Company Name: The Visionaire
Group
Company Name to Receive the Award:The Visionaire Group
Agencies: The
Visionaire Group
Brand: The Last Exorcism - Chatroulette Reaction Videos on
YouTube
Executives Involved in The Campaign:
Lionsgate Tim Palen, Co-President, Theatrical Marketing
Danielle DePalma, Vice President, Theatrical Marketing
David Hayes, Manager, Theatrical Marketing
Courtney Harris, Manager, Theatrical Marketing
The Visionaire Group
Dimitry Ioffe, Creative Director
Maria Chung, Producer
Michael Beynart, Video Animator
Christophe Eagleton, Sound Designer
Campaign Brief: To promote its horror film The Last
Exorcism, Lionsgate teamed up with digital agency The Visionaire Group to
spread word of the film’s August 27, 2010 release.
Arguably the campaign’s most unique component was the Chatroulette reaction
video on YouTube. Heralded as one of the best marketing uses ever of
Chatroulette, a social site normally off limits to marketers due to its
sometimes graphic nature, the Chatroulette reaction video on YouTube was a huge
success -- receiving over 1 million views within 72 hours of posting with no
supporting paid media.
YouTube was the platform of choice from the very beginning as it was vital to
leverage the site’s huge audience to push this piece viral a week before
release. Great care was taken in tagging the video and seeding it as a response
to other similarly-themed videos (Chatroulette, scare, etc.). The ease with
which anyone can embed the video from YouTube was key in spreading the word at
lightning speed.
The Last Exorcism Chatroulette campaign made expert use of an actress, green
screen video, classic special effects editing and programming wizardry to swap
out the webcam feed for a video loop. Users thought they were getting a treat
when the cute girl chatting with them teasingly unbuttons her blouse, but it
proved to be more of a trick when she suffers what appears to be a complete
demonic possession. Classic reactions when surprise meets shock and, after a
quick edit to string together the best reactions and upload to YouTube, now a
classic example of the power of branded viral video content.
Link to Your
Creative Materials: http://www.youtube.com/thelastexorcism
