Tag: 24AM STUDIOS

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘The Nun’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Seema Raja’

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘The Nun’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Seema Raja’

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Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘The Nun’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Seema Raja’

Previously, in my article titled, ‘Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’’, I presented you the similarities between the marketing tactics of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for the 2017 American supernatural horror film, ‘IT’ and Tamil social thriller movie, ‘Velaikkaran’ respectively. As a follow-up, in this write-up, I share my thoughts about the Experiential Marketing Campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for their recent offerings, ‘The Nun’, an American gothic horror film and ‘Seema Raja’, a Tamil action comedy drama film, respectively.

Warner Bros. Pictures’s photo booth at ‘FANEXPO Canada 2018’ for ‘The Nun’:

Fan Expo Canada is a fan convention being held year after year in Toronto, Ontario. As part of the event for 2018 (August 30th 2018 – September 2nd 2018), ‘Warner Bros. Pictures Canada’ had put up The Nun-branded photo booth for the purpose of activation for the movie. Wherein, the fans stepped inside a mobile mirror room and clicked a selfie with the lookalike of the scary Valak. Taking a snap with the entity’s double in a room with an eerie backdrop created an illusion of posing with 100 of such creepy Valaks. When exiting the booth, people were provided with a complimentary photo, sharable in social media. Also, it was advertised that fans will get a chance to win prizes including passes for the advance screening of ‘The Nun’. The customized photos had the movie’s name and theatrical release date i.e. September 7.

Atop the booth was the call-to-action, ‘SHARE YOUR #LASTPRAYER’, which was prominent enough to encourage people to share their photos using the hashtag, ‘#LastPrayer’ in social networking sites. The phrase, ‘WITNESS THE DARKEST CHAPTER IN THE CONJURING UNIVERSE’ was imprinted over the exteriors of the booth along with the movie’s name, theatrical release date and the technologies in which the flick is going to be available in theatres like IMAX and Dolby Cinema.

To prepare audience for the feel, which the movie is going to deliver them, replicas of tombstones rigged with bells (Reminiscent of a nightmarish graveyard sequence from ‘The Nun’) were erected over a couple of false burials at the booth’s entryway. And, a couple of effigies of a faceless nun (Reminiscent of the character appearing in the movie) were placed at the top of the booth.

An announcement, about The Nun-branded photo booth, was put out by ‘Warner Bros. Pictures Canada’ and ‘FANEXPO Canada’ in social media.

Check the replies to the below tweet to have a look at the customised versions of the photos, captured at the activation!

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24AM STUDIOS’s karaoke booth at popular multiplexes for ‘Seema Raja’:

Karaoke Booth in Luxe
Couple of karaoke booths (One for adults and the mini version for kids) placed at ‘Jazz Cinemas Luxe‘ at ‘Phoenix Market City‘ in Chennai

‘24AM STUDIOS’, apart from deploying traditional marketing tactics, has been a production house, which has been interacting with the movie going audience using innovative ways for their films.

For their debut venture ‘Remo’, the studios had employed ‘Cupid Standees’ campaign, which served as a perfect example of how content can be personalized in such a way that it resonates with the target audience.

For ‘Velaikkaran’ (24AM STUDIOS’s second film), the makers had made the slum set, featured in the movie, open for a public visit.

“People do not pay attention to advertising; they pay attention only to things that interest them.”

I came across the above phrase in the book, ‘Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for making big profits from your small business’ written by the late American Business Writer Jay Conrad Levinson. The recent promotional strategy of ‘24AM STUDIOS’, for their third production venture, ‘Seema Raja’, Seema Raja-branded karaoke booth appears as a perfect illustration of the above quote.

Of late, a lot of people seem to actively express themselves in platforms like ‘musical.ly’ and ‘Dubsmash’. So, there seems to be no better time than the present to roll-out the offline customer engagement marketing tool, karaoke booth. Karaoke booth is where people can privately render their vocals for pre-recorded music and eventually combine both.

The booth unveiled for Seema Raja, emphasizes the movie by offering the pre-recorded musical tracks of five songs from the film as of now. Also, it contains the lyric videos and the trailer of the movie. People can also try out Dubsmash with the teaser of Seema Raja.

The best from among the performers in the karaoke booth will be picked and provided with an opportunity to meet D.Imman (Music Director of Seema Raja). It has also been advertised that the performances of the people will be uploaded in YouTube. In order to encourage an online conversation around the campaign, hashtags such as ‘SingAlongWithSeemaRaja’ and ‘#SeemaRajaKaraokeBooth’ have been created.

