Batman - blue2purple

Driving off the charts engagement on TikTok
with Warner Bros. Discovery «The Batman»

Driving off the charts engagement on TikTok with Warner Bros. Discovery «The Batman»

The Entertainment industry was – like many other industries – heavily impacted by the Corona crisis. Due to the closing of theaters and filming being stopped for several months, a lot of movies were delayed in their release. This resulted in a higher than usual release calendar in the post covid period, meaning it was even more crucial to stand out.

«The Batman» doesn’t need any introduction but this doesn’t mean it was easy to attract an audience in an already crowded market at that time. The challenge of a movie distributor lies in the fact that the profitability of a movie is calculated on the box office numbers in the early days of the release and then on the entire ticket sale. Movie distributors don’t have a direct view of the sales, as these are managed by the cinemas. Attention and engagement are then crucial factors for success.

«The Batman» movie was a new adaptation of the comic book with a new actor in the role of batman, Robert Pattinson.

To achieve the objective of getting as many people as possible into the theaters as soon as the film was released, we had to play on the story of the movie and make potential movie viewers enthusiastic about the movie. Therefore we chose to use very impactful formats, this case is about the results obtained through the TikTok environment.

The business objective was translated into campaign objectives.
Our goal was to:

Reach

A broad target audiences through the overal branding campaign.

Build

Top of mind awareness for Batman as the new dark superhero movie in theaters with a multitouchpoint communication approach.

Drive

Engagement through relevant social media storytelling.

Keep

The target audiences captivated through multiple phases of advertising with new trailers and getting the audience ready for the release of the movie.

To build top of mind awareness, the campaign started one month before the actual release in theaters. To achieve this notoriety, DC Fans and Fans of this universe were targeted as a primary audience on Social Media and Youtube.

Where this case relates to, is the usage of a new format on TikTok; the Instant Page. blue2purple and Warner were the very FIRST in Belgium to test this. This lightweight native format allows users to view videos, swipe through carousels, and click on buttons, all while staying within the TikTok environment.

When getting access to the bêta version of the format, the link between Warner Bros. Discovery needs and this specific campaign was rapidly made, as the format completely immerses the user within the universe of the movie.

Since this ad form allows for extreme customizability, a « mini-site » was created allowing the user to really get into the movie’s vibe, reading character descriptions and viewing trailers. The engagement was driven through a call to action button redirecting the user to a contest where they could win numerous prizes. Three questions were asked linked to the Batman universe about Batman, Catwoman and the Riddler. On this mini-site was also the possibility to book your ticket to see the movie in theaters.

The main targeted audience for this phase were all genders between 18 and 34 years old. This audience was refined based on multiple affinities and behavior: TV Drama and Series, Comedy, Action, Crime, Sci-Fi, Animation, Cosplay, Games, Anime & Comics.

The second focus was on a younger male (12-24) and female (18-34) audience, also targeted on similar affinities and behavior.

Results

The CPM was 53% lower than other TikTok Video Campaigns, the Click Through Rate was 92% above benchmarks and the Cost Per Click 94% below benchmarks.

In the end The Batman turned out to have extraordinary box office numbers: +36.8% above the original estimate. TikTok had a Reach of 500K. TikTok also had an overall positive Engagement, with an Engagement Rate 15% above the benchmarks.