The Movie: A trio of young independent documentary makers head out to the sleepy town of Burkittsville to track down the legendary Blair Witch before heading off into the woods never to return. This was the found footage horror movie which started them all, a trend which continues to this day as the genre continues at a rapid pace with no signs of running out of steam. The Campaign: The Blair Witch Project's legacy to cinema is undoubtedly its popularising of the found footage genre - it was also responsible for kickstarting online viral marketing campaigns. Setting up a basic website which treated the legend of the Blair Witch as real was the starting point for Haxan's campaign. Relatively low key by today's standards, the website was constantly updated with new pieces of information, building up both pieces of the puzzle and intrigue as the movie's launch date approached. Word of mouth, TV reports and rumours followed, and the rest is history. Effectiveness: It can't be overstated just how effective the viral campaign for The Blair Witch Project was - a low budget independent movie made with a skeleton cast and crew for the sum of $25,000 ended up making, after less than $1 million of additional marketing funds, nearly $250 million. Not a bad return on an investment which basically involved setting up a hoax website.
