Marketing 'The Da Vinci Code'

One of the main reasons for the success of the book, apart from its controversial content, was the unique word-of-mouth marketing approach that the publisher adopted. A survey undertaken in March 2005 to mark the World Book Day in Great Britain, found that word-of-mouth publicity was much more important in the promotion of books than advertising, cover design, synopsis at the back cover, etc. The survey also found that 'The Da Vinci Code' had topped the list of books that sold due to word-of-mouth and personal recommendations (Refer to Table II for list of word-of-mouth best-sellers found in the survey).

In April 2006, Google announced that it had tied up with Sony Pictures for promoting the 'The Da Vinci Code' motion picture through a series of puzzles and questions to be displayed on the personalized home pages of Google's users. This was the first time that Google was involving itself in a promotional effort related to a motion picture. Marketing experts expected both Google and Sony Pictures to benefit from this 'viral marketing' effort. However, some analysts felt that Google stood to benefit even more as players would need to make the Google page their personal home page and have a Gmail account.