Pathe Films is rolling out an integrated marketing campaign ahead of the release of its forthcoming teen horror movie Tormented.

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Client: Pathe

Project: Be Kind Rewind

Channel: Social Media

Challenge

To drive cinema admissions for Jack Black Comedy ‘Be Kind Wind’ with a relatively limited budget compared to the heavyweight releases for Rambo and Jumper.

Strategy

The comedy Be Kind Rewind tells the story of a video worker who is forced to re-create and re-film all the store’s videos after they are wiped out in a freak accident. Customers soon become more fascinated in the home-made films than the originals and before long a movement gathers amongst locals to re-create films themselves - a process the film’s star Jack Black calls “sweding”.

Our strategy was to extend the concept of Sweding in to the real world via user-generated content sites, in doing so, helping to convey the unlikely concept of the film and creating a platform to build viral interest amongst online film enthusiasts

Solution

This was a unique campaign for Pathe as the strategy was digital focused. We created a dedicated YouTube channel that enabled film fans to upload their own “sweded” videos to win relevant prizes like a home cinema system. The channel was promoted throughout YouTube, targeting users who are interested in comedy and entertainment as well as the upload confirmation pages. We also negotiated to have the winning movie as a “featured movie” on the home page for a day and seeded clips and links across multiple viral and video sharing sites to drive traffic. To ensure entry quality was high, we proactively sent out a bespoke email to 25,000 film students encouraging them to flex their own film-making skills to produce the best films on the YouTube channel.

Performance

£4m at the box office! The YouTube site delivered over 23m impression with 93, 891 Video views on the YouTube channel. At the last count the number of videos was near 2,000 and growing.

Campaign Creative

(click thumbnail for creative example)

Client: Pathe

Project: Adulthood

Channel: Social Media

Challenge

With an aggressive £1m box office target, we had to identify and attract a fresh 16-24 year old audience in addition to the expected traffic from people who had seen Kidulthood, the film’s 2007 prequel.

Strategy

Music has a huge influence on the target urban 16-24 year old audience. Our strategy was to leverage this passion for music and tap in to the viral nature of social media to build credibility for the film, and generate early hype among a new 16-24 audience.

The film had to feel niche, real and about them so the challenge was to talk to them on their level by infiltrating their worlds to give the film credibility.

Solution

Two months before release, we ran a MySpace music competition where people could upload their own tracks with the chance to be featured on the film’s soundtrack. This was supported by ads on specialist music titles and sites and campus targeting to university students.

We then promoted Adulthood in social media on Facebook using a Group Page, a Fan Page and Profile Page. By covering off all three areas we maximised the coverage on the site, turning Facebook in to the perfect environment to learn about the film and discuss its attributes with their communities and friends. We targeted people based on their film and music tastes using text and video ads in their news feeds. Exclusive content was also available on the Facebook pages offering fans and members the ability to view unseen footage and enter competitions only available to them, including an exclusive video commissioned by Noel Clarke inside an Adulthood liveried phone box.

Downloads were made available such as wallpapers and screensavers, and we set up the ability to text ‘Hood’ to 66667 to get the trailer sent direct to their mobile.

Performance

We smashed targets in the first weekend gaining £1,203,319 in the box office! Currently the film has grossed nearly £3.5million.

The Adulthood Fan page generated 23,426 Fans (15,000 in the week leading up to release) and
5,500 trailer downloads via the mobile activity.

In terms of Return On Investment the campaign achieved an £8 return on every £1 invested online.

Campaign Creative

(click thumbnail for creative example)