Once you see it, it’s too late. Our social media campaign for Smile brought forth a new face of horror.
DMM was excited to partner with Paramount Pictures in crafting a social media campaign for the theatrical release of the “bone-chilling” horror movie, Smile. Since the film wasn’t an existing IP or franchise, our goal was to create an authentic voice and strategy from scratch that differentiated itself from other horror campaigns.
With our social creative, we were challenged to find different and unique ways to approach the variety of content needed for this campaign. Not wanting to rely on supercuts of the film packaged as simple quote videos, we focused on a video strategy that incorporated just enough elements from the film to leave fans intrigued and wanting to learn more.
Our community management strategy focused on encapsulating the movie’s dark themes and twisting our tone of voice in a similar fashion. By taking something as pleasant as a smile and shifting the tone dramatically to be ambiguously menacing, we started teasing audiences of the unsettling mystery. As the campaign came to a head, we expanded our community management coverage and elevated the social conversation to reinforce that a simple smile can be terrifying.
Our Talent Services team provided live coverage and support at the film’s premieres in Austin and Los Angeles. Having a social embed along for the ride at these events allowed us to work directly with the film’s talent to create custom content for their socials, in addition to being able to capture content with the cast so that we could participate in Tiktok trends in real-time from the film’s social pages.
Thanks to strong word of mouth across all social platforms, Smile had the second-best hold ever for an R-rated horror movie and brought in $100 million globally in its second weekend. Our social media campaign generated 180+ million impressions and 1+ million engagements across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! On TikTok, the assets our Talent Services embed created with the film’s star Sosie Bacon generated 2+ million views and nearly 100,000 engagements. The social campaign was able to successfully reclaim what it truly means to “smile” and generated serious buzz for one of the biggest horror movies of the year.
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