Psycho Marketing Campaign

• With the release of the thriller "Psycho," Hitchcock actually changed the way people went to movies.


• To build word of mouth and increase publicity, he worked with theatres to have them stop selling tickets after the film had started. People were actually turned away at the box office if they showed up late.


• His other campaign elements include asking people not to reveal the shocking surprises of the film to others, to help in creating a huge thrill for the film that took it to phenomenal box office success.


• Hitchcock believed the strongest selling point of his film was the ending. So he went to enormous lengths to keep it a secret. He bought every copy of the Psycho novel he could find and made his cast and crew take oaths of silence.


• The casting directors held auditions for the part of Norman’s mother, to better conceal the fact that no such role existed.


• In the trailer, he comically begs viewers not to reveal the ending.


• Newspaper ads warned audiences that “no one will be admitted into the theatre after the start of each performance of Psycho”.