Our Viral Moment
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Trendsetter Spotlight
Long-form video is trending.
There’s been a significant buzz around the movies (aka long-form videos lolz) released this season – undeniably, people are forgoing their wall-mounted plasmas and going back to the theaters.
But like, totally selectively? Some hits are breaking box office records while others can’t seem to corral a crowd. And I’m here to tell you that this particular season, the selectivity of people showing up…is being affected by none other than…TikTok!
This shouldn’t come as a surprise: in past newsletters, we discussed the power of viral movie trends like Minions, plus highlighted film festivals like Cannes embracing TikTok through official partnerships. Now at the tail end of 2022, Hollywood studios certainly recognize the impact of the platform on their targeted Gen Z audiences – but some key players have figured out how to successfully leverage it as part of their core strategy quicker than others.
Let’s talk about one of those successes: Paramount Pictures’ ‘Smile’.
Stir The Pot
Smile for the camera.
I remember seeing a creepy TikTok ad for that movie MONTHS ago – I think it was in the late Spring aka def not anywhere near #spookyszn. So when ’Smile’ came on during a late-night FYP doom scroll and successfully landed its jump scare, it surprisingly scratched an itch. It planted the ‘WTF’? seed…and then totally ghosted me. I’m talking radio silence. No IG ads, no aggressive brand partnerships, no memorable sponsored content. I completely forgot the thing existed.
Up until a few weeks ago, that is, when creepy billboards started smiling down at me all over Los Angeles.
Smash cut to a Hollywood Reporter notification on my phone that ‘Smile’ was a box office hit with a $22M opening.
During the Variety/TikTok Culture Catalysts Dinner last month, a Paramount exec (the studio also saw extreme success with ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ earlier this year) emphasized that as film marketers, they are actively listening to and learning from their younger audiences:
“We’ve seen a pretty seismic shift with the proliferation of TikTok over the last couple of years…I think it’s changing the way that we’re cutting creative.
It’s changing the way that we’re working with creators… I feel like we’re constantly on the platform to see how people are expressing themselves.”
Netflix’s VP of film marketing followed up with their own TikTok strategy: when it comes to short-form content, it’s paramount (…lol sorry I couldn’t resist) to “sprinkle chaos”.
“You can’t just take this thing that you’re going to put somewhere else and put it on TikTok.
If you think about assets not ads — a sound, a color, a character, a separate ending — all of a sudden you have multiple ways to actually bring your stories to life.”
And, lo and behold, sprinkle chaos ‘Smile’ did!
Not only did the signature grimace go viral via this heinous smiley filter across social media, but it also managed to appear IRL:
If you haven’t seen ‘Smile’ yet, check it out and let us know how it is. Send a creepy selfie. Get a few good spooks in.
In the meantime, we’ll be over here, sprinkling chaos…