Here’s an interesting tag along site created by a company who Chalkhill use as a location to film. Road Runner Dispatch may be a courier service, but behind the scenes it also acts as Chalkhills location for a police station, youth centre and recruitment office. Truly a company supporting the community based project.
An interesting but brief blog entry by Sven Iatham gives one possible reason why people may watch Chalkhill Lives. Coming from the local area where it is filmed, he states that his interest comes from knowing the area and then seeing it online. He also believes it to be of better production values then he initially thought. In relation to Road Runner Dispatch, maybe the employees there too watch the show in knowledge of what the venue really is.
Even Portsmouth local newspaper, The News, have been getting in on the act. On February the 3rd in their weekend supplement they included a front cover and two page spread about the up and coming soap opera, some of which can be seen on the Internet. Giving the essential lowdown of the soap, it’s characters, purpose and some information about its creator, it’s coverage like this which helps to increase the awareness and maintain an audience for the show.
So whether through locations, blogs or the media itself, Chalkhill is getting promoted by various bodies and people with varying viewpoints. Each example here is quite short and sweet but offers a variety of links on the Internet to research. Therefore it would seem essential to ensure that you not only give credit to those involved but also make sure you have a marketing stratgey which involves them, the audience and the media to create a synergistic network who together promote the online soap.
