BitTorrent hired Atomic in December 2006 after a hotly contested
review involving two other of the nation's top tech/consumer
PR firms. The first assignment was to manage the launch of the
new BitTorrent Entertainment Network (www.bittorrent.com),
a competitor to iTunes leveraging BitTorrent's technology and
community. Issues at the start of the campaign included a standing
association of the name BitTorrent with digital piracy, (mis–)understandings
of P2P vs. peer-assisted network technology, and a range of
opinion within and outside the BitTorrent user community about
the company's entry into the commercial arena. ComContext research
helped the client/agency team arrive at a few key insights which
drove a simple and powerful strategy aligned with the complexity
of the issues facing the entertainment industry today as different
business and technology models, and different generations of
consumers meet in the marketplace. Results
- In 3 days, the BitTorrent launch generated more than 400
unique articles and broadcast pieces across the entire media
landscape — from top tier magazines and major market
dailies to major market TV, from entertainment industry
trades and consumer entertainment pubs to tech outlets —
and hundreds of blog postings, many pulling from Bram's
Q&A with one key blogger.
- In terms of tonality, 45% of the coverage was positive,
49% neutral and only 6% negative; which we attribute to
BitTorrent's authenticity in airing their opinions and intentions
around the many issues surrounding their technology and
the launch of BitTorrent.com.
- Blog dialog from the existing BitTorrent user community
itself was interesting, also reflecting the complexity of
the many issues facing digital entertainment as a whole.
Some "everything for free" users posted critical commentary
about BitTorrent's entry into legitimate business, while
others posted thoughtful rebuttal's to those criticism's
and offered a wide range of commentary about this period
in digital entertainment; discussing topics as varied as
technology issues, DRM, pricing, the user experience and
a host of others.
© Atomic Communications, LLC
