This past season, fans of Entourage, the HBO comedy about a young rising star in Hollywood and his three best friends, were provided with some fictionalized but real-world insights into the power that internet journalists and bloggers can wield in making or breaking the success of big-money ventures. Students of Internet strategy would have also picked up on the lessons to be learned from managing a nuanced relationship with an online community.

 

In one episode, the lead character, Vincent Chase, attends the San Diego ComicCon to promote his upcoming movie, Aquaman (“It’s like Spider-Man…but underwater!” says Vincent’s overbearing agent).  When Vincent blows a promotional interview and antagonizes an influential internet geek and blogger (loosely based on Harry Knowles, the founder of Ain’t It Cool News.com) Vincent's manager has to find a way to pacify the blogger so he won't turn his fan base against the Aquaman project and sink it before it's even started shooting. The episode tore a page from the reality of “geek media” sites and the impact that their online editorial opinions can have.

 

When the first drafts of a Catwoman movie script began circulating around the Web in 2001, readers of Ain’t It Cool News (AICN) were able to follow the development of a movie that had piqued interest since the release of Batman Returns in 1992.  But news leaked and rumours spread about the low quality of the scripts, the limited budget, and the constantly shifting cast and crew attached to the movie. Readers who frequented the AICN site began the low (online) rumble of discontent. 

 

Fans barely had time to digest the casting of Halle Berry in the lead role before a torrent of online vitriol was spewed at the revelation of a costume design that was, even by comic book movie standards, considered ridiculous. (Taking a swipe at this in Entourage, Vincent almost walks away from Aquaman when he sees a prototype of the horrendous costume, prompting demands for “costume approval” rights.) It also didn’t help that staff writers at AICN had less-than-kind words to say about the Catwoman project from Day One.

 

Ultimately we all know how much of a bomb Catwoman became (worldwide gross of $74 million versus a production budget—not including marketing—of $100 million). That really should have come as no surprise, given a full three years of negative commentary and speculation.  The studio and producers responsible for the mess either ignored or dismissed the vocal opinions of a rabid online fan base—which, ironically, constituted a majority of the very audience the project was targeting in the first place.

 

The Web is an amazing vehicle for reaching a mass audience with timely information, creating a buzz, and fostering an all-important user community that can become the biggest supporters of your product or service.  But the flip side is that if you upset that audience, or fail to address their desires concerns and needs, that fan or user base that you have spent so much time courting can turn on you and have a real-world negative effect on your bottom line.