Mahou is Spain’s leading beer brand. Mahou has a longstanding commitment to cinema, has sponsored over 300 of Spain’s most relevant movies. But, in a 2.0 environment, Mahou needed to innovate.

The Wikifilm, the first-ever mass collaborative film project, was born in March 2009. The goal was to offer people the opportunity to take part in creating and launching a film. The workings of the idea were simple: People would make decisions and provide content to shape the final movie and Mahou would provide their sponsorship budget to make it possible. To shoot the movie and to ensure a professional result, the brand relied on two award winning Spanish filmmakers: José Corbacho and Juan Cruz.

During a 5 months process, the Wikifilm became the platform for Mahou’s communication through branded content, advertising, social media, PR, promotions and events.

The Wikifilm is the first-ever mass collaborative film project.

To run the project, Mahou recruited two prestigious Spanish filmmakers, José Corbacho and Juan Cruz. They started by posting an initial script synopsis on the website and inviting people to register. Once they had registered, people could make decisions and give their opinions about all of Corbacho and Cruz’s suggestions through the filming diary.

People took over 20 key decisions involving pre-production, shooting (broadcast on the social media for first time ever) and post-production. The whole project was advertised by an integrated campaign that included online ads, virals, social media, happenings in cinemas and universities, cinema commercials, print ads and several PR, relational marketing and experimental initiatives were people could even make decisions through a popular radio station.

The Wikifilm was pre-premiered in Madrid in a private event attended by the co-directors, their entire team, and of course the media. Later on, everyone was able to watch the movie in the Internet.“Universes” (as people titled it) became a 30’ collaborative movie, and also a completely professional product. To such an extent that Mahou has received offers to use the movie for further purposes, including taking part in the country’s leading film festivals.Currently, fans are asking for the sequel.