July 23, 2015

Sony Pictures: The Smurfs 2

Spinnaker explain how they worked with Sony Pictures to drum up excitement for the release of The Smurfs 2 film

The Challenge

Sony Pictures’ little blue friends were about to return for a sequel and Spinnaker needed to ensure that The Smurfs 2 was as huge a success as its predecessor had been two years ago.

With an already 60k-strong Facebook fanbase, Spinnaker’s challenge was to re-energise the current level of social engagement and get new fans excited about the film.

The Strategy

Spinnaker took the valuable insights learned from the first Smurfs movie, and its experiences from working on many other family-friendly films, to create a social strategy that brought the family together at their home PC.

Execution

The first event pencilled into The Smurfs’ promotional calendar was Global Smurfs’ Day. Staged at Westfield, London it was to be a worldwide party to celebrate the birthday of Smurfs’ creator, Payo. Part of the day’s activity included a sing-along with Right Said Fred, which was broadcast live on Magic FM, the event’sofficial media partner.

Spinnaker developed a sing-along app on Facebook in order to get Smurf fans in the mood for the day and to give them a helping hand with the lyrics to Right Said Fred’s specially-created song ‘I’m Too Smurfy’. Fans were able to watch the music video, then record their own version using either their own webcam or by uploading a video.

After the event, the sing-along competition continued right up to the film’s release, generating a host of Smurftastic content all of which was shared across The Smurfs’ Facebook page. Fans were asked to vote for their favourite entries, and those that were given the most ‘Likes’ were rewarded with a weekly goody bag. A Grand Prize winner, chosen by Magic FM, was also awarded a £1,000 cash prize.

The Results

The competition ran right up to the day of the film’s release and generated some excellent video content, generating a reach of over 1.8 million Facebook subscribers. Thanks to the app and a host of other exciting content on the Facebook page, The Smurfs Movies page now has almost 400k fans. And it’s probably also worth mentioning that the film is now a massive box office hit.

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