Insight
Overseas horror movies are not popular in Japan. Local horror movies win out, usually because they feature a local heroine or pop idol. High school girls – the same age as Carrie, the tragic heroine in the movie – don’t often go to the cinema to watch movies. With access to many forms of streaming video online, a trip to the theatre is comparatively expensive. High school girls tend to skip out on seeing films on the big screens unless there’s a definite buzz around it.
UM wanted to create a viral campaign for Carrie to make use of that, making use of a small advertising budget. Japanese high school students tend to be counter phobic, seeking out their fears rather than avoiding them. They love to overcome fears, bragging about their experiences to people and curious to everything around them. They love to save money and enjoy anything free.
Strategy
UM wanted to target its communications platform to promote Carrie to smartphones. High school girls are always sharing their latest experiences on their phones through Twitter or LINE. Most of them have smartphones, using them constantly and this focus would make the messages more instantly viral. Movies and voice clips are especially easy to share in this way. Teenagers are suspicious of advertising, because so much advertising for entertainment is targeted at them. They won’t share it if it is an ad, so they would need to expand our message slowly through word of mouth.
Execution
The agency created a “Carrie call” phone line where you could talk with the tragic heroine of the movie on the phone. When you dial the number you can hear Carrie scream painfully, recorded by the same actor who dubbed Carrie’s voice for the Japanese market, tempting a target audience that likes to face fear head on. They wrote about the Carrie call number on Facebook and Twitter. The number was spread virally on Twitter to encourage calls, targeting people who talked about horror movies or members of the cast. They would be followed from the official Twitter account, surprising them and causing them to share the moment with friends.
A movie preview was held and limited to teenage high school girls, an influential part of the Japanese market. The number was promoted after the screening. They found someone to promote Chloe Moretz (one of the film’s stars) appearance on a popular Japanese comedy variety show “Shabekuri-seven” with high ratings, the show’s popularity echoing the effects of their efforts.
Results
Over 100,000 people called the Carrie Call line and reached 1.5 million Twitter users, increasing followers of the movie on Twitter from 250 to 3,000. All without running a single traditional ad!