‘Smile 2’ hit theaters on October 18, 2024, and has already earned $87 million worldwide, positioning it to rank among the top 30 highest-grossing movies of the year at the domestic box office. To promote the film, the distributor, Paramount Pictures, has devised an innovative marketing strategy for Halloween on October 31, 2024. They are offering viewers the chance to watch the first seven minutes of the movie for free, but there is one condition: you must keep smiling!
Paramount has unveiled an exciting new website, giving you the chance to watch an exclusive 7-minute clip!
Click here to WATCH THE FIRST 7 MINUTES… ONLY IF YOU SMILE!
I am putting down here my experience navigating the site to ensure insights for future use.
To begin, verify your age because the movie is rated R. If your entered age shows that you are ineligible to watch it, you will see a warning and will not be allowed to proceed. However, anyone can gain access by entering a date of birth that qualifies them to watch the film.
Upon successfully advance the age verification page, you will see the following screen…
When you click on ‘TAP TO SMILE’ and then activate your webcam, you will see the following…
When you start smiling, the system recognizes it. The red outline displayed over the tiled camera view turns green. When you stop smiling, the green outline turns red. And you will see the changes below…
The design of the web page is minimalistic. In addition to the movie’s title and Paramount’s logo, you will find a section to view the content and related text. There’s also a ‘Get Tickets’ call-to-action located in the top right corner of the page. When you click on it, you’ll land on the following page…
The message above indicates that the page is only for users in the US and Canada.
Film producers sometimes provide an opportunity to watch the first few minutes of a movie for free as a marketing strategy. Paramount has employed this approach, but in a unique and innovative way. They have cleverly highlighted the most essential element of the film: the ‘Smile.’
Look Back: The first ever “imaginary” trailer to promote ‘Imaginary’
I checked out ‘Imaginary‘ on Prime Video this weekend! I enjoyed the movie; it has vibes from iconic horror flicks like ‘Insidious‘ and ‘It‘ film franchises. After watching it, I went down the internet rabbit hole to learn more about it—like box-office numbers, what the cast and crew are up to, and all the marketing efforts, as I usually do. I found a few cool promo stuff, but one initiative caught my eye. So, here’s my third article on the ‘Look Back‘ series.
About the movie, ‘Imaginary’…
The movie’s main character, Jessica, moves into her childhood home with her husband and his two daughters. The younger daughter, Alice, ‘befriends’ a teddy bear and begins having conversations with it. Over time, the ‘bond’ between Alice and the teddy bear becomes stronger. This leads to a series of events reminiscent of the horror found in film franchises like ‘Insidious‘ and ‘It‘.
About the marketing idea…
Jeff Wadlow, the director, and Jason Blum, the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, co-produced the movie ‘Imaginary‘. Blumhouse Productions also co-produced by ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s‘ (FNAF’s) was released for streaming on Peacock and theatrically in the United States on October 27, 2023. Blumhouse initiated promotional efforts for ‘Imaginary‘ as follows, which Lionsgate views as a chance to reward theatricality and moviegoers, and to surprise and delight them:
As the theater lights dim for #FiveNightsAtFreddys, close your eyes...and imagine.
I wasn’t personally present to experience the first-of-its-kind trailer, so here’s a brief description of the experience from ‘Collider’:
The Imaginary teaser is unique in that it plays with your senses and natural fear of the unknown. At the beginning, an eerie little girl’s voice instructs you to close your eyes. If you’re too chicken (like me) or rebellious (good for you) to actually do as instructed, well, they’ll do it for you, as the screen then goes black and more creepy noises begin to play. The child starts counting, an ominous music-box song starts playing, and there’s the pound of footsteps and the creak of a door in there, too. The reliance on audio is interesting and a risk that pays off — who isn’t a little afraid of the dark?
Around halfway through, you’ll be instructed to open your eyes. The effects make it so it looks and feels like you’re blinking, with the screen showing quick, horrifying clips from the film of terrified people and sinister-looking creatures.
Recognition…
Variety describes it as a marketing strategy that was highly effective in generating interest in the movie. According to reports, during the opening weekend of FNAF’s, the term ‘Imaginary movie’ saw a significant spike in Google searches, reaching “maximum search interest” according to the search engine’s trend data.
Movie promotions excite me, but what excites me, even more, is the brilliant incorporation of the unique aspects of movies into their respective promotional strategies rather than just deploying generic or conventional advertising. For instance, in my previous blog post on the promotion of the Tamil movie, ‘Maaveeran‘, I mentioned how the installation of a transparent banner, featuring the movie’s poster, on the facade of a cinema hall, made the people passing through the set-up recreate the iconic ‘overhead stare’ of Sivakarthikeyan in the film. Unless ‘Maaveeran‘ has a sequel/prequel/spin-off, this activation is certain to not be repeated for any other movie as it is closely associated with the film’s theme. In this regard, I recently came across some exciting stuff from the makers of the movie, ‘The Nun 2‘. I feel psyched about a couple of those strategies. So, lemme share them in this blog post!
