Perfecting Movie Trailers With Swayable
Challenge
The pandemic hit the film industry hard. Even after restrictions lifted, studios struggled to get audiences back to theaters due to safety concerns and the availability streaming services at home. Our client, one of Hollywood's marquee movie studios, faced a challenge: persuade audiences to come back to theaters. They had a massive action film to launch, but were unsure which messaging would be effective.
Solution
Swayable tested seven different movie ads to see which would be most effective at creating the immediate desire to see it in theaters on opening weekend. The trailers were designed to appeal to different audience segments, with variations in tone, style, and content. Swayable and the client identified the test metrics that the trailers would be judged on, aligning on:
• Interest in seeing film
• Likelihood to see film in a theater
• Intent to see film on opening weekend.
Results
In 24 hours, the studio's marketing and insights team used Swayable to identify the most effective ad, with data across all metrics and different audience segments available. Qualitative comments from the respondents helped their creative teams understand why audiences liked this trailer best. The studio used this trailer in its marketing campaign and the film smashed box office records, going on to be one of the highest grossing films of the year.
The studio established action standards requiring that their marketing creative achieve pre-determined levels of lift on Swayable before release, and that media planning be optimized using the breakdowns from the Swayable results, maximizing impact across all their campaigns, and growth in box-office earnings.
Insights
By partnering with Swayable, movie studios can leverage persuasion insights to identify and adjust content that resonates with audiences and drives ticket sales.