Best Branded Social Game: Initiative for Lionsgate "The Expendables"
Agencies: Initiative, Break Media
Brand: Lionsgate "The
Expendables"
Executives Involved in The Campaign:
Lionsgate: Erika
Schimik, Danielle DePalma, Courtney Harris, David Hayes
Initiative: David Goodrich, Jennifer Lyons, Samantha Lim,
Lynde Moffatt
Campaign
Brief: Challenge:
Studios are constantly challenged with marketing a
theatrical brand from scratch and re-vitalizing it for home entertainment. With
limited budgets, we needed an idea to capture moviegoers’ attention and convert
that into box office and home entertainment sales. To win the number one spot
during release week, we would have to make The Expendables the must see action
film of the summer and a must buy holiday gift for men. The Expendables matched
up against blockbuster films like Iron-Man 2 and Inception, Predators, and The
A-Team.
Insight:
Men are savvy online users and more hesitant to respond
to advertising. To reach this elusive audience, we needed compelling content to
differentiate The Expendables from all other films and develop a program that
could bridge the window from theatrical to home entertainment.
These moviegoers grew up watching our star studded cast
comprised of iconic 80s action heroes, such as Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li,
Jason Statham, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Allowing adult men to
re-live their past would create anticipation for The Expendables. They would
share this excitement with their friends, as it provided the perfect occasion
for male bonding, either in theaters or as the ultimate “bro-gift” in home
entertainment.
Strategy/Execution:
We used nostalgia reminiscent of their youthful memories
and provided value through a retro style 8 bit action game from the 80’s.
Building a custom game for theatrical provided an opportunity to re-brand it
for home entertainment and maximize our dollars.
We commissioned Break, who has an extensive reach into young
males, as well as success in creating custom viral entertainment. The
Expendables game was distributed across both Break and Facebook. Within
Facebook, to further generate word of mouth and fans, users needed to like The
Expendables page in order to play. This provided re-marketing opportunities
throughout the campaign and generated earned media, as a user’s “like”
populated their newsfeed and announced it to their friends. Social features
were included within the game, and allowed players to share and create a
bonding activity.
As the home entertainment release was during the
stressful holiday timeframe, we wanted to provide an escape for users. We
re-skinned the game with a holiday theme and marketed The Expendables DVD as
the ultimate “bro-gift” to align with the season.
Results:
* The Expendables won the coveted #1 box office title for
two weekends in a row. Opening weekend earned almost $35MM and grossed over
$100MM theatrically.
* #1 in Home Entertainment Sales in the first week of
release.
* Featured in the “Most Played Games” on Break.com
* 2010 highest played Break game
* 700,000+ game plays to date on Break
* 200,000+ game plays on Facebook
* 7,891 hours spent playing the game
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