This participatory tool powered by ‘CanLah! Studio’, has been placed in popular multiplexes like ‘Palazzo’ at ‘The Forum Vijaya Mall’ and ‘Jazz Cinemas Luxe’ at ‘Phoenix Market city’ in Chennai, ‘Cinipriya Complex’ in Madurai and ‘FunCinema’ at ‘Fun Republic Mall’ in Coimbatore. This approach should have helped the movie to gain more exposure among the theatre-going audience.

A Special Midnight Screening for ‘The Nun’:

To make fans feel utterly terrified, ‘Warner Bros. UK’ offered them an opportunity to watch ‘The Nun’ at midnight on September 6th 2018, inside Brompton Cemetery (a London cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea). To get a pair of tickets, the fans had to visit www.seeitfirst.com and enter the code, BCM37X.

Click here and watch fans appearing panic-stricken by faceless nuns, jumping out at them at the cemetery, before the screening!

A Special Touring Talkies Screening for ‘Seema Raja’:

‘Touring Talkies’, an almost defunct concept, is the practice of screening films under a tent, usually covered with a thatched roof or a ceiling using asbestos sheets. ‘24AM STUDIOS’ tried reviving this thing of the past by arranging ‘Seema Raja’ shows at three locations of Tamil Nadu namely ‘S.E.V Matriculation School’ (Natham Road, Madurai), ‘St. John’s Vestry Anglo Indian School’ (Trichy) and ‘Cluster Media Academy’ (Peelamedu, Coimbatore) at 7:00 PM on September 16th 2017. The hashtag, ‘#SeemaRajaTouringTalkies’ was created to nurture an online dialogue around the campaign.

Apart from karaoke booths and touring talkies shows, ‘24AM STUDIOS’ came up with Seema Raja-branded mini trucks, carrying bioscopes equipped with head phones, which traveled across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. Wherein, people were able to watch the videos of Seema Raja. Customized hashtags, ‘#SeemaRajaBioscope’ and ‘#SeemaRajaBioscopeVandi’ were launched to integrate this street marketing drive with the online space.

Leveraging the marketing tool, ‘360° video’ to encourage the audience to go through an immersive experience:

To promote ‘The Nun’, ‘Warner Bros. Pictures UK’ had released a 360° video titled, ‘The Nun – 360 Experience – Official Warner Bros. UK’ in its YouTube channel. In the video, the fans get a chance to virtually traverse through the cloistered abbey, featured in the movie.

Click here to watch the 360° video!

Conclusion:

In addition to being interesting, the aforementioned experiential marketing campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’, for ‘The Nun’ and ‘Seema Raja’, offer some important takeaways such as the right place (or) platform where a campaign has to be deployed and the ideal partnership to be involved in, to plan and implement a striking marketing strategy. To top it all, the campaigns had boosted a significant pre-release buzz for the respective movies and have become memorable!

And, here ends my blog post about the Experiential Marketing Campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for ‘The Nun’ and ‘Seema Raja’ respectively. Now, let me know your opinion on my article in the comments section!

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’

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Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’

It’s been a while since I had written my last post in this blog. In fact, for a period of time, I wasn’t in touch with the changes that have been happening in the marketing sphere. A few days ago, when I had plunged again into one of my favorite parallel world (i.e. Marketing) to know the latest updates, I felt excited on knowing about a couple of movie marketing campaigns. One campaign being the ‘Neibolt House’ visit for public in Los Angeles, for the 2017 American supernatural horror flick, ‘IT’. Another being, the ‘Cooliekkara kuppam’ set visit for public in Chennai, for the 2017 Tamil social thriller movie, ‘Velaikkaran’. However, both the strategies could well be tagged to one topic i.e. Experiential Marketing.

Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘Neibolt House’ visit for ‘IT’:

‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ in association with the out-of-home agency, ‘Grandesign’ created the ‘Neibolt House’ (inspired by a haunted house that appears in the movie, ‘IT’) in the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Vine St. in Los Angeles. The house was opened for public daily, from August 14th, 2017 – September 10th, 2017 from 11am – 11pm. The public visit was scheduled well ahead of the movie’s theatrical release as the film premiered on September 5th, 2017. The haunted house visit seemed thoroughly immersive.

Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘Neibolt House’ visit for ‘IT’
‘Neibolt House’ located in the corner of Hollywood Blvd and Vine St. in Los Angeles

‘Slum Set’ visit for ‘Velaikkaran’:

Following their captivating Content Marketing campaign for ‘Remo’, ‘24AM STUDIOS’ have come up with the appealing ‘Cooliekkara kuppam’ set for ‘Velaikkaran’. The set was designed and erected by the movie’s art director T Muthuraj and team for the film. The set, located inside Prasad Labs at Vadapalani in Chennai, has been opened for public from December 30th, 2017 to January 20th, 2018 from 9am – 5pm. The public visit was scheduled after the theatrical release of ‘Velaikkaran’ as the movie released on December 22nd, 2017.

