Universal Pictures’ goal was to create an absolutely unmissable storm of dynamic social content, sweep fans (new and old) up into the world of TWISTERS, and provide unfettered access to our hot rising stars. Our goal was to make TWISTERS appeal to all audiences, genders, ages and regions and convert audiences exposed to paid and social media to see the film in theaters, especially IMAX, 4DX and Dolby experiences on TWISTERS opening weekend.
To achieve this, we built social creative that invited audiences in to experience the action of TWISTERS - recruiting them to be tornado wranglers and bringing them virtually along for the ride with our talent as they toured the country to promote the film leading to opening day.
Beyond our extremely intentional social creative, we activated hundreds of micro and macro influencers across platforms to support TWISTERS. Whether it be cinephiles, music commentators, pop culture enthusiasts, regional influencers, comedy and more - we made sure that Twisters was unmissable on every social platform - covering trends, comments, memes, IG Stories, TikTok and more and made sure we tapped influencers to market each. The content created started conversation and trends that drove audiences to theaters opening weekend for this unmissable cultural event.
To draw in audiences to experience the spectacle of TWISTERS, we created content that showcased this brewing tempest to make it feel as epic and theatrical as possible. We played with borders, dimensions, and UI of social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to show the epic scope of the film, even on handheld screens.
Starting with the launch of our first trailer, which aired during the Superbowl, we leveraged the themes of the film to create a series of TikToks that showcased the entertainment value of the film by pairing the footage with trending sounds and viral pop culture moments. From there and throughout the campaign, we utilized everything from film footage, to BTS content, to talent content. We had our trio of top talent tap into all of the hot internet obsessions like the Charli XCX “Apple” dance and created custom social pieces like “Thirstnado” that had the internet sweating.
Our Digital PR and Influencer strategy began strong by activating key creators for the trailer debut in May. This garnered upwards of 8.6MM Views, 4.1M Likes, 25K Shares and 17.5K Saves. From the start, we were part of every top digital platform starting with Fandango’s summer preview and Big Ticket Interview connected to Tickets on Sale.
From May to July, we worked to create conversation across social by amplifying key debuts and campaign beats with social influencers and launching exclusive content with top digital outlets. At the end of the campaign we generated 80 posts with some of the biggest accounts on each platform and totalling to: 52M Views, 2.1M Likes, 92K Saves, 157K Shares and 9.2K Comments.
We created opportunities for top digital PR outlets like Buzzfeed, UniLad, IMDb and more to create custom content with our cast like Buzzfeed’s “The cast of Twisters play Twisters” which was a first of its kind. We tapped Gen Z fan favorite, @GuyWithAMovieCamera to host his own content day with talent at a BBQ joint in OK where he produced a series of videos - Reece’s videos totaled 28.7M views.
During the two weeks to release, we hosted 86 micro and macro influencers at our LA premiere, Oklahoma regional creators at our “hometown Oklahoma premiere”, 400+ Gen Z & Family creators at our LA Influencer Screening and party, and an additional 250+ creators at our NY Screening with special talent surprise introduction. Lastly, we seeded 40+ regional screenings into local word-of-mouth screenings nationwide.
Daisy Edgar-Jones was featured on the digital cover of Who What Wear Magazine, became one of Emma Chamberlain's first guests on her chart topping podcast, did Brittany Broski’s YouTube Royal Court show, hosted a private screening and Q&A with Collider and Director Lee Issac Chung, created a custom line with cinephile clothing company Super Yaki and conducted many interviews with all cast and filmmakers across digital outlets.
All of these tactics twisted together into an inescapable campaign that convinced audiences to see TWISTERS opening weekend, resulting in a #1 opening at the box office.
