Saturday, October 15, 2005

Regency Entertainment Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star in "Stay." The film's Web site is providing visitors the option of participating in a test related to the movie.

Film's Web site conducts experiment with visitors

It collects users' reactions to images as part of a brief psychological examination.

By Chris Marlowe / Hollywood Reporter

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A picture is worth a thousand words, but the Web site for the film "Stay" lets people choose only one as part of a promotional drive based on an online psychological experiment.

At www.staythemovie.com, visitors are asked to type in the first word that comes to mind when they see each of 10 images from the movie. Then the site displays what everyone else typed for that image, scattered around in oddly hypnotic eddies with similar responses appearing in larger letters than less common reactions.

"The really cool aspect of it is that it's part psychological test and part art project," says Jeffrey Godsick, 20th Century Fox executive vice president of marketing. "This relates to the psychological aspect of the movie, the thriller aspect of the movie and also a current of the movie that you're not always sure what's going on. It's organically tied to the nature of the movie."

Those who participate also will find themselves haunted by the experience in a literal way. When they encounter an ad for "Stay" elsewhere on the Internet, the spot will include words they associated with the 10 images.

"Your own characteristics affect which ads are served," Godsick says. "It's provocative and intriguing, and that will cause people to think about the movie."

To succeed, the marketing had to reflect the unusual movie's visual appeal and stylish ambiance while remaining subtle, he says. The element of discovery also encourages word-of-mouth, he adds.

Fox worked with Deep Focus on the project, and Godsick says it was the first time Fox has used anything like it. The graphic representation of associations is based on a concept called search engine clustering.

"Stay" opens nationwide Friday. It stars Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts and Ryan Gosling and is directed by Marc Forster.