20th Century Fox
It's not hard to generate social buzz with an online trailer for an established franchise. After all, there's a built-in audience that's ready to watch the trailer and tweet it out. But these days, it's just as important to build and sustain excitement between the trailer's online debut and the film's premiere. To do that, the marketing team at 20th Century Fox flexed its storytelling muscle with a series of YouTube videos for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."
Originating from the film's "Apes Will Rise" YouTube channel, "found footage" videos of apes engaging in terrifying human behavior quickly became viral hits. Footage of an ape with an AK-47 scored more than 8 million views within weeks. The campaign eventually took on a life of its own, even going so far as to leverage real-life events. When Los Angles braced for "Carmageddon," images of apes preparing to attack the freeway surfaced on the web. Of course, the hashtag "apes will rise" was spray-painted on one of the overpasses.
The film, which was expected to open at No. 1, took in $176 million in domestic box office. Ahead of the release, Mashable wondered if the digital campaign was bold enough. But a summary of the total social campaign from Mekanism, the agency that worked with the studio, highlights just how much buzz the movie had achieved by the time of its premiere.