“Creepy” nuns, all over the place:
As a part of the movie’s marketing campaign by ‘Warner Bros. Pictures‘, around twenty “creepy” nuns (humans dressed up as the evil entity, ‘Valak’ that features in the movies, ‘The Conjuring 2’, ‘The Nun’ and ‘The Nun 2’) have been set out in public to carry out a candlelight stroll.
The army of nuns flooded across some significant landmarks of different cities in the United States of America, like Brooklyn, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Atlanta and Washington, D.C, in Canada, like Montreal and Toronto, in England, like London and in India, like Mumbai.
Apart from swarming landmarks across different cities of various countries, the nuns made their appearance at the annual horror events, like ‘HorrorHound Weekend‘ and ‘Popcorn Frights‘ and at the movie’s exclusive screenings, like the annual speculative fiction fan convention, ‘Fan Expo Canada‘.
Below are the posts from the official X accounts of ‘The Nun‘ movie, ‘Warner Bros. UK‘ and ‘Warner Bros. India‘ on the stunt…
The Nuns are spreading across the country, and everyone else is running out of time. The Nun II – Only in Theaters September 8. Get Tickets Now – Link in Bio. #ISawANun#TheNun2pic.twitter.com/oQ0876wWBa
Throwback to a similar ‘”Creepy” nuns, all over the place’ stunt for ‘The Nun’:
Upon noticing these “creepy” nuns on the move, the excellent marketing campaign of the 2022 science fiction horror film, ‘M3gan‘ might occur to you, but I’d like to convey here that ‘The Nun‘ had similar promotions way back in 2018.
Here’s a look back at the movie’s campaign.
In Sydney, ‘Roadshow Films‘ and ‘OMD‘, in partnership with ‘Habitat‘, orchestrated a campaign, wherein unsuspecting morning commuters were in for a fright from a bevy of demonic nuns. Likewise, ‘Warner Bros. Canada‘ studio, in collaboration with the agency, ‘Rooftop‘, set out three teams of six nuns each to hit the streets, chanting in Latin and distributing double-sided prayer cards encouraging fans to share on social media using “I Hate #NUNDays” (NUNDay, a wordplay on Mondays). The activations in Canada were created to mark the studio’s partnership with ‘FanExpo‘, which has been considered a part of the Canadian strategy for the movie. Though these stunts appear to be relatively small-scale compared to that of ‘The Nun 2‘, they are equally creative.
Terror appears when you least expect it – A “creepy” newsstand:
Toward the end of ‘The Nun 2‘ trailer, you’d see the protagonist, ‘Sister Irene‘ gazing at a Valak-like artwork on a book at a newsstand. Upon hearing rapid footsteps, she gasps and then turns back only to see nothing. Again, as she turns slowly toward the newsstand, the Valak appears right in front of her from nowhere and has her in a chokehold.
The makers of ‘The Nun 2‘ kind of recreated the above scene.
A ‘The Nun 2‘ branded newsstand was placed in Venice Beach, California. Unsuspecting beachgoers felt shocked as a Valak popped out of the newsstand while they got closer to the prop and started having a look at the magazines. It’s just like how it makes an appearance in the scene from nowhere. As a result, it scares the shit out of them.
Below is the post from the official X account of ‘The Nun‘ movie on the stunt…
Terror appears when you least expect it – but you can expect to find our newsstand on [the corner of] Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles this weekend! The Nun II – Only in Theaters September 8. Get Tickets Now – Link in Bio. #ISawANun#TheNun2pic.twitter.com/yqM9F4gVKF
So, how are these promotions gonna help the movie’s opening weekend prospects at the box office?
Upon encountering unusual sights of nuns in public, passersby would be nudged to stop by. Capture photographs of, or probably take selfies with the nuns. In the ‘The Nun 2‘ trailer, you’ll notice the girl named ‘Sophie‘ say ‘I saw a nun‘. If you notice the copies in almost all the X posts above, you’ll see the hashtag, ‘#ISawANun‘. So, any passersby noticing the nuns could later excitedly say, “I saw a nun” to their families and friends. Also, if they share their clicks, with nuns, on social media, they could probably include the hashtag, ‘#ISawANun‘. Thereby, the film’s producers make the audience recreate a moment of the movie. This would pave the way for user-generated content, helping organically to get the word out about the movie. And thereby, evoking interest in the film.
With respect to promoting movies in the annual horror events aforesaid, there’s a key takeaway point. FIND WHO & WHERE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MOVIE IS AND THEN INVENTIVELY PROMOTEIT THERE.
