Would zombies use iPhones ?

When I took the train this morning I saw a print ad for the series "The Walking Dead" and I wondered: how do series sell themselves? Do and can series use new technologies?

For the record, zombies, as well as vampires or other gloomy/freaky creatures, benefit from a very large online and offline buzz. Partially propelled by the success of Twilight (not that I endorse that movie, but I have to face its large success and buzz)

As an introduction, let me present to you two print campaigns to promote the series "The Walking Dead":

- Norway 

The Norwegian campaign (December 2011)

The principle of that campaign.

See the first poster? You could actually strip off bits of the poster to get the adress of the website www.foxcrime.no. Just as a zombie would fall apart. 

- France 

Translation in English : "I see dead people, and then I kill them"

Translation in English: The only good dead people are dead dead.

This print campaign was made by the agency NoSite, to promote the first broadcast of The Walking Dead on Sundance Channel France, for the 12th January. The aim of the campaign was to show the human side of zombies, which enables an even more shocking contrast between the characters and the catch-phrases.

NoSite, of which this print campaign was the first campaign, also animates the twitter account of Sundance Channel France, the French antenna of the American Sundance Channel, that will broadcast the Walking Dead in France. The aim of the Channel: broadcast independent American and foreign movies.

Seeing the campaign, I wondered if NoSite used other communicational devices. 

And the answer was: not really. 

- Use of Twitter: no twitter account was created for this specific campaign. Likewise, the Twitter account of Sundance Channel only relayed the information, therefore undermining all the surprise effects created by the print campaign.

- Use of Facebook: Sundance Channel France has more than 13 000 Facebook fans, but the information about the imminent broadcast of The Walking Dead was, just like on Twitter, only relayed. Photos of the print campaign were posted, but without any inspiring quotes, without all the zombie effect which attracts so many people to view The Walking Dead. 

There is clearly a lack of use of the success of the zombie phenomena, new technologies speaking. 

For instance, the Walking Dead Facebook account gathers nearly 5 million fans, with a minimum of 3000 likes for each post from the owner(s) of the page (AMC, the US channel that created The Walking Dead, and Mad Men for instance) and hundred of comments for those posts. 

NoSite could have used this success to make a more interactive campaign to promote the broadcast of The Walking Dead in France. There is a huge online community of The Walking Dead fans: aside from the official facebook and twitter accounts, there are at least a dozen of non-official accounts that gather thousands of The Walking Dead fans. 

The official French Facebook page for The Walking Dead nearly gathers 5 000 fans, but there is no information as to the official character of the page: who created it, for which purpose. Moreover, the owners of the page do not seem to control 100% of the content published on their page. Commercial links are for example posted without being controlled. 

My advice: zombies are great (in communication). Why not take advantage of the existence of a gigantic fan community to use breaking-through communicational devices. For example, QR codes, or smartphones apps which could use all the fantastic imaginary behind the concept of zombies.

Zombies, get yourselves iPhones.