Managing the social media of Santikos Entertainment is a privilege I cherish every day. As one of San Antonio’s most historic and beloved brands, Santikos has grown into a quintessential Alamo City institution - not only providing the best movie viewing experiences in the industry, but also serving as one of America’s top charities after rebranding as a Social Enterprise in 2015.Toss in the fact I’m already a huge fan of movies, I’ve truly been in hog heaven since starting work on Santikos in October.In order to keep up with the world of Hollywood on social media, I've deliberately followed and studied how major movie studios promote their movies on social media. Observing little stuff like type of content posted, frequency, tone of voice, and engagement, provides invaluable insight into how I can better create engaging content to drive people to the movies.In an effort to learn how the very best in showbusiness run their social media, let's take a look at 2017's best promoted movies on social media so far (in my opinion!):1. The Lego Batman Movie
Aside from The Lego Batman Movie's gorgeous visuals - which Warner Bros Pictures leveraged to create really strong, visually appealing content - what really stood out to me was their casual and irreverent tone on social:
In a world where caution almost always takes precedence over creativity, it’s refreshing to see content that refuses to apologize for its source material and stays true to itself - even if it may rub a few people wrong along the way.2. xXx: Return of Xander Cage
Whenever you’re promoting anything with world-class, “how did they do THAT!?” source material, like Vin Diesel's stunt littered 'xXx: Return of Xander Cage,' digital marketers NEED to revolve their content strategy around video. Why? It's unique, one-of-a-kind content that can't easily be replicated elsewhere - usually a winning formula for successful content.Paramount Pictures followed this strategy to great success in their promotion of 'Return of Xander Cage:'
Paramount's strategy was simple: find as many insane, crazy stunts from the movie as possible, chop them up in short clips, and POST. Sometimes sticking to simple (and showcasing what you're really, really good at) is the best move.3. Rings
I’ve never been tasked with creating original content for something as intentionally frightening as the Rings, but I imagine it’s pretty hard. In order to truly be effective, content posted has to instill fear to truly represent the source material. Paramount Pictures pulled it off with ease in their promotion of Rings, delivering truly terrifying content blurring the edges of reality and fiction:
As you can see, really scary stuff that pulls you into the action.Whether it's charming end users with clever and fun content, impressing with insane footage, or instilling true horror, each of these movies stuck to a strategy and executed it with precision.If you’re interested in seeing how Tribu can help take your brand to new heights on social and adopt some of these cool tactics, don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to add you to our Tribe and see how we can help!