So, in the aforementioned way, the promotions might help the movie’s opening weekend prospects at the box office.
Hope you liked the promotions for the movie, ‘The Nun 2‘ and my take on the same. Lemme know your feedback on this blog post’s comments section.
P.S. ‘The Nun 2‘, which is a sequel to ‘The Nun‘ (2018) and the ninth instalment in ‘The Conjuring Universe‘ franchise, is scheduled for a theatrical release on September 7, 2023. Do watch in Cinemas!
Look Back: A “Spooky” Twitter Bot to Promote ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’
When I feel satisfied completing a movie or web series on OTT, I google to know its critical reception, box-office performance, and the whereabouts of its actors. Above all, I spend relatively more time looking up the marketing endeavor put behind the movie. A lot of those marketing strategies would be as interesting as the associated movie or web series. For quite some time, I’ve been wishing to blog about such initiatives in an organized manner (althoughI’ve blogged considerably and randomly on movie marketing). It is not just that I love to put them down, but also because they deserve to be raved about for the creativity invested to conceive, design, and execute them. So, here I am to fulfill my wish with the ‘Look Back’ series, wherein I’ll retell the interesting aspects I gather on the marketing of the movie or web series I watch.
Kicking off the series…
Recently, I watched the 2016 American supernatural horror film, ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil‘ on Netflix. I loved the movie. So, I dug up to know its marketing initiatives. As a result, I got to know a handful of promotional events done for the movie, but the one that interested me the most is the campaign titled, ‘Ouija Knows All Twitter Bot‘. Therefore, I begin the series with this article on the initiative.
About the movie, ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil‘…
A widow (Elizabeth Reaser as Alice Zander), with her daughters, carry out a phony séance business at her home. Upon bringing the Ouija board to the business, they make contact with an evil spirit existing there. Consequently, the entity possesses Alice’s 9-year-old daughter (Lulu Wilson as Doris Zander). The movie then focuses on the event’s after-effects.
About the campaign, ‘Ouija Knows All Twitter Bot‘…
The movie’s distributor, ‘Universal Pictures’ and the Digital Marketing agency, ‘Addison Interactive’ collaborated on the campaign, which invited fans to tweet random questions to the Twitter handle, ‘@OuijaKnowsAll’. The questions posted were like, “What is my name?” and “are ghosts real?“. The agency-curated customized bot facilitated the Twitter handle to reply with a GIF image, which showed a planchette sequentially moving over the letters on the Ouija board per their order in the answers. The alphabet under focus on each movement of the planchette displayed beneath the board. Within the confines of the GIF image, the alphabet got added in an incremental manner post each movement and ended with accurate answers to the questions.
Reply to a few other questions had Doris Zander replacing the Ouija board and planchette in the GIF. For instance, a question like “Will Rihanna win a Grammy for her 8th album ANTI?” had the image say “OF COURSE“.
Marketing Journo
About the offline promotions…
Real-world giant projections, installed at the annual Halloween events, ‘Haunted Hayride’ and ‘Halloween Horror Nights’, entertained people waiting in the queue. In conclusion, the ultimate goal was to get everyone buzzing around the movie.
Outcome…
Influencers and celebrities jumped on the bandwagon of posting questions, resulting in the campaign’s reach getting amplified. As a result, the initiative garnered 355,000+ questions and 23,000,000 impressions on Twitter by then.
Per Deadline, the movie debuted at 3,167 theaters with cumulative gross earnings of $14M in its Week 1.
Recognition…
As an entrant to the Clio Awards program, the agency submitted the below video and photo to the medium, ‘Theatrical: Social Media’ within the entry type, ‘Theatrical’, and the category, ‘Single Platform Campaign’. Eventually, the campaign won Clio Gold.
4 innovative and interesting Content Marketing strategies implemented by horror movies in Hollywood
From time immemorial, horror movies, for the factor of ‘ghost’ alone that has been involved in them, have been garnering the attention of significant number of movie-goers. But, in order to take such movies further closer to the audience, the distributors of the same have been deploying innovative and interesting Content Marketing strategies. Let us have a look at 4 of such eye-catching strategies implemented by horror movies in Hollywood.
1. ‘Hoax Death Threat Call’ for ‘The Ring Two’:
The Ring Two (2005)
Prior to the DVD release of The Ring Two, the London based Marketing Consultancy, New Media Maze came up with the idea of a marketing campaign, for the DVD release, by taking cue from the scary ‘tape scene’ of The Ring.