Slum Set’ visit for ‘Velaikkaran’
‘Cooliekkara kuppam’ set located inside Prasad Labs at Vadapalani in Chennai

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Campaigns offering opportunities for their target audience to experience their respective brands:

In both the campaigns, audiences were offered with opportunities to physically experience the demonstrations that were put up by the brands.

Branded hashtags, such as ‘#ThatsWhereITLives’ for ‘IT’ and ‘#VelaikkaranSetVisit’ for ‘Velaikkaran’, were created by the organizers and marketed in their respective social media posts prior to the visits and also were advertised in the sets.

Hashtag in tweet - IT Movie
‘#ThatsWhereITLives’ hashtag in the tweet from the official Twitter page of ‘IT Movie‘
Velaikkaran Set Visit hashtag
‘#VelaikkaranSetVisit’ hashtag incorporated to the image, posted in social media by ‘24AM STUDIOS’

Reminding attendees of the hashtag at the event had made it easier for them to share their experiences on social media.

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Reminding visitors of the hashtag, ‘#ThatsWhereITLives‘ at ‘Neibolt House‘ in Los Angeles
Velaikkaran Set Visit hashtag 2
Reminding attendees of the hashtag, ‘#VelaikkaranSetVisit‘ in the ‘VELAIKKARAN – SIGNATURE WALL‘ at ‘Cooliekkara Kuppam‘ set in Chennai

Via these hashtags, the organizers have engaged (such as Retweets and Likes in ‘Twitter’ and Shares in ‘Facebook’) well with their audience.

The slum set visit was made live in Facebook and Twitter in order to engage the people who couldn’t attend. As a follow-up to the ‘live’ activities, few of the attendees were allowed to talk about the sets. These were captured as videos and were shared in social media. As the brands connected well with the audience, prior to the set visit, in social media, there were deeper engagements at the event.

Click the link to know on what the audience has got to say about their ‘Neibolt House‘ set visit!

Even few from among the cast and crew of both the movies paid a visit to the respective sets. Photos and videos of the same were shared in social media.

Cast and crew visit - 'IT'
‘IT‘ Director Andrés Muschietti with the cast at ‘Neibolt House‘ in Los Angeles
Cast and crew visit - 'Velaikkaran'
‘Velaikkaran‘ star Sivakarthikeyan with a fan at ‘Cooliekkara Kuppam‘ set in Chennai

Click the link to view the visit of few from among the cast and crew of ‘Velaikkaran‘ to the set!

Providing online platforms and encouraging the audiences to go through an immersive experience:

In addition to offering an opportunity to experience the sets in a tangible, offline way, ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ have also provided online platforms to the audience to go through an immersive experience of their products via the marketing tools, VR (Virtual Reality) and 360° videos respectively. ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ has released a video titled, ‘IT: FLOAT – A Cinematic VR Experience’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ has released a video titled, ‘Velaikkaran Set Making 360° Video’ in their respective official YouTube channels. In the former video, one gets to experience the world of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Whereas, in the latter, the viewer can avail the opportunity to visit the ‘Cooliekkara Kuppam’ set virtually and at the same time, listen to art director T Muthuraj sharing his moments that had transpired during the time of set’s design and construction.

Click here to watch the video, ‘IT: FLOAT – A Cinematic VR Experience’ and here to watch the ‘Velaikkaran Set Making 360° Video’!

A cursory view at the experiential tactics of both the organizers exhibits the manner in which they have effectively leveraged both the online and offline spaces for the purpose of marketing. Apart from people obtaining awareness about the uniqueness of these brands and the box office prospects of the movies getting boosted, these campaigns have rendered memorable moments for the audience to cherish.

So, that’s it with my blog post about the Experiential Marketing Campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for ‘IT’ and ‘Velaikkaran’ respectively. Now, let me know your viewpoints about my article in the comments section!

Emoji Marketing: 5 Smart Examples from Famous Brands

Emoji Marketing: 5 Smart Examples from Famous Brands

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Emoji Marketing 5 Smart Examples from Famous Brands
Emoji Marketing: 5 Smart Examples from Famous Brands

Taking a look at the history of emojis, and its evolution over the years since its inception, makes me feel awe over the monumental growth of the digital language. I feel that the uncomplicated nature of the emojis has been the primary reason for them to attain the status on what they are today. As people have been using the emojis in their day-to-day digital communications, brands have been pushed to leverage the icons effectively in such a way that their efforts benefit their products. By having a look at the usage of standard emojis (Unlike the custom emojis of films like Wonder Woman, War for the Planet of the Apes or Transformers: The Last Knight) by various brands across the social media circle, I have picked 5.

