Movies do it right. They’ve got promotion and getting the word out down pat.
Granted, they also have million dollar budgets to do that. But given our focus on the customer journey in the #funnelvision series, I thought I’d share a sponsored Twitter ad that is part of their product/movie launch that has me fascinated (and one I still haven’t found the technology that makes it work behind the scenes (which, as a tech geek drives me crazy, so if you know… please. I beg you. Share. See below… ).
What’s Funnel Vision? A series of articles that takes you through customer funnels from ad to email so you can see what works and doesn’t work in real-life ad journeys and how to improve your marketing story.
A few months back, the new Jurassic World trailer came out. And in advance of that, the movie studio behind the big, bad dinosaurs wanted to make a big deal about the trailer.
The trailer.
(Here is that trailer, because I am a fan of the big, bad dinosaurs…)
However, this ad journey is about before the trailer came out. Not the movie – the trailer. As a marketer, I love this. As a writer, I love examples of marketing pulling on techniques from fiction like suspense to enhance their campaigns.
And I love looking at big, bold verticals like the entertainment industry to see what brands and companies can learn and how we can apply what they do to what we do. What’s bigger or bolder than big, bad dinosaurs?
Here is the ad I was served in my Twitter feed:
This is a new kind of promoted ad I’ve seen a few times, a twitter sponsored post that offers something for your action. In this case, if you re-tweet the post, you’ll get a reminder of when the trailer goes live.
Building Suspense in your product launch marketing plans
From a product launch standpoint, this is a great way to build suspense, excitement and hit the beats along the journey. I know you might not think you have something as exciting as a movie trailer to share, but when you consider that your world — the world behind your product or service — is considered exotic in some way, because your audience isn’t a part of that world, you can begin to think outside the box of boring and figure out where you can share something fun and different too.
Now the trailer isn’t exclusive content — it’s going to hit everywhere, so this ad is about saying, “Get ready! It’s coming…” And from the 47.4 thousand re-tweets, I’d say this is working.
Why? Because it builds anticipation. It builds awareness. Connection. And the inherent human need to see something through. These are just synonyms for suspense. “Apple is a master of the teaser campaign”, says FastCompany. They create momentum, cliffhangers, and put people on the edge waiting for what’s coming.
The Jurassic World Teaser Ad
What does this ad journey look like?
- Serve ad tweet w/ offer : Do X, and we’ll do Y.
- prospect does X. (in this case, retweets.)
- Deliver direct content to them on the same platform.
After I retweeted their post, I received this in my Twitter notifications:
That Thursday, the trailer went live and I was tweeted to directly again:
Why This Works
Yes, they get these numbers because they are a movie. But movie budgets aside, this works because it interacts with their audience on a platform they use in a way that works with what people love about the platform. Twitter uses love getting notifications — and notifications from a movie franchise you enjoy? That makes the audience a part of the journey to launch.
That’s a golden step right there. How do you make your audience a part of the journey toward your product or service launch? What behind the scenes content could you put in place of a trailer? A Q&A with the head of your company? A video showing the passion of your team building your product? Maybe a conversation with a customer that simulates why you created this content in the first place? Whatever it is, find your big, bad dinosaurs and build them into your product launch plans.
Jurassic World…3 ?
Just as I was posting about this trailer ad campaign, on Twitter I saw the news that Jurassic World 3 has already been announced — before Jurassic World 2 is even out. These movies were intended as a trilogy, so they’re setting expectations for #2 before it comes out with this news…and just amping up the suspense even more.
These are great curiosity builders, which is the core of suspense: the need to see what happens next.
Your challenge(s) should you accept them…
47.4 thousand people re-tweeted this, so I’m sure these replies are done by automation somewhere. This is the part I haven’t yet found. Because I’m avidly curious, I want to know how they did this. So far, my searches have come up with nil. So here is my call to all you marketers out there…what service builds an audience from the people who have interacted with your tweet that you can then target a tweet at?
Second, share your ideas of teaser campaigns in the comments. Think of the products or services you market and how you could build anticipation to its release. What kind of teaser campaign would work? I’d love to see your ideas in the comments.