The marketing campaign for The Blair Witch Project was brilliant. At the time it was lightning in a bottle because it was the first movie to start a viral trend online. People didn’t really know the potential of internet marketing before this movie got released.
The marketing team was able to create a myth and legend around this movie and over half the people going to watch the movie thought it was real! You really can’t pull something like this anymore.
Watch this interesting video essay from The Take for you to watch that explores how the movie predicted YouTube culture and popularity.