Take a hint from Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith's new movie, Clerks II, will undoubtedly find a cult following like his past movies.  Yet this time around he's trying something new. He's taking advantage of cultural change to promote his movie us a street-team approach. What's in it for his "street-team"?  An appearance in Smith's next movie.

Here's how it works: fans are encouraged to post Clerks II banners with hot-links on virtually every internet forum available.  The fan that gets the most banner click-throughs will get an on-camera appearance in Smith's next film.

When you consider that "Clerks" was introduced in 1994, when most of today's teens and young adults (a good portion of his potential audience), we're either still in diapers or in pre-school, Smith has his work cut out for him to launch a sequel over ten years later.  How smart he is to take advantage of today's culture.

Think about it. He's encouraging today's youth to take a chance on getting in Smith's next movie by engaging in word-of-mouth marketing using their MySpace, Xanga, LiveJournal or other online blogs and message groups is an excellent extension of building a personal brand. 

I'll be that Smith not only achieves his goal, he'll see increased sales for Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy and many other earlier films by virtue of introducing a new generation to Clerks II using the tools of our time.

Are you doing the same? Are you using all of the available tools of our time to build or extend your personal brand?

Technorati Tags: Branding