Social Media Campaign Review: How Life of Pi Premiere was Promoted on Social Media by Star Movies

Life of I is a personalised journey, powered by the users' social data that allows them to experience for themselves the iconic moments that Pi had in the film.

Objective

To provide a highly rich audio-visual and musical engagement of the film 'Life of Pi' to the audience.

Execution

The initial glimpse of the Star Movies’ ‘Life of I’ campaign is an animated visual attack. On your two dimension screen, unlike the original 3D film, you confront Richard Parker, the famous Bengal tiger of Life of Pi, almost jumping on you, roaring loudly.

For the double television premiere of the award winning Hollywood film Life of Pi, Star Movies has undertaken an interesting social and digital route to reach out to its audience through an interactive trio of web, Facebook and Twitter. Star Movies is endorsing the campaign through major four sections- Home, Cast, Trivia and Video.

The soul of the campaign, arguably, lies in its high quality videos that is justifiably gooseflesh inducing. And if you are a social media buff and have an eye for photography, you certainly can't resist downloading the stunning wallpapers of the film. Amid all this action, you could find yourself humming the background score of the film which inadvertently grabs your attention while you are on the campaign page.

To make things easy for users, the campaign goes on a step forward to ensure that you do not miss the premiere on Sunday. If you a give a missed call to the given number on its website, then you will get a reminder minutes before the film goes live on the channel.

The campaign also lures you by offering free trips to Taiwan, Puducherry and Munnar if you happen to be the lucky winner of a Facebook 'Life of I Contest'. To participate in the contest, users need to land on the Star Movies Facebook page to find the ticket. This will invariably increase their social media presence. One is likely to be a winner only if she watches the television premiere of the film and to ensure this, a rescue code (the last piece of the puzzle) is flashed on air during the premiere which will enable users to become eligible for winning a trip.

This part of the campaign ensures that users watch the premiere. The contest is a highly engaging one. It makes you search for cues a Facebook timeline and invite 10 friends online and save Richard Parker. Pi has been turned into ‘I’ to make it personalised for its social media enthusiasts.

The campaign page also shares a number of interesting behind-the-scene facts of the film such as how a real tiger of used for a few scenes in the film. The journey also creates a custom video for the users based on their interactions and their social data, which they can share with their network.

Positives

The campaign is an intriguing amalgamation of several integrations, across web, television and social media platforms which offer multimedia experience to users. Needless to say, therefore, that the campaign is device agnostic and hence highly innovative.

The campaign tends to become a highly personalized one as it uses users’ social data such as users’ zodiac sign is used to calculate compatibility with Richard Parker’s. One can also set it as her Facebook cover picture, leading to further visibility to the brand. In the context of the content, the campaign is an extension of the film’s beauty, or, to be more specific, its cinematography. Yet it would be unfair to deny credit of creativity to the managers of the campaign.

It is a well-planned integration of all forms of social media. The web, campaigns Facebook page and its Twiiter are interlinked at several junctions, yet they offer different experience and messages to users. Interestingly, for a person stranger to the film could also take on this interesting journey and discover surprises.

The total number of missed calls, SMSs, number of logins into the contest and codes flashed during the show helps the brand measure the number of people who watched the premiere through digital campaign. This is a reliable methodology of measuring the success of the campaign.

Scope of Improvement

I believe there is little scope of improvement in the campaign. Probably we would like to know more about the making and the secrets of the award winning film.

Conclusion

Looking at the multilateral approach of the campaign, it is difficult to judge if the campaign’s ultimate aim is solely to promote the film’s premiere. Perhaps Richard Parker and the campaign could sail beyond the film’s premiere dates, yet thrive and remain relevant. All in all, the campaign is wild, highly engaging, eye catchy and does justice to the aesthetics of the film.