Since I'm a movie buff and an Internet marketing nerd, I often notice Internet marketing and search mentions in various movies, and I always pay attention to the movie URL shown in trailers (my two recent favorites: the URL for Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming Bruno film was www.meinspace.com/bruno, but it looks like now it's redirecting to MySpace.com, and the URL for I Love You, Beth Cooper is www.iloveyoubethcoopermovie.com, making me wonder why they had to append "movie" to such a specific URL). Recently I came across two examples where the movie industry referenced or directly utilized Internet marketing/social media marketing, and it got me wondering if Internet marketing is finally starting to become more mainstream (meaning fewer people will look at you with blank faces as you try to describe what you do for a living).

The first example comes from Steven Soderbergh's new movie, The Girlfriend Experience. Available in theaters and via Comcast On Demand, the movie is about a high-end escort in NYC and her relationship with her boyfriend and her clients and their stresses about the current economic crisis and financial instability (the movie takes place right before the 2008 Presidential elections). In one scene the main character is having a conversation with a web developer/designer about her website, and one of her questions is "How do I get my site to appear high up in search engines?" His answer is so-so--he mentions that she has to submit her site to a lot of directories and other sites, which is a "well, yes and no" response--but he does sum up the conversation by telling her that she'll need a lot of links, which was a pleasant surprise (I'm used to hearing a lot of really appalling search misconceptions).

I was pretty geeked to see that Steven Soderbergh kinda-sort of addressed SEO in one of his movies. Internet marketing isn't really something you see in commercials or movies--I mean, there's really nobody buying commercial space to advertise their marketing services, and you never watch a movie about the cute hipster Internet marketer who's trying to woo the unattainable hot girl, only to find out that his nerdy best friend is actually the girl he's in love with. Could the mention of SEO, albeit brief and a wee bit inaccurate (well, maybe not "inaccurate" so much as "requires more explanation"), be a step in the direction of mainstream notoriety?

My second example comes from the Cannes Film Festival. A movie is making the rounds at Cannes this year and attracting a ton of buzz. Not only is it a zombie movie (which is awesome in its own right), but it was made for a mind blowing $70. The movie, called Colin, is a zombie film that takes place from the zombie's perspective, and it cost less to make than most DVD box sets. The filmmaker was able to put it together by utilizing Facebook and MySpace to round up movie extras, helpers and all sorts of people who wanted to be involved in the making of a zombie flick. This movie is a ridiculous example of how you can use social media marketing and networking to benefit your brand. Not only was he able to get volunteers for his movie and make his dream a reality, he generated buzz by building brand evangelists and by getting fans involved and having them spread the word.

If people nowadays are able to make a movie and promote it primarily through social networking and social media marketing, shouldn't that reinforce the benefits to your clients or to your own team of marketers? You could argue that if it's becoming more mainstream and commonplace to do SMM since it's "all the rage" right now that it's going to get too crowded, but I just think that means you have to ensure that your marketing efforts are that much more clever and better than everyone else. It's certainly what this guy did--tons of people promote their bands and movies and comedy acts and whatnot via MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but not everyone succeeds. It's a mixture of having the right product, clever and persistent marketing, and properly utilizing your social networking channels that equates to a great viral campaign.

So what do you guys think? Can you recall any examples from movies, music or television that lend credence to the notion that Internet marketing is becoming more "mainstream," or do we nerdy marketers still have to huddle in a corner to have our geek conversations while the masses go about their lives dishing about Jon and Kate's imploding marriage and what Tom Hanks' hair looks like in his new Robert Langdon movie?