Tag: Movie

Siri Gains First Official Movie Tie-In, Sets Precedent For Paid Answers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple sets a precedent for sponsored Siri answers today as Siri gains its first official movie tie-in with answers for the Universal Pictures-produced The Secret Life of Pets. To promote the iTunes store release of the movie, Apple collaborated with Universal Pictures to added 15 programmed responses to Siri for the question, “What do my Pets do when I’m not at home?” According to Apple, this move marks the first time “Apple has collaborated on a home entertainment title and the first time Siri has been programmed to interact with an iTunes movie title.”

What Brands Should Do
As voice-activated personal assistant services like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant continue to gain momentum and infiltrate consumer’s daily lives, it is laying the groundwork for an emerging media channel that allows brands to talk to consumers directly, creating a new paradigm for human-computer interaction thanks to its efficiency and convenience. With consumers increasingly familiar with this type of interface, it is only natural that brand advertisers should follow suit. And Apple’s move to open up Siri for movie tie-ins seems to indicate more brand opportunities to come on iOS.

For more information on how brands can take advantage of the rise of conversational interfaces, please check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: 9to5Mac

Fandango Starts Selling Tickets On Facebook & iMessage, Soon On Snapchat

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Fandango is embracing the omnichannel approach as it starts to allow users to buy movie tickets on some of the hottest mobile platforms. Over the weekend, the ticket-booking service started allowing U.S. customers to purchase tickets to select movies without leaving their Facebook News Feed. Previously, Fandango had enabled iPhone users to buy movie tickets directly from its iMessage app. And the company says it is working on an interface that allows Snapchat users to buy tickets without leaving the app.

What Brands Need To Do
More and more consumers are growing accustomed to making purchases on their phones, spelling opportunities for brands to sell directly on mobile. Fandango’s strong push into selling movie tickets on these three popular mobile platforms is a smart move that caters to changing consumer behavior and reaches customers in apps they spend the most time in. Therefore, other brands, especially those in retail and entertainment, should take note and consider integrating those social and messaging platforms into their sales channels.

 

Source: New York Times

 

Twitter Extends Pre-Rolls And Creates Paid Stickers For “Fantastic Beasts”

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Twitter announced today it is extending its Amplify Publisher program to individual video creators in the U.S., aiming to drum up video content to sell more pre-roll ads. Twitter is offering individual content creators 70% of ad revenue, which is higher than the 45 percent YouTube gives its creators, and does not require content exclusivity. Only creators approved by Twitter will be able to monetize their content through the program, which first opened to publishers last fall.

In related news, Warner Bros.launched a set of Twitter stickers to promote its upcoming “Harry Potter” spinoff “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them,” making it the first entertainment brand to use paid Twitter stickers for its campaign. Earlier this month, Pepsi released a set of custom Twitter stickers to engage with Twitter users.

What Brands Need To Do
In-feed video ads on Twitter benefits from its context and produces better recall compared to other pre-roll ads, as our recent media trial concluded. Twitter’s searchable stickers are an extension of the emoji marketing that many brands including Coca-Cola and Toyota have experimented with. As Twitter continues to improve its various ad products to appeal to brand marketers in the hope of boosting its ad revenues, it is up to brand marketers to figure out which ad unit fits best for your campaigns.

 

Sources :AdWeek & Variety

20th Century Fox Pulls A One-Two Punch On Snapchat For X-Men Movie

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
To promote the upcoming X-Men movie, 20th Century Fox launched a twofold campaign on Snapchat to engage with young-skewing users. The movie studio bought the first-ever Snapchat Lens takeover ad, which replaced all the Snapchat selfie lenses on Monday with X-Men-themed lenses that transform users into nine different X-Men characters. More importantly, 20th Century Fox also purchased ads in Discover channels to encourage users to purchase tickets for the movie. The vertical video ads prompt users to swipe up, revealing a page where they can put in their zip codes and be redirected to Fandango’s site to buy tickets for showings at their local theaters.

What Brands Need To Do
Using the Lens takeover to raise awareness for the movie and the direct response ads in Discover to drive ticket purchases, 20th Century Fox devised a clever one-two punch on Snapchat to reach its over 100 million daily active users. Snapchat has been improving its ad products to court brand advertisers, introducing shoppable ads earlier this month and improving its ad measurement with a ComScore partnership. This X-Men campaign provides a good example of how brands looking to advertise on Snapchat can utilize the ad products Snapchat offers and devise an effective campaign.

