Disney Bolts to YouTube

There’s no website, no commercials and no exclusives on Access Hollywood. In fact, you can try Googleing Bolt and you’ll only catch a glimpse of what I’m referring to via an Internet Movie Database listing and Wikipedia page.

But check out YouTube and you’ll see the trailer for the upcoming Disney-Pixar movie, due this Thanksgiving, is spreading like wildfire while not even as much as a single poster has appeared in theaters.

This is of course not the first time this has been done, but it is an example of how important viral activity and venues like YouTube have become to even the biggest marketers in the world.

With no lack of budget to be spent, Disney is making use of the viral potential Bolt cast member Miley Cyrus provides as an often-searched term. Makes you wonder if studios will start casting actors based on their Google status.

What’s also curious is they’ve managed to break the no double dipping rule, but without actually double dipping. Here they are building buzz around Bolt without taking attention away from their just released Wall-E, which currently sits atop the box office.

(see blog for video)

However, this tactic has proven to backfire on some. Janet Jackson tried to launch her last album on YouTube by dropping the video for her single Feedback. While it did get some attention, some say it was done at the expense of offending the mainstream media, which provided much less hoopla around the album’s launch and sales were lackluster.

Perhaps she should have tried some shtick, like vacuuming a couch.