HD Net Films (Magnolia Pictures) – The War Within
Case Study: Movie Premiere – Box Office Ticket Sales
Client: HD Net Films (Magnolia Pictures) – The War Within
Media Used: Internet, OOH
Objective:
The goal was to create and execute a national media campaign to generate awareness, interest and box office sales for The War Within movie premiere.
The Challenge:
The promotion must engage potential moviegoers in an exciting and meaningful way. Additionally, it must reach them at the optimal time and place to influence and elicit action. The film premiered in select cities and dates, and thus the messaging had to be geographically focused and timely.
The Solution:
Knowing that moviegoers seek information both online and offline, we used both interactive and out-of-home advertising. With each medium we were able to geo-target and time-target the messaging to keep it relevant and timely. Online, we selected websites that indexed high against people interested in movies, as well as upcoming movie premieres. Publisher sites featuring movie reviews and critics’ opinions were also used. From a creative standpoint we utilized a rich media platform, including video and flash units to showcase The War Within movie trailer and other pertinent information. Users could interact with the trailer by controlling how much of the video they watched, while having the ability to access local theater information and select scenes from the film. They could also email movie posters, including video, easily to their friends creating a viral effect. Simultaneous to the online campaign, we used Global Position System (GPS) enabled taxi-cabs featuring digital ad boards. These taxi-cabs were zip-code targeted to show an LCD flash-video ad for the film premiere only to consumers within a defined radius of theaters carrying the film. In this way, a pedestrian, taxi fare, or motorist, could be alerted to the premiere and be within close proximity to a theater showing it.
The Results:
The campaign strategy was well received by consumers. Online, the advertising garnered a high click-thru and interaction rate, wherein the average user spent approximately 20 seconds watching the video trailer. Over 12% of all users clicked through to see additional information regarding movie times and theater information within their local areas. Box office sales reached its expected levels within the cities it premiered and was carried-over in many theaters nationally.