 

Source:  Ad Exchanger

How Warner Bros. Is Promoting Mad Max With Free Uber Rides

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Warner Bros has teamed up with Uber to promote the upcoming launch of its Mad Max video game – and the franchise in general – with free, post-apocalypse-themed rides in Seattle. For a limited time this week, Uber users can opt to hail a Mad Max-themed ride with elaborately costumed drivers for a trip anywhere in downtown area of Seattle.

What Brands Should Do
Although Uber is no stranger to stunt marketing, this new effort marks the first time a media company has tapped the ride-hailing app to provide interested consumers with a branded experience, whereas previously brands mostly teams up with Uber for delivery and logistical solutions.  As Uber expands its reach into new territories such as food delivery and ecommerce, so should brands when it comes to creatively using Uber’s road presence as a marketing asset.

 

Source: The Verge

Header image courtesy of Uber Seattle’s Twitter

 

Weinstein Targets Frequent Movie-Goers With Purchase Data

Posted on by Lab Team

The Weinstein Company is leveraging big data to target movie-goers who go to theaters at least once a month. Working with data platform Cardlytics, the company is tapping into more than $1.5 trillion of debit and credit-card transactions from over 500 banks to pinpoint the consumers who frequently buy tickets at movie theaters. The studio’s media agency, Palisades MediaGroup then uses the anonymized data to serve up video and mobile ads of an upcoming Weinstein movie to the selected movie-goers.

While a great use of behavioral data for ad targeting, this campaign verges on the murky territory of consumer privacy violation. While the company claims that the banks only use data from customers who have opted in to a rewards program in order to comply with privacy standards, it remains unknown if those who were targeted gave their consent to have their purchases data to be resold to a third-party company for targeting purposes. We laid out some crucial points in using behavior data for ad targeting in our recent POV, and you can click here to read for additional insights on the topic.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Take An Oculus-Powered Peek Into “Interstellar”

Posted on by Lab Team

In a unique marketing move, Paramount and IMAX are partnering up to offer a sneak peek at Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated sci-fi epic “Interstellar” with a traveling exhibit powered by Oculus Rift. With the help of Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, participants will be able to experience zero gravity in the film’s featured spacecraft. With the maturation of virtual reality technology, we expect more marketing efforts to deploy it to offer a refreshingly immersive experience.

What Is “Bullet Screen” And Why Is It So Popular In China?

Posted on by Lab Team

“Bullet screen”, or “dan’mu” in Chinese, is an emerging new feature on online video sites in China and Japan, which allows real-time comments from viewers to fly across the screen like bullets. Mostly used for virtual nods and zingers, this “social viewing” feature is phenomenally popular with the younger crowd. In fact, it is so popular that several theaters in China have been incorporating this practice into special screenings that display streams of text messages sent in by the audience. It’s unclear whether this trend will spread to global markets, but it’s an excellent example of how media channels can adapt to user behavior.

Weinstein Co. Turns To Kik To Reach Gen Z Audience

Posted on by Lab Team

In an attempt to reach the fickle and ever-elusive Generation Z, Weinstein Company is teaming up with messaging app Kik to launch an ad campaign for its upcoming young adult movie “The Giver”. Kik users are now encouraged to share a “Giver card”, embedded with promo content of the movie, with each other in conversations within the app. This marks the first time the messaging platform running a movie promotion, although it is certainly no stranger to brand campaigns, having worked with IPG lab last year to run an integrated campaign for U.K boyband One Direction. With a major Hollywood studio moving in, Kik and other messaging apps are indeed shaping up to be the next frontier of youth marketing.

Upcoming Film, Jobs Releases Trailer On Instagram Video

Posted on by Lab Team

Jobs, the upcoming film on the life of the Apple pioneer has turned to Instagram Video to promote the movie which drops August 16th. The 15 second format was a perfect fit for movie trailers and also allows for easy viewing on Twitter. We’ve seen brands like Starbucks gain several hundred thousand followers on the platform and now the new feature will allow them to reach their audience with video. We’ll see if brands produce original video for the platform or simply use it as another distribution channel.