Open Road Films partnered with Anti Agency Group to promote and drive box office success for The Marksman, an action/thriller film starring Liam Neeson. The wide theatrical release was scheduled for January 2021 at the height of COVID-19 when over 45% of theaters across the country were closed and consumers were still being encouraged to shelter in place. In addition to these unprecedented industry challenges posed by the Pandemic, we also had to ensure Marksman messaging would break through the noise surrounding the presidential election and inauguration in order to reach qualified moviegoers. With these variables in mind, we set out to develop a data-driven digital media strategy that focused on identifying and engaging high-propensity moviegoers.
We eschewed the traditional marketing approach for typical action/thriller films: instead of prioritizing core male and contextual interests, the cornerstone of our strategy was to pinpoint moviegoers who were continuously active within their community during the Pandemic.
Starting with the trailer drop, we focused on DMA level testing to identify the most viable markets for The Marksman’s wide release, layering in secondary behavioral interests based on deterministic search and past purchase data, including segments such as “in market for showtimes” and “fans of Liam Neeson.” The trailer drop also allowed us to build a pool of engaged users for retargeting and lookalike expansion for the next phase of the campaign.
Leveraging learnings from the trailer drop, we optimized the media strategy supporting The Marksman’s theatrical release: budgets were heavied up across top performing markets and audiences were refined with additional behavioral and contextual targeting. In addition to social and video channels, these targeting insights were also applied across programmatic OTT/CTV and display to reach qualified users at scale with Marksman messaging and at multiple touchpoints during their consideration journey.
From our comprehensive audience tests, we observed that certain interests, including sports news and recreational combat sports indexed highly against our core Pandemic moviegoer audience. To eventize opening weekend, we tapped into high impact activations with sports publishers to drive excitement and buzz, including cross-channel sponsorships with WWE, UFC, ESPN and Bleacher Report.
To bolster awareness and consideration for box office sales, we partnered with premium ticketing platform, Fandango, to execute 100% SOV opportunities leading up to theatrical release as well as Chase weeks. This included mobile and homepage takeovers across their various film and ticketing properties: Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster.
Despite the unique challenges posed by the timing of the film, rooting our approach in data and historical learnings enabled us to deliver a cross-platform strategy that exceeded the expectations of Open Road Films. By methodically testing and refining our digital tactics, we were able to reach the most qualified audiences—high propensity ticket purchasers—at the right time with relevant Marksman messaging.
The Marksman surpassed estimated box office goals in the first week alone, doubling expectations of $1.5MM to the tune of $3.1MM. The film was the #1 movie for two weeks in a row where it then remained in the top two nationally for almost six weeks straight thereafter.
