Insight
A film, a movie studio and a media company get together to make the impossible, possible. Twentieth Century Fox, in tandem with their media agency, Vizeum and creative partner, Soap, approached Yahoo with the challenge to deliver a holistic creative advertising solution for the launch ofLife of Pi.
Director Ang Lee had already managed to accomplish the difficult task of transforming Yann Martel’s novel to the silver screen. And while the film was a cinematic masterpiece with stunning visual effect, it was a tough sell, it was almost considered unmarketable.
It was, after all, only a film about a boy lost at sea in a lifeboat with a tiger.
With a cast of unknowns and a storyline that didn’t follow traditional box office hits such as those based on comic books, video games or other film franchises the film was tricky to pitch to audiences.
Moreover,Life of Pifaced fierce competition againstSilver Linings Playbook,HitchcockandRise of the Guardianswhich were all set to be released that same weekend.
Yahoo’s objectives were challenging. Yahoo intended to build awareness of the film and depict the wonder and spectacle of theLife of Pifilm, using technology-based media on a global scale whilst, simultaneously, driving ticket sales.
Strategy
Without an all-star cast in the spotlight,Yahoo’s strategy for the launch ofLife of Piwas to defy conventional movie marketing and focus on the movie’s key themes to draw interest in the film.Life of Piwas not merely a story about a boy, a boat and a tiger but a spiritual tale of hope and discovery.
Yahoo proposed a strategy that aimed to become a media firstly in both cinema and digital marketing. It agreed with Fox and Vizeum to go beyond the film’s obvious talking points and attempt to bring to life the spiritual themes of the film into personal relevance.
The media owner came up with a very unique idea – to take users’ individual stories and photographs of personal growth and discovery, and turn these into individualLife of Pipromotions.
Due to the highly visual nature of the film, Yahoo,Fox and its agency partners wanted to bring users’ photographs into theLife of Piecosystem. Together they created the ‘message-in-a- bottle’ app enabling users to upload photos which represented their own stories of growth. These images from around the world allowed users to share inspirational messages with each other visually.
Execution
Yahoo proposed embarking on an immense editorial project - to globally crowd-source editorial and photography in order to promote the film through thematic association. It harnessed its Contributor Network, which offered freelancers, bloggers and writers the opportunity to provide original content pieces for publication on Yahoo.
A web of user generated content spread on Yahoo across four continents, as users from across the world submitted their special transformative stories of love, friendship, hope and growth. By allowing millions of people to experience these same stories Yahoo wanted to create a deeper and more personal connection with the film’s concept. Traditionally a film is promoted through video views; or special stunts to create standout. This ‘personal emotional journey’ approach had never been done before.
Using social editorial, it challenged users to think about their own emotional journeys and encouraged user participation by asking them to submit their first hand experiences, both in writing and through photography.
To grow further awareness of the film,Life of Piwas promoted using a range of behavioural targeting suites across Yahoo properties.
Results
Fox, Vizeum and Yahoo took film marketing into new territory, by establishing emotional connections with users through genuinely moving content.
Yahoo was chosen as the lead digital partner and the resulting campaign was truly global – running for six weeks across each market throughout South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
The Yahoo Contributor Network generated an incredible number of life stories, of which Yahoo chose 160 to share in ‘Life’s Journeys’.
The results exceeded all expectations: 103,867,477 users engaged with the campaign, 244,684 photos were uploaded, content was shared on Twitter and Facebook over 90,000 times and over 1 billion ad impressions were served.
The Editorial value was $1,900,000 with an investment of just under $1,000,000.
Film awareness skyrocketed; it rose by 70% in UK, 213% in Germany and 743% in Italy.
The film about a boy on a boat with a tiger went on to gross a stunning $608,901,486 (USD) andLife of Piwent on to be nominated for 11 Oscars of which it won four – more than any other film had achieved at the 2013 Oscars.