1920 Evil Returns Facebook Marketing

Company: ASA Productions & Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.Agency: IntelliAssist

Background

ASA Productions & Enterprises is a fast-growing entertainment company. In 2008, they produced and distributed a successful Bollywood Horror movie, 1920. A sequel to the first, 1920 Evil Returns, was released on Nov 2nd, 2012. This is the first instance when the production house considered digital & social media for movie promotion. Although implied, they had no online presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. IntelliAssist was engaged for a period of 45 days to manage digital marketing.

Objective

1) Primary objective was to create maximum video views for theatrical trailer & other videos. 2) Secondary objective was to ensure that official posters get maximum attention & visibility. 3) Last but not the least; community creation and engaging all horror fans (especially those who

loved the prequel).

Pic: Official FB Cover

Facebook Strategy & Execution

An official Facebook page was created and first look of the movie was launched. To grow its fan base IntelliAssist quickly started promoting the page to targeted audience (age: 18 – 35 years, Location: India,

Interest #Horror) with help of Facebook ads and sponsored stories. In parallel, an official fan page for Vikram Bhatt (writer & producer) and ASA Productions & Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. was created.

Pic: One of the official posters

Custom Apps like Exclusive Stills showcase and Top Fan dashboards were used to enhance engagement. Active fans were recognized and rewarded; this in turn motivated other fans to actively participate and contribute. A picture contest (based on audience voting) was announced to create buzz and increase viral reach of the page. Content strategy revolved around announcements (news bytes, video upload

etc.), sharing movie stills and creation of interesting polls. Although considered harmful for a brand, several fan-created posters were shared on the page; this helped in increasing the feeling of belongingness and the community appreciated the same.

An interesting fact that we wish to share is that one poster was created exclusively for Facebook; this featured entire team (cast and crew). It reached 1,27,482 people on Facebook page and spread virally to several other websites. The poster received encouraging feedback; this was eventually used in all print & outdoor media at the time of movie release.

Facebook promoted posts were used to promote YouTube videos. This trafficking strategy proved beneficial as two videos were meant for adult audiences and YouTube paid advertisement was not possible for the same. Facebook played a vital role in increasing video views for these videos. Also, good ROI on advertising campaign was recorded as not only fans on movie page increased but also other two Facebook fan pages were promoted on the platform.

Facebook Campaign Results

1) In 45 days, 1920 Evil Returns acquired over 65,000 fans who were highly engaged. On an average each post received about 800 – 1000 Likes and equally encouraging number of comments and shares.

2) Over 2,000 video views on one of the YouTube videos was contributed by Facebook (within 5 hours of the post). This initial start helped in increasing YouTube channel visitors and subscribers.

3) Facebook served as a fantastic platform to test market new creative and validate that the art-work for a movie poster resonates well with its audience. The poster was later used across print and outdoor media at the time of movie release.

Pic: Fun Poster (originally designed for FB fans), later used for official communication across print media and outdoors.

Other Channels for Promotion

1) A new YouTube channel was created and within 30 days we built about 15,00,000 video views and over 650 Subscribers

2) We designed a mix of advertising and content marketing to promote theatrical trailer; the video was trending on YouTube for 2 days.

3) Animated Banner Ads, Video Ads, Page Push, Expandable Ads were placed on prominent entertainment sites, news sites and general interest portals. An average CTR of 0.62% was recorded on all sites and portals put together