Movie Marketing: 5 Tips To Help Your Campaign Shine
Meryl is honoured for the 20th time, golden statues are on everyone’s minds, and all the best films are coming out.
All that can only mean one thing: it’s officially awards season. Nominees were announced for the 89th Oscar award yesterday, which will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on the 26th of February.
As the industry looks to the glitz and glam of the upcoming awards, at Unruly we’re curious what movie studios can do to promote their award-worthy films. All too often the most popular films with the Academy aren’t driving viewers to the box office.
Taking a cue from Unruly’s Science Of Sharing: Movie Promos playbook, here are some tips to turning critical success to online engagement.
1. Launch Videos Around Opening Weekend – 62% of movie promos shares occur within 3 days of launch, yet the majority of movie promos launch months prior to the film itself. This is far too early to create buzz that converts to ticket sales. Movie execs should consider launching their strongest content the Wednesday prior to a Friday premium for maximum engagement.
2. Make The Most Of Mobile – 41% of moviegoers us their phones to watch trailers, 40% research showtimes and 36% read reviews. Be sure to launch your movie promos on mobile platforms to capture audiences who are researching movies. Make sure your trailer is everywhere interested moviegoers are.
3. Make An Emotional Connection – The best way to ensure your video is shared online is to create an elicit emotional response in viewers. Movie promos most frequently feature intense responses of happiness, amazement and exhilaration. In addition, movie promos are often shared because they elicit intense cognitive responses such as surprise, knowledge and shock. Consider a diverse combination of emotional responses when creating and launching your promos.
4. Experiment With Non-Traditional Trailers – Our data shows that the most shared videos aren’t traditional trailers, but instead unique pieces of content that ignites social conversation. One of the best examples is the prankvert for “Devil Baby Attack” which created buzz and conversation to promote “Devil’s Due.”
5. Launch Your Ads Programmatically – One of the most efficient ways to launch your movie promos is to launch online programmatically. Working with your partners to identify the subset of websites you should be launching on. Creating a customised movie Private Marketplace is one way to ensure your trailers are appearing where moviegoers are already searching for movie-related information.