‘Hoax Death Threat Call’ for ‘The Ring Two’
Initially, the website – www.7daysleft.com – was set (Now, the domain is up for sale) and it offered a provision to people, who wish to play a prank by sending a ‘Hoax Death Threat’ call to their friends. People, who wished to do so, provided the e-mail address and cell-phone number of their friends. The website then sent a mail, with a link possessing the trailer of The Ring Two, to the friends. After opening the trailer from the mail and while watching it online, the friends received a call and a voice in their receivers whispered “Seven Days”. After the friends got to experience this scary moment, they were conveyed that the attempt is just a prank and that they could try to attempt this to five of their friends. This campaign which was launched in U.K. had emerged as one among the scariest viral marketing campaigns ever.
Click here to watch the ‘The Tape’ scene from The Ring.
Marketing Journo
2. ‘Demand it’ campaign for ‘Paranormal Activity’:
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Initially, in September 2009, the screening of the movie, Paranormal Activity was held in Hollywood, California. As a follow-up to this screening, an intriguing trailer was made by combining the audience’s reactions, which were captured during the screening of this show, and specific clips from the movie. The trailer was then uploaded to the official website of the movie (www.paranormalmovie.com) and telecast in television channels.
Towards the end of the trailer, a list of cities where the movie is about to be screened was put up. Also, the availability of the ‘Demand it’ option in the website, for the people who felt fascinated by the trailer and wished to get Paranormal Activity to be screened in their city, was let known. The motive, by the movie’s makers, behind this ‘Demand it’ provision was to opt first with the city, with the most demands, for the future screenings.
‘Demand it’ campaign for ‘Paranormal Activity’
The movie was initially released in 7 cities of U.S. on September 25th, 2009. From thereon, in less than a month, the movie was released nationwide.
Click here to take a look at the trailer of Paranormal Activity.
3. ‘TV Store Prank’ for ‘Rings (2017)’:
Rings (2017)
Almost a fortnight prior to the release of Rings (Third film in the Ring franchise following the movies, ‘The Ring’ and ‘The Ring Two’), Paramount Pictures shared a video titled, ‘Rings (2017) – TV Store Prank’ in their official YouTube channel.
‘TV Store Prank’ for ‘Rings (2017)’
In this video, firstly a TV store in New York is shown. Then, we get to see people setting a fake wall inside the store and mounting a specific number of televisions over the wall. These arrangements resemble the interior of a typical TV store. Behind a particular television, a girl with the makeover of Samara (Antagonist of the Ring franchise) is made to sit.
Subsequently, customers, one by one started visiting the store, greeted by a staff, guided towards the fake wall mounted with televisions and are being attended by the staff to let them know about the televisions that the store possesses. Initially, some random videos are being played in the televisions. Then, the videos are being replaced with the trailer of the movie, Rings. At one point of time, the Staff switches the display of the televisions to a new technology, which is available in the televisions and asks customers about their experience of the technology. This is when the television, behind which the girl is made to sit, scrolls up. The girl pops out of the television in the similar way in which the ‘Samara’ character crawls out of the televisions in the movies of the Ring franchise. She even goes on to sneak up on few of the customers. What other reaction would the customers render other than ‘shock’ when they encounter such a prank? Some screamed and few others even ran out of the room due to fear.
Hidden cameras placed inside the store captured the reactions of the customers. The video, ‘Rings (2017) – TV Store Prank’ was made out of the footage that has been obtained from such hidden cameras. Till now, the video has got more than 8 million views and is still counting.
Every time when we get to see Tom Cruise performing daring stunts in his movies, we feel astonished. But, how would we feel when we are provided with an offer, to experience the making of one such adventurous sequence, in a virtual manner? Wouldn’t we feel very enthusiastic and eager to undergo such an adventure? Such is an offer which Universal Pictures has come up with, as part of their marketing strategies, for the Tom Cruise starrer The Mummy.
‘Zero Gravity VR Experience’ for ‘The Mummy’
Who would have forgotten the terrific zero gravity sequence taking place prior to the plane crash, predominantly featuring Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis, which were shown in the teasers and trailers of The Mummy? The making of this sequence is which the Universal Pictures has offered a ride to by leveraging the Virtual Reality technology. This pop-up experience was first made open to the public in SXSW (South by Southwest). As part of this event, individuals, who were about to virtually experience the sequence, were provided with a headset and made to sit in a gyroscopic chair assisted by a haptic feedback. In the VR experience, which has been narrated by Tom Cruise, people were made to experience the behind-the-scenes look of the action sequence. This interesting event then appeared in Rockefeller Center, New York and in Los Angeles.
Click here to have a glimpse of ‘The Mummy’ Zero Gravity Stunt VR Experience.
So, that’s it with my briefing about the 4 innovative and interesting Content Marketing strategies that have been implemented by horror movies in Hollywood. Now, in the comments section of this write-up, feel free to share your views about the article and let me know of any such interesting and innovative Content Marketing strategies, which have been deployed for various flicks!
