Slender Man, the internet's most notorious meme, is being unleashed into theaters. In anticipation of the movie's release, to reengage original fans and invite core horror moviegoers to explore the dark and twisted world, resurrect the mythical Slender Man back to life via never before seen "found footage" for exclusive viewing on Instagram TV.
Can you see him? There are numerous Slender Man sighting videos uploaded online since 2006. Knowing fans' interest in the fictional character, we leveraged the launch of the Instagram TV platform to create a long-form vertical video of security cam footage for users to watch and search out the faceless being on the Slender Man movie and Sony Pictures Instagram handles. Incorporating multiple scenes and graphical overlays, we established a new element to the core mythos of Slender Man: the "summoning" of Slender Man that the four main teen girls do in the movie. Our campaign comes to fruition, merging both fans' obsession of the brand with the new movie, as users scour throughout the video footage to find Slender Man.
Slender Man got into Instagram fans' heads like a virus. The view count for the Instagram TV "found footage" exceeded that of the handle's followers garnering intrigue and enthusiasm for the release of the movie, which took in over $50 million at the worldwide box office. In addition, the footage is currently still the highest viewed IGTV video on the Sony Pictures handle.
