In between Kung Fu Panda 4 and Paddington in Peru, an altogether more sinister bear named Chauncey was unleashed on cinemagoers last year in the horror movie Imaginary; the story of a little girl and her imaginary friend in teddy bear form. The Blumhouse-produced movie grossed $43.8 million worldwide, thanks in part to a UK partnership between distributor Lionsgate and short-form video service TikTok. And using its measurement partner LiveRamp, TikTok found that the Imaginary campaign drove a 52 percent increase in box office sales among exposed users.
The findings come at a time when the pressure to prove outcomes from marketing spend are more important than ever, particularly for film distributors competing with new forms of media for younger viewers’ attention. But by using the short-form platform to engage film fans, Lionsgate was able to tap into the young audience that Imaginary was aimed at reaching.
“Under-25s are not watching linear TV in anything that resembles how we watched linear TV when we were that age,” Joe Palmer, Vice President, Theatrical Marketing UK at Lionsgate, tells VideoWeek. “TikTok is suddenly one of the most essential platforms to be on from a promotional point of view, and that trend is probably going to continue.”
Koalified reach
To market the film, Lionsgate started by generating awareness using TikTok’s TopView video format, which is the first placement users see when they open the app. The company then moved users down the funnel using AV assets that leveraged TikTok’s native tools, such as text overlays and audio cues. The final piece of the campaign involved working with creators on the platform, who made videos involving teddy bears and imaginary friends.
And the LiveRamp study bears out that multi-stage approach; 82 percent of the total sales lift was driven by people who had been exposed to multiple creatives. “It’s that combination of priming the audience, then driving consideration with your AV strategy, then following up with that creator-led approach that matches the tone of the film,” says Stephen Naughton, Group Vertical Director – Entertainment, Media, Tech and Telco at TikTok. “That is how you’re going to maximise that movie going intent and potential ticket sales.”
And while that creator strategy is not going to work for serious dramas, Blumhouse movies are almost purpose-built for viral marketing – and Imaginary‘s high-concept hook and catchy tagline (“He’s not imaginary, and he’s not your friend.”) gave Lionsgate room to play around with formats. “It’s a dream from a marketing point of view,” comments Lionsgate’s Joe Palmer. “And it’s nice to have options. You can cut something that’s six seconds and it’s incredibly effective, or you can cut something that’s 60 seconds and it’s incredibly effective.”
Sharing is scaring
But with that experimentation comes the need to prove results, especially as Lionsgate’s investment in TikTok is “only going one way” as a proportion of its marketing budget. “Any pounds that you spend on a marketing campaign that doesn’t go into your film’s official assets, like a trailer, has a question mark over it, and will be scrutinised,” notes Palmer. “Which is why it’s so great to see the results, and when you do something a little bit differently, to prove how important it is to constantly adapt your marketing strategy.”
And as TikTok budgets grow, so is the addressable audience for movie marketers. TikTok’s Stephen Naughton says the #filmtok community has grown 80 percent over the last two years, while #horrortok has more than 106 billion video views. “Our audience are coming for new entertainment inspiration,” he comments. “And that means that when you’re a studio like Lionsgate, it offers really fertile ground for you to be able to raise awareness and drive fandom for your movie.”
For Lionsgate, those communities represent additive audiences, rather than seeing TikTok as taking younger viewers away from the cinema. “We’re still seeing records being broken at a cinema level; you don’t do that if the new generation coming through aren’t interested in shared experiences,” says Palmer. “You look at TikTok by yourself, but it’s important to remember the virality of these things is because they’re being shared, and they’re going much further than just one person’s phone.”
And while currently focused on tracking theatrical sales, TikTok is exploring further data collaborations to measure other outcomes that partners might want to track, such as streaming and digital sales. “Expanding on measurement partnerships and collaboration in that space is a priority for us,” says Naughton.
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