Case Study - Heartless

How do institutions use digital technology to promote films?

Released - 21st May 2010
DVD Release - 24th May 2010
Total Gross Box Office of £3, 000
Better performances were seen across the DVD release (achieved sales of £9, 500)

Online Marketing
- Lionsgate's release was centered on a digital strategy with the aim of engaging and interacting with the core horror and 15-24 audiences - creating a hype and excitement around the film release and spreading it virally
- 600, 000 fans on Facebook (out of 3.3 million people in the 15-24 demographic)
- Lionsgate already communicated with 20, 000 of them through the Facebook pages of Saw V and VI
- Target audience were encouraged to 'fan' the film on Facebook and spread it virally through their friends
- There was very little wastage in their advertising as it allowed them to target their audience very specifically
Facebook Voting Ads
- Had film branding to drive awareness
- A click to play trailer
- Posing question to user ('What would you kill for?') and their answers were published to their friends who were then encouraged to take part
- Users were at one point encouraged to become a fan for the chance to win digital recording equipment
- Users were using the applications of the page but weren't becoming fans, they had to modify the page  so users were asked to become fans of the page and the number of fans increased
- Facebook campaign ran for 5 weeks - first 2 weeks used to target horror fans and the remaining 3 for targeting the broader 15-24 audience
- Advertising spend extended to an over-all 10.5 mil.
- The Facebook campaign performed well, delivering a higher rate of engagment than normally would have been expected with this kind of advertising
- Facebook changed their site during the Heartless campaign from users being able to 'become a fan' to them 'liking' the page - this highlights that there are risks using sites such as Facebook to campaign as they possess the ability to change their site without warning


Offline Marketing
TV and press advertising followed up the DVD and Blu-ray launch