Objectives

Way to Blue was tasked with delivering the Social Media campaign for the Theatrical release of Nightcrawler for the UK audience.

We were asked to deliver a campaign that was unique and stand out from the crowd, which also excited/intrigued audiences with cult anti-hero Lou Bloom, focused towards a culturally aware audience branching out into the mainstream thriller audience.

Our campaign crossed Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp - reaching over 10M social media users.

Our main focus was to build intrigue and excitement surrounding the main character Lou Bloom, and we did this by creating his own platforms on LinkedIn, Twitter and WhatsApp. We replied to comments as Lou Bloom in real time and posted through his unique and compelling tone of voice. Competitions and activities relating back to the film were used to incentivise users and drive awareness of Lou Bloom's platforms. Through this, we were able to broadcast strong organic reach from social influencers and drive positive word of mouth.

Nightcrawler had a very strong opening and run in the box, taking £1,003,822, and we helped to encourage the strong positive sentiment on social through interacting and engaging with our audience.

Strategy and Execution

STRATEGY

Following the brief, our main focus was building the reputation of the main character Lou Bloom and bringing him into the social space. We were able to translate his unique motivational/management speeches and twisted point of view to audiences to excite and intrigue them as to this new anti-hero.

To build out the character, we used a variety of bespoke creative content including motivational quote gifs and graphics, Rules of TV News, Ads for VPN, Screenshots of WhatsApp conversations and quote graphics, as well as replying in real time to social influencers and users as Lou's Bloom.

To reach our audience we branched over a wide number of platforms, including: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp

LOU BLOOM

Creating a level of excitement and intrigue around Lou Bloom was our key aim of the campaign and we achieved this successfully through a number of methods:

Lou Bloom's Own Twitter: We created Lou Bloom's own Twitter account where he could give his own spin on the events of the world. Utilising his key quotes and motivational speeches from the film, Lou Bloom posted VPN (his company) promotional assets, motivational gifs that he himself had created, commented on news events, and most importantly responded to anyone talking about him in real time, having full conversations with social influencers and social users.Lou Bloom's Own LinkedIn: Fitting in perfectly with his persona, Lou Bloom's LinkedIn profile advertised VPN and sought to connect with social influencers through a new and unexpected platform. He posted motivational quotes and responded to messages. This was a highly successful as many film critics took screenshots of his Connection Requests and took to Twitter to tweet about it. Lou Bloom's profile was taken down by LinkedIn midway through the campaign, seeing this as a publicity opportunity we then took to his Twitter account to complain to LinkedIn, by posting screenshots of Lou Bloom's complaint form etc. This activity was picked up and commented upon by the UK marketing press as excellent crisis managementLou Bloom's Own WhatsApp: Seeding awareness through Print Ads, Facebook and Twitter, users were encouraged to call Lou Bloom's personal number, where they were greeted with a recorded voicemail message from Lou Bloom. We also created a WhatsApp profile for Lou Bloom, and encouraged users to message Lou Bloom with why he should hire them to which would Lou Bloom responded in real time. To give an initial kick-off incentive, we created a competition element. Screenshots of select conversations were then build into bespoke social cards and posted across Facebook and Twitter to drive awareness.A CULT ANTI-HERO

In order to specifically build up Lou Bloom as an iconic anti-hero, we created a bespoke and eye-catching infographic that compared Lou Bloom to some of the biggest and most iconic mainstream anti-heroes of all time, including Walter White, Patrick Bateman, Tyler Durden, Jordan Belfort and The Driver. Each anti-hero was rated on specific traits such as Entrepreneurial Spirit, Cunning, Style, Estimated Wealth etc. with the aim of not only inspiring debate but bringing Lou Bloom's iconic status up to the level of these well-known anti-heroes and bring broadcast awareness of Nightcrawler to the core fan groups of the similar titles that shared a target audience. This was the most successful asset of the campaign and drove high levels of engagement on all platforms

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED:

OVERVIEW

The Results: a unique campaign that delivered maximum impact and social buzz by presenting Lou Bloom as a strong and unique antihero and cultural icon.

FACEBOOK

4M total reach with 203K engaged users

TWITTER

6.2M Estimated Impressions with 2.4M Post Impressions

LINKEDIN

Over 200 connection before the profile was taken down

WHATSAPP

Over 200 engagements, plus further engagements from social cards seeded on other platforms

Strong coverage from film online sites:

The Shiznit: http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/well-played-nightcrawler-pr-team-lou-bloom-is-now-on-linkedin.php

Nerdist: http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/jake-gyllenhaals-nightcrawler-adds-linkedin-to-its-social-platforms/

Entertainment Wise: http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/160916/Nightcrawler-Gives-Us-The-Perfect-Lesson-In-How-To-Promote-A-Movie

Criticwire: http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/jake-gyllenhaals-nightcrawler-character-is-on-linkedin-20141017

Media