A promotion in which film fans integrate videos of themselves in “Godzilla vs Kong” movie backdrops drew millions of interactions, when planted on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. It’s a case study of the cutting edge of movie promotions using digital media.
The concept: fans could express their allegiance by posing with their favorite monster, emulating its powers, and then posting to their social networks along with the hashtag #TEAMGODZILLA or #TEAMKONG. The film’s distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, hired Pretty Big Monster, an immersive marketing agency, to mount what it calls this “snackable” experience — a simple experience for consumers to plug in to.
Consumers place a video image of themselves taken with their phone or computer camera in the Godzilla scenario would see lizard’s atomic beam spout from mouths of consumer images; for Kong it was the ape’s roar emanating from the consumer’s image. While this happened, their monster menaced above them in the video frame, creating a starting personal experience. The promotion is built on augmented reality (AR) where real images (the consumers faces) are overlaid in a artificlal world.
“Localized for global markets, the [promotion] garnered millions of plays and hundreds of thousands of shares,” according to a publicist. “‘Godzilla vs Kong’ opened as big as the monsters themselves, opening as the number one movie worldwide and maintaining the #1 position at the box office for four weeks.” The Warners release “Godzilla vs Kong,” which is rated PG-13, grossed $101 million in domestic boxoffice last year amid the pandemic disruptions (and $468 million worldwide).
A press release from the Pretty Big Monster agency laid out the attraction of augmented reality to elevate story-telling in marketing initiatives. AR’s ability to mix real and imaginary worlds immerses fans, notes Jason Steinberg, managing partner of Pretty Big Monster.
While AR new and still developing, “the potential of its technology contributes to its ability to surpass print, online, and television advertisements in terms of capturing attention and spurring engagement,” says the Pretty Big Monster press release. “According to one report, AR can capture people’s attention for over 85 seconds, increase interaction rates by 20 percent, and improve click-through rates to purchase by 33 percent. Another report shows that approximately 1.9 billion people per month will use AR in 2022, and 3 billion devices worldwide are currently AR-enabled.”
The marketing agency Pretty Big Monster was founded in 2018 and is Los Angeles-based. Its clients include Amazon Studios, Disney, FX cable network, Netflix, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony Music, and Warner’s DC Fandom event. The agency also worked on entertainment products “Dune” and “Scream 5” in movies, and Jevon’s music album “Fell in Love in Brasil.” Pretty Big Monster’s founders are Steinberg, Christopher Lepkowski and Bill Hargis.
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