I’m sure a sensationalist title like that just bumped traffic (PAY DAY!), unfortunately this is where you’ll likely leave. There is nothing wrong with Twitter, at least not in this post. This writing is reserved for Rotten Tomatoes’ Twitter presence and their recent partnered effort with the upcoming indie film Paper Heart. It’s a not so classic tale of girl was in Knocked Up, girl questions true love, girl creates documentary to find answer, girl meets Michael Cera who provides the answer, “Yes”–or, at least this is as much I’ve gathered from the trailer.
How to generate some additional excitement through Twitter, though? Well, what goes together with love better than poems? Their idea was simple; tweet your best 140 character poem @RottenTomatoes. The only mandatories were to include the word “Paper Heart” and you would be allowed only one entry. So I got in love mode; set the mood with a dimly-lit screen, some Nat King Cole, and wrote my twoem:
“Our paper hearts fold into shapes we never knew, but love can tear along the seams it creates. Be gentle with love’s origami.”
Some days would pass as they organized all the entries. The director of the film, Nick Jasenovec, and leading lady, Charlene Yi would be judging them personally. The hand-picked winner would then go to the red carpet premiere in LA for 3 days and 2 nights. Um, yes please.
The results came out and sadly I did not place first or second…I actually placed 11th. But that was enough to put me in the list of the top twenty choices they were thinking through. Pretty Cool! Though, it’s still a bit of a bummer because I would’ve loved to see the film and the spontaneity of the trip to LA. In fact, it’s heartbreaking enough to make me write another poem about it:
Poem Tweeted,
Their Eyes Would Read,
“Pretty Good”,
Their Hearts Concede,
Results Tweeted,
The News I’d Hear,
Sorry, you won’t be attending the LA Premiere.
All in all it was a fun contest. I’d be interested to hear how many entries they pulled in as well as the overall tracking for conversations (non-entries) generated by the contest. One evident merit is that Rotten Tomatoes is using Twitter effectively. Not only did they engage a prospective fan base of movie lovers, but throughout the entire contest you could count on their direct replies. Even after I tweeted the celebration of my 11th place victory Rotten Tomatoes was there to deliver a 100% fresh @reply.
UPDATE [8/5/09]: Rotten Tomatoes informed me through Twitter that the contest garnered over 300 individual entries.
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