Insight
On September 28th 2012, "El Cartel De Los Sapos” (“The Toad’s 1 Cartel“) was due to premier in its home country, Colombia. The movie, based on a book by the same name, was written by Andres Lopez, (aka Fresita) – a legendary drug trafficker with a story to tell. It was UM’s job to help it launch successfully on a very limited budget.
The movie recounts Fresita’s exploits as a cocaine trafficker in “El Cartel del NortedelValle” (“The Northern Valle Cartel”) and as a D.E.A. informant following a spell in prison. And, although the movie was full of intrigue and action, and based on a true Colombian story, success in its country of origin was not a slam dunk. Quite the opposite in fact!
Historically, home-grown movies perform poorly and boast an average attendance of only 140,000. The majority of Colombians are poor and movie tickets are considered a luxury item. Instead, they turn to the thriving street market for bootleg copies of new movies.
UM had their work cut out for them to shift this paradigm on a dime.
Strategy
Even though Colombians are aware that piracy is illegal, buying movies on the black market is a normal part of everyday life. Perpetrators (sellers and buyers) are usually ignored by law enforcement and very little action is taken to discourage the practice.
However, according to PRACI (the official entity responsible for fighting piracy), the Colombian film industry loses nearly $54m each year as a result of piracy causing a significant blow to the Colombian film industry. Something needed to change!
The brand wasn’t fighting other movies for share of attention, which is how this normally works. Instead, they had to take their fight to the streets and bank on the fact that their Cartel tough guys were “bad” enough to out-manoeuvre even the “worst” of pirates.
The strategy:
- Keep friends close and enemies closer!
The approach:
- Embrace the street as a “legitimate” marketing tool
- Hi-jack movie-viewers with an unexpected experience to jolt them out of complacency and into movie theatres
- Send a message about the evils of piracy
Execution
A week before the movie launch UM made a fake movie DVD and hired actors to pose as pirates to sell it on street corners. Then, they ratted on their own operation to local police (with their cooperation) and had the “pirates” arrested to add intrigue and scandal into the mix, but not before 1,500 copies of “the movie” had been sold.
When people popped the DVD into their players, their experience was hi-jacked by two of the movie’s toughest Cartel characters, Guadaña and El Cabo, with their own plotline.
This is their story:
Guadaña, nonchalantly taking his seat in a movie theatre to watch “El Cartel De Los Sapos”, eating popcorn, spots a guy recording the movie – a pirate! He tells his friend, El Cabo, that someone is taping them and, outraged, they jump up from their seats and let him know in no uncertain terms that piracy cannot be tolerated and why. When the guy repents, they give him a second chance and invite him (and everyone) to stick around for behind-the-scenes footage of the movie as a gesture of support for the Colombian movie industry.
The scene was turned into a stand-alone video with an invitation from the actors for all to come and see their film and uploaded on YouTube. Twitter support rounded out the effort.
The agency knew they needed a bold move to break through “the system” and create buzz for their movie while shining a light on the damage piracy causes. It worked!
Results
Despite a very limited launch budget, the movie was a box office success!
- The film was No. 1 at the box office during opening weekend, ahead of big budget foreign (Hollywood) films like Resident Evil and TED, which were released at the same time.
- The campaign attracted 447,000 movie-goers – an increase of 219% over average attendance for Colombian movies.
- In just two weeks, the video on YouTube received approximately 245,000 views, 645 likes, and excited comments, even from countries like Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and the Dominican Republic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZQmdDx2n6I).
- The campaign caught the attention of the country’s mainstream media generating free press worth COP $247,530,000 (approximately $137,000).
- Enormous ROI against an investment level of just COP $9,000 (approx. $5,000 US)
- Additionally, the next Colombian film to premiere in December 2012 also enjoyed higher than average attendance – an indicator that its anti-piracy efforts made a difference