BUDGETS 333The Da Vinci Code
Even before the movie based on Dan Brown’s book was released in 2006, it succeeded in generating a lot of free
publicity. The book takes the form of a mystery, and suggests that the classical Catholic interpretation of the Bible has
been wrong for centuries. Religion-based films always stir up emotions, and Sony Pictures built a whole buzz marketing
project to generate interest and ‘rumour around the launch’. Sony set up a website ( http://www.davincidialogue.com ) on
which it invited experts in Roman Catholicism to react to the criticisms voiced by the Catholic Church. In the movie
trailers, some letters were brighter than others. If you collected them, you could form the words ‘seek the codes’,
referring to a website http://www.seekthecodes.com. The website was a blog of a certain Lisa S. who claimed to have found
many more hidden messages in the communication about the movie, and urged the visitor to participate in the game
‘ The Da Vinci Code Quest’. All of this was set up by Sony. Of course, Sony did not have to create a hype, it just had
to support an existing one. Before the movie was released, almost 50 million people had already read the book.^23VantagePoint (Deus)
The new CD of the popular Belgian rock band Deus, ‘Vantage Point’, was released mid-April 2008. During the
period before this release, a lot of publicity was generated. One week before the release, the CD could be heard in
streaming on the Heineken website. This was not promoted but, as was to be expected, a music journalist picked it
up and wrote about it. The publisher of the CD reacted angrily and demanded the site be closed. Many newspapers
and radio stations reported this incident. Journalists were also forbidden by court order to publish interviews with
Tom Barman, frontman of Deus, at a penalty of €25 000. Obviously, a lot of angry articles were written about
this controversy, and it was a headline in the TV news. The newspaper Le Soir broke the embargo, published the
interview and added three pages of comments. By the day of the release, there was probably no single Belgian who
did not know the new CD was out.^24BUSINESS INSIGHT
Organising buzz to launch a film and a CDBudgets
PR should be operating within the same discipline that applies to other business functions.
Th is implies that a budget has to be fi xed, and that measurable objectives should be defi ned.
Diff erent budgeting techniques can be applied ( Table 10.6 ).^25
Budgets may be based on historical comparison , i.e. on what has been spent in previous
periods, possibly adjusted as a function of changed circumstances. New product launches may
result in increased budgets; less competition may imply lower budgets. Overall, this method
seldom leads to sound budgeting. Maybe the historical starting fi gure was inappropriate, or
the company is doing so well that the PR budget can easily be reduced. Most importantly,
there is a lack of strategic focus: by not taking into account the changing environment, great PR
opportunities or dangerous threats calling for PR action may be overlooked. In the resources
costing method, management decides what resources are needed (an extra press offi cer, or an
event co-ordinator) and calculates the costs implied. Th is method suff ers from similar weak-
nesses to the previous one, although PR needs are to a certain extent taken into account.
In action costing , a PR programme or activity is planned, and the cost to carry it out is
calculated. Th is method has the virtue of starting from the task to be accomplished, but lacks
long-term perspective. Th e competitive tendering method is very similar to the previous one.M10_PELS3221_05_SE_C10.indd 333M10_PELS3221_05_SE_C10.indd 333 6/5/13 3:26 PM6/5/13 3:26 PM