a great idea (FanLib's official blog wrote about it: http://nohiatus.fanlib.com/archives/593) and I want to help. Only problem is that I'm not a US resident (I'm Norwegian), so some of the things, like spreading cardboard boxes around town to hype the show and so on, probably won't do anything to help this campaign as Fox won't be looking to how the show does outside of the US. But I'm fairly good with graphics and video, so if you need me, use me... lol

So if there could also be a list of things non-US citizens can do to help, you could get an even more effective campaign. I can help out with the buying brands, as long as the brands are available outside of the US, as well.