THE HORROR MOVIE MARKETING HALL OF FAME

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

Horror campaigns have to hook audiences without giving the scare away, usually on small budgets. The Blair Witch Project and Longlegs built worlds with fake websites and real-world touchpoints that turned curiosity into word of mouth. Backrooms tapped a fandom that already existed online rather than starting from scratch. Smile planted actors with creepy grins at sports broadcasts and earned about 170 million trackable impressions without buying airtime. Obsession made its villain feel real with a text-me billboard and her own Letterboxd account, turning a $750K budget into $522M worldwide.