Now, let us begin our count down.

5) IMDb

After the release of the ‘IT’ trailer, the fans of ‘IT’, and probably those of the horror movies, would be mentally inclined towards the ‘horror’ factor. To capitalize on this aspect and engage the audience, IMDb offered a chance, via a tweet/post from their official Twitter/Facebook account, to its audience to comment their favourite scary movie in emojis.

IMDb Twitter
IMDb’s tweet to engage its audience
IMDb Twitter replies
Audience’s replies to IMDb’s tweet
IMDb Facebook
IMDb’s post to engage its audience
IMDb Facebook comments
Audience’s comments to IMDb’s post

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4) Target

Via creative means, Target had wished for the World Emoji Day 2017 from their official social media accounts, by recalling one of its significant occasions. Utilizing standard emojis like ‘Hot beverage’, ‘Dress’, ‘Womans hat’, ‘Womans sandal’, ‘Chocolate bar’, ‘Strawberry’, ‘Handbag’, ‘Nail polish’, ‘Notebook with decorative cover’, ‘Smiling face with open mouth’ and ‘Chequered flag’, Target had made a representation which they titled as ‘Classic Target Run’.

Target Twitter
Target’s ‘Classic #TargetRun‘ tweet

 

Target Facebook
Target’s ‘Classic #TargetRun‘ post

3) 24AM STUDIOS

In addition to promoting its movies using conventional approaches, 24AM STUDIOS – the makers of Sivakarthikeyan’s 2016 Tamil romantic comedy, ‘Remo’ – has been engaging with its audience in the social media circle via innovative means. On the Seventeenth of the July, the production house had embraced the World Emoji Day by coming up with an engaging tweet that was intertwined with the aspects of Remo. In the tweet, the followers of the twitter account of 24AM STUDIOS, were provided with four standard emojis such as ‘Information desk person’, ‘Syringe’, ‘Dancer(medium light skin tone)’ and ‘Older man (light skin tone)’, which symbolically referred to four among the different makeovers of Sivakarthikeyan in ‘Remo’ and were offered a chance to comment their favourite emoji. This activity was done in Facebook as well.

24AM STUDIOS Twitter
24AM STUDIOS’s tweet to engage with its audience
24AM STUDIOS Twitter replies
Audience’s replies to 24AM STUDIOS’s tweet
24AM STUDIOS Facebook
24AM STUDIOS’s post to engage with its audience
24AM STUDIOS Facebook comments
Audience’s replies to 24AM STUDIOS’s post

2) Rotten Tomatoes

In the case of the Twitter account of ‘Rotten Tomatoes’, the standard ‘Tomato’ emoji is utilized after the hashtag, ‘#Tomatometer’ in most of the tweets that contain the movie’s Tomatometer score or rating.

Rotten Tomatoes Twitter
Rotten Tomatoes’s tweet with the Tomatometer rating for the movie, ‘Atomic Blonde‘

In the case of the Facebook page of ‘Rotten Tomatoes’, the standard ‘Tomato’ emoji is utilized at end of most of the posts that inform the movie’s ‘Certified Fresh’ status.

Rotten Tomatoes Facebook
Rotten Tomatoes’s post announcing the ‘Certified Fresh‘ status for the movie, ‘Dunkirk‘

1) IT

In the official teaser and trailer of the film, the clip of the movie released in the MTV Awards, the Fan Art Contest conducted by the makers and the other promotional activities of ‘IT’, the red balloon has gained a prominence. This prominence has extended to the social media accounts of ‘IT’ as well, where the name of the movie’s Twitter account possesses the ‘Balloon’ emoji that already exists in Twitter. Occasionally, the tweets/posts of the movie’s Twitter/Facebook account possess the ‘Balloon’ emoji. It appears as if the ‘Balloon’ emoji is tailor-made for the social media accounts of ‘IT’.

IT Movie Twitter Profile Name
Standard ‘Balloon‘ emoji in the Twitter profile name of the movie, ‘IT’
IT Movie Tweet
Tweet from ‘IT Movie‘ containing the Standard ‘Balloon‘ emoji
IT Movie Tweet from Entertainment Weekly
Tweet from ‘Entertainment Weekly‘ containing the Standard ‘Balloon‘ emoji
IT Movie Facebook Post
Post from ‘IT Movie‘ containing the Standard ‘Balloon‘ emoji

What are your favourite emoji marketing picks? Share with me in the comments section!