2leep

2leep.com

Sunday 23 October 2011

Two Premieres In One Week...Did I Mention They Were Media Firsts!

This week has made me feel extremely proud to work in the Paramount Theatrical team at MEC as we planned and implemented two UK media firsts for the releases of two big films.


Big Brother Paranormal Activity 3 premiere event
The first being the unique and exciting campaign which launched Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 3 in the Big Brother House.
MEC negotiated a partnership with Channel 5 and Endemol to host the premiere of the film. The partnership with Big Brother started with contestants competing in a selection of intriguing Paranormal Activity tasks within the house. The winning housemates were rewarded with the opportunity to attend the premiere, which was hosted in the main Big Brother arena.
In addition Big Brother fans were given the opportunity to win tickets to join the contestants in the VIP area at the premiere. MEC developed a social media campaign using promoted tweets and Facebook to increase word-of-mouth and drive traffic to the competition page. This was a great demonstration of social media's role in generating mass awareness and huge buzz around film releases.


The winning contestants and fans joined a host of celebrities on the red carpet and watched Paranormal Activity 3 on a giant screen installed especially for the event.
Supporting this unique idea, we built a 360 media campaign to promote the Paranormal Activity 3 launch, which ran across TV, print, radio and online, as well product placement spots within Big Brother. Following the premiere, footage from the event is going to be used across all media to continue promoting the new movie over the Halloween period.
Big Brother is an iconic show and offered the perfect platform for us to launch Paranormal Activity 3, especially as the film's theme and content is centred around activities which happen inside a house documented through video cameras.


Sean Cannon, Communications Director for Paramount at MEC said, “We are always looking to push the boundaries with our campaigns for Paramount. Hosting the premiere of Paranormal Activity 3 in the Big Brother house is the perfect fit for this launch and we are very excited to see the campaign kick-off.”


The second Premiere was for Steven Speilberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin. On Sunday 23rd October from 5.30pm Tweeters were able to click on our promoted Twitter trend #TintinPremiereLive and view the live stream direct from the right hand panel of their Twitter account. Click on this link to see the live streamed content including exclusive interviews with the cast http://www.livestream.com/tintinpremierelive .

London Premiere of Tintin at Odeon West End 23.10.11

The live streaming enabled Tweeters and fans to gain direct access to the red carpet where Alex Zane and Robyn Bright hosted the event for us! Guests sitting in the cinema were also able to see the action on the red carpet as the live streaming was also shown on the cinema screen. The film’s stars including Simon Pegg, Jamie Bell and Nick Frost are big Tweeters so they created initial buzz on the micro blogging platform before the day of the premiere. As part of our media communication strategy we created a Twitter campaign to ensure there was a build up of anticipation and excitement in the run up to the big event. Normally film premieres are a magnet for celebrities and this one was no exception. I managed to walk past the lovely Jamie Bell (who played Tintin) on the red carpet and spotted the gorgeous Daniel Craig! Other than the film's cast who were obviously going to be at their own premiere, I also bumped into a couple of cast members of my favourite Sunday night drama Downton Abbey!
The film itself was an action-packed and fun filled adventure which the whole family would enjoy and although I may be biased as I worked on the release, I would recommend watching Tintin on the big screen as the cinematography and 3D animation is outstanding!

Overall this has been an exciting and rewarding film-filled week and I look forward to blogging about our next big film release Puss In Boots!

This blog has moved to www.laurarobinsonblog.com

Monday 3 October 2011

Are brands becomming media owners?

Content creation. It's become a common buzz word in the media and advertising industry. It is also the concept which has helped to give power back to the brand. I think it's fair to say that for a while at least, brands lost some of their power to the consumer; encouraged greatly by the digital revolution and the increasing interactivity which new technology has enabled.
More and more brands are asking UK publishing companies to create branded print publications to promote their brand and viewpoints using high quality editorial content. Virgin Media, Google, Bon Marche, ASOS and Harrods are all examples of current content creators with consumer publications circulating in the hands of their target audience - but what's the appeal?

Albert Read (Conde Nast's UK general manager) says magazines "convey images, text and environments in a way that digital cannot yet do as well"
Julia Hutchison, COO of the APA says “Consumers are turning to brands for information and entertainment as they feel the pinch."
Both these points are extremely valid and I would add that the creation of branded content raises brand awareness by offering great engagement and tangibility. Furthermore it encourages loyalty and provokes recommendation. This is now more important than ever in a world where consumers rely on reviews and word of mouth before they make a purchase. Branded content facilitates a conversation between brands and their consumers which in tun helps the relationship between consumers and brands blossom. It comes as no surprise that digital is pushing much of the growth of branded content whether in the form of e-zines, videos or e-marketing. Digital branded content offers more than a dialogue between consumers and brands as it's interactive nature means it can personalise its offering and be manipulated for individual consumer needs and preferences.

However I think it's important to stress that content creation isn't something that all brands should now start to do. Brands have to be able to offer the consumer something extra and so I would recommend 3 rules that brands should consider if they don't want their content to be dismissed as another promotional push:

1. Authentic
2. Relevant
3. Valuable

Final thought:
In reference to Google's impressive attempt at creating branded content "information is inseparable from the people that are creating it" so if brands want compelling and exciting content which is authentic, relevant and valuable, it should follow that the people who create it should also be compelling and exciting!

This blog has moved to www.laurarobinsonblog.com