Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks breaks new ground with an elaborate, interactive cell phone campaign for mystery thriller “Eagle Eye,” a PG 13-rated movie. This is an early use of smart cell phones as a multi-media platform, coming months after Apple introduced its revolutionary iPhone.
The Paramount/DreamWorks campaign “aims to build additional buzz about, and boost overall awareness of, the film and its stars, while simultaneously engaging consumers in a rich, compelling experience that closely mimics concepts from the film,” says a Paramount press release. “The campaign propels the user into an intense, fast-paced and multi-faceted interactive experience similar to the plot that unfolds in the film, and features scenes cleverly embedded in mobile banner ads across the mobile Web.”
The innovation here is interactive storytelling by creating that interaction with mobile users one-on-one in various forms. Up until this time, the big play online has been placing conventional film trailers and banner ads. The initiative also presents “transmedia” content, which is adapting a movie’s plot in new stories in other media.
The press release continues: “After consumers click on the banners, they are taken to a mobile landing page for Eagle Eye where they can opt in to begin the experience, and immediately enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win a $1,000 gift card from Circuit City. As part of this process, they receive a mysterious call on their mobile device that mirrors the strange phone calls received by the protagonists of the film. The eerie voice, in combination with subsequent SMS messages, directs consumers through the entire mobile interactive experience, and allows them to interact with their friends at the same time. Opted-in users then receive one final call, to occur the day of the film’s release, encouraging them to continue the Eagle Eye experience by seeing the films in theatre nationwide beginning on September 26.”
“Eagle Eye” would ultimately gross $101 million in domestic box office, a decent run for the action thriller that cost $80 million to make.
Advertising movies via mobile phones is becoming a marketing hotbed. Mobile advertising has the crucial role of informing movie-goers about play times for movies at their specific local theaters, which makes the medium of keen interest to film marketers.
Related content:
- Press Release: DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount Pictures Takes Flight with Millennial Media to Launch Groundbreaking Mobile Advertising and Promotional Campaign For Highly-Anticipated Theatrical Release of D.J. Caruso’s ‘Eagle Eye’
- MarketingDive.com: Mobile as an Effective Media Channel for Movie Studios
- Prezi.com:‘Eagle Eye’ Free Fall as a Transmedia Marketing Tool
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